Today I went to my elementary school. I arrived at 9:00 with my friend and went to the front office to sign into the VIP’s book. We signed in and then I went to my classroom. When I got to the classroom the kids were all gathered on the front carpet and the teacher was reading a book to them. Some of the kids started to misbehave and the teacher sent them to their desk to write out the rules that they broke. In the front of the classroom the teacher has a list of the rules on a piece of paper that she hangs up. Whenever the students break a rule repeatedly they must write the rule or rules that they broke a certain amount of times.
The teacher finished reading the book and the students returned to their desk. They had enough time to each pick out their own book and to read for a little while on their own. Some kids decided to run around the classroom instead and play with each other. The teacher was setting up things for the day so she didn’t say anything to the students. At 9:30 the other teacher from a different classroom came to take her kids and some other kids came into my classroom.
I took some of my kids that I would be working with and I was with three of them for the first session. They all wanted to play Candy Land but that is the game we usually play first so I told them we had to either play one round of Bingo or Go Fish before we could play Candy Land. They choose to play Bingo. They spent most of the time fighting with each other and moving the markers on each other’s mats. They usually yell at each other and claim that someone is cheating which isn’t possible, because you work on your own and either had the word or not.
The kids do not seem to make much progress. The words on the Bingo mat are words like mop and mope, pin and pine, and Tim and time. It is trying to teach the kids how to distinguish the words from each other. Every week I teach the kids hints of how to remember the words, but they can never remember.
After this group I received my second group of kids. I played Go Fish with them and they read the words well. I was working with two kids, but the other kids in the class who I never work with wanted to play too. I explained to them that I was only working with these two students, but they would not leave the table that we were working at. After a few minutes, they finally left and went to work on their own work. It had is hard to play Go Fish with my two kids, because one of them does not speak at all. He will only whisper if that. Go Fish requires talking to he points to the person he wants to ask and then shows the card. I have been trying to work on getting him to speak or even whisper more, because I know he can read, but he won’t and I am not sure why.
Overall, this week was similar to all the other weeks I was there. We play the same games every week and the students do not seem to make much progress. I hope that in time they will be able to learn the words we go over weekly and improve on their reading skills. I also hope that my student who does not speak will learn to talk more or even whisper more which will be some progress for him.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Talk Point # 10
“For example, it’s very important to begin the school year with a discussion of why we go to school. Why does the government force us to go to school? This would set a questioning tone and show the children that you trust them and that they are intelligent enough at their own level, to investigate and come up with answers.”
This quote stuck out to me, because many of my teachers have done this in the classroom. I think it is important for students to know why they are in school and why they are learning what they are. One of my high school teachers would apply every chapter in math to something in the real world and how we would later use it in life which made it practical to learn. Also, it is important for teachers to show they trust that their students are capable of learning.
“If the aim of intellectual training is to form the intelligence rather than to stick the memory and to produce intellectual explorers rather than mere erudition, then traditional education is manifestly guilty of a grave deficiency.”
In high school I always felt that I memorized things rather than actually learning them. I made my way through school my memorizing, because it is easy for me. Teachers should teach the subjects to the children so they learn it and are able to remember it. Teachers should not just give the information for the students to regurgitate on the test then later forget about it. Students should also want to go to school to learn more and not just the bare minimum.
“If the student’s task it to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning, the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted.”
As I said, I made it through high school by memorizing, but that never stopped me from questioning things. It is important for students to question the knowledge being presented to them and for students to question the knowledge being presented to them and not to just accept everything a teacher says. If a student does not question things their critical thought will be restricted and so will their opinions. When questioning certain things I think opinions can be formed.
I enjoyed reading this article, because it addressed many issues that I always wondered about as to why we go to school and learn the things we do. My mother always told me growing up that my habit of memorizing would not get me far in life. She always said I should learn the information and it will stick with me and expand my mind. I now think it is important to learn rather then memorize and regurgitate the information.
This quote stuck out to me, because many of my teachers have done this in the classroom. I think it is important for students to know why they are in school and why they are learning what they are. One of my high school teachers would apply every chapter in math to something in the real world and how we would later use it in life which made it practical to learn. Also, it is important for teachers to show they trust that their students are capable of learning.
“If the aim of intellectual training is to form the intelligence rather than to stick the memory and to produce intellectual explorers rather than mere erudition, then traditional education is manifestly guilty of a grave deficiency.”
In high school I always felt that I memorized things rather than actually learning them. I made my way through school my memorizing, because it is easy for me. Teachers should teach the subjects to the children so they learn it and are able to remember it. Teachers should not just give the information for the students to regurgitate on the test then later forget about it. Students should also want to go to school to learn more and not just the bare minimum.
“If the student’s task it to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning, the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted.”
As I said, I made it through high school by memorizing, but that never stopped me from questioning things. It is important for students to question the knowledge being presented to them and for students to question the knowledge being presented to them and not to just accept everything a teacher says. If a student does not question things their critical thought will be restricted and so will their opinions. When questioning certain things I think opinions can be formed.
I enjoyed reading this article, because it addressed many issues that I always wondered about as to why we go to school and learn the things we do. My mother always told me growing up that my habit of memorizing would not get me far in life. She always said I should learn the information and it will stick with me and expand my mind. I now think it is important to learn rather then memorize and regurgitate the information.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Video: Boy's Perspective
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8-zsPkKprc
I found this video to be very interesting. It is interviews conducted with boys that attend an all boys school. They all say very positive things and why they like it so much. They talk about how boys and girls learn differently, there are less distractions, they have less to worry about. It is interesting to actually see what people who experience it have to say about it instead of just reading about studies being conducted.
I found this video to be very interesting. It is interviews conducted with boys that attend an all boys school. They all say very positive things and why they like it so much. They talk about how boys and girls learn differently, there are less distractions, they have less to worry about. It is interesting to actually see what people who experience it have to say about it instead of just reading about studies being conducted.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Talk Point # 9: Kliewer
“Now we know that people with disabilities can learn and have a full’, rich life. The challenge is to erase negative attitudes about people with developmental disabilities, get rid of the stereotypes and break the barriers for people with disabilities.”
This quote stuck out to me, because of how powerful it is. People with learning disabilities are capable of learning and having a full life, they just have to approach it in a different way then someone without a learning disability would. People need to move past the stereotypes and realize a person is not different just because they have a disability and having that disability does not make the incapable of learning. It is hard enough as it is for someone to learn so why add to the problem by forming stereotypes against them. People should be helping someone who needs the help, not causing more problems.
“Success in life requires an ability to form relationships with others who make up the web of community.”
I believe that success in life does require forming relationships with others. No one can be successful on their own. People have to go through life with the help of others whether they realize it or not. That is not to say that a person must depend on others, but they must receive some help in life.
“Such acceptance is the aim when children with Down syndrome join their nondisabled peers in classrooms, and many schools and individual teachers have entered into this effort, which seeks and finds community value in all children.”
I think this is a very important factor. When putting a child with Down syndrome into a classroom with nondisabled children there is always that fear that they will not be able to keep up or fit in. Acceptance amongst all students is very important and it is important that teachers try to help make the transition easy. All children are important and help to make up the community in a classroom. When a child is taunted, teased, or unaccepted because of circumstances they have no control over it causes a barrier in the classroom amongst the students. Acceptance is the most important thing to teach all children in a classroom together.
I found this article to be interesting and to make good points. I like that it put an emphasis on accepting people with disabilities and that it is not that they are incapable of learning it is that they learn differently. They may struggle, but they are still capable and time should be taken to help these students learn. They should be accepted by all, because they really are no different they any other person.
This quote stuck out to me, because of how powerful it is. People with learning disabilities are capable of learning and having a full life, they just have to approach it in a different way then someone without a learning disability would. People need to move past the stereotypes and realize a person is not different just because they have a disability and having that disability does not make the incapable of learning. It is hard enough as it is for someone to learn so why add to the problem by forming stereotypes against them. People should be helping someone who needs the help, not causing more problems.
“Success in life requires an ability to form relationships with others who make up the web of community.”
I believe that success in life does require forming relationships with others. No one can be successful on their own. People have to go through life with the help of others whether they realize it or not. That is not to say that a person must depend on others, but they must receive some help in life.
“Such acceptance is the aim when children with Down syndrome join their nondisabled peers in classrooms, and many schools and individual teachers have entered into this effort, which seeks and finds community value in all children.”
I think this is a very important factor. When putting a child with Down syndrome into a classroom with nondisabled children there is always that fear that they will not be able to keep up or fit in. Acceptance amongst all students is very important and it is important that teachers try to help make the transition easy. All children are important and help to make up the community in a classroom. When a child is taunted, teased, or unaccepted because of circumstances they have no control over it causes a barrier in the classroom amongst the students. Acceptance is the most important thing to teach all children in a classroom together.
I found this article to be interesting and to make good points. I like that it put an emphasis on accepting people with disabilities and that it is not that they are incapable of learning it is that they learn differently. They may struggle, but they are still capable and time should be taken to help these students learn. They should be accepted by all, because they really are no different they any other person.
Visit 5
This Friday I went to my elementary school. I arrived at 9:00 and sat in the back of the classroom while the teacher read a book to the students. After she finished reading the book, the kids were running around and waiting until they had to switch classrooms. Once they switched my kids came in. The teacher took group two first so I worked with my group one kids first. I work with six of them and they are split up in half.
I first worked with a boy and girl, because one of the other students was not there so it was just the two of them. We played Candy Land first. They fought the whole entire game of how to play and who was cheating. Giselle was yelling the whole time, because she easily gets excited and does not know an inside voice. Treshaun was arguing with me the whole time and did not want to play. When he lost in the end, he stormed off and when he came back I tried to explain to him that some times you win games and other times you lose games. He was pouting the whole time and finally decided to start participating again when we played Go Fish. I then took the second group of kids and we played Candy Land as well. They were more well behaved then the first group.
The teacher then took Group one onto the carpet to work with them so I had my next group of kids. There are four students I work with from this group so I split them in half and take them half the time each. The first group was Adetola, because the other boy was not here. She gives me problems every week, but this week she was well behaved. We played Bingo and she was going along with playing. She is at a very low reading level and struggles a lot. She gets easily discouraged and always wants to give up. I can see some improvement in her from week to week. We play a lot of the same games each week so she is beginning to learn the words better. I then took my second group which was Angel and Natalia. Angel fell off his seat and hit is neck on the desk. The other kids started laughing at him and he began to cry for 10 minutes straight. I explained to him that everyone falls and accidents happen. I also told the other kids in the group that it was not nice to make fun of other people. After a while he calmed down and began playing. He was fighting with everyone else the whole time over the game and would not listen to what anyone was saying.
Overall this week was hectic. The kids seemed to be off the wall, but maybe it was because it was the Friday before April vacation. They were all very energized and fighting with each other a lot. As a whole, I can see some improvement in the kids. They are starting to learn the words we are studying better and are becoming quicker when reading sentences and identifying words in Bingo which is an improvement.
I first worked with a boy and girl, because one of the other students was not there so it was just the two of them. We played Candy Land first. They fought the whole entire game of how to play and who was cheating. Giselle was yelling the whole time, because she easily gets excited and does not know an inside voice. Treshaun was arguing with me the whole time and did not want to play. When he lost in the end, he stormed off and when he came back I tried to explain to him that some times you win games and other times you lose games. He was pouting the whole time and finally decided to start participating again when we played Go Fish. I then took the second group of kids and we played Candy Land as well. They were more well behaved then the first group.
The teacher then took Group one onto the carpet to work with them so I had my next group of kids. There are four students I work with from this group so I split them in half and take them half the time each. The first group was Adetola, because the other boy was not here. She gives me problems every week, but this week she was well behaved. We played Bingo and she was going along with playing. She is at a very low reading level and struggles a lot. She gets easily discouraged and always wants to give up. I can see some improvement in her from week to week. We play a lot of the same games each week so she is beginning to learn the words better. I then took my second group which was Angel and Natalia. Angel fell off his seat and hit is neck on the desk. The other kids started laughing at him and he began to cry for 10 minutes straight. I explained to him that everyone falls and accidents happen. I also told the other kids in the group that it was not nice to make fun of other people. After a while he calmed down and began playing. He was fighting with everyone else the whole time over the game and would not listen to what anyone was saying.
Overall this week was hectic. The kids seemed to be off the wall, but maybe it was because it was the Friday before April vacation. They were all very energized and fighting with each other a lot. As a whole, I can see some improvement in the kids. They are starting to learn the words we are studying better and are becoming quicker when reading sentences and identifying words in Bingo which is an improvement.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Talk Point # 8: Anyon
“In a sense, some whole schools are on the vocational education track, while others are geared to produce future doctors, lawyers, and business leaders.”
This quote stuck out to me, because I never really thought of schools in this aspect. When I was in high school I went to learn and to get into a good college was a college preparatory school which is what it was geared towards. Some students go to a vocational high school to learn about a particular trait. I never thought about how I choose to go to a high school that would prepare me for college. I just went and that was it. Some students choose to go a completely different route and go for completely different reasons.
"In the middle-class school, work is getting the right answer. If one accumulates enough right answers, one gets a good grade."
I choose this quote, because it is not something I agree with. I do not think school should be all about grades. I think that learning is a process and it is sometimes tedious. Teachers assign tests, students study, and regurgitate the information back. They sometimes learn it only for that particular test and later forget it and that is not what learning is about. Unfortunately, school is based on right and wrong answers and good grades and bad grades.
“Work tasks do not usually request creativity. Serious attention is rarely given in school work on how the children develop or express their own feelings and ideas, either linguistically or in graphic form. On the occasions when creativity or self-expression is requested, it is peripheral to the main activity or it is "enriched" or "for fun."
I believe that creativity should be incorporated into every aspect of school work. It does help to make things enriched and fun, so why not incorporate into all aspects. It also helps student to develop and is positive for students in many different ways.
I found this article to be very interesting and informing. It is interesting to see how different environments learn and how different schools have different goals from one another. Some are geared towards being career oriented and teaching a particular trait to their students while others are geared for preparing students for college. Also, different teachers have different practices when it comes to teaching their students. All teachers teach differently, causing students to learn different things.
This quote stuck out to me, because I never really thought of schools in this aspect. When I was in high school I went to learn and to get into a good college was a college preparatory school which is what it was geared towards. Some students go to a vocational high school to learn about a particular trait. I never thought about how I choose to go to a high school that would prepare me for college. I just went and that was it. Some students choose to go a completely different route and go for completely different reasons.
"In the middle-class school, work is getting the right answer. If one accumulates enough right answers, one gets a good grade."
I choose this quote, because it is not something I agree with. I do not think school should be all about grades. I think that learning is a process and it is sometimes tedious. Teachers assign tests, students study, and regurgitate the information back. They sometimes learn it only for that particular test and later forget it and that is not what learning is about. Unfortunately, school is based on right and wrong answers and good grades and bad grades.
“Work tasks do not usually request creativity. Serious attention is rarely given in school work on how the children develop or express their own feelings and ideas, either linguistically or in graphic form. On the occasions when creativity or self-expression is requested, it is peripheral to the main activity or it is "enriched" or "for fun."
I believe that creativity should be incorporated into every aspect of school work. It does help to make things enriched and fun, so why not incorporate into all aspects. It also helps student to develop and is positive for students in many different ways.
I found this article to be very interesting and informing. It is interesting to see how different environments learn and how different schools have different goals from one another. Some are geared towards being career oriented and teaching a particular trait to their students while others are geared for preparing students for college. Also, different teachers have different practices when it comes to teaching their students. All teachers teach differently, causing students to learn different things.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Fourth Visit
Today I went on my fourth visit to my school. I went to the main office and signed in the VIPs sheet. I then went to my class and waited for the kids to switch rooms. Once my kids came in I worked with three for the first session and three for the second session. With my first three kids we played Bingo first which the kids love. They were all acting off the walls today. They kept yelling and screaming and grabbing each other cards. Some of them kept cheating and had difficulty focusing. We got through one game of this and I decided to play Candy Land next, because the kids like that more. Again, they were all fighting over who got to go first and who got to be which color. They just couldn’t seem to get along today. They all did well reading their words except for one girl. She can barely read the word he and she is in the second grade. She is very far behind, but can be difficult to work with. She doesn’t get along with the other students and tends to make fun of them.
The second group of students I took were a lot more well behaved. The three of them actually got a long and worked together to help each other. We first played Bingo and after two games of that we played Go Fish instead with their reading words. The kids did very well on the story they are currently learning. They knew all the words. One of the kids only whispers, if that. He will not speak out loud and today he was especially quiet. He wouldn’t even whisper to anyone today. He seemed very nervous when it came to picking a person to ask if they had a card in Go Fish. I think he was so nervous, because it is more difficult to play if you do not speak.
Overall, it was a somewhat stressful day. The kids were acting up and arguing a lot which became frustrating. When trying to play the games, no one wanted to cooperate so it became difficult to play games with them.
The second group of students I took were a lot more well behaved. The three of them actually got a long and worked together to help each other. We first played Bingo and after two games of that we played Go Fish instead with their reading words. The kids did very well on the story they are currently learning. They knew all the words. One of the kids only whispers, if that. He will not speak out loud and today he was especially quiet. He wouldn’t even whisper to anyone today. He seemed very nervous when it came to picking a person to ask if they had a card in Go Fish. I think he was so nervous, because it is more difficult to play if you do not speak.
Overall, it was a somewhat stressful day. The kids were acting up and arguing a lot which became frustrating. When trying to play the games, no one wanted to cooperate so it became difficult to play games with them.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Talk Point # 7: Weil
“Enough parents were impressed that when Foley Intermediate, a school of 322 fourth and fifth graders, reopened after summer recess, the school had four single-sex classrooms: a girls’ and a boys’ class in both the fourth and fifth grades. Four classrooms in each grade remained coed.”
This quote stuck out to me and something I thought to be important in the article. I have never heard of a school that has both co-ed classroom and single-sex classrooms. I have heard of schools that were only co-ed and I have heard of schools that were only single-sex, but never a combination. I also thought it was interesting that they were able to transition the classrooms so quickly. It only took a summer to make the transition. I think the concept of having both is interesting. It brings the best of both worlds into the picture. If parents choose to have their child in a single-sex classroom they can and at some points throughout the day such as recess their child still has the option to interact with students of the opposite sex.
“Among his early proposals was that boys should start kindergarten at age 6, a year later than girls, in order to ease the “sense of scholastic incompetence” that so many boys feel early on because they tend to develop later. Several friends quickly convinced Sax that American families would never go for this. So Sax started thinking it might be better for boys and girls to be in different classrooms.”
This quote is interesting, because at first Sax wanted to take a different approach. He wanted boys to start an entire year later then girls. I do not think a lot of parents would go for this, because I think that most parents want their child to start school on time just like any other student. I believe that more parents would think it is better if their child started school on time, but were separated by gender. If boys mature at an older age then girls, then it would make sense to put the boys together since they are all at the same maturity level in a sense and for all the girls to be together as well.
“Baby boys prefer to stare at mobiles; baby girls at faces. Boys solve maze puzzles using the hippocampus; girls use the cerebral cortex. Boys covet risk; girls shy away. Boys perform better under moderate stress; girls perform worse.”
This shows that even as babies, there are such gender difference and as a person grows older, the differences only become noticeable and complex. I can understand why it makes sense to separate boys and girls in the classroom. Boys learn a like and girls learn alike and the way boys and girls learn can differ. If the separation is made, then students may be able to learn better.
This article made a lot of good points. I never realized schools with coed and single-sex classrooms existed. I think it can work well, because it gives students the chance to learn with students of the same gender and better their education, but they are not deprived of being around students of the opposite sex which I think is very important. I also believe it depends on the student as well. I went to a coed and received a very good education and good grades. I know people who went to single-sex schools and said they enjoyed it, but wish the opposite sex was around more. This arrangement gives the best of both worlds.
This quote stuck out to me and something I thought to be important in the article. I have never heard of a school that has both co-ed classroom and single-sex classrooms. I have heard of schools that were only co-ed and I have heard of schools that were only single-sex, but never a combination. I also thought it was interesting that they were able to transition the classrooms so quickly. It only took a summer to make the transition. I think the concept of having both is interesting. It brings the best of both worlds into the picture. If parents choose to have their child in a single-sex classroom they can and at some points throughout the day such as recess their child still has the option to interact with students of the opposite sex.
“Among his early proposals was that boys should start kindergarten at age 6, a year later than girls, in order to ease the “sense of scholastic incompetence” that so many boys feel early on because they tend to develop later. Several friends quickly convinced Sax that American families would never go for this. So Sax started thinking it might be better for boys and girls to be in different classrooms.”
This quote is interesting, because at first Sax wanted to take a different approach. He wanted boys to start an entire year later then girls. I do not think a lot of parents would go for this, because I think that most parents want their child to start school on time just like any other student. I believe that more parents would think it is better if their child started school on time, but were separated by gender. If boys mature at an older age then girls, then it would make sense to put the boys together since they are all at the same maturity level in a sense and for all the girls to be together as well.
“Baby boys prefer to stare at mobiles; baby girls at faces. Boys solve maze puzzles using the hippocampus; girls use the cerebral cortex. Boys covet risk; girls shy away. Boys perform better under moderate stress; girls perform worse.”
This shows that even as babies, there are such gender difference and as a person grows older, the differences only become noticeable and complex. I can understand why it makes sense to separate boys and girls in the classroom. Boys learn a like and girls learn alike and the way boys and girls learn can differ. If the separation is made, then students may be able to learn better.
This article made a lot of good points. I never realized schools with coed and single-sex classrooms existed. I think it can work well, because it gives students the chance to learn with students of the same gender and better their education, but they are not deprived of being around students of the opposite sex which I think is very important. I also believe it depends on the student as well. I went to a coed and received a very good education and good grades. I know people who went to single-sex schools and said they enjoyed it, but wish the opposite sex was around more. This arrangement gives the best of both worlds.
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