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 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.

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 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!

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.