Final Thoughts

So tonight, we took our final in ed psych. It was strange to think that we've spent a whole semester together! If I had to rate the amount of information that I learned in class this semester on a scale of 1-10, I would probably say its probably about an 8. A lot of the things we talked about in class, I had learned in another class either here at Luther, or in high school, but I know I still will be taking a lot a way from ed psych. I really enjoyed nearly everything we did in class. There wasn't a day that went by that I thought that the class was pointless, or that I had no reason to go to class. I found each activity and discussion that we had interesting, and I've really enjoyed going to class this semester. In fact, I've found that about a lot of my classes this semester. I attribute this to the fact that I'm finally taking classes in my area of interest! Not to say that I don't enjoy the regular, english, math etc... but those classes never really interested me like my ed classes do. Its very reassuring to know that I've chosen something that I really like to learn about. I'm very excited to continue on this path! I think that ed psych is a great introduction into the ed program. It gives a great general overview of the teaching profession, and what our responsibilities will be as teachers. The format, with monday night lectures, panel discussions, and movies, is a great way to expose us to many different opinions and thoughts about teaching and the issues associated with it. Again, I've really enjoyed all this class had to offer, and I can't wait to see what else the Luther Teacher Ed Program has in store next!

imovie Process

So I've created my first imovie! Yay! I've done work with movie making in middle school, but I've never used the imovie application, and I guess filming and piecing together a commercial in 8th grade doesn't quite compare to this project. I feel like my group did a great job with the assignment, but I think it might have been due to some extra help that we received in the process. We did have a local high school student help us put together the project. I heard from a few of my friends that we had an unfair advantage, but in my mind, we just took advantage of available resources. I don't consider it cheating, or cutting corners. I'm confident that if we had to, we would have been able to do just as good of a job without help. The high school student just helped us do it more efficiently. We were all there when he worked on it with us, so we were actively involved in the process, and I know I definitely learned from it. All the decisions were made by us, so our project was definitely all ours. The process was relatively easy once we got our ideas down. We had the hardest time just trying to decide what should be in our presentation. I always think that group projects are so much more difficult that individual or even partner projects. To be able to coordinate 7 people was nearly impossible and to be able to collaborate and come up with ideas together was also very challenging. I always feel like dividing the work between several people is the worst part of group project. We managed to do it, but it was somewhat difficult. In the end, it came together, we made our video, and we were pleased with the results. I was so relieved when it was over, but I'm glad we did it, and now I feel like I might be able to pull it off if I had to do a similar assignment in the future. 

click here to watch the video!

Chalk

Back from break! Well, right before we left for Thanksgiving, we finished watching the movie "Chalk". The movie is about a bunch of relatively new teachers, teaching at a high school in stereotypical, middle-class America. The movie was pretty funny, I totally agree that its like The Office for teachers. I think that if I had actually experienced my first few years of teaching already, I might have found it a little funnier rather than slightly scary to be honest. I've been through the public school system, I've seen some these teachers before. I feel like I've been privileged to have had some very very good teachers in the past, but I've known of ones that were not so good. I can think of one in particular, my eighth grade science teacher. He was very intimidating, but was never fully in control of the class. I can remember being yelled at, actually yelled at, in class for talking. I had never been reprimanded for talking in class by any other teacher before, or since, but this teacher he got very angry at me. Needless to say, I didn't like that teacher very much after that. He once angrily knocked over a chair because his slim fast had been stolen from the classroom. He ended up being kind of the joke of the cluster. It was one of his first years (maybe his very first) teaching, and it was definitely his first year at our school. He left after finishing the year out. It is of those instances where you think that that person wasn't really meant to be a teacher. I could see some of those in the movie "Chalk". But in the end, I think the ones who seemed most hopeless actually seemed to have it somewhat under control. I really hope that I'm able to be better beginning teachers than some of the teachers in this movie, and I'm confident that I can be!

The Freedom Writers' Diary

So for our book project, my group decided to read The Freedom Writers' Diary. I didn't know much about the book to begin with, only that it had been made into a movie with Hillary Swank and Patrick Dempsey. I was very impressed by the book, it was much different than I expected it to be. It was a compilation of diary entries from a group of students who were in Ms. Gruwell's English class at Wilson High School. These kids were never expected to graduate high school, and most of them never even expected that they would live to see graduation day. Erin Gruwell was a young white woman from Long Beach California, a culture completely different from her students'. She was given the "throwaway kids", the underprivileged ones that nobody else wanted. But instead of giving up on them, she decided that there was no reason that these students shouldn't succeed, and thrive. She made it her responsibility to get through to her students and help them to realize their own potential. She made them feel cared for. Before, nobody ever showed them that they cared if they succeeded or not. Erin Gruwell made it clear to them that she wasn't going to accept anything less than their best. She gave them opportunities that they never would have had otherwise. She showed them that they are responsible for their own destinies and that they can do anything if they just take control of their own lives. Erin Gruwell was a wonderful teacher who did everything that she could to make sure that her students are the best people that they can be.

Parents Panel

So tonight we had a panel of parents from the Decorah public schools. We had three parents come and speak to us for an hour about their experiences with teachers during the years that their kids were in school. They first talked about what they thought made a good teacher. They said that good teachers have new ideas, and are active in the up and coming practices. One mother of a special needs student said that good teachers are one who have expectations for the special needs students, they have a plan. She said the most disappointing teachers were the ones who said " What do you want me to do with him?" As a prospective teacher, I understand that it is my job, as the professional, to know what adaptations to make for special needs children, and to know what should be expected. I think she is very right in her opinion. The other mother said that most teachers are not able to work with disabilities other than ADD, and they're not up on the current practices. I don't think I'll have a problem with that right away since the practices that I am learning are very current, but its one of the things that I'll have to keep in mind as I continue throughout my career. Continuing education will be something that will be very important in the future, not only for me, but for my students. We also talked for a while about NCLB, and their opinions regarding this legislation. For the most part, they talked about it in regards to conferences. They said that as of recently, their conferences have been mostly data-driven, which is disappointing to them. One said that the intentions of standardized testing is good, but its not working out as planned. Another parent even went as far as to call it a colossal failure. He said that conferences now are virtually a waste of time. I can understand their point of view, but I still believe that standardized tests are important. We want all children to be on a level playing field, because the real world won't make exceptions. Its one thing to say that the students from different areas and economical situations shouldn't be compared to one another, but I would think that if you were one of those students from a more rural, lower class area, or their parents, you would want to be educated the same as the students from the high class suburbs of the twin cities. But, there may be better ways to go about it, I agree. Another thing we talked about that was really interesting was the amount of busy work that parents think that their children have. In the parents' minds, the worksheets that the children were bringing home were simply busy work. I'm not sure how exactly I feel about that, I think that worksheets can be very useful and important practice tools for concepts that take work to grasp. I think if your child brings home a worksheet on multiplication, its not simply a thing that the teacher gave them to keep them busy, it has a purpose, and that purpose is most likely to help them learn. We also talked about college prep courses in high school. A couple of the parents thought that kids have too many college prep courses and they should be taking things like shop or home ec, instead of AP calculus. Now this is something that I can completely relate to since I took many courses in high school that counted for college credit. In fact, I came into luther with a sophomore standing. In my mind, it did nothing but benefit me. I was very prepared for college work and I think that coming in with extra credits was an extra bonus. I've never felt overwhelmed by the amount of work in college, and I often times feel like I was more overloaded in high school than I am now. Which I guess might be the parents' concern. But, I feel like if the child can handle it, and still come out with good grades, and a deep understanding of the material, why not do it? Its just an extra thing for those students who might need a little more of a challenge. This parent panel was very eye opening for me. It was interesting to see how I agreed and disagreed with the parents. It didn't do much to ease my fears of dealing with parents, but I'm sure thats only to be expected! 

Administrators' Panel

My favorite thing that was said at the Administrators' Panel on Monday was that standardized testing is just a piece of the pie. It is not the sole measure of teacher effectiveness or the future success of the student. I have thought recently that we are worrying too much about NCLB and I think it was refreshing to hear that people who are currently involved in education don't feel as negatively as we might think they do. I agreed with the woman when she said that there is more than one way to teach to a standard or a benchmark. "Teaching to the test" doesn't always have to be negative, because presumably, the information that is on the test is what we want our children to be learning anyways. I think if you have a negative attitude about it "teaching to the test" will become a negative thing, and it really doesn't need to be. Another thing that I found interesting from the lecture was the idea that was brought up about education as a priority. It was said that for many children, education is not a priority, it comes after sports and other activities. Really, education should be the number one priority for our students, and cocurricular activities should come second. The "Activities Director" from the lecture made his opinions about it clear: if you're not passing your classes, you don't need to play in the football game on Friday night." I think that many kids get caught up in their activities and find it hard to make time for their schoolwork. They become overly involved and can't keep up. I'm not saying that I don't support cocurricular activities, I certainly do, but I think that there needs to be a balance. Some of our students can't find that balance on our own and thats where the school might need to step in. I enjoyed this lecture very much, and I found it very enlightening to hear from people who are currently involved in the schools.

p.s. The cartoon has nothing to do with the lecture...I just thought it was funny!

High Stakes High School

For many reasons, I thought that the mock school board meeting that we had on Monday night was very interesting and informative. I've never been to any meetings of that sort before, and to be put in that same situation was a little unnerving, but I enjoyed it as well. I was surprised at the discussion that was happening, considering that all sides taken were completely hypothetical and not really based on our own ideas. Despite this, many people were very very passionate about their "opinions". My group was representing a group of parents of high-achieving students. We supported the plan to raise standards for our children and teachers and increase punishment for standards not met. We argued that the bar should be raised so our children have something to strive for as well. If the standards are lowered for under-achieving, then our children will have nothing to work for. However, the parents of the low-achieving children could've also argued with the point of the zone of proximal development. According to Vygotsky, children can't learn things that are too far beyond their reach, and I think that this would've been a good thing for the parents of under-achieving children to have brought up. Also, our group mentioned that we supported the idea of higher standards of teachers as well, with mandatory workshops and weekly lesson plans to be turned in. We, as parents of high-achieving students, thought that this would lead to teachers' increased accountability. We believed that if teachers weren't producing results, that they should be moved to a school where students are less dependent on their skills. However, as a future educator, I don't support this idea. Sure, I do believe that teachers have to be accountable, and that it won't hurt anyone to have workshops, or mandatory lesson plans. But I don't really think that teachers should be moved out if their students are not showing a certain pre-determined level of progress on standardized tests. I think that perhaps a better way to deal with this would be to offer the teacher more assistance, and to work with that teacher in areas that might need improving. This might mean that the teacher would have to be observed in the classroom, and her students' test scores would be analyzed for patterns. If the teacher is merely moved to a school that doesn't challenge them as much, how are they to learn? This is not contributing to the solution, but rather, the problem. Ultimately, I'm still not exactly sure how I felt about the proposal, I certainly don't feel like it was either 100% wrong or 100% right, but I think I would've liked to have taken bits and pieces of it and rearranged it into something that I believe would be most beneficial for all parties.