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.

Which strategies are most effective for teaching and learning with technology?

When learning and teaching technology it is important to be patient and to never be condescending. It is important when teaching and learning with technology to be creative. There are so many ways to integrate technology into the classroom because it is so diverse. One of the questions I have for strategies that are most effective is how to keep up with all the changing technologies when it is hard enough to keep up with the changes in your content area?

How can you effectively integrate technology into your teaching and learning?

This is a subject we have covered in both our classes so far. Intregrating technology can be done in many ways. We did an activity in class with the Inspiration program where we diagrammed all of the ways to overcome student diviersity with technology. One of the most helpful things we did was our group presentations. We dicussed how to integrate wikis, google earth, smartboards, and podcasts. You can effectively integrate any of these into the classroom. Wikis can be a class website, google earth can be used for applying subjects to real life, smartboards are interactive, and podcasts can be used to teach almost any subject and have it cast to the world.

Why might it be important for students to learn with technology?

This is one of the questions I had myself coming into the class. Myself as a student, I have never really been interested in technology in the classroom. However, I do understand why we have to integrate it into the classroom. Every student is different. Every student possesses different intelliegences. Technology is a great way to integrate all or most of the intelliegences into a lesson. In class we covered many different ways to integrate technology in the classroom. We made a "web" on the Inspiration program of different student disabilities or differences and ways to overcome them with technology. One question I would like to see answered before the semester is over is how do we overcome the problem of no 1:1 laptop ratio in highschools in terms of still integrating technology in the classroom often.

NYT Middle School Article

The middle school debate is basically the concept of getting rid of middle schools completely and creating either just a K-8 school or a 6-12 school. The argument for getting rid of the middle school completely is that it is already a traumatic time for kids that age and they do not need another change. Also, that they can excell in an environment with older kids especially in sports. Another argument is that if the kids are in the K-8 school it is more of a comfort zone for them. The argument against this is that reconfiguration is costly and is not really taking into consideration what kids really need. Adolescents really need smaller class sizes, an engaging curriculum, personalized attention, and well-perpared teachers.

Personally I do not believe in this at all. It is not the correct solution for the middle school program. Middle school children need more attention which does not help to blend them into an even large crowd. Middle school in miserable for everyone, it is an awkward time but it is best for them to be all together going through it together. I do not believe keeping them in the "comfort zone" of elementary school will help them at all with the changes they are going through nor the real world. I do not believe that putting them in with high schoolers is a good idea because high school is terrifying enough for a freshman let alone dealing with 18 year olds when you are only 12. If I did become a teacher of these grade levels it would impact me in I was in a K-8 school because it would put me in a completely different environment than what I have been trained to be in. Being in the 6-12 school would not be that different but I think it would take away from the middle school experience. Middle school kids deserve their own attention and I believe the best way to do this is to have their own transition school. This age is a transition and it should be recognized and treated as one.