http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110224/lf_nm_life/us_afghanistan_girls_1
A lot of the time I forget how lucky I am to live in a place where as a woman I am accepted to school. That growing up my school was never more than 10 minutes away. I take for granted being able to go to school with out the fear of my school being attacked. In this article it talks about girls in Afghan how at the age of 18 only 18% still attend school, while the males are at 42%. Some girls that do go to school, do not attend everyday and it can take up to 3 hours to get there. How are they supposed to learn like this? I just cannot say enough how truly blessed we are here being able to go to school unafraid.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Field Experience: Day 2
Today at Ramsey went much like last week. It worked out very conveniently that Friday's were the best day for me to go in, since Friday's are the only day I am able to go. Kari (cooperating teacher) told me the children had been asking about me all week, making sure that I would be there on Friday. So when they came in from recess they were very happy to see me, which made me feel pretty special :) The routine was pretty much the same but had a few minor changes. Today they had more independent work time in their math books. They also had a math quiz on counting money and finding change. Kari also took some children aside one by one to test them to see if they can apply what they are learning. A reason that I love working with children, is that I love watching them think. One of the student that has been having some behavior problems did exceptionally well during his math work time. This impressed me. I was impressed that when he actually found something that he liked to do, he was able to sit and concentrate. Also, there is a boy that I will call Matt. He comes from a rough background, he just moved here a month or two ago. And he and his mother moved to get away from an abusive dad. They have been having problems with this student, but I mean do you really blame him? Kari told me that other students complained he is saying violent or crude things. But really he doesn't know any different, I am sure that when his father was around he heard and saw way more than a second grader should see/hear. It breaks my heart to know that he has gone through more issues and problems in his 8 years of life, not to mention much more extreme, than I have in my entire life. Today while working with math, Matt asked me a question. I am not too familiar with how to explain to him the problem, I mean I could figure it out, but I do not know how they have learned it, and so I asked if he could ask a friend to help him. So Matt turned to the girl sitting next to him and asked for help. This girl is so sweet, she smiled and said yes. She didn't just give him the answer but she taught it to him! I was very impressed with her ability to explain and to help him instead of just telling him what to write. Even after the problem Matt initially asked for her help with, she continued to watch and help him through the page. Students like this little girl, make me so happy. Matt is a little different and she has seen him act out, yet she had no hesitation when he asked for help. What a sweet girl.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
My first day of field experience!
My first day was Friday the 18, I arrived at about 1:20 and ended up leaving at about 4:20. The cooperating teachers name is Kari. I know her personally from my previous job.( I worked at Ramsey's program for students before and after school, called Adventures Plus.) She is a great woman and mentor! When I got to the class the students were just coming in from recess. Before the students got to class Kari explained to me a little about the class and what she wanted me to do. They were very excited to see me as Kari had been telling them all week about me coming in on Friday's. A few of the children were familiar to me, so that was fun. (From my previous job) They started off with independent reading, then they all went into the second grade area, with all the other classes for a reading of the mystery book. This is when a teacher reads a small section of an unknown book, then the children go back into their class room and write down their guess for what book was read, and at the end of the day there is a drawing. When they came back in they all sat on the floor and I was able to share a little about myself. I told them where I went to school and why I was in their class, my favorite color, that I had a brother and sister. Then I took questions from a few children, they asked if I liked Harry Potter my answer was yes, they were excited about that. My favorite question was "What is college like?" I told them about my classes and how they were a lot like theirs, I had math, music and a geography class. Then I told them I lived in St. Cloud on the campus. Some were confused by this, but one of the students I knew from Adventures Plus blurted out that I lived in a Dormitory. Yes he said Dormitory, I laughed at this and was impressed that a second grader knew this. Then they connected it to of course Harry Potter. One of them said, "OH like in Harry Potter how they live at the school." I said yes, but those rooms are a lot nicer. After this discussion the children were eager to get to know me more. So Kari broke them out in to two groups for some group work. The group that I lead, had to make repeating patterns with shapes. They understood the assignment right away and got to work, some faster than others. They asked if they could make another one more challenging, with more shapes. The rest of the day went great. There are a few students in here class that need extra attention and a few boys who misbehave quite a bit. I am very excited to get to know the class more!
Chapter Two: The Global Achievement Gap
In chapter two Tony talks about how students in AP classes know how to pass tests but not how to observe. Like the story that is told about the students doing a lab, when something goes wrong they look to the professor to help them for him to give them the answer of how to fix it. You would think that in advanced placement classes the students would have the knowledge and critically thinking ability to fix this on their own.
Another main point that I found to be interesting was when Tony talks about how "teachers are not encouraging deeper levels of thinking or question asking. He states tests are multiple choice, teachers are trying their best to get their students prepared for tests." This problem deprives students of that very important skill of critical thinking, I can see now that when I was in Elementary School, that yes, the emphasis was put on getting us prepared for tests. I feel like I am missing out on important skills that I should have been taught but wasn't.
"It is only in an occasional honors or art class where someone may see deviations from the standard lesson." (Page 64) This is sad to me. Students should be able to ask questions that are not related to the standard lesson and they should get an answer! Students should have some freedom to explore topics that are an interest to them, even if it is not always related to the "standard lesson."
The fact that teachers have not been trained on how to teach all students how to reason, hypothesize and analyze takes away from the learning of the student. I feel the fault for this should not go to the teacher but to who taught them. If the teachers were not taught themselves how to think this way, how are they going to teach the students.
Like talked about a lot in this chapter, teachers are focused on the "wrong things" you could say. They are teaching exclusively on the reading and math BASICS. Why just the basics? Learning should have more depth, creativity and exploration. Students don't get excited about learning when it is the basics and they same type of lessons: worksheets, papers, multiple choices tests.Learning should be fun and exciting, and instead of students thinking school is boring they should want to go!
Another main point that I found to be interesting was when Tony talks about how "teachers are not encouraging deeper levels of thinking or question asking. He states tests are multiple choice, teachers are trying their best to get their students prepared for tests." This problem deprives students of that very important skill of critical thinking, I can see now that when I was in Elementary School, that yes, the emphasis was put on getting us prepared for tests. I feel like I am missing out on important skills that I should have been taught but wasn't.
"It is only in an occasional honors or art class where someone may see deviations from the standard lesson." (Page 64) This is sad to me. Students should be able to ask questions that are not related to the standard lesson and they should get an answer! Students should have some freedom to explore topics that are an interest to them, even if it is not always related to the "standard lesson."
The fact that teachers have not been trained on how to teach all students how to reason, hypothesize and analyze takes away from the learning of the student. I feel the fault for this should not go to the teacher but to who taught them. If the teachers were not taught themselves how to think this way, how are they going to teach the students.
Like talked about a lot in this chapter, teachers are focused on the "wrong things" you could say. They are teaching exclusively on the reading and math BASICS. Why just the basics? Learning should have more depth, creativity and exploration. Students don't get excited about learning when it is the basics and they same type of lessons: worksheets, papers, multiple choices tests.Learning should be fun and exciting, and instead of students thinking school is boring they should want to go!
Anoka High School Crowns Teen with Downs Syndrome Royalty
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/education/teen-with-down-syndrome-crowned-king-feb-6-2011
I graduated high school from Anoka last year so I have been able to see first hand the acceptance of students with disabilities in the school. Of course not everyone at the school is so accepting and Anoka has it's share of problems but this article shows that there are students at Anoka who are willing to go out of their way to help people feel special. Anoka had its winter dance a few weeks ago, which is called "MORP" the day of this dance their is a pep fest to crown a senior boy and girl, king and queen. Last year the king who was crowned was a student with a disability, and this year that student had the opportunity to pass down his crown to another fellow student who has downs syndrome.
I find this to be an amazing thing for the students to do, they were able to see through their differences that they have with Collin and realize that he is a great person. To see the students accept Collin and truly appreciated who he is as a person is remarkable. Although Anoka has many issues, through out my years there I have seen the student body do some really special things for some really special people!
I graduated high school from Anoka last year so I have been able to see first hand the acceptance of students with disabilities in the school. Of course not everyone at the school is so accepting and Anoka has it's share of problems but this article shows that there are students at Anoka who are willing to go out of their way to help people feel special. Anoka had its winter dance a few weeks ago, which is called "MORP" the day of this dance their is a pep fest to crown a senior boy and girl, king and queen. Last year the king who was crowned was a student with a disability, and this year that student had the opportunity to pass down his crown to another fellow student who has downs syndrome.
I find this to be an amazing thing for the students to do, they were able to see through their differences that they have with Collin and realize that he is a great person. To see the students accept Collin and truly appreciated who he is as a person is remarkable. Although Anoka has many issues, through out my years there I have seen the student body do some really special things for some really special people!
Presidents Day celebrants place emphasis on education.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/02/22/3419870/presidents-day-celebrants-place.html
In this article, it explains how usually Presidents Day is used to honor the Presidents. The article states they are not exactly sure which President it was made for either George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson or all of them. But the reported found the people gathered at the ninth annual American Heritage Day at Mount Vernon Memorial Park believed this day should include more educational traditions.
I agree that Presidents Day should include more educational traditions than just honoring Presidents. I remember in Elementary School that Presidents Day was just a day we got off of school. I probably could not name you more than 7 of our 44 Presidents. And I really do not know much about them. I don't know if I just never paid attention in school or if I never really learned anything about the Presidents of our own country. But teachers should take the time to educate their students about Presidents Day and the reasons that we have to honor our Presidents.
In this article, it explains how usually Presidents Day is used to honor the Presidents. The article states they are not exactly sure which President it was made for either George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson or all of them. But the reported found the people gathered at the ninth annual American Heritage Day at Mount Vernon Memorial Park believed this day should include more educational traditions.
I agree that Presidents Day should include more educational traditions than just honoring Presidents. I remember in Elementary School that Presidents Day was just a day we got off of school. I probably could not name you more than 7 of our 44 Presidents. And I really do not know much about them. I don't know if I just never paid attention in school or if I never really learned anything about the Presidents of our own country. But teachers should take the time to educate their students about Presidents Day and the reasons that we have to honor our Presidents.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Today I watched the movie Bullied...
As a future teacher I find this video will be a great teaching tool. As a future teacher I can't seem to understand why these principals and teachers did not do more for Jamie. Obviously he was getting bullied, anyone could have figured that out. But the thing that bugs me is that he asked for help so many times, he was mentally and physically abused. That takes a tool on a student, especially when it goes on for as long as, and was as bad as Jamie had it. How did these people around Jamie at school including teachers, principals, and other students just stand by and watch this poor kid get abused day in and day out.
It doesn't matter how you feel about his lifestyle choices, that he is gay. Whether or not if you "agree" with Jamie being gay, he is still a human being, a student, a child. He did not deserve to go through this. Everyone no matter who deserves to be treated well and loved.
I am glad Jamie decided to stand up for his rights. I feel like by doing this he realized it was not his fault what happened to him. That he knew that the way the other students and principals treated him was wrong. Like he said in the movie, when the principal told him that if he didn't want to get picked on he shouldn't act so "openly gay" and he started to think something was wrong with him. No one deserves to feel like that. By winning his case I hope that he did realize that there was nothing wrong with him but there was something wrong with the principals.
It doesn't matter how you feel about his lifestyle choices, that he is gay. Whether or not if you "agree" with Jamie being gay, he is still a human being, a student, a child. He did not deserve to go through this. Everyone no matter who deserves to be treated well and loved.
I am glad Jamie decided to stand up for his rights. I feel like by doing this he realized it was not his fault what happened to him. That he knew that the way the other students and principals treated him was wrong. Like he said in the movie, when the principal told him that if he didn't want to get picked on he shouldn't act so "openly gay" and he started to think something was wrong with him. No one deserves to feel like that. By winning his case I hope that he did realize that there was nothing wrong with him but there was something wrong with the principals.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Chapter one: Global Achievement Gap
I really enjoyed my first chapter of The Global Achievement Gap. As a student that will be heading into the world of work it was very helpful to read about what employers these days look for. In this chapter they talked about how there is a loss for critical thinking expression in schools. I would agree with this and say that there hasn't been room for students to think critically and be expressive for a while. I know that thinking critically about situations and finding more than one answer is something I struggle with. Putting kids through days of MCA testing is ridiculous. That is so much work and way to much to put young kids through. One quote that I found interesting was "yesterdays solution doesn't solve tomorrows problem." (p22) We need to find new solutions and look at education in a whole new way. The Seven Survival skills are very cleaver and helpful as well.
Transforming Africa Through High Education
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/world/africa/17iht-educSide17.html?_r=1&ref=internationaleducation
I feel that more people need to think like Mr. Awuah and try to help where ever they can. Mr. Awuah started a private college in Africa with a class of 30. These 30 students have big dreams and large hopes for their future. Mr. Awuah coming from a good job in the U.S. to go to Africa to help others is very selfless and encouraging. When I say more people should think like him it's because later in the article he says that he could not handle just sitting back in his "middle class Seattle suburb, and do nothing." We get so comfortable with our own worlds/lives we don't think about what others need. In America we are very blessed with many things, we could spend some more time helping out, we don't have to go open a new school yet there are small things we can do to help.
I feel that more people need to think like Mr. Awuah and try to help where ever they can. Mr. Awuah started a private college in Africa with a class of 30. These 30 students have big dreams and large hopes for their future. Mr. Awuah coming from a good job in the U.S. to go to Africa to help others is very selfless and encouraging. When I say more people should think like him it's because later in the article he says that he could not handle just sitting back in his "middle class Seattle suburb, and do nothing." We get so comfortable with our own worlds/lives we don't think about what others need. In America we are very blessed with many things, we could spend some more time helping out, we don't have to go open a new school yet there are small things we can do to help.
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