final group presentation

I loved the video you started out with.  I did a great job showing how kids learn much differently today than they used to.  That they are digital learners and teaching methods need to change in order to accommodate for this.  The interview had good points on how to motivate your students.  The idea of giving students control of their learning was a great concept to talk about, because many teachers think that they are the only ones to control student learning, and when you think this way and make students do things your way without listening to what they want, why would they want to do it intrinsically?   Great job presenting the information!

Final Work Study reflection

     Last September, I started my 150 hour internship at Paynesville Elementary.  I was able to observe open house and conferences plus all the prep work to go into them!  I also got introduced to such things as copier machines, writing letters to parents, the headache of scheduling para professionals and foster grandparents, and doing countless other prep work!  I was able to work with five wonderful teachers during my internship and observe a few others.  I was able to observe two school meetings, and also a program put on by the kids.  Most of my time was spent working one on one or in small groups with the kids in special education.  I loved being able to do this.  The teachers were great to let me work with the kids and I came away from it all with a lot of experience and confidence.  I think it is easier to reach kids when they are given one on one time.  It is easier as the teacher, because then I can tell if the child understands or if I need to approach the topic another way.  I think it is easier for the student, because then they are able to ask questions if they need help.  I also spend around an hour to an hour and a half a week in the second grade general ed. classroom.  This is much different than Special Ed.  The classroom I helped in had twenty six students.  One teacher to twenty six students is a huge difference than the one on one in Special Ed.  I think it would be much harder to teach to that many students. 

      I had the opportunity to see an IEP review,Other things I was able to see were a music class, an afternoon observing the speech clinician, ECSE (Early childhood special education), a few phy ed classes, and a departmental meeting (child study meeting).  I learned about social stories and other various ways to deal with behaviors.

  I would recommend any student planning on becoming a teacher see most of these areas.  It was pretty interesting to see what goes on while the kids are not in your classroom.  Another exciting thing I was able to do was plan and teach my own lesson to second graders!  I was actually given the opportunity to teach it to two different second grade classrooms.  I planned an hour long lesson on roman numerals.  None of the kids knew what roman numerals were, so it was an all new topic for them.  I created a power point to give a very brief background on roman numerals and to teach them how to write the numbers one through ten.  I also explained how roman numerals compared to our number system, the Arabic system. 

    Two mornings a week I was able to work with the Barton system.  It is a reading and spelling system that works on phonics.  It starts out with the basics of listening to sounds and realizing what sound is different from word to word.  The main goal is to train the student’s ears.  As the students learn and progress in the system, the lessons get harder and more in depth.  The last level I was able to work with was level four, where the kids were working on phrases in sentences.  They worked on decoding what the who, did what, and where parts of each sentence were.  The kids really enjoyed this curriculum.  For the first half of my internship I observed and participated from the student side of the lessons, but during the second half I was able to teach the lessons to the kids.  I loved it! 

   I learned a lot during my time at Paynesville Elementary School.  I learned things about me like which path I want go into as far as sped (DCD, LD), and which one to stay away from (EBD).   I learned that I have the potential to be a great teacher.  I am many times more confident about being in a classroom with kids than when I started.  I also learned a few things about being a special education teacher like how stressful and time consuming the job can be.  I also learned how to deal with students who are misbehaving.  I started my internship knowing very little about special education.  Now at the end I have a much larger knowledge base as far as what areas there are, what a sped teacher does, what is expected, and just how to do things. What better way to learn than to do it hands on?  Overall I think I really grew from being still unsure of myself and my role as a student helper into being a respected teacher.  I would not take back this experience for anything.  I gained friendships and contacts with my supervising teachers and also great relationships with the students I worked with.  I cannot express how beneficial this experience is and can honestly say that I will truly miss working with the kids and teachers.  Another part of this experience I will miss is seminar.  It felt nice and comfortable to come in once a week and tell the other women what I have been doing, and hear the joys and struggles they have been working with too.  It was also nice to get feedback from Lori on how we are doing, and things that we could try.  It felt like we were all a team and that we were all there in each other’s journeys becoming teachers.

Philosophy of Education reflection

After completing the survey in class I scored highest in social reconstructionism (19) and second in Progressivism (15.5) third in perennialsim (11.5) and last in Essentialism (7).  Social Progressiveism says that most of the class time should be spent on discussing various topics about society and its issues.  Teachers would encourage kids to think about what can be done to deal with the issues in society.  This does reflect on what I believe, I think that discussions are a lot more interesting and a better way to learn than just listening to someone lecture.  I also think that kids today should know what is going on in society and learn how to think through, collaborate with others, and come up with a solution to a problem.  Progressivism is the idea that real-world problem solving and individual development is important.  The purpose of schooling is to develop students as completely as possible-physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally.  The curriculum should be composed of experiences that reflect today's world, and instructionally, teachers should guide students in the process of development.  I also feel like this view fits me.  I think that students should be able to problem solve and be helpful pieces of a society when they are finished with school.  I think that students should be able to come out of school being as prepared for life as they can be.  It is a waste of time to send students through 13+ years of school for them to come out only knowing how to take a test, but not remember anything they were tested on.  So by looking at my results, I feel like education is the right path for me, and I feel like teaching is exactly what I want to do.

Waiting for Superman

In class we watched a movie called Waiting for Superman.  It talked about how some inner city schools are really suffering and are not doing their best to teach students.  The movie talked about the fact that there are over 2,000 'drop out factories' in the United States.  These are schools were most of the students drop out before they graduate.  Administrators, teachers, students, and parents all know they are called this, but they continue to run and allow students to drop out.  This is insane to me.  If there is one thing that screams HELP! to me is that.  There is no way I would send my kids to a school like that unless I had absolutely no other option.  Even if it was my only option, I think that the administrators and teachers need to make an effort to change how the school is seen.  One fact that was shared in the movie is that 68% if inmates in prisons are dropouts.  $33,000 is spent on each inmate, for that same amount of money we could have sent that inmate to a private school and still had money left over to put towards college.  This is ridiculous, especially now when we are in debt and are having to cut so many things especially in education.  First, what the hell are we giving our inmates if we spend that kind of money on them, second, if we invest more into each child who is currently going through school, think of the money we could save later!  Not only the money, but think of what each one of those kids could contribute to society instead of filling up prisons.  Another concept in the movie that really shocked me was the idea of 'Passing the Lemons.'  This is the idea of passing around teachers who are no good at their job and they along with everyone else in the school system knows they are terrible teachers.  Since they are tenured, they cannot be fired, so they are passed along between schools hoping that the 'Lemon' they get in is better than the 'Lemon' they tossed away.  I am sorry but this is just stupid.  We saw on the movie that some of these teachers literally sat at their desk reading the newspaper while the students did whatever they wanted.  What are those students learning in that scenario? That education is pointless because my teacher doesn't even think I am worth their time?  How sad.  If someone in any other profession went to work and did that type of thing they would be gone in a heartbeat and it would be unlikely that they would be able to hold another position.  So why do we allow it with teachers, those people who are leading our kids on their path to knowledge?  I am not saying that tenure is all together a bad thing, since hey job security sounds great to me, but on the other hand I do not think that it should be that solid that teachers can literally do nothing and administrators have absolutely no right to fire them.  In that respect I believe that teachers should be paid according to their performance.  The more they are helping and teaching their students, the more they get paid.  I believe that would act as motivation for teachers to stay up to date and to continue learning and incorporating new ideas into their classrooms.

Group 7 presentation

Excellent job girls! I really liked how you switched back and forth between people talking instead of each of you doing your share of slides then moving on to the next.  It made it seem like you all knew all of the content and that you really worked together.  I thought your discussions on facebook/social media affecting teachers jobs and also the one on corporal punishment in schools were great! All of your topics were interesting and I enjoyed the whole thing!

Group 6 presentation

You guys did a great job over-viewing the chapter and bringing in more information.  The items discussed were great and were interesting.  I really liked the interview you guys did.  Overall great job!

Cathleen Black Is Out as City Schools Chancellor

Cathleen Black Is Out as City Schools Chancellor

            Cathleen P. Black was urged to resign as chancellor of the New York City schools.  She was appointed for the position three months ago, and her quick resignation was a surprising as her appointment.  Ms. Black offended many parents during her three month reign, and received the lowest approval rating (17%) that any Bloomberg administration official has ever received.  Ms. Black was replaced by Deputy Mayor Dennis M. Walcott.  Walcott has many connections with the school system.  He taught kindergarten for two years, has spent years in public service, holds master’s degrees in education and in social work, and headed the Urban League for 12 years.  After all of that on his record, he does not meet all of the credentials required under state law, so he must get a waiver from the state education commissioner before he can become chancellor. 

            Three months working as chancellor is not a very long time.  She must have really been unqualified for the job to only last that long.  According to the article she really upset many parents and needed a lot of coaching to understand each separate aspect of the education policy.  The article also says that Ms. Black was a magazine executive with no educational experience before she was appointed.  How is someone who has never worked in education supposed to perform well in her position?  I really feel bad that she was put into this position.  I understand that we need a change in the running of schools in the United States, but I think appointments should be made to people who at least have some experience in education.  It seems like appointing someone without experience is a step in the wrong direction.  

Group 5 presentation

Ariel and I were the fifth group to present.  We ran out of time so sorry we had to skip the fun things we had planned. We had more discussions and videos to go through, but hopefully it was alright otherwise!

Global Achievement Gap ch. 5

• Kids have no respect for authority thye have a lack of work ethic.  They do not give all their effort in jobs or in school.  They do not proofread their papers and talk during class.
• kids have grown up with technology and using it regularly.  Teens use computers for entertainment.  College students use them for work.  In 2001 John Seely Brown hired 15 year olds to help with research.  He noticed that they multi task all the time (electronically).  Instant Messaging has made kids today inpatient.  It has also made spelling and language skills drop.
• The net generation employers need to find ways to interest their young employees and allow them to do things differently, not a 9-5 desk job.
• Students learn differently too.  They will not read lengthy texts or instructions, but if you outline things and present them in ways that appear shorter, their scores will increase.  Video games make kids think through problems like scientists, they must hypothesize and get a reaction.  Designers need to find ways to incorporate more learning and less violence.
•  Kids not longer have to talk face to face because of their use of technology, and social skills may be deteriorating.  They are becoming unable to relate to people who are different than they are.
• “High school teachers need to have kids do real research and experiments.  Instead of being receivers of knowledge, they need to be participants.  Let them be scientists, a historian.”
• If you can tap into kids interests, they’re very motivated.  For example, kids learned more about writing and editing by doing the school newspaper than in their English class.
• Many net generation kids are willing to be paid less to do ore meaningful work.
• Parents and adults must find out what interests their kids and use that to help them learn and develop.

studentsfirst.org

http://www.studentsfirst.org/

The above link is a link to a website that rallies for support for good teachers.  Its talks about how effective teachers may be the first ones cut, just because they were the last ones hired.  Here are three points from the website about teacher layoffs :
1. Research indicates that when districts with LIFO(last in first out) conduct layoffs, they end up firing some of their most highly effective educators.
2. LIFO policies increase the number of teachers that districts have to lay off. Because junior teachers make less money, districts have to lay off more of them in order to fill their budget gaps.
3. LIFO disproportionately and negatively impacts the highest need schools. These schools have larger numbers of new teachers, who are the first to lose their jobs in a layoff.

I will not speak for anyone else, but in my opinion it is stupid to fire your most productive teacher, if it were a business of production, there is no way you would fire the person who is putting out the most produce over someone who is putting out half of the produce in the same amount of time.  Have businesses not been bringing in machines to do jobs people used to because they are more efficient? So why is it different in teaching? Why do we fire our most 'productive' teacher and leave the ones who do not teach our children near as much?  I encourage all to check out this website and become familiar with what it stands for and is asking of people. 

This website also addresses the idea of tenure and also how much teachers get paid.  Again in a business. are they not willing to pay that more productive employee more than they are willing to pay that employee who produces half of what the first does in the same amount of time? Yes! So why is teaching any different? If one teacher is helping their students learn and understand the cirriculum well while another teacher is sitting back and not helping their students understand the same cirriculum, why not pay the first more? I think it would hold teachers more accountable for their effectiveness of teaching and will also act as motivation to find new ways to help their students better. 

Everyone may not agree with the idea of the website or the things I have posted, but at least look into it and have an open mind.  Think about who education should be about, the teachers and their jobs or the student and their learning.  Who is the one who will be our future? The students, so think about whose hands we should place them in, teachers who have their interests and learning at heart or teachers who know they can't be fired so why put any more effort than needed.  It is an easy choice in my book, but think about it.

Morocco: teachers strike after violent protests

http://www.ei-ie.org/news/news_details/1760

Morocco: teachers strike after violent protests 

Teachers in Morocco staged a two day strike in late March.  This was to be an act against the way they were treated during a previous demonstration.   During this previous get together, they claim 165 people were hurt, 65 seriously, including people with broken limbs or gashes from beatings by police. Unions said 50 were taken to hospital.  This violence was inflicted by the police (according to the teachers and the article) and the Union is demanding that the violence be investigated.  The teachers were voicing their concern about the national education system’s reform and demanding increased status and salaries depending on diplomas for teachers.

Hearing about this kind of violence makes me think what the teachers were doing to incite such a reaction from the police!  It is hard to believe that if they were just asking to discuss the matter in a respectable way or even just marching and protesting that the police would use such violence.  It could happen I suppose, but I wonder if there is more to this story.  Either way I hope that all individuals injured are alright and also that the matter gets resolved without any more injuries! 

Paterson Teacher Suspended Over a Post on Facebook

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/nyregion/02facebook.html?ref=education

This article talks about a first grade teacher from Patterson, NJ.  She posted, " that she felt like a warden overseeing future criminals" on her Facebook page.  Parents were outraged and asked for their children to be taken out of her classroom.  The teacher has since been suspended with pay because of her comment.  She said that the comment was made in her own personal time to her own friends.  A lot of attention has been given to this comment and many question her professionalism.


I think that this was very stupid of this teacher to post something like this on her Facebook.  By posting this on Facebook, it made her feelings totally public, it may have been meant as a comment to friends, but then talk about it in person to your friends.  Anyone can see a comment like that if it is on a social network site.  Even if you have a protected profile, people who are not your friends can see what you are doing.  If one of my friends comments on one of their friends comments, but I am not friends with that other person, I can still see the post and any comment that has been made to it.  I may not have any idea who that other person is, but I can sure find out how they are feeling.  Facebook or other social network sites are great, but they are not a place for secrets or publishing your life story.  Information flows, especially juicy information.  So all future teachers or anyone going into any profession, remember to keep your thoughts about the job to yourself or a TRUSTED friend.