I believe that getting to know your students and being familiar with them is key to interaction with them. I like to do this by getting information from them at the beginning of the year about their likes, dislikes, where they struggle or shine in school, and any other information they feel comfortable sharing.  I start off every year with “All About Me?”  They do a small project about who they are, in doing this I not only get to know my students better, but it allows me to plan my lessons, by adapting to the students needs and wants. 

I believe that teaching should help prepare our young children for the future.  I feel that it is important to make students understand the information that they are learning and be able to relate and use it in the real world.  I have found that if you relate the subject you are teaching to something that interests the students they are more likely to understand and see why it is important to develop this knowledge further. I use this in my Health classes when working on the systems of the body.  I like to separate the students into groups or even let them pick their own with a certain number being allowed in each group.  I then have a list of the systems we are working on and have each group chose one. Then they trace one of their outlines on a large piece of paper and then diagram their system in the outline of the body with labels and such and then have them present it to the class.  The students seem to have a lot of fun doing this activity. These activities incorporate prior knowledge of the material and lets the students interact with each other as well as having them use hands on items to help them learn and retain the concepts. This is gives the students an alternative way of making health real and enjoyable, they get to use their artist abilities to help them understand the human body. Having the students learn health concepts then apply them to real situations makes health fun and useful.  I have found that the more fun I make the class the better the students respond.  I do believe that the students need to know the fundamentals and with that they need to be able to use the information taught to pass the state standards and take the information out into the real world.  I think homework should be given, but not to the point of being overwhelming.  I believe that giving student’s homework without the knowledge to do it does no good.  I always make sure when giving out assignments, I pick one from each section to do in class together to make sure they understand what they are to do. I also do my best to make sure that when going over the work that the students have time to ask questions to make sure they understand.  I feel that tests should be given to make sure the students have learned the necessary information and in several different manners.  The tests should have true/false, essay questions, multiple choice, and matching in order to give all the students an opportunity to do well with the variety.  I feel students should also have some say in their learning, when doing projects, give them a choice of several different options.

I feel it is imperative that a teacher gets and holds the students attention when working in the classroom.  Giving notes or lecturing all the time can be monotonous. When giving a project such as a reading assignment, the students seem to show more interest when given choices like being able to choose to do a book cover, diorama, book report, or some other similar project. I like to allow the students to pick the one that is best and the most fun for them. I feel that students should have parameters and requirements, but I like to give them some say in how they want to include the information required for the assignment.  This can be accomplished by connecting the lesson to the students’ personal interests (Woolfolk, 2007, p.384). 

Mr. Cooper is stepping away from “traditional mathematics instruction (Woolfolk,2007, p,505)” in order to teach the students that there is more than one way to learn math and make sense of it. He decides that using a constructionist method of teaching congruent figures will help his students better understand or make sense of problem solving through the use of congruent properties. He takes the basic knowledge that he has already taught his students and does a follow-up lesson in a new manner. Constructivist teachers use not only raw material and resources, but they combine this with manipulatives, interaction and physical materials (Woolfolk,2007,p.502). Mr. Cooper uses these concepts by having the students manipulate regular figures in order to make the tessellations. This activity also incorporates prior knowledge of the material and lets the students interact with each other as well as having them use hands on items to help them learn and retain the concepts. He is showing math can be relate to other topics such as Art which can help them understand it application in the real world. He is giving the students an alternative way of making of math real and enjoyable. By using this method Mr. Cooper is teaching his students that math can be taught in more than one manner and has use in the real world.

My class is a 7^th grade language arts class.  In order to explain my grading system to my students I would first hand out a class introduction sheet discussing all the items that we would be covering in the classroom including the grading scale, point values, class rules and information and a list of items we would be covering, such as books, short stories, and poems we will be reading.  This sheet will also include an overview of assignments for the class.  I would go over this sheet with students allowing them to give input on what they thought they may or may not like and even some ideas on what type of projects and or journals they would like to write.  This does take some time to go over, but in the end it helps the students understand what is expected of them and gives them the opportunity to be somewhat involved in their own learning and success in this class. This also allows the student’s time to ask questions about anything they are unsure of.  I tend to find that by doing this the students start off with a better understanding of the expectation in the class and this there by makes them more comfortable.  Below I have put together a small portion of what a class introduction sheet would look like.

Books:

Textbooks –     Elements of Language

                        Elements of Literature

Novels –           Zach’s Lie

                        Tangerine

                        The Giver

Materials:

Pen or pencil

Composition notebook

Binder with dividers

Paper

Grading Scale:

A+  98-100

A    94-97

B+  91-93

B    88-90

C+  84-87

C   79-83

D+ 75-78 

D   70-74

F   69-below

Grading Components:

Tests/Projects                           30%

(Students will be given a list of projects for each novel such as a book cover, report, art project, etc. with rubrics for what is required. They will be aloud to pick the one that they feel is best for them, this helps them feel as if the are involved in what goes on in the classroom.  Tests will be given at the end of a grammar unit or novel and again can come in many different formats)          

Writing Assignments                 20%

(Journals, short stories and essays with these assignments the students will put their names on the back of their paper or composition notebook in order to help me remain unbiased, all students will know that there is a chance that other teachers may  be reading them this will allow me to make sure I am not being unfair in my grading)

Quizzes (These will be given on a frequent basis in order to see if the students are understanding the material we are covering and to see if I need to make any changes to make lesson plans.  I will use a combination of true/false, multiple choice, short answer and short essay questions in order to give every student the opportunity to do well.)   20%

Homework                               5%

(It will be due the day after assigned and points will be taken off for late work.  Students will have the opportunity to ask questions on anything they had difficu1ty understanding)            

Classroom Participation            5%

Exam (semester)                       10%

(This will be a cumulative examine on the grammar part of the class, writing rules, punctuation, etc..)

Here I would have my list of class rules such as follow with explanations:

1. Respect
2. Materials
3. Homework

General Cirriculum: (I’ve chosen a few of my favorites with explanations why to give you an example of some of the things I would be doing)

Novel –

The Giver with assigned vocabulary weekly and with the student’s choice of a project and chapter quizzes and journal entries.  (I have been lucky enough to teach this book several times and found that it truly interests the students.  We have great classroom discussions and question and answer time.  I always ask them to predict what will happen next in their journals and have them share they come up with great answers.  I have also found that many of my students will ask to take this particular book home and/or even go out and by it so they can find out what happens at the end.  It is truly a great feeling when you can get students that involved.  Often times I give extra credit if the students read one of the others following it either Gathering Blue or Messenger.                                 

Short stories –

The Sound of Thunder ( I love this one as well because the student like to get involved and guess what is going to happen next, I have been know to take my time teaching this.  I always start with reading the story with the students and having response and journal questions with it, I then send a letter home to the parents letting them know

That we will be viewing the movie in class and get permission since it is PG-13. I use this in conjunction with a comparing and contrasting unit.  At the end of the movie I give the students an assignment on comparing and contrasting using the differences between the movie and the short story itself. )

The other short story I love to include is A Dangerous Game (I just cover this one because I love it. I usually find this an opportunity for a great essay on morals and their ideas on right and wrong.  This is another story I find that holds the students interest.)

Of course you can’t have a language class without all the fun stuff so in between the reading there of course are lessons, homework and quizzes on the parts of speech, grammar and usage (which can also be used in conjunction with their essays), punctuation, etc.

            When Mike made the decision to use a constructivist theory in learning, wanting the students to actively learn and construct their knowledge (Woolfolk, 2007, p. 344), he did not take into account the prior knowledge that the students may or may not have in this subject.  The students although having had History in high school may not remember the basic information or facts they need to feel secure in this method of teaching.  This approach also may not be right for even the good students, I know that even though I’m a relatively outgoing person, I’m not sure I would be comfortable running around and talking to the long-term residents of a town, especially if I’m not from that area.  Second is that the students did not know exactly what they were being evaluated on.  Grading an exam that is based on speculation could be very hard for both the students and the teacher, because you may not feel the same way and with the teachers knowledge of the subject he may be biased on the way he evaluates each students response.  This could lower a students self-efficacy, research shows that “if a sense of self-efficacy is low people may avoid a task altogether or give up easily when a problem arises (Woolfolk, 2007, p.366).  I these students don’t understand how they are being evaluated or what exactly Mike is looking for they may not be motivated to try.

In a situation like this I feel that Mike needs to start the course by finding out what the student’s prior knowledge of the subject is and then giving a good overview of how the course is going to be conducted. Once he has determined the amount of knowledge the students have he could spend some time doing a review of the facts needed for the class and clearly state how they will be evaluated.  I like the idea that he is using different ways of teaching to help the students learn about history, but he needs to make sure that he evaluates the students on different tasks.  Not all students learn the same and some are not self-regulated learners.  Mike should use this approach to supplement the class information being taught.  It’s kind of like our research paper, case studies, simulations, etc, that we are using in this class.  They are teaching us new ways of learning while still using our text and having an exam, this gives everyone the ability to learn and be evaluated in several different ways.

            After the first exam Mike needs to talk to the students about what they liked or disliked about the exam and what the students feel would help.  These students need to feel like they have a say in some of their learning.  This will help keep their self-efficacy up and motivate them to try new ways of learning.  Also, when the students asked him how they were being evaluated and he really could not answer and left the class flustered it showed the students that he may not be confident in the decision made in teaching this class. He needs to listen to the students and incorporate some of the student’s suggestions while still having them discover this new style of learning as a project instead of a whole class approach.

Mike’s department head should speak to him about what happened in the classroom and even maybe observe his class to see if there is something the chair can suggest for making the class run smoother.  Maybe he can help by suggesting different teaching approach to incorporate into his class that will motivate the students and help them also learn different ways of learning.

     One way I feel that helps motivate students is to give them choices in their assignments.  Giving students some autonomy gives them responsibility and freedom (Woolfolk, 2007, p.397).  One way to do this is when giving a project for a reading assignment the students can chose to do a book cover, diorama, book report, or some other similar project this will allow the students to pick the one that is best and the most fun for them. The students will have parameters that need to be included in each, but this will allow them some say in how they want to include the information required for the assignment.

     It is also very important that the teacher gets and holds the students attention when working in the classroom.  Giving notes or lecturing all the time can be monotonous and boring.  This can be accomplished by connecting the lesson to the students’ personal interests (Woolfolk, 2007, p.384).  This means that the new teacher needs to know about their students.  I like to do an “All About Me” assignment at the beginning of the school year to get to know my students. Who are you, what are your hobbies, what do you like about school, what do you dislike?  I find this to be very helpful in getting to know my students and it is usually very interesting to read as well.  I am aware that with the size of classrooms and time constraints we can’t always get every student’s full attention but we can definitely try. In teaching statistics it is often fun to use current sporting events, if you find that your students enjoy sports.

     I would suggest that another way to help motivate students is to play games.  I sometimes like to play Jeopardy with my students.  I will put the students into teams and ask questions with point values that relate to the subject we are studying. Now no game is any fun without rewards at the end and I find that candy always works.  Sometimes I’ll give the winners candy and other times everyone will get a piece for their participation and the winners will get two, that way everyone tries and seems to have fun.

     Grouping is a good way to motivate students as well. This works because students can be motivated by what others are doing in order to reach a goal (Woolfolk, 2007, p.399).  This would be useful for the new teacher in working on in class projects. I use this in my Health classes when working on the systems of the body.  I like to separate the students into groups or even let them pick their own with a certain number being aloud in each group.  I then have a list of the systems we are working on and have each group chose one. Then they trace one of their outlines on a large piece of paper and then diagram their system in the outline of the body with labels, etc. then they present it to the class.  The students seem to have a lot of fun doing this activity.

     These are just a few of the suggestions that I could give a new teacher in order to help her motivate her students.  I am aware that what works for me may not for someone else, but the new teacher can hopefully use some of these ideas and revise them to suite her class environment and subject matter.  The most important thing is to motivate these students so they will want to pay attention and learn.

     The first website Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Historical Examination looked like a very informative website at first, but upon looking at it closer I found that not only was it written by Stormfront, who I was surprise to find out was a white supremacy group. It was also promoting the repealing of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.   I found everything on the website to be biased and racist, from the accusations about plagiarism to the rap song and more.  Because of the authors of this website, biases and racism, I do not feel it would be a useful place to get information on Martin Luther King, Jr.  Although for those that were doing any research on white supremacy groups and the way they use the media to get out their views it would then possibly become a useful website.

     The second website I evaluated was The King Center.  The information in this website was mostly provided by Coretta Scott King.  This site has a lot of great information on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the King Center, it gives you contact information, resource information and more.  In my opinion, this is a great website for learning more about the center what it stands for the programs offered that would follow the vision Martin Luther King, Jr. had. I would keep in mind that it was written by his wife and she may be slightly biased, as we most would. I also found on this site that several of the items loaded slowly or were not able to load at all making it at times difficult to use.

     The last website was The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University.  I thought this was an excellent website.  First and foremost the first thing I noticed, besides the title, was that it was frequently updated with new information that was relevant to the site.  This website gives you in-depth information as to the director and writer of the website. The website uses information documented by Dr. Clayborne Carson, a noted Professor of History at Stanford University.  It is easy to navigate, has many links and resources to follow up or elaborate on the information.  I think this is a very credible site and would be useful in finding information on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  

     The website I chose was http://www.mypyramid.gov/index.html this in my opinion is a credible site published by the US Department of Agriculture through The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. The website is updated frequently, is easy to navigate and has many valuable links, such as My Pyramid Plan where each student can put in the information required, height, weight, sex, age, etc. and the program will make a special pyramid for your personnel needs. This site also uses visuals and text to explain the pyramid and other topics, such as on How to eat Healthier.  It’s provides information on related links, a kids link, professional link and more.  This website is great to use with your students in the class or for them to use at home if they choose either for school or personal information that may benefit their overall understanding of pyramid and how it works for each individual. 

     In reading chapter 8, I found that using guided learning to teach website evaluation could be valuable.  By using guided learning, I can first show the students a website and have them write down what they observed about that site, did they feel it was credible or not and why or why not and discuss these answers.  Once this is done I can give them each a copy of the rubric I like and walk them through the evaluation together.  Once this is complete give the student’s one to evaluate on their own.  With this approach you are giving the student the information that can help them learn to evaluate sites on their own and understand why that’s important.  I feel that teaching evaluation is important because I’ve found that kids often believe what they read and/or have been taught.  In stead they need to be able to use some problem solving techniques to determine whether the information they are reading is reliable or if the information just represents information they is only relevant to the ideas they already have. One strategy that I feel would be useful is the KWL, a strategy to guide reading and inquiry (Woolfolk, 2007, p.315).  This strategy makes the student consider what they already know, what they want to know and when done what they’ve learned.  This could be helpful to determine whether the information is useful to answer whatever question they are to be answering.  The reality is that there is a lot of untruths, misperceptions, bias’, etc.  in websites, and students need to be able to find a way to weed through all this information.

 Here is the URL for the slideshare site:

http://www.slideshare.net/csmiller/teaching-and-memory-in-the-classroom-presentation

In our next scenario, once the assignment has begun and Toni pretends not to be able to it, even though she has successfully completed it before, I would speak with Toni privately and ask her why she “couldn’t” do the assignment.  I would remind her that this is a review and she was successful on the first similar assignment.  I would have to make the assumption that the assignment was not exactly the same, but that it was similar.  My first job is to find out whether the format is different enough that it was confusing to her and try to explain.  If that is not the case, then I would assume, once again, that the attention is what this student is looking for. I would have to use positive reinforcement at this time to tell her that she does a good job and can do this assignment, maybe she just needs that little bit of encouragement that she possibly does not get at home when she does a good job.  I also found that sometimes you get a student who may excel in a subject and gets bored, so therefore acts “dumb”.  One solution to this is to tell Toni that as soon as she finishes her assignment, she can work with another student who may need help if she would like to and if they would like it.  I would use this as positive reinforcement to let her know that excelling is a good thing.  To make sure I did not have her stand out too much, I would have other students work together in pairs once one was finished to help others.  I find this approach to be helpful for both the students who are helping and those needing the help.  Sometimes having another student explain something makes more sense to a struggling student as they can sometimes get more on their level and not do what I call “talking over their heads.”  This also reinforces the information in the mentoring student and helps them feel good about excelling in that subject.  When I was long-term substituting in math, I learned that although their teacher was very good, she seemed to make the explanations too complicated. One day I was reviewing some of the information she had taught, but in my way and the students seemed to understand better, because as they said I made it “easy to understand.” I used this to help students later on by using my students that excelled to help those that maybe just did not understand “teacher talk.”  Diversity is a good tool in teaching.

The teacher in the last scenario I feel put Toni in a precarious situation.  She was praised when she did better, but the rest of the class did not due as well and therefore did not get the attention. It seems she doesn’t like the attention of excelling, so when asked again the next day she pretended she could not do it.  I feel the teacher should not have punished the whole class by making them redo the homework or by making Toni stand out and embarrassing her.  In this case group consequences punished the whole class for the mistakes of one.  This was not fair to them especially knowing that she already knew the assignment since she had done so well on it the day before.  I feel that she needed to be dealt with on an individual basis.  I could either have her continue to read the words until she got through them.

Scenario I: Cops and Robbers

The ‘zero tolerance’ being used is an unfair punishment for most, but in saying that, we all need to realize that there is always going to be a situation that is not under anyone’s control.  I feel that ‘zero tolerance’ does not take into account students social, economical and racial differences. It applies severe penalties, without allowing for judgment or considering circumstances. In this scenario we are dealing with three students who are approximately five years old and having “fun”.  At this age Erikson feels children are in a stage of social development called, “initiative versus guilt” and in this stage they are adding onto their previous stage of “autonomy” with the “qualities of undertaking, planning, and attacking a task for the sake of being active and on the move” (Erikson, 1963, p.255).  This leads to the question, did these children know that playing ‘cops and robbers’ meant they were going to get in trouble or was it just that they were “being active and on the move” (Erikson, 1963, p.255)?  ‘Zero tolerance’ does not lend to the fact that children are children and that and they just need to be able to play and express themselves.  Piaget stated that children at this age were in a state called ‘moral realism’ and at this stage 5 and 6 year olds believe that rules about conduct and games are absolute and can’t be changed.” At this stage they believe that “the punishment should be determined by how much damage is done, not by the intention of the child or by other circumstances (Woolfolk, 2007, p.95).  In this situation the young boys are not ‘hurting’ anyone and are just playing, therefore if they are suspended from school for this under ‘zero tolerance’ these children more than likely will not understand why they are being suspended. In their eyes it is for possibly having fun and because they never had the intention to hurt anyone they did nothing wrong.  Now with this being said, if the school feels that playing ‘cops and robbers’ is inappropriate or there may be underling issues these boys should be called aside and have it explained to them that this is not appropriate play.  If need be the teacher could even ask why they like the game and explain how and why they play it, and depending on their answers, take further action as needed. This could be a parent conference; a meeting with a school counselor, or administrator, and from there a decision could be made on whether these students need to be suspended or whether it was truly just innocent play. I feel it is important to take this step in evaluating the boys because intervention at such an early age is important with the realization that if you accuse a child of doing something wrong and there was no intent, this could cause the children to feel guilty about playing and this can in effect make them feel that everything they do is wrong (Woolfolk, 2007, p.68). 

Dr. Flannery states that, “the majority of school-based violence prevention programs are in the middle schools of high schools, but there is ample evidence that intervening earlier in elementary school can have greater effects on both educational outcomes and risk behaviors (Flannery et al., 2008).   This leads me back to the fact that these children need to be taught why this is not appropriate play, not suspended just because that’s the one size fits all rule for intent for or simulation of violence.  At this stage in development they are not likely to ever believe that it was a fair decision and it may even cause more negative problems down the road. Intervention not suspension is what is needed.

Scenario II: Moral Dilemmas

When talking about moral dilemmas I first feel that a teacher needs to be careful about imposing judgment.  In the case of stealing, the students feel it is ok if they don’t get caught, but I guess my first thought is how many have actually stolen anything before and second what do they consider “stealing”.  In this setting the first thing I may do is ask a few questions, such as what do you consider stealing, I’m sure the answers we receive will vary depending on their own moral compass and what they have learned, seen or done. It is mentioned in the chapter that the “relationship between moral reasoning and moral behavior in not very strong, but that many other factors besides reasoning affect behavior (Woolfolk, 2007, p.101).  In this case the students may say it is ok because they are reasoning that they didn’t get caught so it’s not wrong or even reason it away as being ok because everyone else is saying it.  The real question is do they honestly believe it. 

It is said that children first learn their moral behavior from adults who care about them and that they are taught moral behavior through “direct instruction, supervision, rewards and punishments, and correction” and then they will internalize this information and this will in turn help them create or adopt their own standards.  So if these students have been taught that stealing is wrong, more than likely they will feel it’s wrong whether they are caught or not.  This could be a great learning opportunity for the teacher as well as the students. By posing the earlier question about “what do you consider stealing” you can learn a lot about your students which is good in getting to know them. You can take this conversation further as long as it seems that everyone is comfortable. This is a talk not a confession, and you are not there to pass judgment, but to teach, or at least try not to pass judgment. I would probably then ask the students; why they thought it was okay, a lot of the time you’ll find that those who don’t believe this tend to listen and not participate.  Once you have gotten a few answers, you can explain that stealing doesn’t have anything to do with getting caught or not, but with hurting another person. I can use the example of my wedding ring which was stolen this summer from my home and although this may not have hurt anyone else, it did hurt both my husband and me because it is a symbol of our love and commitment to each other. This also a good lesson in that stealing does not have to hurt someone because of its monetary value, but because of sentiment or other reasons they may not have considered.  You could then ask a few of the students what their favorite item is and how they would feel if someone stole it from them.  I’m not sure in this case I personally would change the way I handle this scenario regardless of their socioeconomic level because this scenario was based on assumption and hence the conversation that followed.  Stealing is wrong regardless, and although socioeconomic level could and often does play a part in learning, reasons for doing so can vary due to needs and wants. Stealing is simply not a morally or legally correct thing to do, and those values are learned.