I liked that one of the teachers in the video, was very concerned with getting her students to think independently. If we empower students, then independent thinking becomes possible. Students need to be prepared for real world problems, but if they don’t know when to use the tools they have been given to solve a problem, then their school has been failing them. The example of the students building a bridge in one teacher’s class was a great example of real world application. The teacher didn’t use letter grades to test and see if the students were learning, he simply looked at their projects and if their bridge was stable, then he knew that they had understood the lesson. I thought it was a great idea to introduce Metacognition to the students. It really helps us in the long run if we know why we can learn certain things, what makes things more difficult for us to learn, and what types of processes we go through when trying to learn new material.
I liked the section of the video that dealt with The Learner (development, processing info, multiple intelligences). Fe MacLean explains how as she considers the goals she wants to achieve with her students, she also considers the experiences of her students. I think it's such a positive thing that she does this because it taps into their prior knowledge (as discussed in the "Rules We Learn By Article" .. pages 45-46) -- they're able to use what they already know and make a connection there which in turn helps them (hopefully) to more strongly relate to the new piece(s) of information they're being given. There is already a foundation for them to build upon. I also liked how MacLean used the drawing pad as opposed to a whiteboard (or equivalent) -- it drew her into the class -- made her more a part and more on their level -- more personable. Although the kids she is using the technique with are only in 1st grade, I think the idea is still very much applicable to older kids.
I heard a lot of words from our summer work in the video; authentic, scaffolding, multiple intelligences. From the first teacher, I really thought it was cool to see how she teaches using multiple intelligences. The second teacher’s project seemed really cool at first. But, after reflecting on it a bit, I think it would be risky. You risk singling out kids whose parents either don’t want to or can’t afford to come to class. I like that she’s building community, but I don’t think I’d use this project in my class. Would you? A quote from the closing that stood out to me- “teaching is a process of organizing people, organizing the environment, and organizing knowledge.”
Hey rose, i like the idea of building community through cultural learning. I also can see how it could single someone out and even make them a little uncomfortable. The possibilty of this idea creating an uncomfortable moment for the teacher, parent, or student is very lkely. I remember in the Michie book, Michie decided to do "show and tell" to build community but it didn't work completely the way he wanted it to. The "show and tell" created an uncomfortable momment for Sergio, who didn't have anything to show and could not concentrate on school because his grandmother was in the hospital.I can see where the learnng experinence could be great but there could always be a Sergio in each of our classes. If we use this idea, we will just need to try to really know and understand the student and and their environment first, then proceed with caution.
Donald Johnson’s elective class on engineering was a real world experience. I like the idea of the students acting as engineers, by designing and building model bridges with toothpicks. He demonstrated a performance task down to the minute details. He said that he was a teacher not an engineer, so the students needed to do a project to see how engineers work and design. Learning starts by building something not writing it down and becomes more instilled in the students. When the students had to build bridges, they had to use real world concepts, such as war, inflation, and toothpick prices on the rise. The students had to become independent thinkers and had to learn to work with one another to put ideas together to build the bridge. His students were thinking like adults because he incorporated real world application in his classroom. Keeping the students motivated was important in this project, but Johnson said the students were able to stay motivated because they were taking hands on approach. I think having the kids apply real world application to classroom life can keep the kids motivated. They feel like they are important because they are doing something that adults are doing. He wanted to teach his students a methodical way to look at everything. I loved how the students were reasoning with one another by selling toothpicks and finding ways to deal with obstacles of economical concern.
I'm with Josh in that I was really impressed with the engineering course. I liked that the teacher made a point to clarify that he was a teacher, rather than an engineer, so it was necessary to bring about the real world aspects of the projects. It was really impressive to see how the students reacted when confronted with obstacles that made it more and more difficult to perform the simple task of building a toothpick bridge. I think introducing concepts like inflation and war in a class such as that is probably going to go a lot farther than if they encounter the similar themes in history/government classes and I think the teacher summed it up best when he said "In the real world, the proof is that you did it" when discussing whether or not students grasp a concept. I think it is our job as teachers of the humanities to bring that same sort of practical element to anything we do.
I loved the first teacher that discussed what she does whenever she starts to develop her lesson plans for students. She recapped a lot of what we have talked about in summer. She mentioned that whenever she creates a plan she helps keep in mind the goal for the students and then considers their experiences and capacity of what they might know. So her example of using boards with large pictures about sledding and then having the students connect a personal experience was an excellent idea. Because from there it was obvious that her students were engaged and she used their ideas and their own stories to help them generate opinions about the subject to what she was going to teach (in this case "momentum"). I know we talk a lot about tapping into students' prior knowledge, but to see it in action was definitely something that made it more or a reality for me. The students obviously were able to connect with the material more and the fact that the teacher mentioned how she had to picture herself as a student again was very enlightening because she was able to grasp an understanding of what these students would be able to understand and what would hook them. I was really impressed with how much her students got involved just from being able to share their own personal stories. Plus that marble experiment would have made me like to learn science a whole lot more in grade school if my teachers had done that.
I liked the 1st grader teacher's "way of teaching" a lot. I know we won't be teaching primary, but I think her thought process should be universal to all teachers. She says that the first thing she does is "visualize herself as a kid." Then she went beyond that and thought about their previous knowledge and how that would affect the length of the activity. She goes far beyond just what would be fun and what would be practical and makes it unique to them. She also includes an ACTIVITY! ha. Interactive learning?? Yep. And she includes drawing pictures. She mixes concepts in the lessons to aim for multiple intelligences. I think this should be done at every grade level because the questions you ask yourself can be the same, only the answers will be different.
I liked the first teacher, Le, who worked with the first graders. Her approach to teaching the science behind momentum, gravity, inertia, and graphing was exceptional. I especially liked the individual approach the students were afforded to create their own responses to the data they gathered (acting, drawing, writing, discussing). Don's teaching methods were insightful too. Not only did he cover the practical mechanics and science of engineering but economics, war, diplomacy, cooperation, civil authority, and trial and error.
So, I really like the project the English teacher did with the parents where they got together and did a presentation on their family history, but it seems like you would run across several difficulties (specifically the parents availability.) She says that the parents "trickled in," so I have to wonder if this is a project that spanned the course of the class. The teacher never addresses any problems she had with this project or the specifics of how she organized it. Is there a sign up sheet for parents who are going to visit? Are students punished if their parents can't or won't come? My question for you guys is, if you are doing a project that requires parent involvement, a)could you think of a topic other than family history, b)how would you organize the project, and c)would it be a requirement for all parents to become involved and if not would you provide some sort of alternative project?
I was also concerned about this Rose. I just kept remembering what Alby said about Science Fairs and how they simply showed which parents were involved or not. After thinking for awhile I wondered if you could do the same memoir project but not have parent participation. Instead use people like principals, coaches, other teachers, secretaries, lunch ladies, janitors, or members of the community. This way students still learn about memoirs and also learn about the people around them they normally don't think much about.
When I started this video I didn't think I would get much out of it because it was focusing on younger grades. But there were a lot of concepts that we can apply in high school and middle school. I really liked the first teacher who was explaining static electricity. Instead of just explaining it, she literally SHOWED her students and involved them all in the lesson. She then let them come to their own conclusion instead of just telling them the answer. She then goes on to explain why she did this, that this allowed students to draw upon previous knowledge and make there own hypothesis. Although she scaffolded, her goal was to fully involve the students and allow them to come to the answers on their own. She held her students to the high expectation that they could solve the problem. Even though this was for a primary class and it was a science class, I could see how I could apply these methods in my own classroom.
One part I really liked in the video was the section that talked about the learning environment and everything that goes into it. One of the points was that "feelings count." One of the teachers said that she has to establish a "stable, safe environment" in order to get to the point where her students feel comfortable sharing personal stories. This reminded me of the chapter in Atwood we discussed, when she says that students cannot focus on certain lessons or tasks when they are feeling self conscious or nervous. If there is a student in the class who gets bullied, that student would not be thinking about digesting new material, he would be focused on his fear and comfort level that results from being around the bully. One way to get rid of this problem would be to make sure the class is a community. I wonder if it is possible to build a community if a class already has previous problems from younger years, or are there ways around those problems between students?
Something that really stuck in my head is when Don Johnson stated that his students were motivated because they weren't just writing stuff down but were building something concrete. As English teachers we are obviously going to be doing a lot of writing, how do we get our students to feel that their writing is concrete?
These posts are looking good! I was also really interested in that family history project. It seems like a good way to get to know parents in a way that is positive and honors them. If you did it early in the semester, it would really help you feel like you knew parents and were "on the same team." What kinds of questions would you have the students ask the parents to get the most out of their visit? Some students might have grandparents who experienced integration. Might be interesting to bring them in.
I also very much like Kathleen Hayes-Parvin's family history project. After having taken an autobiography course during Undergrad, I had already been thinking about how to go about doing an autobiography assignment in middle/high school. I love how she got parental involvement in the project as well and how she created a respectful environment and "safe space" for her everyone to feel comfortable sharing about themselves.
Both the article and the video repeatedly remind us of the significance of knowing how people learn. I completely agree with this idea, but I wonder how exactly to put this theory into practice. There is no doubt that it will take time to learn your students. When you see 100 students on a daily basis, how do you understand them individually and as quickly as possible? I loved the memoir example. Activities such as this truly provide insight in to the lives of each student. What are other ways we can ensure that we are understanding our individual students as much as possible? I want to cater to each child, to focus on their strengths and develop their weaknesses. But how do we do this in a time efficient manner when we are confronted with such a great number of students?
In response to Wes's comment, "My question for you guys is, if you are doing a project that requires parent involvement, a)could you think of a topic other than family history, b)how would you organize the project, and c)would it be a requirement for all parents to become involved and if not would you provide some sort of alternative project?" -I would definitely give alternative topics if I was doing any such assignment because it could not be mandatory at all that the family be involved. There are way too many problems with kids who might not have family, or their parents don't want to, or they aren't comfortable with that. So, other topics I might choose though if they did do a family-oriented assignment would be like choosing a trip or event in your life that you shared with your family, so you don't need your family to be a part of it but it can be about your family and it can still be about you. I would probably have them work on the project (whatever I chose) both inside and outside the classroom to make sure they weren't having their family do too much of the work. I just think that providing them with options is important so they don't feel stressed or overwhelmed or uncomfortable at any time.
Brittany, you bring up a good point that I noticed but didn't mention, about the family doing too much off the work. In the video, they show a parent that came and talked about her family's experience with slavery. It seems like the mother is doing most of the work. How can you give the student any sort of grade for that? I think the best way would be to measure their response and try to gauge what they took from the experience.
I think Erin's comment about multiple intelligences is really central to our teaching. I also think it means getting to know the students as your own family. Not to break the boundaries of professionalism in the classroom, but to honestly learn who these people are and how best to cater to their needs as learners. My question circulates around Donald Johnson as well. Linda Darling(?-Hammond, the interviewer, asked Jonson about motivation. He said that it helps that the students are learning practical skills and basically that the projects themselves motivate the students. I wonder if this is always true? What are other ways that we can motivate our students? Not all assignments are going to be this fun and exciting. I wonder how Mr. Johnson motivates his students when the task is not as exciting.
Danielle: I was wondering the same thing about how he would motivate when the task is not exciting. I know we should be trying to "hook" our students, but some objectives are just not fun. For example, writing an essay is hardly ever fun or exciting.
General: Also, I agree with Wes' comment about how it seemed like the parent was doing most of the work for the project. I would have been more impressed to see the kid give that presentation. Also, I agree with Brittany that I would give an alternative to the project. Overall, I'd probably just steer clear of the project in general. It does have some organization issues. Plus, it seems so difficult to grade. It would be hard to come up with a suitable alternative that would allow similar grading. I think it's interesting to have them look into heritage, but maybe focus on more public access type of information. Ask them for information they can find from their library about their culture. When I was a grade school student I always hated assignments that asked for specific information about my family or background- I found them invasive and too personal. I didn't want a teacher to really know all of that or grade me on it. There's nothing in my life or family history that is embarrassing, but I still never liked the assignments. From the teacher perspective it is important to get to know your students, and I can see how these types of assignments can build community.
My response is to Marina’s question. I also thought about the difficulties involved in creating a community in the classroom, but I think that as children get older and mature they can hopefully start to put their differences aside. As a teacher, I would want to address the issue that not everyone in the class will become friends with one another,but they must always show respect for their classmates. As we get to know our students I think we will be able to tell which students are most compatible, and I would try to group those students together. However, just to be on the safe side I may also try to incorporate "respect for other students and their work" as part of their participation grade. Does anyone else have any thoughts on how to build a stronger community in the classroom?
There were a couple of quotes from the teachers that really stood out to me. Kendra Hearn said that she refers to her students as writers when they're working on a writing assignment. I think that is a really good way to not only promote the idea of writing, but make students recognize that they are what they're learning. Plus, I feel like it just boosts confidence in a student if you refer to them as a "writer." It makes them feel like what they have to say is important, because it is. I've seen a couple posts about Don Johnson recognizing that he isn't an engineer, but a teacher. So he makes his assignments create a sense of becoming what the students are learning. I feel like his engineering project is a great example of a performance task. Also, towards the end of the video, Kathleen Hayes-Parvin mentions that that she is beginning to realize that the more teachers learn, the better the students do. Can you say life long learner?
Allison, I also loved the part about multiple intelligences. The day our class took the quiz and shared the results I realized how many different types of learning there really are. A big problem I've battled with myself is that I used to think that the techniques that helped me learn in school will help everyone else also. I suppose that incorporating all different types of learning in a unit is difficult, which is why many teachers seem not to do it.
I agree, Brittany. I liked the first teacher's "As a kid" approach as well.
In response to your question. I would have asked the student to conduct an interview with a parent or other adult in their community,take notes, select the most important or interesting aspect of the interview (in their opinion) and write a journal article about it for publication in a local newspaper or school publication. I would workshop with the kids in a setting similar to Atwell's and encourage them to help edit, critique, and respond to each other. The students would select photographs or images from their school library and use them in their article. Once finished they would present these projects to the class. Since most of the work is student-driven and done in class I can monitor their progress: interview, notes from interview, journal article, pictures, researching relevant knowledge pertinent to the article, drafts, and work-shopping participation--a rubric could be formed to monitor their progress and help them as needed. To make sure resources were available I would stay after school with students and help them research and use library resources like reference materials, dictionaries, and computers (after first obtaining parent and administrative permission).
I like the quotes that Brent pointed out -- how Kendra Hearn referred to her students as "writers" in order to make them feel more a part of what they were doing..that you don't have to be a well-educated adult in order to be a writer -- students are just as capable. I had also noted the quote by Kathleen Hayes-Parvin as she explains that she is beginning to realize that the more teachers learn, the better the students do. I think that's a great motivator for us as teachers -- that in US learning even after we have graduated and are teachers ourselves, the better our students will do -- the more they'll learn.
This is something that I have thought about too. Obviously I want my classroom to be the ideal safe haven for students. I want them to love and support each other as unique individuals, specifically as learners. Unfortunately, this utopia may never be the case. Feelings do count. They are an extremely important factor in the classroom. I want to know how to provide the most stable and the safest environment. If students are being bullied how do we intervene without humiliating them even more? I remember the bell technique from one of our previous readings. The teacher rang the bell whenever someone said or did something disrespectful or offensive. The class was rewarded when they managed an extended period of time with no bell ringing. Again, I feel that the bell draws more attention to an already detrimental situation. How involved should the teacher be in community building? At the high school level students have had plenty of time to build years of issues with one another. Is it appropriate for a teacher to tackle a specific, deep-rooted issue between two students? Or should we play it safe and just focus on a broader sense of community?
I believe you have somewhat of an obligation to see to it that there are no distractions in your classroom, even if the distraction (i.e. tenuous relationship between students) might have begun outside of your classroom. Beyond that, I think you have an obligation to see to it that every kid in the school feels safe and comfortable---not just the ones in your class. Two of my favorite high school teachers are people with whom I am still friends, although never actually had them as teachers---they just happened to open up and show an interest in things I might have been going through. We went over the fact that we often will have to advocate for our students to other teachers and to the students themselves, I think the same can be said that we have to be advocates for our students to other students.
Erin, you mentioned the difficulty of getting to know all of your students in a short amount of time. I've had the same concerns, but I feel like it is one of those things that is just necessary. Also, I think it is certainly plausible and obtainable. Being aware of things around you, whether its people or whatever, isn't necessarily a skill that everyone has. I know tons of people who are simply oblivious to others and their surroundings. To be frank, I feel like it is one of the most important things for a teacher to do. It's a responsibility. Just think about how little we all knew about each other before the Summer. It took maybe a week and a half for us to get idea of who we all were. Yes, we won't be spending six hours a day with each class we teach, but I think experience will be the key for improving awareness in the classroom. With all of us having English degrees, we all like to read. Most of us love movies. Some of us are writers. Every time we read, watch a movie, or write something we're aware of what's going on in characters' minds, right? I think we actually have an advantage when it comes to being aware of our students. We got into teaching because we care, so I think we'll all find it a little easier to be aware of our students once we are invested in them and we're in the classroom. Sorry for the rant. Got a little inspired. HIGH EXPECTATIONS! TEACH THE WHOLE CHILD! SUPER BRAIN YOGA!!!!
I feel that all of these teachers demonstrated what we have been taught so far. Even though they started off with younger students, it was easy to see the same concepts of the whole scaffolding process. The classroom that I found most influential and that related the best to is Ms. Parvin's sixth grade class when they were to draw their family's history. I love her idea on the development of partnership between the family, students, and the teacher. By doing this she is allowing them to be social learners and enabling them to feed off each other's responses. I think she does well at creating a healthy learning environment by creating response groups within her students so that they can articulate what they have learned and then internalize it. A major thing I want to do in my classroom is to help my students feel comfortable by creating a safe environment for them, because we don't know what sort of environment they live in outside of school. She also wants all of her students to become real writers together. I like her attitude! .... Ms. Horn's classroom reminded me of one of the videos that we watched this summer on how the students were going to teach themselves to teach. She underscored how she wants them to think on their own and refers to herself as a writing coach. The mind map she used was a cool idea This allows the student to visualize their thoughts throughout their writing process and allows them to add to or take off anything that is unnecessary. I think this is really important to learn how to do when first learning how to write essays. She said "thinking about thinking and revising"... Very interesting!
Allison, I agree with your first comment about how you liked how the first teacher used the drawing pad to help get interactive with her students. When I saw that, I was amazed at how personal the lesson became with just that simple drawing pad. But it really did seem to work. The only thing is, could this really work in an upper level class and how would you really incorporate it without making it seem almost too elementary? My only concern would be that if I did this in class, how in the world could I get, say, a ninth grade class to respond just as personal to this type of introductory activity? Do you think maybe using different types of media would help instead of the drawing pad?
I also still loved her idea of the interactive activity about momentum. We used to do things like that in my chemisty class, where one class we even got to watch our teacher demonstarte chemical reactions that caused glowing fire. It was so cool. So obviously you can make interactive activities a little more age appropriate.
Also, Brent, loved your little rant there, very inspiring. But you are right, it's not easy getting to know the kids and it takes time. And being aware of your surroundings is definitely something that a teacher must do. But since a teacher will have multiple classes a day with different students - what are some ways that you COULD get to know a student? Obviously you can tell a lot about a student through their writing, just like we can tell a lot about a character as you said, but what other ways could you get to to know all those students in a short amount of time? Any creative ideas?
I was most impressed with the cultural cohesion in the classroom when the teacher was helping the students understand the genre of memoir. Having each student bring in a small element of their culture from home to explain to the class will help construct a cultural tolerance that is necessary in today's classroom. Granted, most of the classrooms we will be teaching in may or may not be as diverse as the one depicted in the video, but it's still important to help each student know that not everyone learns, lives, speaks, or thinks, like others.
Nick, you're absolutely right that every child needs to feel safe and comfortable in the classroom, and it is our (the teachers') responsibility to make this happen. Sure, we might have a student with an EBD in the classroom, and something might trigger an outburst that we never saw coming, but we'll learn by trial and error, and getting to know what frustrates that student most so that we can hopefully avoid another situation like that one and continue to have a safe and comfortable classroom for ALL students.
I really like the fact that community was held at the heart of what they do. Even though we are learning how to run a classroom I think it is still important to remember the differences of all of the students and to see that those differences are what make a classroom so unique. It is with the acceptance and embracing of those qualities that showed the students that the classroom was a safe place to really show who they are and express their different opinions without having to worry that other people will not react well to their differences.
I agree Marina, the community is so key! That way whenever the students want to answer something they will feel like they were in a safe place and then really pushes that type of pressure aside and they can answer truthfully without fear of the ridicule.
I think what Nick said is so true about actually bringing in the real happenings of the world into the classroom. There is no better way to learn something than to experience it in real life. Like for us, it would be September 11. We know what happened and the effects on America. By living through this real life terror experience, I now know more than I every would have about the problems in the Middle East and other military issues that exist around the world.
This comment is from the video section.
ReplyDeleteI liked that one of the teachers in the video, was very concerned with getting her students to think independently. If we empower students, then independent thinking becomes possible. Students need to be prepared for real world problems, but if they don’t know when to use the tools they have been given to solve a problem, then their school has been failing them. The example of the students building a bridge in one teacher’s class was a great example of real world application. The teacher didn’t use letter grades to test and see if the students were learning, he simply looked at their projects and if their bridge was stable, then he knew that they had understood the lesson.
I thought it was a great idea to introduce Metacognition to the students. It really helps us in the long run if we know why we can learn certain things, what makes things more difficult for us to learn, and what types of processes we go through when trying to learn new material.
I liked the section of the video that dealt with The Learner (development, processing info, multiple intelligences). Fe MacLean explains how as she considers the goals she wants to achieve with her students, she also considers the experiences of her students. I think it's such a positive thing that she does this because it taps into their prior knowledge (as discussed in the "Rules We Learn By Article" .. pages 45-46) -- they're able to use what they already know and make a connection there which in turn helps them (hopefully) to more strongly relate to the new piece(s) of information they're being given. There is already a foundation for them to build upon. I also liked how MacLean used the drawing pad as opposed to a whiteboard (or equivalent) -- it drew her into the class -- made her more a part and more on their level -- more personable. Although the kids she is using the technique with are only in 1st grade, I think the idea is still very much applicable to older kids.
ReplyDeleteI heard a lot of words from our summer work in the video; authentic, scaffolding, multiple intelligences. From the first teacher, I really thought it was cool to see how she teaches using multiple intelligences. The second teacher’s project seemed really cool at first. But, after reflecting on it a bit, I think it would be risky. You risk singling out kids whose parents either don’t want to or can’t afford to come to class. I like that she’s building community, but I don’t think I’d use this project in my class. Would you?
ReplyDeleteA quote from the closing that stood out to me- “teaching is a process of organizing people, organizing the environment, and organizing knowledge.”
Hey rose, i like the idea of building community through cultural learning. I also can see how it could single someone out and even make them a little uncomfortable. The possibilty of this idea creating an uncomfortable moment for the teacher, parent, or student is very lkely. I remember in the Michie book, Michie decided to do "show and tell" to build community but it didn't work completely the way he wanted it to. The "show and tell" created an uncomfortable momment for Sergio, who didn't have anything to show and could not concentrate on school because his grandmother was in the hospital.I can see where the learnng experinence could be great but there could always be a Sergio in each of our classes. If we use this idea, we will just need to try to really know and understand the student and and their environment first, then proceed with caution.
ReplyDeleteDonald Johnson’s elective class on engineering was a real world experience. I like the idea of the students acting as engineers, by designing and building model bridges with toothpicks. He demonstrated a performance task down to the minute details. He said that he was a teacher not an engineer, so the students needed to do a project to see how engineers work and design. Learning starts by building something not writing it down and becomes more instilled in the students. When the students had to build bridges, they had to use real world concepts, such as war, inflation, and toothpick prices on the rise. The students had to become independent thinkers and had to learn to work with one another to put ideas together to build the bridge. His students were thinking like adults because he incorporated real world application in his classroom. Keeping the students motivated was important in this project, but Johnson said the students were able to stay motivated because they were taking hands on approach. I think having the kids apply real world application to classroom life can keep the kids motivated. They feel like they are important because they are doing something that adults are doing. He wanted to teach his students a methodical way to look at everything. I loved how the students were reasoning with one another by selling toothpicks and finding ways to deal with obstacles of economical concern.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Josh in that I was really impressed with the engineering course. I liked that the teacher made a point to clarify that he was a teacher, rather than an engineer, so it was necessary to bring about the real world aspects of the projects. It was really impressive to see how the students reacted when confronted with obstacles that made it more and more difficult to perform the simple task of building a toothpick bridge. I think introducing concepts like inflation and war in a class such as that is probably going to go a lot farther than if they encounter the similar themes in history/government classes and I think the teacher summed it up best when he said "In the real world, the proof is that you did it" when discussing whether or not students grasp a concept. I think it is our job as teachers of the humanities to bring that same sort of practical element to anything we do.
ReplyDeleteThis comment is about the video:
ReplyDeleteI loved the first teacher that discussed what she does whenever she starts to develop her lesson plans for students. She recapped a lot of what we have talked about in summer. She mentioned that whenever she creates a plan she
helps keep in mind the goal for the students and then considers their experiences and capacity of what they might know. So her example of using boards with large pictures about sledding and then having the students connect a personal experience was an excellent idea. Because from there it was obvious that her students were engaged and she used their ideas and their own stories to help them generate opinions about the subject to what she was going to teach (in this case "momentum"). I know we talk a lot about tapping into students' prior knowledge, but to see it in action was definitely something that made it more or a reality for me. The students obviously were able to connect with the material more and the fact that the teacher mentioned how she had to picture herself as a student again was very enlightening because she was able to grasp an understanding of what these students would be able to understand and what would hook them. I was really impressed with how much her students got involved just from being able to share their own personal stories. Plus that marble experiment would have made me like to learn science a whole lot more in grade school if my teachers had done that.
I liked the 1st grader teacher's "way of teaching" a lot. I know we won't be teaching primary, but I think her thought process should be universal to all teachers. She says that the first thing she does is "visualize herself as a kid." Then she went beyond that and thought about their previous knowledge and how that would affect the length of the activity. She goes far beyond just what would be fun and what would be practical and makes it unique to them. She also includes an ACTIVITY! ha. Interactive learning?? Yep. And she includes drawing pictures. She mixes concepts in the lessons to aim for multiple intelligences. I think this should be done at every grade level because the questions you ask yourself can be the same, only the answers will be different.
ReplyDeleteI liked the first teacher, Le, who worked with the first graders. Her approach to teaching the science behind momentum, gravity, inertia, and graphing was exceptional. I especially liked the individual approach the students were afforded to create their own responses to the data they gathered (acting, drawing, writing, discussing).
ReplyDeleteDon's teaching methods were insightful too. Not only did he cover the practical mechanics and science of engineering but economics, war, diplomacy, cooperation, civil authority, and trial and error.
So, I really like the project the English teacher did with the parents where they got together and did a presentation on their family history, but it seems like you would run across several difficulties (specifically the parents availability.) She says that the parents "trickled in," so I have to wonder if this is a project that spanned the course of the class. The teacher never addresses any problems she had with this project or the specifics of how she organized it. Is there a sign up sheet for parents who are going to visit? Are students punished if their parents can't or won't come? My question for you guys is, if you are doing a project that requires parent involvement, a)could you think of a topic other than family history, b)how would you organize the project, and c)would it be a requirement for all parents to become involved and if not would you provide some sort of alternative project?
ReplyDeleteResponse to Rose's question
ReplyDeleteI was also concerned about this Rose. I just kept remembering what Alby said about Science Fairs and how they simply showed which parents were involved or not. After thinking for awhile I wondered if you could do the same memoir project but not have parent participation. Instead use people like principals, coaches, other teachers, secretaries, lunch ladies, janitors, or members of the community. This way students still learn about memoirs and also learn about the people around them they normally don't think much about.
When I started this video I didn't think I would get much out of it because it was focusing on younger grades. But there were a lot of concepts that we can apply in high school and middle school. I really liked the first teacher who was explaining static electricity. Instead of just explaining it, she literally SHOWED her students and involved them all in the lesson. She then let them come to their own conclusion instead of just telling them the answer. She then goes on to explain why she did this, that this allowed students to draw upon previous knowledge and make there own hypothesis. Although she scaffolded, her goal was to fully involve the students and allow them to come to the answers on their own. She held her students to the high expectation that they could solve the problem. Even though this was for a primary class and it was a science class, I could see how I could apply these methods in my own classroom.
ReplyDelete12:02 pm.. fail.
One part I really liked in the video was the section that talked about the learning environment and everything that goes into it. One of the points was that "feelings count." One of the teachers said that she has to establish a "stable, safe environment" in order to get to the point where her students feel comfortable sharing personal stories. This reminded me of the chapter in Atwood we discussed, when she says that students cannot focus on certain lessons or tasks when they are feeling self conscious or nervous. If there is a student in the class who gets bullied, that student would not be thinking about digesting new material, he would be focused on his fear and comfort level that results from being around the bully. One way to get rid of this problem would be to make sure the class is a community. I wonder if it is possible to build a community if a class already has previous problems from younger years, or are there ways around those problems between students?
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ReplyDeleteResponse to Video
ReplyDeleteSomething that really stuck in my head is when Don Johnson stated that his students were motivated because they weren't just writing stuff down but were building something concrete. As English teachers we are obviously going to be doing a lot of writing, how do we get our students to feel that their writing is concrete?
These posts are looking good! I was also really interested in that family history project. It seems like a good way to get to know parents in a way that is positive and honors them. If you did it early in the semester, it would really help you feel like you knew parents and were "on the same team." What kinds of questions would you have the students ask the parents to get the most out of their visit? Some students might have grandparents who experienced integration. Might be interesting to bring them in.
ReplyDeleteI also very much like Kathleen Hayes-Parvin's family history project. After having taken an autobiography course during Undergrad, I had already been thinking about how to go about doing an autobiography assignment in middle/high school. I love how she got parental involvement in the project as well and how she created a respectful environment and "safe space" for her everyone to feel comfortable sharing about themselves.
ReplyDeleteBoth the article and the video repeatedly remind us of the significance of knowing how people learn. I completely agree with this idea, but I wonder how exactly to put this theory into practice. There is no doubt that it will take time to learn your students. When you see 100 students on a daily basis, how do you understand them individually and as quickly as possible? I loved the memoir example. Activities such as this truly provide insight in to the lives of each student. What are other ways we can ensure that we are understanding our individual students as much as possible? I want to cater to each child, to focus on their strengths and develop their weaknesses. But how do we do this in a time efficient manner when we are confronted with such a great number of students?
ReplyDeleteIn response to Wes's comment, "My question for you guys is, if you are doing a project that requires parent involvement, a)could you think of a topic other than family history, b)how would you organize the project, and c)would it be a requirement for all parents to become involved and if not would you provide some sort of alternative project?"
ReplyDelete-I would definitely give alternative topics if I was doing any such assignment because it could not be mandatory at all that the family be involved. There are way too many problems with kids who might not have family, or their parents don't want to, or they aren't comfortable with that. So, other topics I might choose though if they did do a family-oriented assignment would be like choosing a trip or event in your life that you shared with your family, so you don't need your family to be a part of it but it can be about your family and it can still be about you. I would probably have them work on the project (whatever I chose) both inside and outside the classroom to make sure they weren't having their family do too much of the work. I just think that providing them with options is important so they don't feel stressed or overwhelmed or uncomfortable at any time.
Brittany, you bring up a good point that I noticed but didn't mention, about the family doing too much off the work. In the video, they show a parent that came and talked about her family's experience with slavery. It seems like the mother is doing most of the work. How can you give the student any sort of grade for that? I think the best way would be to measure their response and try to gauge what they took from the experience.
ReplyDeleteI think Erin's comment about multiple intelligences is really central to our teaching. I also think it means getting to know the students as your own family. Not to break the boundaries of professionalism in the classroom, but to honestly learn who these people are and how best to cater to their needs as learners.
ReplyDeleteMy question circulates around Donald Johnson as well. Linda Darling(?-Hammond, the interviewer, asked Jonson about motivation. He said that it helps that the students are learning practical skills and basically that the projects themselves motivate the students. I wonder if this is always true? What are other ways that we can motivate our students? Not all assignments are going to be this fun and exciting. I wonder how Mr. Johnson motivates his students when the task is not as exciting.
Danielle:
ReplyDeleteI was wondering the same thing about how he would motivate when the task is not exciting. I know we should be trying to "hook" our students, but some objectives are just not fun. For example, writing an essay is hardly ever fun or exciting.
General:
Also, I agree with Wes' comment about how it seemed like the parent was doing most of the work for the project. I would have been more impressed to see the kid give that presentation. Also, I agree with Brittany that I would give an alternative to the project. Overall, I'd probably just steer clear of the project in general. It does have some organization issues. Plus, it seems so difficult to grade. It would be hard to come up with a suitable alternative that would allow similar grading. I think it's interesting to have them look into heritage, but maybe focus on more public access type of information. Ask them for information they can find from their library about their culture. When I was a grade school student I always hated assignments that asked for specific information about my family or background- I found them invasive and too personal. I didn't want a teacher to really know all of that or grade me on it. There's nothing in my life or family history that is embarrassing, but I still never liked the assignments. From the teacher perspective it is important to get to know your students, and I can see how these types of assignments can build community.
My response is to Marina’s question. I also thought about the difficulties involved in creating a community in the classroom, but I think that as children get older and mature they can hopefully start to put their differences aside. As a teacher, I would want to address the issue that not everyone in the class will become friends with one another,but they must always show respect for their classmates. As we get to know our students I think we will be able to tell which students are most compatible, and I would try to group those students together. However, just to be on the safe side I may also try to incorporate "respect for other students and their work" as part of their participation grade. Does anyone else have any thoughts on how to build a stronger community in the classroom?
ReplyDeleteThere were a couple of quotes from the teachers that really stood out to me. Kendra Hearn said that she refers to her students as writers when they're working on a writing assignment. I think that is a really good way to not only promote the idea of writing, but make students recognize that they are what they're learning. Plus, I feel like it just boosts confidence in a student if you refer to them as a "writer." It makes them feel like what they have to say is important, because it is. I've seen a couple posts about Don Johnson recognizing that he isn't an engineer, but a teacher. So he makes his assignments create a sense of becoming what the students are learning. I feel like his engineering project is a great example of a performance task. Also, towards the end of the video, Kathleen Hayes-Parvin mentions that that she is beginning to realize that the more teachers learn, the better the students do. Can you say life long learner?
ReplyDeleteAllison, I also loved the part about multiple intelligences. The day our class took the quiz and shared the results I realized how many different types of learning there really are. A big problem I've battled with myself is that I used to think that the techniques that helped me learn in school will help everyone else also. I suppose that incorporating all different types of learning in a unit is difficult, which is why many teachers seem not to do it.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Brittany. I liked the first teacher's "As a kid" approach as well.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your question. I would have asked the student to conduct an interview with a parent or other adult in their community,take notes, select the most important or interesting aspect of the interview (in their opinion) and write a journal article about it for publication in a local newspaper or school publication.
I would workshop with the kids in a setting similar to Atwell's and encourage them to help edit, critique, and respond to each other. The students would select photographs or images from their school library and use them in their article. Once finished they would present these projects to the class. Since most of the work is student-driven and done in class I can monitor their progress: interview, notes from interview, journal article, pictures, researching relevant knowledge pertinent to the article, drafts, and work-shopping participation--a rubric could be formed to monitor their progress and help them as needed.
To make sure resources were available I would stay after school with students and help them research and use library resources like reference materials, dictionaries, and computers (after first obtaining parent and administrative permission).
I like the quotes that Brent pointed out -- how Kendra Hearn referred to her students as "writers" in order to make them feel more a part of what they were doing..that you don't have to be a well-educated adult in order to be a writer -- students are just as capable. I had also noted the quote by Kathleen Hayes-Parvin as she explains that she is beginning to realize that the more teachers learn, the better the students do. I think that's a great motivator for us as teachers -- that in US learning even after we have graduated and are teachers ourselves, the better our students will do -- the more they'll learn.
ReplyDeleteResponse to Marina
ReplyDeleteThis is something that I have thought about too. Obviously I want my classroom to be the ideal safe haven for students. I want them to love and support each other as unique individuals, specifically as learners. Unfortunately, this utopia may never be the case. Feelings do count. They are an extremely important factor in the classroom. I want to know how to provide the most stable and the safest environment. If students are being bullied how do we intervene without humiliating them even more? I remember the bell technique from one of our previous readings. The teacher rang the bell whenever someone said or did something disrespectful or offensive. The class was rewarded when they managed an extended period of time with no bell ringing. Again, I feel that the bell draws more attention to an already detrimental situation. How involved should the teacher be in community building? At the high school level students have had plenty of time to build years of issues with one another. Is it appropriate for a teacher to tackle a specific, deep-rooted issue between two students? Or should we play it safe and just focus on a broader sense of community?
I believe you have somewhat of an obligation to see to it that there are no distractions in your classroom, even if the distraction (i.e. tenuous relationship between students) might have begun outside of your classroom. Beyond that, I think you have an obligation to see to it that every kid in the school feels safe and comfortable---not just the ones in your class. Two of my favorite high school teachers are people with whom I am still friends, although never actually had them as teachers---they just happened to open up and show an interest in things I might have been going through. We went over the fact that we often will have to advocate for our students to other teachers and to the students themselves, I think the same can be said that we have to be advocates for our students to other students.
ReplyDeleteErin, you mentioned the difficulty of getting to know all of your students in a short amount of time. I've had the same concerns, but I feel like it is one of those things that is just necessary. Also, I think it is certainly plausible and obtainable. Being aware of things around you, whether its people or whatever, isn't necessarily a skill that everyone has. I know tons of people who are simply oblivious to others and their surroundings. To be frank, I feel like it is one of the most important things for a teacher to do. It's a responsibility. Just think about how little we all knew about each other before the Summer. It took maybe a week and a half for us to get idea of who we all were. Yes, we won't be spending six hours a day with each class we teach, but I think experience will be the key for improving awareness in the classroom. With all of us having English degrees, we all like to read. Most of us love movies. Some of us are writers. Every time we read, watch a movie, or write something we're aware of what's going on in characters' minds, right? I think we actually have an advantage when it comes to being aware of our students. We got into teaching because we care, so I think we'll all find it a little easier to be aware of our students once we are invested in them and we're in the classroom. Sorry for the rant. Got a little inspired. HIGH EXPECTATIONS! TEACH THE WHOLE CHILD! SUPER BRAIN YOGA!!!!
ReplyDeleteI feel that all of these teachers demonstrated what we have been taught so far. Even though they started off with younger students, it was easy to see the same concepts of the whole scaffolding process. The classroom that I found most influential and that related the best to is Ms. Parvin's sixth grade class when they were to draw their family's history. I love her idea on the development of partnership between the family, students, and the teacher. By doing this she is allowing them to be social learners and enabling them to feed off each other's responses. I think she does well at creating a healthy learning environment by creating response groups within her students so that they can articulate what they have learned and then internalize it. A major thing I want to do in my classroom is to help my students feel comfortable by creating a safe environment for them, because we don't know what sort of environment they live in outside of school. She also wants all of her students to become real writers together. I like her attitude! .... Ms. Horn's classroom reminded me of one of the videos that we watched this summer on how the students were going to teach themselves to teach. She underscored how she wants them to think on their own and refers to herself as a writing coach. The mind map she used was a cool idea This allows the student to visualize their thoughts throughout their writing process and allows them to add to or take off anything that is unnecessary. I think this is really important to learn how to do when first learning how to write essays. She said "thinking about thinking and revising"... Very interesting!
ReplyDeleteAllison, I agree with your first comment about how you liked how the first teacher used the drawing pad to help get interactive with her students. When I saw that, I was amazed at how personal the lesson became with just that simple drawing pad. But it really did seem to work. The only thing is, could this really work in an upper level class and how would you really incorporate it without making it seem almost too elementary? My only concern would be that if I did this in class, how in the world could I get, say, a ninth grade class to respond just as personal to this type of introductory activity? Do you think maybe using different types of media would help instead of the drawing pad?
ReplyDeleteI also still loved her idea of the interactive activity about momentum. We used to do things like that in my chemisty class, where one class we even got to watch our teacher demonstarte chemical reactions that caused glowing fire. It was so cool. So obviously you can make interactive activities a little more age appropriate.
Also, Brent, loved your little rant there, very inspiring. But you are right, it's not easy getting to know the kids and it takes time. And being aware of your surroundings is definitely something that a teacher must do. But since a teacher will have multiple classes a day with different students - what are some ways that you COULD get to know a student? Obviously you can tell a lot about a student through their writing, just like we can tell a lot about a character as you said, but what other ways could you get to to know all those students in a short amount of time? Any creative ideas?
I was most impressed with the cultural cohesion in the classroom when the teacher was helping the students understand the genre of memoir. Having each student bring in a small element of their culture from home to explain to the class will help construct a cultural tolerance that is necessary in today's classroom. Granted, most of the classrooms we will be teaching in may or may not be as diverse as the one depicted in the video, but it's still important to help each student know that not everyone learns, lives, speaks, or thinks, like others.
ReplyDeleteNick, you're absolutely right that every child needs to feel safe and comfortable in the classroom, and it is our (the teachers') responsibility to make this happen. Sure, we might have a student with an EBD in the classroom, and something might trigger an outburst that we never saw coming, but we'll learn by trial and error, and getting to know what frustrates that student most so that we can hopefully avoid another situation like that one and continue to have a safe and comfortable classroom for ALL students.
I really like the fact that community was held at the heart of what they do. Even though we are learning how to run a classroom I think it is still important to remember the differences of all of the students and to see that those differences are what make a classroom so unique. It is with the acceptance and embracing of those qualities that showed the students that the classroom was a safe place to really show who they are and express their different opinions without having to worry that other people will not react well to their differences.
ReplyDeleteI agree Marina, the community is so key! That way whenever the students want to answer something they will feel like they were in a safe place and then really pushes that type of pressure aside and they can answer truthfully without fear of the ridicule.
I think what Nick said is so true about actually bringing in the real happenings of the world into the classroom. There is no better way to learn something than to experience it in real life. Like for us, it would be September 11. We know what happened and the effects on America. By living through this real life terror experience, I now know more than I every would have about the problems in the Middle East and other military issues that exist around the world.
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