chapter 9- Involving Parents and Communities

My favorite line for this chapter was: that evidence shows: “when schools work together with families to support learning, children tend to succeed not just in school, but throughout life. The most accurate predicator of a student’s achievement is not income or social status, but the extent to which that student’s family is able to create a home environment that encourages learning, expresses high expectations for their children, and become involved in their child’s education.” I totally agree with this passage and believe that it can give hope to low-income areas that with hard work and a team effort, all students can succeed in learning anything they put their mind to.
I like the other facts this chapter gave, such as:
Student benefit for parent- school interactions and receive higher grades and test scores, have better attendance and more homework done, fewer placement in special programs, more positive attitudes and behaviors, higher graduate rates, and greater enrollment in college. I loved that this chapter made these points. It seems almost unreal to think that by just improving communication between parents and school students schooling and lives can be improved in so many aspects. All of these points really show how important it is for parents to be involved in school and their child’s progress. I think this is due to the child’s two separate worlds being connected and making it one. In this way, the child does not just associate learning as occurring in one environment, but both, and it provides the child with an example of how to communicate and be responsible for the job set before you. Working with willing parents can be so good for kids.
Yet I can sort of understand the other side of the spectrum that the chapter presented on parents distancing themselves more and more as teens get older. I actually have felt the same way about my brother who is in middle school. He is the type that constantly needs a family member keeping in contact with his teacher to see how he has been doing and what he needs to get done as due dates approach. My aunt was constantly helping to talk to the teacher to get problems straightened out and guide him to getting his homework done each night when he visited her house. I totally see how this is beneficial for kids and it did help my brother get back on track in school. Yet parents aren’t going to be there to call a professor when teens get to college. So when is it time for the checking in, and motivation for homework, go from a family members job to the teen’s job? On that note, I can see why parents way to back off and make their child learn to do these things more and more. I think there must be a middle ground that can be taken to help both sides as middle school students are becoming more independent.

Chapter 8- A Safe and Healthy School Environment

I totally agree with all the points that this chapter made. I really feel that a school must have a healthy environment in order to help kids succeed. If students see teachers fighting, smoking, or swearing then they view these actions as ok since their role models are doing them. “If adults can do it, then so can we”. I also think that it is important for teachers to eat and drink the right things since the kids are watching that as well. If students see that their teacher is drinking Pepsi and eating a hamburger and a bag of chips for lunch I highly doubt they will want to then go to the cafeteria and drink orange juice and eat an Italian! I rally loved that the book pointed this fact out and stressed the point that Teachers must model the proper life styles that we want students to grow up to follow, especially with the high crime rates and obesity rates in our country. Having firm role models and going to school in a safe and healthy school system can make the difference in some of the kids.

Chapter 15- Parents as Partners in Twenty-First-Century Learning

I agree with using technology to keep parents on the same page. It can be so helpful for parents to see on my wiki when everything will be due; then they or the student can click on a link to view the assignment when the want to read more detail or know the assignment if they have lost their sheet. That won’t be an excuse for not getting the work in anymore! This type of learning will also allow me to send things like parent teacher conferencing sign-ups right to parents via he internet instead of relying of the student to take the slips home, remember to give them to the parents, and then remember to hand them back in on time. By just doing this with parents over the internet, it would be faster for both of us and conferences could be planned quicker. Yet is it a good thing for students to be taken out of this process? Perhaps it helps them learn responsibility and how to do an assigned task that is important to a deadline, well in advance of that deadline.
I also liked the postcard idea that this chapter mentioned. I think that for those parents that don’t have the internet, it will be important for me to send postcards letting parents know when their students are doing a good job. Just so that I have some positive interaction with parents, and students do come to hate when school related items show up in the mail. If they read my postcard before the parents get home, they will be ecstatic to show their parents the good news and they will be proud of it, not hiding it somewhere before parents arrive home.

Chapter 4- Designing Instruction to Improve Teaching and Learning

This chapter pointed out some important information and made some points which I find will be difficult for me to grasp and implement successfully when I first begin teaching. When this chapter says: “Teachers should know both the written and unwritten instructional rules of the road that will help their students avoid common obstacles…” I immediately ask myself if I know these rules and could implement them on the whim? Better yet, how will I know if I am doing instruction in the most effective way for my students?
I did agree and find that I will have an easy time assessing with both formal and informal ways of evaluating students. This has become natural to me and I am confident that I will do plenty of both in my units that I teach. Yet another quote from the chapter that I internally groaned at when reading was: “Teachers must use equitable and excellent instructional methods that meet students where they are and get the students where the standards say they should go…” This is such a huge challenge and I worry some that I won’t challenge my high level students enough, or will not push my lower level students far enough. I ask myself when reading this: What are instructional strategies I can use to complete this? Which is what this chapter did answer on the next few pages. I am really glad this chapter detailed 3 different models for organizing instruction. This helped me a little to better understand instruction, yet I feel I really wont totally understand what I will do or how my instruction will work until I actually try it.

Boys and Girls Learn Differently

I really loved the activities that this group did, especially the first activity where each group had to figure out the chronological events on the picture. That sort of thing really engages me and my full attention was on that activity. By doing that activity, I then felt that I could better understand the points that were being made from the book as we looked at the results from how each group organized their pictures. Explaining how girls and boy learn differently was easier to grasps after trying to learn something in groups with all girls, all boys, and a mix, so that we could see the differences. I really liked that.

I also feel that each person, individually had some great points to make, which made me think some. For example, I have never really put lots of thought into dress code and school. I have always had a pretty negative view on mandatory dress code, mostly because of growing up in a school without one. Yet now that I am out of school, stepping back and thinking about all sides of this argument was interesting.
I also felt like I got some self reflecting time in at Kyle’s station when thinking back to what I did for sports in high school and how they have affected me. The questions on the sports quiz really made me have to reflect on how I feel about sports and whether or not they had any big impact on me and my school system. Sarah and Geoff’s part of the book I also found intriguing to think about and I think that learning about different ways of teaching kids is always good to keep in the back of my mind. Thanks a lot guys for your presentation. I had a lot of time to reflect on me while learning some new stuff, it was a good mix of information and the period flew by!

Becoming a Whole New Mind

There were a lot of ideas in this book talk presentation. I really liked how your group had an organized wiki that I could go and reference after your presentation was done. You filled it with a lot of great information. The information of the left brained/ right brained teaching really intrigued me and was fun to hear about since I am left handed and am usually an exception to the rule. Learning about what the book judged as qualities of left brain or right brained people was interesting to see. As well as seeing where I fell on the spectrum when taking the quiz. I also found the facial quiz interesting. I thought I could do much better than I did at telling who had a fake smile. Considering I only got about half of the faces right, I guess I am not very good at telling who has a fake smile! It was a little long taking so many quizzes for this book presentation, but I felt it was cool seeing how we, individually, fit into the information being explained. Good job.

Chapter 8 - Effective Assessment

I love the story this chapter starts out with the story of Danny’s success. I think that this example starts to answer some of my questions of how I can use differentiated instruction effectively. What I like so much about Danny being able to use his guitar, as his final assessment over the Outsiders is that this teacher pulled creativity into her classroom effectively and it produced a very positive outcome for the students. I like how the teacher said that he wanted to know if Danny understood the book. I think that is something that is so important when testing in any way, shape, or form. I want to see what my students understand, not how many bubbles can they guess on or try to fill in the correct ones. I really like what Danny did because it shows that he didn’t just quickly read the book and then forget about it. He did some critical thinking and was able to express the book in a different way that showed the underlying meaning the book got at. I would love to read this passage to my students if I ever have them read The Outsiders and show them how they can be creative yet effective at expressing the book.
I loved the passage that said: “assessment should promote learning, not just measure it”. This is now my new favorite quote and a great mentality to keep in mind. Another quote this chapter had that I don’t think is as easy to follow is: “Good assessment is rigorous and therefore motivating.” I can think of some student that I know that the second they see work that is any bit challenging, they shut down. If work is rigorous for them, it is not motivating. I think a better quote would be that good assessment is rigorous yet captivating, and therefore motivating. The hard challenge for teachers is to find a way to captivate and manipulate students into doing something by making it seem worthwhile to them and worth putting some effort into. That is the key; otherwise you will always have those 5-7 students who refuse to do any hard work and just whine saying that it is to hard. They won’t be motivated easily.

Chapter 7- Differentiated Instruction- Fitting Lesson to Learner

This chapter talked about what we have been covering in SED a lot. The quote from this chapter that explained the hardships of differentiated instruction clearly states the big problem: “It’s nice to make such claims (about trying to differentiate to every student), but close examination of my own lessons proves otherwise. With 140 students, I often take the path of least resistance.”
This quote daunts me a little bit because I know it will be quite a challenge for me to perform to everyone’s best needs, yet I am the type of person that tries so hard to help others in any way I can. I hope I don’t end up being the type of teacher who will bend over backwards to make special tasks or go way out of my way to help each of my students. Another quote at the end of that passage in the chapter couldn’t have said it any better: “Every day I vow to do better, and each year in the classroom brings me closer to my goal. But boy, does it take work!” I can totally see myself fitting this quote! Thankfully, the accomplishment of being able to see some success will motivate me to keep getting better at differentiating and teaching to specific needs. I know that differentiated instruction means that I match the challenge to the student, helping each student stretch individually, but what if I don’t? How will I know I am successful at this? How do I do it? This chapter has helped me to begin to think more about this issue. I think I really won’t know the answers to these questions until I get to practice this in the real classrooms.

Chapter 6 - Accountability for High Standards

I liked a point that the beginning of this chapter made about classroom needing models of high success for students to see in order for them to be able to accountable for great success. I think this is really important. Students need to see exemplary examples of what I am asking them to do before they start doing their task. I want students to know what success looks like so that they are not lost in the dark and they have a firm understanding of what I am expecting their finished products to resemble. I also hope that having great models of students work around the room will spark creativity and motivation in my students to become excited as they see what other students have done and they have a positive outlook on the project as they begin doing it.
As much as I believe in holding students accountable and pushing student to take risks and go past their comfort zone, I feel the example given in the book is not quite as risky as I would dare to go. The story of the boy with Tourette’s syndrome performing major role from Romeo and Juliet in front of a large audience seems to be going above having kids step out of their comfort zone. As that teacher, I would be concerned of hurting this kid more then helping him. What if he messed up on stage, got scared or stumbled his way through the liens, forgetting some, making a fool of himself in front of everybody and getting teased or laughed at? I would feel that the boy could potentially move backwards and begin to really hate school or himself due to my decision to have him go out of his comfort zone. This is definitely a risk, yet in this instance the boy passed with flying colors and I feel that it really showed him that he can do anything he wants when he puts his mind to it. If he had come to me and asked me to perform in front of everyone, I would have given him that chance, but if I had approached him with this assignment, I would have asked him to perform it in front of the school with perhaps a character that didn’t have such a big part in the paly. I would scaffold my way up to the big role in front of a big audience so that I could see how well he does in the room first and then help him move up from there. Yet perhaps he would not have achieved such fantastic results in this case if he had not had that huge audience and role to motivate himself with. I think risk taking is a hard thing for teachers to decided when and when not to do it and how much to do. It is a very tricky line, but I hope I get to have experiences where I see it pay off, just as it did for the boy in this chapter.

Chapter 4: Active Learning – Abstract and Synthesis

Abstract:

Active learning can easily be incorporated into any type of classroom and really should, due to the research that proves it increases students’ learning capabilities and improves their performance within school. This chapter starts by explaining the benefits to including active learning within the classroom, and the benefits it can produce for students. The chapter then goes on to provide a personal example of active learning from the speaker’s experiences. This example not only showed the benefit of active learning, but also was a great example of how this teacher was getting his student with a learning disability actively involved and learning with the rest of the class. This chapter provides readers with tons of possibilities for how to get students actively learning, from creating room sized graphic organizers, making rap songs about the lesson, to having a relay race in math. This chapter has shown that the possibilities from active learning are endless.

Synthesis:

Our whole class felt that active learning was a positive way of learning and hope to use some of the ideas mentioned. It was agreed that we want to help students release their energy and not have to sit in a chair all day long. More than once Geoff’s link about physical activity and improved testing scores was mentioned in the responses and how it can relate to what this chapter was mentioning.
Lots of us loved how this chapter gave many examples for all subjects and that active learning can really help info click for students. Most responses commented on the fact that by bringing the lessons outside, this chapter demonstrated on how lessons can come to life, and how more movement in the class period can really help kinesthetic and visual learners learn better.
On the whole, we all agreed that there are lots of benefits to active learning and our kids will be less likely to forget what we are teaching them if we find hands-on ways to create movement in the classroom.

Chapter 3- Brain Research Applied to Middle School

Chunking is a word I have never heard before. I understand the concept that this section was speaking of, but I had never heard anyone call storing information “chunking”. I really like the idea of trying to attach as many ideas to a single word as possible in order to store all that information. I would like to learn more ways that chunking is successfully used in a classroom and how a teacher knows that this way of teaching is effective and working on the students.
I loved the note about water in this chapter. Having a water cooler in my classroom is such a good idea. I think it would allow for quick and easy access to something that is good for you, helps you learn, and it will prevent those students that use getting a drink an excuses for roaming the halls to have to leave my room.
I really loved the section about teaching students to reason. I understand both sides of the argument that this section is making about how to teach kids to learn, yet I really like the point that John Roe made about there is new information all the time, we must teach students how to learn as well as the information we want them to know. I think this is so important because about half of my students are going to view English as useless no matter how much I give reasons for why we are learning each unit. By teaching kids teaching skills as well as content, I can assure myself that all of my students are taking something form my class, even if it is just life skills for other classes and life in general.

Chapter 13- Outdoor Adventures

I loved this chapter so much, I couldn’t get enough of it. I grew up in the outdoors for most of my childhood. We didn’t have power, and we got our water from a faucet at the bottom of our hill. At that time I had no siblings; so it was just me, the forest, and my imagination. I have such a great appreciation for the forest and it concerns me that not enough other people do. I truly believe that the forest and wildlife could really be beneficial to our ways of life in the future if global and economic issues keep progressing the way that they are. Therefore I think that bringing students out into the forest and teaching them content outdoors is such a great idea. It can help them appreciate wildlife, especially if they have never really been in that environment before. I like how the chapter provides so many examples of subject based activities that teachers could have students doing within the forest. Basic survival skills are so important, not just for boy scouts, but fore everyone, and I think that by teaching students them, we are preparing them for events that could happen later in life. I really liked the writing ideas that the chapter presented, like interviewing a tree, or writing a story based on the animals in the forest. This chapter provided so many ideas, and different styles of writing and it is already getting me thinking of more I could use. I really hope I get to work with a team of teachers that would love to do this type of outing someday.

Chapter 4- Active Learning

I loved the possibilities that this chapter presented for ways to get students active in the classroom. I noticed that this chapter was building off from a PBS clip that a classmate showed us a few weeks ago. I really liked how this chapter began by explaining the advantages of active learning and getting oxygen and movement into the classroom. Yet what I loved most was the many examples that followed, since they helped me begin brainstorming more ideas of ways to get my students moving. I really liked the story of the teacher that brought kids outside to show them how to form ratios. Besides the active, hands-on element, this story was a subtle example of how to include special education students in our lessons, how to address them, and ways that can help them learn while still helping everyone else learn too. I loved how this story showed that, and didn’t just say it.

I also found lots of examples that I was able to circle and see how I could use active learning in my own classroom; like the example of the graphic organizers up on the walls. I feel like that would be a great way to easily incorporate movement in the classroom plan without really changing or creating any special lessons to include the active learning.

Student Oriented Curriculum

I really like the ideas that this book presented and this alternative type of teaching. I think I would be not be willing to personally teach this type of way just yet. But I think I feel this way just because it is very hard for us, as teachers, to step out of our comfort zone that we experienced and are use to. I feel that if there were a few schools that were using this program and really succeeding at this type of teaching and could be great role models for others to observe and go off from, then I would be more willing to try this new system.

I really like how responsibility is being placed on the students. I feel that by doing a system this way, the students will feel that school is more important to them, and more meaningful. Just as an artist normally feels proud of their artwork, I feel that students would be proud to what they have created for units. As was said in our groups, it is about the processes, not the testing.

I think that the biggest achievement of a program like this is that students get to practice making and motivating themselves, and creating habits that will help themselves in areas that are not content based. Students can learn responsibility and leadership roles that will affect them for their whole lives. Great book, thanks for sharing it.

Waiting For Superman Reflection

I really enjoyed watching this documentary. When watching these types of films, I am constantly thinking how this affects me and what it is that we need to do to fix the problem.

It amazes me that we can continue to stand around twiddling our thumbs as the problem of our Nation’s Education system continues to fail. I feel that we have worked ourselves into a trap and can’t find any way to back out. I know that there are things that we are doing to try to improve our situation, yet I feel that it is too slow. If this problem has been ongoing for the last decades, as the film describes, then what action is it going to take to finally cause a big change?
I believe that since so many lotteries are popping up due to the popularity of charter school and not enough positions for the high demand, this is a sign that a lot more charter school need to be built. If something becomes popular enough more and more people jump on the band wagon, therefore I feel that eventually this problem will be solved and our nation will slowly move away from the Unions that seem to be in control of the school systems.
But my biggest fear is that it won’t happen soon enough. Failing rates in the U.S. is so high right now, as the movie illustrated, and there are so many world changes that are taking place and will continue to take place since the U.S. doesn’t have any wiggle room to fall behind. I feel that with climate change issues growing and economic issues evolving, we are going to fall behind if we don't teach kids to find new ways of living and implementing them. Otherwise, other countries in the world that have a better education system, China or Japan for example, will surpass us in developing these new systems of living that we need most. We need better education to keep up and educate minds to forming a better and continuing system that will be successful. Their minds are what are behind success.

Chapter 3

Now that I have practiced the Backward Design model from Practicum I found that I could take much more from this chapter. I really like how this model allows teachers to be thinking of their end goal before starting lesson planning. I feel that by doing this and constantly keeping the Standards in mind before starting lesson planning, it is so much easier to make sure all that we are teaching is based on the Standards. I like the concept of Standard Based teaching, I think that we just need to find better ways to teach and assess students as we are teaching these standards. I really liked in this chapter the example of the school in Salem, Mass that has successfully implemented the Backwards Design model. By hearing and reading of more and more successful examples of this model, it gives me a clearer picture of what we all should be striving for when we begin teaching. I also really liked that this school had also incorporated team teaching and hands on activities to go along with their Backwards Design model. It seems to make so much sense, if you know what standards you are going to cover, you can then use your imagination to come up with great lesson plans with the Standards in mind, instead of creating a fun lesson and then trying o figure out how it relates to the standards that we need to be covering and teaching students.

Chapter 9- Planning for Block Scheduling

I liked how this chapter was broken down into someone’s thoughts, and then the step by step thinking and how it was put into lesson planning and implemented. I was able to relate to the types of ideas that speaker was going over, and I could see how he took those ideas and put them into action, or into a tentative.
I loved the many examples that this chapter presented as simple exercises for helping students grow in the subject. I especially liked the idea of the activity/ game Tic- Tac - Sales. This activity could easily be improvised in many ways and its fun, yet on topic. Even better, a game like this forces students to try certain problems while still providing choices for students to choose the problems they are going to try to solve and mark.
I was really glad that this chapter provided different, alternative ways to get students involved by using something they always jump for. For example: the problem that was used in the book based on giving students vacation days for perfect attendance. That example is such a great way to pull students in since vacation day are something that they are not only interested in, but also it relates to them, and the students are doing the math being practiced is a fun way instead of the traditional way. I also really liked how this chapter showed so many real life examples for the math problems. By bring in real situations where math may be in the students lives, I think it helps the students see why math is important to learn.

Chapter 6- Organizing relationships for Learning

One part of this chapter that really stuck out to me was “Smaller is Better”. I totally agree with the concept and I believe it has contributed to my success. I love the fact that I come from a very small school where you know the majority of student’s faces. I feel that this system allows students to get the proper attention that they need when struggling, and teachers get to know each and every student. I know that my cousin went from my school and had to transfer to a much bigger school in 9th grade. She knew nobody and start to fail because the teachers didn’t pay much attention to her. It was like she was a single fish in the bigger mass, unknown. Although, I understand that with more and more school merging due to expenses and room within school, small school like mine are harder to find. I have heard of the system mentioned in this chapter and I think it would work well. By having mini school, or smaller units of students within the school, where a set of teacher, a team, work with only those students, simulates that small environment and can provide success for so many more students. I am glad that this model is being used more, I think it makes school a more community based system.

Chapter 12- Teaching Advisories

I remember very clearly advisor period in my high school. Most kids didn’t do anything; they just sat there talking with their friends for half an hour each morning. The main purpose of that time period was for us to organize and assemble our graduating portfolio that was required in order to graduate. I enjoyed working on mine, but most hated doing theirs because it was required and they felt it was stupid. I feel like my school advisory program did provide guidance during that time, but I do not feel that it did not create “activities to promote citizenship”. Attempts were made to explore personal interests by taking the multiple intelligence tests, but that was all on paper, I love how in this chapter advisory time is outside of the school, out in the “real world”. I think that this is the perfect opportunity for students to be learning about different types of work in their community that could apply to their future. Even if students won’t ever work in a mill, it could be great to go and see how one works. Students would be thinking in new ways and exploring their community at the same time. I love this idea, I agree that I think it would help students bond to their classmates in new ways, and like the story in the book, you never know what could happen and what experiences students will take from these adventures. They could really impact the rest of the student’s lives. I remember in Practicum a chapter in our textbook mentioned moving our school system to a more community based system where students get out and work a few day a week in the community being an apprentice. The idea in MMM wasn’t quite that far, but I think that by going out and doing hands on things in advisory period, school are closer to that community model than before.

Chapter 11- Teaming

I loved the comment in this chapter that: “the real world is not compartmentalized, so giving students integrated learning experiences will prepare them to be successful when they leave school”. I feel that as teachers we should be making the classroom simulate the real world as much as possible. By integrating all subject areas I can see how there would be so many benefits. Not only would it be easier on students to write a paper in one class and have it count in another class as well, cutting down on the student workload, it would also allow students to be thinking about similar concepts all day long and these concepts would become ingrained. For example, if in history class students were learning about the revolution and independence, and if in English class students were reading documents from the revolution or books about that era, in math they were practicing mathematics that was studied at that time period, and in science they were trying out or studying Benjamin Franklin’s inventions than students would get multiple different perspectives and ideas about this time period and they would be thinking about the Revolutionary era all day long for a couple weeks. Add in some cool activities or fun simulations pertaining to that topic and the information will probably stick will almost all the students a lot longer than it would have otherwise!

This We Believe

Page 1- 26
When reading about the “essential attributes and characteristics” for adolescent learning, and viewing the chart that broke these attributes down into different categories, I completely agreed with the model that was being presented. I feel that so much focus is always centered around the first section: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, that the other categories of learning are disregarded and not really focused on by teachers. I feel that a lot of times the social and community aspects of learning are hinted at, but not really focused on by the majority of teachers.
I loved the concept in this chapter of teacher and student coming together for a better chance of learning. Hands-joined activities instead of hands-on activities sound like a great way to make student feel proud of creating class activities and then performing them. I think that instead of teachers always trying to guess what students are interested in doing, by giving students the chance to have a say in what is learned and the activities used to learn the content, that burden is taken off the teachers shoulders a little. This idea totally ties into another tip that was mentioned in the reading. By giving students so say in what happens in the room, giving them a chance to contribute to their own learning and education, they are practicing taking ownership of their learning. Adolescents want to be independent, why not give them the opportunity? I really agree with the idea and feel it not only gives more freedom to students, but by doing this students are practicing more of the 16 characteristics: leadership, organization, and community/ social building skills which are also important to their growth and learning but are sometimes overlooked by teachers. I think that as teachers, we could develop a system that easily incorporated all the essential attributes into our teaching methods and at the same time could make some aspects of our planning and teaching easier for us teachers.


pages 26- 33
I never realized how important teaming seems to be to making the Middle school system work its best. I knew that teachers work together as a team, but I never realized just how important leadership roles and teams are to the system and student learning.
I loved the point about teachers are always learning, just as students are. It is a good reminder that our learning doesn’t stop as we begin teaching. In order to perform our best, we must always learn, from each other and from our students. If we stick to just one model and never learn from it, adjusting as we go, then our students won’t benefit at all from us as the world grows.
It is amazing how much our leadership system and our leadership will impact students. If we don’t have everything together, and a concrete effective plan for learning, and cant work with each other and the community, then what hope is there for the students.


pages 33-42

While reading this section on school culture and community, I kept thinking back to my own middle school. I felt that my school did well at implementing a lot of the suggestions that were mentioned in this section. For example, my middle school has a great program that introduces the new, upcoming students slowly to the new building by having multiple gatherings between the current 7th graders and the upcoming 7th graders. The two grades go hiking, swimming, tour the school, and play activities together. All these experiences make the transfer easier for upcoming 7th graders and give them familiar faces and a familiar building to come to on the first day for school.
I also liked the system that this section presented for middle school models because I felt that it was proactive, preventing problems before they start, instead of fixing problems after they happen. This model seems to be one that would be very successful. But what if the Guidance counselor or another member of the school system is not effective or does not do their job well? What if students don’t feel like going to see certain faculty does any good when something is bothering them? I think the key this chapter seemed to hint at was that a very successful school system means all faculty are effective at their part of the job and all members are contributing to make the best environment possible.


pages 42- 63

Research that supports This We Believe seems to clearly show the benefits of creating a middle school system that focuses on the points laid out in this book. Team teaching, community based involvement, and a positive school atmosphere seems to be the key to making a successful Middle School and I am glad so many schools seem to be catching on to this idea. I liked how this section provided multiple examples of research that support this mode of teaching, showing that this system is working and not just written down in a textbook. One quote that really stuck out at me when reading, was the culture and community section which had a line that said: " Parents' involvement effects students engagement and performance". This seems like a no-brainer, yet the more I think about parent involvement, the more I realize how critical it is. If a students parents don't care at all about what is happening at school and the learning process, then why should the student put forth effort and see the learning opportunities available? Also, just as important is knowing that any issues going on at home carry over to school and that student's learning performance. The home situation seems to matter so much and affects each students learning capabilities more than most other factors.

I also liked how this section of the text ended with a close look at different characteristics of this age group in general. Although I knew most of the characteristics anyways, it is a good overview so that I can keep these thoughts in mind as our teams begin to create our unit. Working in these characteristics will add to the effectiveness of capturing the students attention and helping them comprehend the information presented, which ever way I present it.

Chapter 17: The Truth About Middle School Students

I think it is so cool what this teacher did with the paper on his wall for students to write down whatever they want to say. I hope to try this for my students someday. I think it gives them a chance to say something, even if they don’t want to say in out loud in front of classmates, or if they have trouble even speaking to me. By letting students write anything they want down, I feel that as this chapter showed us, these students can teach us just how much they know, we can learn to know our students better (which will help us teach them better) and I feel that this is a place where students could discreetly inform me of something that may be bothering them. For example: one of the responses in our book for a student was “I’m Marvin and I’m depressed.” This is a possible way that I could be informed that a student needs help before they do anything rash. This student may have just been joking around, or this may have been their way of saying “help” to their teacher. If this happened to me, I would see this as an opportunity to observe this student more and get them help or talk to them if I really thought something was wrong. Over all, I loved the remarks from students in this book. I think that if I did this myself it would allow not just an opportunity for me to learn about my students and this age group, but some of their responses could make me think deep of their inspirational saying that they posted and laugh at their humor.

Chapter 2: Motivating Young Adolescents

Just a few days ago I was told in my SED class that the key to getting students to do as you want is motivation and how are we going to motivate our students. Since I was just thinking about how I will motivate my students, this chapter was very useful in that it let me see ideas and tips for how an experienced teacher has motivated his students. This was great, it let me reflect on my thoughts and add to them. I really loved that the author provided one example after another. It gave me a better understand of many different ways I can try to motivate students. From reading this chapter and observing remarks of students in third grade and my classmates, I think I understand the biggest motivation for students: making class work fun. If what we are teaching them is boring and plain, they are going to tune us out!

Chapter 1: Stoking the Fires Within

I loved reading this chapter. I felt like what it was saying was all relevant to me, as if someone was right there giving me personal tips on how to teach. I also really liked how the author presented a lot of examples of different (fun) ways of teaching classroom material. I Hope to start an activity list for myself of different ways I can engage my students in learning and this chapter was filled with ideas for that list. I especially liked the idea of showing 2 minutes of a suspenseful part of a movie and then having students try to translate that suspense into writing. I totally agree with the author, Wormeil, that our students have so much they can teach us, just as we have so much to teach them. This chapter made me think about how I present myself to students and what I can do to change my attitudes and how I would respond to situations like the one where the author is confronted by a student. I hope I can handle it as smoothly as he did and I will be thinking about this chapter as I go and work with the third graders today.

Chapter 2: A Design for Improving Middle Grades Education

I Never realized there were so many interactions within a system that all rely on each other to make a Middle School function well and prosper. When this chapter mentioned that a school system can’t go half way, or implement one type of change that this system recommends I began to notice just how intricate the 7 parts to the system are. I really agree with the fact that parents and community must be involved within the system in order for students to get it full benefits. I feel that without involving the community or parents in their child’s learning, students tend to start keeping what they learned at school, just at school. The community world, and the school world become two separate places for students. By incorporating the community and as much parent involvement in the students education processes, I feel that students have a better chance at succeeding because they support system at home is not only linked with their support system at school, but students also can implement the skills they are learning at school in the community. I also found it interesting that changing classroom practices was described to be the hardest part of this system to change. I am curious to see what ways are mentioned at helping teachers reach out and practice better ways of teaching their students.

Chapter 1: A Decade Later

Reading this first chapter on School reform, I found Turning Point’s success with their program to be very interesting. The chapter mentioned that Schools in different states like Illinois and Massachusetts that have adapted Turning Point’s recommended practices showed that students were significantly improving and succeeding on assessment tests. I feel that this fact is extremely important to think about and understand what is causing these successes. The year I graduated, 2008, the news headlines were covered with the concerns of the very high failure rates around the country in middle and high schools. I am sure that failure rates are still higher than they should be, which means teachers aren’t doing something right if so many students everywhere are failing high school and dropping out. If Turning Point to have created a program that has helped many school increase their success rates due to effective instructional approaches, then this program must be working and I can’t wait to learn more about its processes. I also found it very interesting that this chapter defined a middle school student’s core values to be focused around “enabling every students to think creatively, to identify and solve meaningful problems, to communicate and work well with others…” pg 10-11 I don’t normally think of these as the focus of teaching, even at the middle school level. I think teachers are always caught up in the school work and what they need to teach, and yet I do agree with this chapter, that these are some core values that adolescents should be taught and practice. I think these skills would make school work become much easier to learn and complete.