Final reflection

Blog Post #14 Teaching Can Be A Profession by Joel Klein

          After reading the article, "Teaching can be a profession", I realized just how complex this statement could be. Teachers come from all walks of life. I would like to focus briefly on the economic, social, and political impact of teachers.

          

         Teachers and education  play a major roll in our world economy. For a while we have realized that the academic achievement of school children threatens, in the words of President Obama, " the U.S's role as an engine of scientific discovery" and ultimately its success in the global economy. Low achievement of American students will prevent them from accessing good high paying jobs. I agree as lower achievement often means slower growth in the economy.

          There is much that the teacher can do to promote social development in a student. Students tend to fall into four basic social categories in the school setting:

1) Rejected

2) Isolated

3) Controversial

4) Popular

         

 Teachers play a major role in a students social development when the teacher recognizes one or more of these problems, they can ask the child's parents to come in for a conference to discuss the child's social status and needs. I don't believe that a teacher should ignore the problem that a student is having and hope it will go away. This could be the child's break through that could help them socially for the rest of their lives.

           Research by Diana Hess suggests that many educators try to keep politics out of their teaching. This is done often  to avoid accusations of bias and to provide students with space to explore different political positives; while allowing them to make up their own mind about them. I agree that teachers should not display their political views in the classroom, because this is something I believe should be left in the hands of their parents.

          When teachers prepare our students in the classroom they are able to go out and achieve success. The teacher has a clear conscious that he or she has done all they could do to promote this success. When a child grows up in life  they will choose which way they want to go, and the teacher has laid the foundation for them to go there.

            

Blog Post #5 (PLN)

    I think it's great being able to connect with other teachers. Developing a personal learning network will enable me to do just that, when I become a first time teacher. Communicating with other professionals will help us to stay on top of things, and not get discouraged. Not being afraid to ask questions will help us become successful teachers.

Comment: First post in series,

Building A Culture of Wonder: Inquiry in Primary Education


    Jennifer sounds like a (PLN) personal learning network teacher, gathering as much information from other teachers as she can. When students read something they are interested in, their passion for writing about it comes alive. I am glad to know that there are still teachers interested in providing students with opportunities to engage in reading and writing in ways that are meaningful, interesting, and relevant to students as individuals. Debbie, Patrick, and Penny appear to be those kind of teachers. I believe they can cause a student to believe, they can, "do the math."

C4ta Teacher #4 post #2

<; If you Give a Kid Some Cards They Will.....# Play Math

</>Comment: Family time is so important. Math is not an easy subject for so many students. Anytime you can use an object to help grasp the concepts of math that's good. Playing cards, using math concepts, and having fun all at the same time, does make learning easy.

Blog Post #13 - What Did I Leave Out ?

What can we learn about Project Based Learning and special needs students ?

   All students have different learning styles and abilities. Just to mention a few; Jerry Webster, special education expert says, " some students are strung visual learners, some are auditory. Some are kinetic, and learn best when they can move around. Many children benefit from sensory input, and students who are ADHD or Dyslexic benefit from being able to move as they process information." Project Based Learning is an excellent way to differentiate instruction in an inclusion classroom, especially when the class consist of developmentally disable and gifted.
     Samantha S. Kincaid and Suee Jackson, wrote an article describing a project that will make a positive impact in today's special education classrooms. PBL will empower students with special needs to become more confident, independent and successful. These students went into the community discovered how inaccessible the sidewalks were.Upon returning to school, students wanted to know who to call to fix the problems. They asked questions like, "Who do we call to complain?, and "Who is responsible for fixing side walks in front of houses?, "And what can we do to help? "These special need students took a real world problem, and tried to find a solution. The Community Based Work Instruction Program (CBWI) classes are being taught in Mobile, Al. at Augusta Evans Special School. There is an inside program for the students who are not able to leave the campus, they are trained to work in the cafeteria, wiping tables, doing dishes, and sweeping. The outside program will take the students to grocery stores to stock and clean shelves. They go to hotels to clean rooms, make up beds, and clean restrooms. Future jobs will require higher levels of training and ability to work collaboratively in groups. Teachers must have compassion for students with varying levels of disabilities. when students are excited about what they are doing, their behavior is better and they will learn more.

C4ta#4 Post#1

Build a Culture of Wonder. Inquiry in Primary Education by: Jennifer Brokofsky

When students are "authentic" in their writing, you are reading papers that are genuine and true. What these teachers are teaching will cause minds to be awaken from what they read. Thoughts will began to come together and before you know it, their genuine ideas are on paper. Jennifer Brokofsky stated, "this kind of teaching is not born from worksheets, packaged programs, and activities, that do nothing more than fill the time. Brokofsky said that authentic writing comes from relationships, sitting side by side with students, and talking to them about their lives as readers and writers. This method of teaching can also be done in a math class. Maybe, when some of the students that are struggling in math get an "authentic"feeling toward it, grades will go up.