Quick Response: Chapter Ten

This chapter was appealing because it made the point that students actually did want to learn not only in new and different ways but OUTSIDE of school as well. The fact that students wanted to be steered toward after school and summer programs was uplifting because school then is not a requirement, learning is fun and important to them. The fact that students would be willing to do extra instead of just scrapping by was extremely uplifting because then learning means more to them then simply a diploma it is an experience, an invesment, and important.

Quick Response: Chapter Nine

I liked this chapter because it is easy to be fearful of things going wrong. Everyone likes to feel in control. The section that struck me the greatest was to not take a bad day too hard. Everyone is every profession has a bad day, teachers are going to have them as well. Students are going to be a bad mood, have things going on in their lives, and somedays they just honestly will not want to be there. As a student myself I have those day. As a teacher, you are not allowed to have those days because it is your job and that is what you are trained and paid to do. Passionate teachers are passionate everyday. It reminds me of my job on the phones at MBNA, if I had a bad phone call I could not carry that on to the next call because it was not fair to the student. When you have a bad class or a bad day you cannot carry that on because it is not fair to your students who are there, commited to the class.

Quick Response: Chapter Eight

This chapter I approached with a little apprehension becuase I am not sure whether or not I will teach outside of the state of Maine, and the state of Maine has little diversity. However, as the chapter went on I did find helpful hints not only in the form of teaching students where English is not their first language but in teaching students who have learning disibilites in general. I am not saying I will never have a student that does not speak English well, but I think the best way for me to look at it at this point is to look at it this way. The most helpful part was the section about differentiation at the end. Using different activities including oral exams seesm very useful. My teacher had a student with a second grade reading level and a learning disorder take a test the other day and the student took part of the exam orally. This showed to me that the important part was not remembering it all for the test, but checking for understanding completely from the students.

Quick Response: Chapter Seven

This chapter was by far the most infulential chapter of them all. It gave incredibly helpful insights into actually classroom strategies that could help students actually learn and relate to the material. The part I especially related to was the section of not sticking exactly to the book. The students gave suggestions such as giving supplemental reading, giving textbooks excerpts from other country's textbooks and relating the subject to everyday life. I particularly liked the idea of giving excerpts from other nation's textbooks for a history class because of different views of an episode such as a American Revolution, it really puts things in perspective. I especially liked this part of the book because my mentor teacher in the schools really stuck to the book in terms of the content, section by section, and chapter by chapter and it really bored me just for the time I was there. I cannot imagine what it would be like for the entire year.

Quick Response: Chapter Six

The section that most stuck out to me was the one on what actually motivates students. Some of the examples given were passionate teachers, issues kids care about, connections to the real world, and choices on things that matter. In particular what stood out to me connections to thereal world and passionate teachers. I think it is important in every subject to connect the material the students are learning to every day life and things that are important to them. In terms of passionate teaching, this is a subject that is extremely important to me. In everything I do I am passionate. Things are not worth doing unless they are done with all of you. Therefore, I know that I will be able to be a passionate teacher because history is already something I am passionate about.

Quick Response: Chapter Five

The part of this chapter that I liked was the different tips for students working in small groups. Some of the things mentioned were things that we had already covered in Grace's class. Some of the things mentioned were to make sure the work challenged everyone, assign clear roles in the group, make sure everyone contributes in the group, do not let some of the members challenge the others, keep an eye on every member, and to sometimes let them pick the group they want to work with. The particular part that jumped out at me was the section on challenging them all was when the student said, "If you're done, you're just waiting there. Add an extra challenge, or think of something harder." This reminded me of the response I had written on Chapter Three about wasting time at the end of periods. It was rewarding to know that this bothers students as well.

Quick Response: Chapter Four

This chapter stuck out to me because of the pressures put on students to blend in and be "cool" for not achieving in school. I saw this a lot at Madison. I feel like a lot of the students are generally apathetic towards learning because that's what is accepted and cool to their peers. It is sad to see a school where generally the students do not strive to achieve because that is the norm. I feel like this was drastically different from my high school where generally the students did want to achieve and go on to college. Student apathy has been my biggest problem at Madison and the thing that made the biggest impression upon me while I was there. As an aspiring teacher I want to take the rest of my time here to learn strategies to combat this personally and ways that I can better relate history to my students.

Quick Response: Chapter Three

Chapter Three:

I really related to the very beginning when the student was saying that teacher's needed to keep their class disciplined and in order because otherwise the student automatically felt as if it was a waste of time. Personally, I hate classes where the teacher allows a lot of unporductive time because I feel as if it is wasting my time. If I have made the effort to be there then I expect the teacher/professor to put in the adequate planning time so that I get the most out of it. In the schools that is what has frustrated me that most about block scheduling is that at least with my teacher there is downtime at the end of every class in which she allows students to sit and not do anything productive. For me it is frustrating because in almost every case the students have things to work on and I feel that the oppotunity could be used to do other things with the students, taking the opportunity to learn new things, etc.