Enora Brown article March 13th

The Enora Brown article was interesting since most of what was discussed is some of the major problems we face as educators. The article was quick to point out the disparity amongst students due to politics, economics, and the general labor force combating standards to meet no child left behind qualifications. In my classroom we are constantly building our students to test well yet our classroom is a joke and don't even get me started on our textbooks. For the most part I'm handcuffed as an instructor, the kids get only as much as my cooperating teacher and myself can bring to the table. Yet since I coached at Arrowhead, the differences in the classrooms are night and day. It's hard to except that standards decide who or how much money a school will receive rather than based on need. Teachers and students alike suffer.

Emerging middle school

I like the idea of the emerging middle school, it seems to be more like common sense to me. The simple idea of having a dedicated teacher capable of addressing student needs contingent on grade level seems that it should be mandatory. At Milwaukee Sign, we have our school distinguished by floors, elementary on the first and middle school on the second floor. In some regards the only contact the students receive is from the teachers designated towards each floor. However, some teachers will migrate to fill positions within the school when a sub is unavailable. I noticed that when a teacher that is known to my middle school students from the elementary level the kids tend to walk all over him or her. It would suggest the authors point in a way that teachers use to addressing and dealing with students on a regular basis should be familiar with say the middle school crowd. Just an observation.

March 7th blog

Our group project involves classroom management and peer cliques. I primarily focused on cliques. Strangely enough, most of the material I found tie directly into classroom management. The main point suggests making a safe environment within the classroom and promoting civility amongst the students. Each of which helps model good classroom behavior while at the same time keeping students in check to promote a better learning environment. Since doing this project I have tried to employ several of these techniques. Fortunately it has proven successful and has helped at least prepare me for the challenges of preparation since the students have responded so well to the idea of civility.

Feb 7th blog, adolescents and Puberty

I thought it strange that at one point when I came across the sentence, "we regret that we are able to say little about the pubertal experience of groups other than middle class white youth". It really got me thinking on what we know or pretend to know in relation to youths in our MPS classroom. For me at least I know that many of my students are on free lunch, some are in a single parent household, and others have lost loved ones to early in life. I struggle in terms of my experiences, where I have come from and how I am able to relate that to my students. But it seems that simply empathy and listening are the strongest tools I have rather than relating on any other level. I think simply being aware is the easiest and strongest avenue towards understanding growing youths. The pubertal experience is simply awkwardness in its most basic form. I think from our individual project on what we remembered from middle school suggested the same thing, awkwardness. Within my classroom I see it on both ends of spectrum, those accelerating through puberty and those yet to start. In both camps alike all the students in one way or another appear to be going through these growing pains. What I'm trying to say is that at least on my experience in the classroom, regardless of the social or economic situation, my students appear to be just as confused and awkward as most other students.

testing

I'm gong to be honest, I cant stand standardized testing. Its absolutely irrelevant, some kids are good test takers and others not. Testing for us as teachers is a form of assessment. However, what form of assessment is our government testing for. Is it the standards, questions for future leaders, or benchmarks? The school I'm student teaching at has extremely poor reading skills, as a whole they will bomb on any of the sections related towards reading and comprehension. The tragedy is that we focus much of our class time preparing our students for parts of this test when we could focus more on developing better readers and critical thinkers. Yet it has become more important for the entire enterprise of our district to focus on rote memorization of words. The losers are our students, impoverished districts, and us as teachers since most of us have to follow this path towards creating standard students.

Problem based learning

I like the idea of problem based learning however the amount of time dedicated towards implementing projects is in my opinion a bit much. The results from the article appear impressive but are they only reflected on their IGAP scores? Perhaps I don't have enough experience with problem based learning projects in my classroom but even with direct instruction and limited (5min or so) group collaboration I still feel like I cant give them everything I want in a lesson. For me the big concepts and the connections socially, economically, and politically are what I try to accomplish. I feel I would severely short change my students if they didn't understand history and why things happened the way they did. Can problem based learning solve this for me? I also worry that at least in this article the students are simply studying for the test and we are once again catering to funding and not academia. I just wonder how much they miss by doing this, its like post-holing for futures in cubicles.

bilingual education

I'm not sure exactly were I stand on the bilingual education in a classroom debate. I see both pro's and con's for either side. Yes a universal language could open up many channels towards a world community. However, ethnicity and language are just as important. Some cultural identities are so ingrained within their language that it would be impossible and ridiculous to assume a universal language could and should be taught. I also have a hard time expecting that I would have enough time in a classroom to teach/advocate other languages within the classroom. The students I work with currently have a hard enough time speaking proper english. Its not that I don't agree with bilingual education, but schools need to have the resources and time to implement a realistic program, one that progresses with the student. The author did make some good points as to how history favors Eastern European history and only anything that relates to it. Yet at the end of the day at least right now I'm concerned with getting my students to speak and write properly, just in case they don't end up working internationally for a company. This may sound terrible, but in my classroom basic english is so poor I cant see how any of the students could get through the first phase of an interview.