In class post

3 things that have caught my eye this were how different some of my students can be during this transitional period in their lives. I have noticed what it is like to have an absent teacher who makes little to no connection with the students and how that can affect the student. One final observation can be attributed to how gen. ed. students act around and treat the students I work with. It seems to be a hit or miss regarding middle school students, ranging from disinterest, to friendly.

How can I help students become involved in the social community of a school? Talking with their peers on a casual basis? What can I do for the students who have no desire to be around others? How can I be present in the classroom while keeping up on the paperwork oriented side of the job?

What kind of curriculum can I use or design for the majority of my students who are so vastly different from each other? I would like to get my students involved in the community outside of school, but sometimes it doesn't seem realistic at this point when considering number of adults, number of students, and the pros and cons of leaving the school regarding behaviors.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

bullying

I appreciate speakers that can get their point across quickly and creatively. That was one of the reasons why I chose the videos on texting and John Legends performance. First, I loved the point the speaker made about how texting can be an open environment. It's easy to be open to a faceless person on the other end and it is very easy to be discreet. It is a medium that, if used in the right way, can be the most effective due to the constant use and ease of access.

I've seen the video of "True Colors" before and it made just as much of an impact as it did the first time. If you listen to the song, it's pretty obvious what it's about. I like the song because it makes a point in a few words and doesn't shy away from the issue. Rather than focus merely on bullying, it focuses on the individual. We don't need another song that says "Stand up for yourself and screw those guys". It says "I'm here for you."

Competition

After reading this article, I agree with Good and Brophy. They state that “if students become preoccupied with winning or losing the competitive activity, the may lose sight of important instructional objectives and content.” Students lose sight of the value of learning and become fixated on the rewards of winning. They also go on to say that those who end up losing can fall prone to losing interest in the subject at hand while being so focused on the competition.  I suppose that competition has its place in the educational context though. Children play games against each other, and that is competitive. Competition teaches humility and fairness. It can also teach children how to be good winners and losers, which, to me, is the most important thing that competition can teach child. Learning to overcome failure is important. I don’t mean that I want students to fail, but by experiencing the feeling of loss or failure, a student may feel more inclined to do their best and succeed. All in all, I think that students should experience healthy competition, but the competition should depend on the student’s age, and the subject matter.  

Girls on the edge part 2

After reading the second half of Girls on the Edge, I took mental notes regarding a couple of ideas. The only thing I did want to note on before I cover the concepts in the text was that many of the suggestions regarding teaching or raising girls can be applied to men. One of the points that was made in the text was that it’s important to encourage your daughter to play sports that focused on different sets of muscles. It was also mentioned that you know your daughter better than their coaches. The same can be applied to men. The second half of this book almost took a look women as a second thought. I did like how the author made a point to mention that men’s and women’s bodies are built differently which means they can be prone to different types of injuries. Another bit I liked was the section about how earlier didn’t always mean better. Regarding reading, listening to music, and other supposedly developmentally beneficial activities, it’s important not to force anything onto our children. 

Girls on the Edge Part 1

It’s amazing how much pressure young girl’s experience. The way girls dress can certainly be a results of their upbringing and socioeconomic status, but it’s their exposure to generations that came before them and how women are portrayed in the media. I can’t help but think that if educators focused more on how young boys perceived young girls, girls wouldn’t feel as much pressure to dress or act a certain way. Sax mentions that for men , sex is about releasing and satisfying an urge and that sex is a driving force of a relationship, and how women think the relationship drives the sex. The physical focus men have on relationships can also influence young women to dress and act different ways.

                Regarding  the cyberbubble, I think that both men and women  who have are active in social media feel pressure to present themselves in a certain way. This is nothing new to me or others I’m sure. Sax notes a response regarding Facebook content from a 17 year old girl. She stated that “It’s not about being authentic. It’s about being cool.” I know I felt pressure to present myself a certain way and I still do, even as an adult, online. Women have a much harder time with judgment online. They want to be seen as fun but not out of control, independent and strong but not seen as aggressive, and as beautiful, but not over sexualized. I suppose men deal with balancing how they present themselves but not nearly to the personal extent of women.

                When reading about body image in chapter 3, it seemed like a huge problem that was being addressed was the use of will power to overcome hunger and other such needs. It seemed that judging by the quotes, that women need to have the power and control over how they look. This just supports the fact that there is so much pressure from a woman’s environment that she feels out of control of herself. Everyone needs to be in control of themselves. To give them the control they want and need, society needs to come to an understanding that there is no perfect person. 

The EQ Factor

Emotions are just as important as intelligence. In this article, the author discusses how emotional intelligence can be measured and why it is important to focus on helping students develop those emotions. In the article, there was an example that caught my attention that involved a hiker walking along a path. As he looks down, he notices a curved line on the ground and jumps up thinking that it is a snake. Much to his relief, it was only a stick. Despite the fact that the stick was harmless, the emotion of fear kick-started his survival instinct. While reading, I thought about the Pixar movie Inside Out. The five core emotions, fear, joy, anger, disgust, and sadness, help the main character survive emotionally and physically. The author writes “Without these emotional reflexes,. . . we would scarcely be able to function.” The important message though from the article, is how a teacher can help students be more self-aware of their own emotions. It is important to create an environment that fosters openness and allows students to feel at ease. This way they can successfully be in control and better understand their own feelings. 

Teaching with the brain in mind second half

After reading the second half of Teaching with the Brain in Mind, I noted on a few points made in the text. It is amazing how social people are. We thrive on drama and relationships, but when I thought about it, I would have thought that these social interactions and cognitive development were two different things. In truth, they are dependent on each other. Not only have that, but the parts of the brain that process cognitive events process social events as well. As a teacher, it will be important to help our students create meaningful and positive social experiences so that they may develop in other aspects as well. I loved the diagram in the text that showed how emotional and social aspects such as heart rate, stress levels, and blood pressure can influence immune system, behaviors, and hormones. I know when I experience high levels of stress, I tend to start feeling sick, and I have to take time to relax. Another point I would like to note from the text is the section on motivation and demotivation. The most important part to me was to know the demotivations so that you wouldn’t need the motivations as often. Some of the demotivations included drug use, the sense that home and classroom work were irrelevant, and lack of positive relationships. Kids don’t need to like school, but they need reasons to keep coming back. Creating relevance in our lessons and presenting ourselves as positive individuals is important so that kids are drawn to school in some way. Finally, I appreciated the section on memory. It is amazing how even adults have a hard time retaining information. The chapter talks about how much of the things that we hardly ever forget are survival based such as eating, knowing our way home, and remembering positive and negative relationships. We remember these things so we can survive. Giving students a feeling of survival in school, without the danger of course, could help them retain information and help them be more prepared for the future. 

Teaching with the brain in mind Chapters 1-6

After reading chapters one through six of Teaching with the brain in mind, I stopped to note a couple things that seemed to me to be some of the most important notes in the text so far. The authors talk about the developing brain and what can be done to help a child maximize their learning potential. In the first several pages, the authors note that there are three main aspects that we can use to describe the human brain. The one aspect that I thought was most relevant and important to me was how the brain is incredibly adaptable. The text states that our experiences and actions and lead to changes in our brain. When we think about it, it seems funny that our environment has that much input in our cognitive development, but it’s true. Much like our own, we must accept that a student’s environment change how he or she acts or feels. Teachers can help by creating an environment that is relaxed, challenging, and open.

Continuing on, the authors discuss the process of preparing children for school. As anyone who has taken a class on child development knows, development begins in the womb. There are many things that women who are pregnant need to avoid like smoking, alcohol, and other drugs. That can go without saying, but it doesn’t take away from the seriousness that these vices carry, especially to an unborn child. Most of our brain cells develop in the womb, so don’t be that person that risks the further development of a child just because of a beer or cigarette.

There are other things that parents can do to prepare children for education. Much of what is mentioned can be achieved by spending time with your children. By spending time with them, a parent is given the opportunity to model proper social behavior, create healthy emotional bonds, and help them develop reading, writing, and memory skills. As a basic rule, a parent should be present in their child’s life. Playing games, singing songs, going on outings, doing chores, and reading books, are just a handful of the things that a parent can do to help their child grow. Another thing to mention is nutrition. It is briefly presented in the text, but I like the point made how eating healthy is just as important to the development of the child as social interaction and academics. I think that nutrition is something that we think about all the time, but tend to overlook when teaching students. We are far too focused on their learning that we forget about their physical development. With nutrition comes exercise and activities. As mentioned before, playing games is important to a child’s development. It teaches them fairness, the ability to follow rules that have immediate but not harsh consequences, and helps them develop fine and gross motor skills.

These are obviously not all the points made in the reading. If I noted on everything, this would be far too long. The points I noted were few, but to me they are the most important things a parent and educator can do to help a child grow into a healthy person.

Images of Relationship

When comparing the response to the Heinz dilemma, it’s funny how the response from the boy differs so much from the girl’s response. The boy seems to take the problem head on and solve the problem, as the author says, like a math problem. By plugging in the right numbers or variables, the answer will be right. The world is very black and white and he uses the resources provided to create a solution. The Girls response was very different from the get go. She was more empathetic to the different perspectives in the scenario, including the perspectives of the wife, and the druggist in relation to the husband. She uses these perspectives to create different solutions rather than rely on the natural procession of events to find a solution. Despite the differences between the two responses, both shared the aspect that in the end, the people involved in the scenario would come to some understanding, whether it be between the man and the druggist in the girl’s case, or the man and the judge in the boy’s case. It was this comparison that made an impact on me the most. It is important that as future teachers, we consider how differently our students approach problems, no matter the parameters of that problem. By considering their different approaches, we as teachers can help them build on those thoughts and the processes required to develop complex thinking.

Constructivist Cautions

I very much enjoyed reading this article. If anyone is on the fence regarding Constructivism in the classroom, this article may help you explain to others why. I appreciate what people are trying to do, fix our schools. It’s easy to look down on our educational system and say “yeah. There are a lot of things that are wrong so we should change it.” I would love to see those people try and change it first hand in a classroom setting. The authors put it very well, “that there is a crucial difference between evidence that documents the need for change and evidence that documents the efficacy of a particular strategy of change.” This line affected me the most. Although we need to change how we teach and learn, it is important that our first choice of change is not the first option, and that we consider every approach available.  I like the point they make regarding the responsibility of the teacher in a constructivist classroom. Constructivism puts an emphasis on student directed learning, taking weight off the teacher’s shoulders, but the teacher will have just as much work as he or she did before. The third point I enjoyed was the caution that talked about how students make their own meaning from any kind of instruction. The difference is making a meaning that has either nothing or something to do with the context. 

Second Half

I like the point the author made about asking a student "why?" in the text. Giving students the opportunity to explain what they believe or think allows them to grasp a better understanding of the subject at hand. The theme of this section seems to be more about precise communication that is not without purpose.  When I did my "student teaching"/senior project for my undergrad, I worked in a pre-school classroom. We were encouraged to speak in the positive rather than the negative. For example, when a student would answer a question incorrectly, we would praise them by saying "good try" or something else that was positive. Later in the book, the authors write about saying "no" to students when they answer a question wrong. I believe in some situations such as problem solving, it is important to speak in a constructive and positive manner. When I work with students who are acting out in class or doing something that against the rules, I sit down and talk with them about what they could do differently next time. It models positive reinforcement and it helps with the students and staffs morale. If we said "no" all the time, we would be bogged down with the negativity. This doesn't mean that I think that "no" is a bad word. I think that it has it's place in our vocabulary for a reason. As long as "yes" outweighs "no", then we have nothing to worry about. I wanted to briefly point out the situation between Greg and his teacher during another students presentation regarding the language of Esperanto. When Greg was having a hard time, the teacher offered help. I liked how instead of thrusting herself into the situation and risk aggravating Greg, she stepped in for brief moments to pose questions. It was more of an "asking" than a "telling.



What I took from this section of reading is that communication is important. We think that teaching is much like normal conversation, which it can be, but in order to get our point across to a classroom of students, we must be clear and kind.

First half

While reading In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms, I kept a few notes on what was interesting to me and what I could appreciate from the text. The authors touches on how our traditional education teaches students to be disinterested in the subjects that are taught. To describe traditional education, they use the word mimetic, referring to how learning can sometimes fall into a routine where students will regurgitate information for the sake of tests and quizzes. Brooks and Brooks note that it is not how the material is presented by the teacher, but that the material must come from connections made by students. This can help students feel enthusiastic about learning which will in turn  get students interested in the subjects that were formerly monotonous and boring. I agree with the authors about how creating connections will help students understand the content. I also appreciate Brooks and Brooks making a point to say it is important that, when given the chance, a teacher follow the connections segment of a lesson with the segment that goes over the actual content. As much fun as making milkshakes can be, photosynthesis is a little different. Teachers and future teachers need to know that. I liked the idea of sticking to the plan and creating an activity that is related to the lesson plan and helping the students make hypotheses about the activity. In a lesson regarding momentum, they use the swinging metal ball apparatus because it is a physical representation of momentum and it gives immediate feedback. This way, the students will remain interested long enough to get to the next step in the lesson. That what it seems to be about. Keep the kids interested long enough to get them to the next leg in the race, and hope they can continue.