LD Online

Added to my blog is a link to a web page that is called LD Online. This site has been very important to me this year because I am going into special education and am beginning to take some of those classes. Not only is this web page good for special educators but it is very informative and could help general education teachers as well. More than likely going out into our first year we will see special education children in our classes and we need to know how to deal with them and not panic because they aren't just like everyone else. Given on this site are some good ideas and guidelines of how to adapt to these children with out making it obvious to the class because singling out the student can (in some cases) make the situation worse. So if you have some time take a look at this link, it is a good resource.

Paideia Text and Issues Lecture

Mark London, the guest speaker at the lecture talked primarily about the Amazon Rainforest, how it has changed over the last 25 years and what needs to be done. The Amazon Rainforest is a huge part of our world, and every human being has depended on it somehow or in some way in their lifetime. In this lecture, London says that the Amazon in depleting rapidly every year, and we as humans, really need to do something and do it quickly. He also talks about the number of people who call the Amazon home. This is not a small number, over 20 million! When taken into consideration you can't just say "we need to save the forest, find somewhere else to live" 20 million people will fight that, and probably win. During this lecture I realized that the Amazon Rainforest is so important to the world, not only to the people and animals that live there but it also helps regulate the climate.

To help this situation, incentives are being offered to not deforest. In exchange people will get incentives if they do certain tasks, such as fish-farming, nut gathering, etc. The goal of this is to give these people better rewards and opportunities if they don’t deforest. And the only protection the forest has now is the people that live there who go for these incentives.

I found this lecture very informative and valuable. It's not too often I listen to people talk about the Amazon and how it effects the whole world. This is something that is important for me as a teacher to consider because teachers need to help students see the bigger picture. Even though it's not always a huge issue like "going green" but sometimes students lose focus on what the ultimate goal of the lesson or year is and we need to help keep them informed and determined.

Education Today and Tomorrow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh9q_cQcUE


This is a you tube video that is just real quick but has some very important information. It makes many good points about what we are teaching our students to be prepared for. Take a look...it's worth the couple minutes.

Second half of Chalk

By the middle of this movie I was really starting to get into it and didn't want to stop watching, which is weird because I don't usually like shows that are set up with that format but for some reason I got into this one. The second half had many important topics brought up about teaching, like working with your fellow teachers and administrators, and classroom management. These two topics can really make or break a school, when I think about schools I always evaluate teacher to teacher relationships and student-teacher relationships before looking into anything else.

My favorite part of this whole movie was the "spelling hornet" I think that is a great idea!

My favorite character turned out to be someone I did not expect from the beginning, Mr. Lawry. I think he made the most progress throughout the movie and would be a teacher that could really get through to some students, even though he was one of those teachers who is REALLY smart but has no personal skills. He made some personal improvement and was always looking for ways to make himself the best he could be, for the kids, not for himself, which is what teaching is all about!

Chalk

After watching "Chalk" I sat back and thought about all the teachers I had throughout high school, and, in a way, evaluated them. It's funny because when we sit and watch a movie like Chalk we laugh and think this is just a huge joke, but looking back at my teachers, some of them actually did things like that.

I had an English teacher who once nominated herself for "teacher of the year" which, now I feel like that's all she cared about, she didn't care about her classes it was all about how "nice" she was so we would like her.

Teachers need to focus on their own professional improvement but it needs to be focused on the students. Improve yourself so you can improve them! I like watching a movie like this because it is funny but it really makes a person do some self evaluation to make sure that you are still doing your job in the most appropriate way. This video basically uncovers the truths about bad teaching that everyone else is too afraid to say.

New Teachers

The lecture with the three teachers was very informative and helped me realize that I am going into the right profession. It really helped hear them say that it is all about the students and that they always knew they wanted to be teachers because that is exactly how I feel and sometimes I feel like I have just not given anything else a chance. Monday night gave me a new confidence in what I am doing here at the Luther.

Hearing their personal stories also helped me realize that there will be twists along the way and that not everything will go just as I had planned. A quote I recently came across "life is what happens when all your plans are failing" also seemed to make more sense after Monday night. In my mind this is what teaching is all about because like they said, not all your lesson plans will be a home run and not every student will be that Cinderella story of overcoming all of their problems but what you learn while those things are failing is the most important part. If you can fail but still learn a lesson and change for the better and do the right thing the next time then in all reality you didn't fail.

The last main thing I took away from hearing the teachers speak was that they have a way different view on things then the administrators did but it is key to work with your administration. A successful school has to have a staff that works well together. State your side of the problem, then cooperate to find a solution using ideas from everyone involved. The minute you thing you are better than one of your co-workers is the minute you lose ground with the students, because like stated on Monday the students aren't dumb they pick up on little things like miscommunication and frustration with fellow teachers.

Grades

After talking with the administrators on Monday and the class on Wednesday I still do not understand what the big deal is with getting rid of grades. I see where the research challenges the idea behind grades and sees it as a punishment but I think grades still play an important role in schools. The research says that teaching for self motivation instead of for getting a good grade will help improve test scores and that in turn this will help with NCLB. This is the part where I get lost because I don't see how high school kids working for their own self satisfaction is better than for a grade. I think a more effective way to go about it would be to find a way to motivate them through the grades, not that this would be easy but I think we're jumping at a radical idea if we say we should just get rid of grades all around because they're nothing but a big punishment.

I'm not saying that this is a terrible idea I'm just not totally convinced yet. I understand that part of teaching is being open to new things/tactics similar to this and that teachers need to e flexible but I would just like to see this researched a bit more before I walk around backing it up.