As the year progresses I find myself pushing the limits of the content knowledge I have to bring into the classroom to make my lessons meaningful and engaging. I have read 5 books in the last 2 months that are related to my subjucts, and I still believe that the material I have is not enough. History is so broad and can be viewed from a very gernal to a very focused concept. I understand that I have to hit the content standards, but I find myself torn between concepts and which theme or event is entitled to more of my class lessons.
I am also conflicted in what types of projects I should produce. Should I make a class newspaper, portfolio, posters or have no projects. Should I have students read outside novels and books and make a report. My cooperating teachers think all these ideas are great, but they say it is up to me to impliment them. They are supportng whaterver desision I make, which is great, however, the guidence is rather limiting. It is a double edge sword. I can do what I want with complete academic freedom, but I have so much freedom no one is saying that might be to much or this one will work better. It is driving me crazy becuase my personality whats to be impressive and do it all. I want to be a great teacher and impress not only the school and my fellow teachers, but capitvate my students as well. I just need alittle more guidence instead of the "blank check" I am being given.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Cooperative Training II
To view the work being done in World History visit me and my Coopartaing Teacher at: http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/dheflin/
To viem the work being done in U.S, History vist me and my Coperating Teacher at:
http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/dhartley/
To viem the work being done in U.S, History vist me and my Coperating Teacher at:
http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/dhartley/
Reading Reflection 4 Group Work
An area of the reading that interested me was cooperation and anti-social behavior. This section of the book describes how to deal with group work when their is a problem with student discpline over matters that may or may not be apart of the the assignment. What brought me to the conclusion that this part of the reading requires more time is that as a new teacher I will most likely have to deal with students that may have discipline issues. With group and cooperative work being used as a neede tool for the 21st century classroom, I do believe it important to know the functions that can enable students to to ove past disputs.
Some of the examples that are used helps teachers train thier students in confronting other opinions and ideas. Instead of going off on each other and name calling, students can change their body language and word ussage to establish different ideas but students are using rational, logical approaches to justify thier oppinons instaed of verbally abusing the other student.
When I establish group work, I always make sure the groups or organized into teams that can work well with each other. I never let them choose their groups and I am constently moving to each group making sure their are no issues that require mediation. If I do have a class that is hostile and group work might be an issue, I have no problem eliminating group work from future lesson plans.
Some of the examples that are used helps teachers train thier students in confronting other opinions and ideas. Instead of going off on each other and name calling, students can change their body language and word ussage to establish different ideas but students are using rational, logical approaches to justify thier oppinons instaed of verbally abusing the other student.
When I establish group work, I always make sure the groups or organized into teams that can work well with each other. I never let them choose their groups and I am constently moving to each group making sure their are no issues that require mediation. If I do have a class that is hostile and group work might be an issue, I have no problem eliminating group work from future lesson plans.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Reading Reflection 3-Groupwork ch 1-3
Chapter 1: American Culture provides few opportunites to learn group work. This book will establish theories of group work to help students establish a firmer grasp on there education.
I have read this same ideal from other educational books and the csusm education dept.
With this established, I question why, with all this push to have more group work in school, why dont we see it.
Chapter 2: Cooperative learning is an affective strategy in helping studentsunderstand and retain information as well as improving their basic skills. Group work can help EL students understand English better and help ito integrate and desegregate classrooms.
My experiance as a substitute teacher has established that integration and paring students into groups to help EL learners is a mute point in many classroom that have massive majorities of EL students.
I do wonder that if grouping is based on the best outcome of pairing strong and weak students together, what happens if you have classes of only weak students. How does one pair them.
Chapter 3: This chapter is about finding equality and equity within the group setting without having groups dominated by individual students that are not thinking in terms of working together to answer the academic questions.
I am curous to discover how long teachers must profile their class before grouping their individual students together.
To be an effective teacher in the 21st century, can one not group students to perform academic work?
I have read this same ideal from other educational books and the csusm education dept.
With this established, I question why, with all this push to have more group work in school, why dont we see it.
Chapter 2: Cooperative learning is an affective strategy in helping studentsunderstand and retain information as well as improving their basic skills. Group work can help EL students understand English better and help ito integrate and desegregate classrooms.
My experiance as a substitute teacher has established that integration and paring students into groups to help EL learners is a mute point in many classroom that have massive majorities of EL students.
I do wonder that if grouping is based on the best outcome of pairing strong and weak students together, what happens if you have classes of only weak students. How does one pair them.
Chapter 3: This chapter is about finding equality and equity within the group setting without having groups dominated by individual students that are not thinking in terms of working together to answer the academic questions.
I am curous to discover how long teachers must profile their class before grouping their individual students together.
To be an effective teacher in the 21st century, can one not group students to perform academic work?
Monday, February 8, 2010
School Reform at Lunch
This is a B.E.S.T. school that is segregated among gender.
APS Middle School Transformation Initiative
The opening of two single-gender academies this school year is the first phase of the Middle School Transformation Initiative. The district selected the Benjamin S. Carson Honors Preparatory School based on the challenging demographics of the community and the need to improve student performance. Consequently, The Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy for 6th grade girls and the B.E.S.T Academy for 6th grade boys at Ben Carson opened in August 2007. Each school opened with a 6th grade class and every year another grade will be added. Eventually the two academies will have a grade 6-12 grade configuration, creating a seamless transition from middle to high school on the same campus. Research is clear that single-gender schools improve academic achievement, significantly increase graduation rates and produce a higher number of students attending college. 100 Black Men of Atlanta and the Atlanta Cluster of the Links, Inc. have partnered with the academies to provide resources, mentors and support services. In addition, several programs are being piloted in select middle schools during the 2007-2008 school year.
In formation retrieved at, http://www.atlantapublicschools.us/186110108171719813/site/default.asp
APS Middle School Transformation Initiative
The opening of two single-gender academies this school year is the first phase of the Middle School Transformation Initiative. The district selected the Benjamin S. Carson Honors Preparatory School based on the challenging demographics of the community and the need to improve student performance. Consequently, The Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy for 6th grade girls and the B.E.S.T Academy for 6th grade boys at Ben Carson opened in August 2007. Each school opened with a 6th grade class and every year another grade will be added. Eventually the two academies will have a grade 6-12 grade configuration, creating a seamless transition from middle to high school on the same campus. Research is clear that single-gender schools improve academic achievement, significantly increase graduation rates and produce a higher number of students attending college. 100 Black Men of Atlanta and the Atlanta Cluster of the Links, Inc. have partnered with the academies to provide resources, mentors and support services. In addition, several programs are being piloted in select middle schools during the 2007-2008 school year.
In formation retrieved at, http://www.atlantapublicschools.us/186110108171719813/site/default.asp
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Reading Reflection 2- BPHS
Best Practice High School has three very improtant aspects that establish it as a fine academic instutition. The first is developing Powerful Teaching and Learning which establishes a collaborative approach between students and teachers making it easy for students to buy into their education. The more teachers and students communicate, the easier learning becomes. Second, is the aspect of Restructuring the School. They made sure the school stayed below 500 stduents ensuring that every student recieved the individual attention they need to be successful. Any more students and some of the student body may start to slip through academic crakes. Finnaly, Creating Curricular Paths to Success enables students to see connections between academic courses allowing them to get a full circle view of the "theme" they are studying.
Honestly, I found no practices that lead to any support of these topics at my first school. Everything was test based. Professionalism, ideals of themeatic units, powerful teaching, concepts outide the standardized tests were not even thought of beucase the test scores were all that mattered. In fact, teachers labeled students and limited them by profiling then established where they could or could not go beyond the boundries of high school. In fact, the school I was at is the model school used to establish why best practices was created.,
Honestly, I found no practices that lead to any support of these topics at my first school. Everything was test based. Professionalism, ideals of themeatic units, powerful teaching, concepts outide the standardized tests were not even thought of beucase the test scores were all that mattered. In fact, teachers labeled students and limited them by profiling then established where they could or could not go beyond the boundries of high school. In fact, the school I was at is the model school used to establish why best practices was created.,
Reading Response 1-Rethinking High Schools
Like many books on education, I found this book offering some of the same language. Reforming, scaffolding, standardized tests, democracy and other buzz words that relate to creating a better school for students, teachers, parents and the community. Much of the language was used in a very general, idealistic approach to creating a school that was a community of students with diversity, strong test scores, and personal relationships.
The idea of Technology and materials that was breifly brought up is an idea that will not revolutionize the education of our youth. Technology is seen as this great tool and equlizer in academic circles, however, some major research institutions shy away from technology becuase they feel its usefulness to teaching students is limited. Technology does not make students stronger, but great teachers do.
One aspect that I thought was very important to reforming schools and educationb was class size. It is an old concept, but evryone knows that small class sizes create an environment more condusive to education then larger class sizes. In order to truely reform and improve schools, class size must be the first item addressed.
The concept one should focus on is the view that adolescence is a negative time filled with struggle, misery, and just an overall curse. Some students do strugle and never truely servive this processs, while other thrive and beat down this era of their lives. As educators, we should actively discover the issues that plague our students to help understand them and thier issues. Looking at the "times" is an anthropologist way to understand their culture and ultimatly the key ti understanding them.
The idea of Technology and materials that was breifly brought up is an idea that will not revolutionize the education of our youth. Technology is seen as this great tool and equlizer in academic circles, however, some major research institutions shy away from technology becuase they feel its usefulness to teaching students is limited. Technology does not make students stronger, but great teachers do.
One aspect that I thought was very important to reforming schools and educationb was class size. It is an old concept, but evryone knows that small class sizes create an environment more condusive to education then larger class sizes. In order to truely reform and improve schools, class size must be the first item addressed.
The concept one should focus on is the view that adolescence is a negative time filled with struggle, misery, and just an overall curse. Some students do strugle and never truely servive this processs, while other thrive and beat down this era of their lives. As educators, we should actively discover the issues that plague our students to help understand them and thier issues. Looking at the "times" is an anthropologist way to understand their culture and ultimatly the key ti understanding them.
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