My name is Rebecca. This is a blog from my Curriculum 341 class.
Reflection #3
When I was in college I learned how to do MLA format for all of my research papers. I remember briefly learning about APA format in one of my Liberal Studies classes. I graduated college in 2012 so it has been a long time since I talked about APA. Before we talked about APA this week in the Curriculum 341 class I was very nervous because I do not remember anything I learned about APA during college, except for the fact that I remember it being really confusing. I was very confused during class on Tuesday when we were going through the APA book because it all felt like a foreign language to me. I also felt like I was in a classroom with Charlie Brown's teacher where all I heard out of the professor's mouth was "Waaaaa, waaaa, waaa." I felt like everyone understood how to do APA, except for me. During Thursday's class I felt it was very beneficial to do the APA poster activity. I figured out how to do APA formatting for a journal article and how to cite a quotation and paraphrase. My partner, Mike, had a good grasp on APA so I was able to ask him questions and he did a good job of explaining APA to me. I felt comfortable asking him questions because he didn't make me feel like I was dumb. I also benefitted from sharing our posters to the class and fixing our mistakes. It made me realize that there are other people who are confused by APA like me. I liked that my classmates were able to help me fix my mistakes. For the first time ever, I felt comfortable using APA. I am so happy that I was able to participate in the APA poster activity and actually got to practice and get critiqued on APA. I am a visual and kinesthetic learner so I learn by seeing and doing. I felt that the APA poster activity was the most beneficial activity we did in the Curriculum 341 class so far because it helped me gain confidence in the APA formatting style, which I was so confused about before Thursday's class.
Big Picture Reading Reflection #3
Chapter 5
4. Did you save any of the papers you wrote for school? Why or why not?
I am a hoarder in the true definition of the word and so is my mom. 😊 I saved many school art projects (even though I was the world’s worst artist), stories I wrote for creative writing units, essays, and important art projects. I have a drawer in my room and a space in my closet where I save my important papers from my school years. I recently just did a deep clean of my bedroom and found these school papers and projects. I was so happy that I kept these items because it brought back many fond memories of school that I had forgotten over the years. I found report cards from my K-8th grade years, worksheets from kindergarten, essays from various years, art projects from my early elementary days, and stories that I wrote from first and fifth grade. I laugh at how terrible my artwork was, how my writing style has progressed through the years, and how I used to write my name backwards in kindergarten as well as how sometimes I would leave a letter out. Throughout the years, anytime I tried to throw one of these papers or projects away my mom would not allow me to and would talk me into keeping it. I am so glad that I listened to her because it reminds me of how far my education has progressed since elementary school and brings back many memories that make me smile. When I look through the papers and projects, frequently I can picture myself in the moment when I was in the process of creating the project or writing the story or essay. Besides having my elementary school work, I saved my senior portfolio and liberal studies binder from college. These two items contain the most important papers I wrote from high school and college. You shouldn’t be surprised by this fact, since like I said at the beginning of this question, I am a hoarder. I am a hoarder of memories and save items of things that I am passionate about, education being one of the topics I am most passionate about.
5. Is there anything you always cut out, file, jot down into a notebook, or add to the pile on your desk? What is it, and why do you save it?
When I am very passionate about something, I research the topic for countless hours and I will do everything I can to learn everything I can about that topic. I am really passionate about social/emotional learning, restorative practices, and programs that help children to develop social/emotional strategies so they can be successful in life. I am interested in learning about social/emotional programs that I can add to my Peer Resource elective to help the students at my school learn how to regulate their emotions, how to manage their aggression/frustration, and how to positively socialize with their peers. I have already started a peer tutoring and peer mentoring program with my Peer Resource students and I am ecstatic to start a peer counseling program at my school this school year. Anytime I find information on social/emotional learning that relates to my Peer Resource class or restorative practices I make sure I save it. I try to use the information that I have read and keep it in a place where I can readily reference it. Another topic that I am passionate about is sports. My parents get the local Manteca Bulletin and I will check out the sports section. If I read an article about one of my past students I will cut out the article and either give it to the student or keep it in my desk. If I have a way of getting in touch with the student either by phone or email, then I will send the article to the student and let them know how proud I am of them.
Chapter 6
1. Why do so many students describe their educational experiences as boring?
I think students describe their educational experiences as boring because most of the time school is boring. I remember so many times from my childhood where I was forced to sit at my desk and learn. I was extremely bored and I yearned to be outside playing. For many students in America school is disconnected from the real world and taught in separated subjects. What students learn in school is disconnected from what they learn in the real world and has no meaning. School has no value and a student’s heart is not yearning for knowledge. School becomes a place where the student feels likes a robot. They come to school, sit in a desk for 6 hours, listen to the teacher talk while sitting quietly at their desk, and when the teacher is done talking they do a worksheet. The only time the students are able to talk is during recess. When students are taught in the ways in which I just described students tune their teachers out and become disinterested in what the teacher is saying. School becomes boring and is the reason why when parents ask their child at the end of the day what they learned, they say “nothing.”
2. If you could have an internship in any area, built around any interest, what would it be and who would you want to have as a mentor? Why?
One of the biggest passions I have in my life is my love of sports. I grew up with my dad being a local high school football and wrestling coach. I spent a large part of my childhood at the stadium or gym sitting in the bleachers, watching him coach. During the summer, when I was a child, my mom went to school at night, so I had to go with my dad to his nightly football and wrestling practices. Sports was always something that connected my dad and me. It bonded us, always gave us a topic to discuss in our nightly dinner conversations, and solidified our close relationship. One of the areas that made me passionate about sports was seeing the close bond my dad formed with his athletes. He became a father figure for so many athletes. Throughout the years these athletes would come to my house and tell my family how my dad positively impacted their lives and helped shaped them into a well-rounded young man. All of these experiences throughout my life made me realize that I wanted to be a teacher and coach. At my school I currently coach boy’s volleyball and soccer as well as girl’s basketball and flag football.
If I could have an internship in any area, I would definitely choose the area of sports. There are many different jobs in sports that I would love to internship. I would want to intern a professional sport’s team head coach and the team president and I would also love to learn more about sports marketing. I am a very social person, so I think I would be interested in the activities that the team puts on for the community. I would also be interested in seeing the behind the scenes, day-to-day work that goes into running a team. I am a huge Los Angeles Lakers fan so my dream would be to shadow someone from that organization like Rob Pelinka. Rob Pelinka is the general manager of the Lakers. He was also was Kobe Bryant’s agent when he played for the Lakers. Kobe Bryant is my all-time favorite athlete and it is my dream to meet him.
4. Did you save any of the papers you wrote for school? Why or why not?
I am a hoarder in the true definition of the word and so is my mom. 😊 I saved many school art projects (even though I was the world’s worst artist), stories I wrote for creative writing units, essays, and important art projects. I have a drawer in my room and a space in my closet where I save my important papers from my school years. I recently just did a deep clean of my bedroom and found these school papers and projects. I was so happy that I kept these items because it brought back many fond memories of school that I had forgotten over the years. I found report cards from my K-8th grade years, worksheets from kindergarten, essays from various years, art projects from my early elementary days, and stories that I wrote from first and fifth grade. I laugh at how terrible my artwork was, how my writing style has progressed through the years, and how I used to write my name backwards in kindergarten as well as how sometimes I would leave a letter out. Throughout the years, anytime I tried to throw one of these papers or projects away my mom would not allow me to and would talk me into keeping it. I am so glad that I listened to her because it reminds me of how far my education has progressed since elementary school and brings back many memories that make me smile. When I look through the papers and projects, frequently I can picture myself in the moment when I was in the process of creating the project or writing the story or essay. Besides having my elementary school work, I saved my senior portfolio and liberal studies binder from college. These two items contain the most important papers I wrote from high school and college. You shouldn’t be surprised by this fact, since like I said at the beginning of this question, I am a hoarder. I am a hoarder of memories and save items of things that I am passionate about, education being one of the topics I am most passionate about.
5. Is there anything you always cut out, file, jot down into a notebook, or add to the pile on your desk? What is it, and why do you save it?
When I am very passionate about something, I research the topic for countless hours and I will do everything I can to learn everything I can about that topic. I am really passionate about social/emotional learning, restorative practices, and programs that help children to develop social/emotional strategies so they can be successful in life. I am interested in learning about social/emotional programs that I can add to my Peer Resource elective to help the students at my school learn how to regulate their emotions, how to manage their aggression/frustration, and how to positively socialize with their peers. I have already started a peer tutoring and peer mentoring program with my Peer Resource students and I am ecstatic to start a peer counseling program at my school this school year. Anytime I find information on social/emotional learning that relates to my Peer Resource class or restorative practices I make sure I save it. I try to use the information that I have read and keep it in a place where I can readily reference it. Another topic that I am passionate about is sports. My parents get the local Manteca Bulletin and I will check out the sports section. If I read an article about one of my past students I will cut out the article and either give it to the student or keep it in my desk. If I have a way of getting in touch with the student either by phone or email, then I will send the article to the student and let them know how proud I am of them.
Chapter 6
1. Why do so many students describe their educational experiences as boring?
I think students describe their educational experiences as boring because most of the time school is boring. I remember so many times from my childhood where I was forced to sit at my desk and learn. I was extremely bored and I yearned to be outside playing. For many students in America school is disconnected from the real world and taught in separated subjects. What students learn in school is disconnected from what they learn in the real world and has no meaning. School has no value and a student’s heart is not yearning for knowledge. School becomes a place where the student feels likes a robot. They come to school, sit in a desk for 6 hours, listen to the teacher talk while sitting quietly at their desk, and when the teacher is done talking they do a worksheet. The only time the students are able to talk is during recess. When students are taught in the ways in which I just described students tune their teachers out and become disinterested in what the teacher is saying. School becomes boring and is the reason why when parents ask their child at the end of the day what they learned, they say “nothing.”
2. If you could have an internship in any area, built around any interest, what would it be and who would you want to have as a mentor? Why?
One of the biggest passions I have in my life is my love of sports. I grew up with my dad being a local high school football and wrestling coach. I spent a large part of my childhood at the stadium or gym sitting in the bleachers, watching him coach. During the summer, when I was a child, my mom went to school at night, so I had to go with my dad to his nightly football and wrestling practices. Sports was always something that connected my dad and me. It bonded us, always gave us a topic to discuss in our nightly dinner conversations, and solidified our close relationship. One of the areas that made me passionate about sports was seeing the close bond my dad formed with his athletes. He became a father figure for so many athletes. Throughout the years these athletes would come to my house and tell my family how my dad positively impacted their lives and helped shaped them into a well-rounded young man. All of these experiences throughout my life made me realize that I wanted to be a teacher and coach. At my school I currently coach boy’s volleyball and soccer as well as girl’s basketball and flag football.
If I could have an internship in any area, I would definitely choose the area of sports. There are many different jobs in sports that I would love to internship. I would want to intern a professional sport’s team head coach and the team president and I would also love to learn more about sports marketing. I am a very social person, so I think I would be interested in the activities that the team puts on for the community. I would also be interested in seeing the behind the scenes, day-to-day work that goes into running a team. I am a huge Los Angeles Lakers fan so my dream would be to shadow someone from that organization like Rob Pelinka. Rob Pelinka is the general manager of the Lakers. He was also was Kobe Bryant’s agent when he played for the Lakers. Kobe Bryant is my all-time favorite athlete and it is my dream to meet him.
Reflection #2 |
During class on Thursday we read an article entitled, The Traditional High School. When I read the article and watched the two videos about our current educational system, it made me realize how our educational system has not changed since 1893 when the Committee of Ten established the first national high school program. We still teach the same subjects in the same ways that students were learning in 1893. Our world has dramatically changed since 1893 with the invention of the internet, the invention of cars, and the invention of some many other products. When the Committee of Ten established our present-day educational system the invention of the light bulb was a rather new concept (the light bulb was invented in 1879). Our current educational system was established fourteen years after electricity was invented, yet one hundred and twenty-six years later our educational system still looks exactly the same. If you step into a high school you will still see classrooms where student desks are assembled in rows, where students are quietly sitting at their desk and taking notes on whatever the teacher is teaching, and where students are working on paper/pencil assignments where they are answering questions at the end of the lesson they just listened to their teacher teaching. With all of the inventions that have been invented in the 126 years since the Committee of Ten, we are still learning the same way. Students are learning the same subjects that the students learned in 1893: math, science, reading, writing, and social studies.
In The Traditional High School article one thing that stuck out to me was the fact that anytime a committee tried to change the educational system, they tried to dumb down the standards and stated that the present generation of children was dumber than the generation of students in the past. It is crazy because I hear teachers state the same things about the children today. I get so tired when I hear teachers constantly complain about students and state how the students are dumb. The teachers that do this are constantly blaming the students for not learning the curriculum. Yet the teachers that say this are teaching the curriculum the exact same way they have taught their whole career. They are placing the blame on their students and taking all the blame off of themselves, their style of teaching, and on the educational system itself. The nation need to realize that the world has evolved and drastically changed since 1893 and it is time to change what we teach to students and how we teach it. There is no better time for change, than the present. Big Picture Reading Reflection #2 |
Chapter 3
1. What would a school that was “a little more human” look like?
After reading chapter 3, I really like the values that the MET School teaches their students. The MET School tries to make their school as close to a real life setting as possible, whereas most schools make their schools look drastically different from the real world. The MET Schools value respect, trust, student voice, relationships, failure as a valuable option before success is reached, modeling, and celebrations. The MET School makes sure respect and trust involves everyone at the school: teachers, students, office staff, custodial staff, etc. There is no bell schedule at the schools because the principal places value on what the teachers and students are discussing in class and does not want to interrupt their thinking and conversations with an annoying bell. At the MET Schools, when a problem arises the older students talk to the younger students about the problem. For example, the author says that the MET School was dealing with drugs and stealing. The seniors talked to the students about how their school is not an environment where drug use is encouraged. Student voice is a value that is placed with high importance at the MET School. Students are involved in everyday decisions of the school that will ultimately affect them and students are involved in the school’s “Town Meetings” and advisories. This tells students that their voice is heard and their opinions matter and that the school values them as individuals. Relationships with teachers are students are highly valued. Teachers and students, at MET Schools, have conversations at school events and talk to each other like friends talk to each other. The teachers greet the students everyday when they arrive at school. This teaches the students that the teachers are happy to see the students and that their presence matters. In advisory groups, teachers develop a deep relationship with the 15 students in their group and get to know them outside of the academic setting. The teachers at the MET Schools value failure. They teach the students that it is ok to make mistakes because mistakes teach students lessons and can ultimately lead to success. Modeling is a concept that is valued at the school and comes from the upperclassmen. The teachers do model positive behavior traits, but they know that when the upperclassmen model it that it has more powerful with the younger students. The upperclassmen show the younger students how they should act. In and out of the classroom, teachers model to students that school is a fun, safe place to be. Celebrations are a huge part of the culture at MET Schools. The teachers celebrate students every day, not just at school assemblies. I think a school that looked a little more human would involve all of the characteristics that I just described. It places more value on the character on the students, rather than on the academics. Because when students feel safe, respected, valued, and that their voice is heard the academic potential of the students will be present and their potential will increase.
2. How could a school go about showing its students that they are trusted and valued members of the school community?
Teachers need to show students that they are trusted and valued from the moment they arrive at school to the moment they leave school and are in the teacher’s presence again. I love the fact that the MET teachers greet the students everyday at school, but then in the classroom they continue to show students that they are valued. I would love to incorporate the greeting of students every morning at my school. I think this idea will have so many powerful, positive effects on the students. I love to see students smile and I can almost guarantee I will see hundreds of smiling faces everyday, if I was to do this. I'm not sure the other teachers will want to do this, but that doesn’t matter to me, because change always has to start with one person, and that person is me. The ultimate job as a teacher is to prepare students for real world situations. The MET Schools do a good job at this when they allow students to be involved in decisions that affect them at schools. I believe students should have a voice and a choice, because they will have a voice and choice in the real world, and if we as a school don’t teach students how to have a voice and choice, then we are failing at preparing the students for the real world.
I like the idea of advisories at the MET School. I like how the teachers get the opportunity to develop solid, deep relationships with a group of 15 students. The principal and parents can then rely on that teacher to give them information about a student when the student displays characteristics that they are suffering. The advisory system is a mentoring system where people learn to open up and be honest about things that are going on in their life, the students learn how to support and empathize with others, the students learn how to deal with situations and come up with their own solutions, and ultimately the students feel like they are part of a group of people who value them. The students are able to develop close relationships and make friends with people they wouldn’t normally talk to. By placing the students at the heart of the school system, rather than academics and test scores, it shows the students that they are trusted and valued individuals in the community and the students will gain confidence in this idea and ultimately grow up to be trusting and valuable adults in their community. The students who grow up to be these type of adults will be able to share their wisdom they gained and become “change makers,” who can make a very positive impact in their community.
Chapter 4
2. Tell about a time where something you learned motivated you to learn more. What implications does this have for education?
During college there was a time that I was trying to pass my Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) tests. I had just found out that I failed the third TPA for the second time in a row. I was really down on myself, my confidence was at an all time low, and I was ready to give up my dream of becoming a teacher (even though I didn’t want to do this). I thought that I wasn’t smart enough to be a teacher and I did not have the necessary skills that it required to be a successful teacher. At that moment a brilliant idea popped into my head. I decided to go on YouTube and watch a motivational video. I knew that being a teacher was the only career I ever wanted, all I needed was a little motivation to continue on, despite my failure. When I went on YouTube I typed in: best motivational speech ever. The video that popped up was a speech by Eric Thomas called: Secrets to Success, How Bad Do You Want It? I felt like this speech was talking directly to me. It talked about failure, overcoming failure, the desire to want to be successful, etc. The video had a quote that has stuck with me to this day: If you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you will be successful. I have this quote written on my current academic planner. I use this planner to keep my schedule organized for my master’s and administration classes. Every time I go to use my academic planner, it is a reminder of all the hard work I have put into my career and everything I have overcome to reach my ultimate career goal. This video totally changed my mindset and my outlook on my present situation. I knew that I needed to continue on my teaching journey and that I needed to work harder to reach my goal of becoming a teacher.
After I watched Eric Thomas’s speech I started playing more motivational speeches by him. I also subscribed to his YouTube channel. I found out that he grew up in Detroit, Michigan and became homeless after high school. He got caught up with the wrong crowd. He finally got to the point where he was tired of living his life the way he was living it. Long story short, he ended up changing his life around and is now a successful motivational speaker, speaking for Fortune 500 companies, top educational schools, and for professional sports teams. By watching this speech it motivated me to watch more speeches. It made me realize how important motivational speeches are for people. I decided that when I became a teacher, if I ever taught an older grade, that I would show a motivational speech every Monday and call it Motivational Monday. This past school year I started Motivational Monday in my class. I showed a motivational speech to my class every Monday and we had a deep conversation about the video. My students enjoyed coming to school on Monday and I believe by talking to my students about life that it made a positive impact on my classroom and my students.
4. How do you get a student to want knowledge? Once you get them to want it, what are the best ways to help them get it?
I think to get a student to want to learn a teacher needs to treat everyone alike differently, like the author of The Big Picture states, and personalize education so teachers can teach one kid at a time. The primary responsibility of a teacher is to educate the individual students, not to teach the same curriculum and not to teach to the test. The student needs to be the primary concern of the educational system. Teachers need to show students that they care about the students as individuals and that the students matter to the teacher. The students have to believe in their heart that their presence matters. Teachers have to show students that they want them to be successful and have their best interest at heart. Students have to feel valued and respected by their teacher. Teachers have to allow students to learn about topics they are interested in. They have to open students’ eyes up to what is going on in the world and show them how fun and cool learning is. Once a student finds a topic interesting the student will go out and seek more information about the topic and spend their personal time learning more information about the topic. A student will gain a deeper understanding of the topic, that extends far past what they learned in their textbook. I believe that when a student is interested in a topic, they will learn despite who their teacher is, and there is no limit to the extent they will go to learn about the topic. A great teacher will allow his or her students to explore topics they are interested in and show interest in the student’s work as well as challenge the student to gain more knowledge. In a classroom a teacher can provide the students with a range of topics for a project and then tell the students that they can organize and present the information in a way that works best for the students. The students can make a PowerPoint presentation, a poster, write a poem, write an essay, create a video or commercial, create a diorama or model, etc. When a teacher demonstrates how learning can be fun and by allowing student choice, the teacher is making the students more motivated to want to gain more knowledge.
1. What would a school that was “a little more human” look like?
After reading chapter 3, I really like the values that the MET School teaches their students. The MET School tries to make their school as close to a real life setting as possible, whereas most schools make their schools look drastically different from the real world. The MET Schools value respect, trust, student voice, relationships, failure as a valuable option before success is reached, modeling, and celebrations. The MET School makes sure respect and trust involves everyone at the school: teachers, students, office staff, custodial staff, etc. There is no bell schedule at the schools because the principal places value on what the teachers and students are discussing in class and does not want to interrupt their thinking and conversations with an annoying bell. At the MET Schools, when a problem arises the older students talk to the younger students about the problem. For example, the author says that the MET School was dealing with drugs and stealing. The seniors talked to the students about how their school is not an environment where drug use is encouraged. Student voice is a value that is placed with high importance at the MET School. Students are involved in everyday decisions of the school that will ultimately affect them and students are involved in the school’s “Town Meetings” and advisories. This tells students that their voice is heard and their opinions matter and that the school values them as individuals. Relationships with teachers are students are highly valued. Teachers and students, at MET Schools, have conversations at school events and talk to each other like friends talk to each other. The teachers greet the students everyday when they arrive at school. This teaches the students that the teachers are happy to see the students and that their presence matters. In advisory groups, teachers develop a deep relationship with the 15 students in their group and get to know them outside of the academic setting. The teachers at the MET Schools value failure. They teach the students that it is ok to make mistakes because mistakes teach students lessons and can ultimately lead to success. Modeling is a concept that is valued at the school and comes from the upperclassmen. The teachers do model positive behavior traits, but they know that when the upperclassmen model it that it has more powerful with the younger students. The upperclassmen show the younger students how they should act. In and out of the classroom, teachers model to students that school is a fun, safe place to be. Celebrations are a huge part of the culture at MET Schools. The teachers celebrate students every day, not just at school assemblies. I think a school that looked a little more human would involve all of the characteristics that I just described. It places more value on the character on the students, rather than on the academics. Because when students feel safe, respected, valued, and that their voice is heard the academic potential of the students will be present and their potential will increase.
2. How could a school go about showing its students that they are trusted and valued members of the school community?
Teachers need to show students that they are trusted and valued from the moment they arrive at school to the moment they leave school and are in the teacher’s presence again. I love the fact that the MET teachers greet the students everyday at school, but then in the classroom they continue to show students that they are valued. I would love to incorporate the greeting of students every morning at my school. I think this idea will have so many powerful, positive effects on the students. I love to see students smile and I can almost guarantee I will see hundreds of smiling faces everyday, if I was to do this. I'm not sure the other teachers will want to do this, but that doesn’t matter to me, because change always has to start with one person, and that person is me. The ultimate job as a teacher is to prepare students for real world situations. The MET Schools do a good job at this when they allow students to be involved in decisions that affect them at schools. I believe students should have a voice and a choice, because they will have a voice and choice in the real world, and if we as a school don’t teach students how to have a voice and choice, then we are failing at preparing the students for the real world.
I like the idea of advisories at the MET School. I like how the teachers get the opportunity to develop solid, deep relationships with a group of 15 students. The principal and parents can then rely on that teacher to give them information about a student when the student displays characteristics that they are suffering. The advisory system is a mentoring system where people learn to open up and be honest about things that are going on in their life, the students learn how to support and empathize with others, the students learn how to deal with situations and come up with their own solutions, and ultimately the students feel like they are part of a group of people who value them. The students are able to develop close relationships and make friends with people they wouldn’t normally talk to. By placing the students at the heart of the school system, rather than academics and test scores, it shows the students that they are trusted and valued individuals in the community and the students will gain confidence in this idea and ultimately grow up to be trusting and valuable adults in their community. The students who grow up to be these type of adults will be able to share their wisdom they gained and become “change makers,” who can make a very positive impact in their community.
Chapter 4
2. Tell about a time where something you learned motivated you to learn more. What implications does this have for education?
During college there was a time that I was trying to pass my Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) tests. I had just found out that I failed the third TPA for the second time in a row. I was really down on myself, my confidence was at an all time low, and I was ready to give up my dream of becoming a teacher (even though I didn’t want to do this). I thought that I wasn’t smart enough to be a teacher and I did not have the necessary skills that it required to be a successful teacher. At that moment a brilliant idea popped into my head. I decided to go on YouTube and watch a motivational video. I knew that being a teacher was the only career I ever wanted, all I needed was a little motivation to continue on, despite my failure. When I went on YouTube I typed in: best motivational speech ever. The video that popped up was a speech by Eric Thomas called: Secrets to Success, How Bad Do You Want It? I felt like this speech was talking directly to me. It talked about failure, overcoming failure, the desire to want to be successful, etc. The video had a quote that has stuck with me to this day: If you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you will be successful. I have this quote written on my current academic planner. I use this planner to keep my schedule organized for my master’s and administration classes. Every time I go to use my academic planner, it is a reminder of all the hard work I have put into my career and everything I have overcome to reach my ultimate career goal. This video totally changed my mindset and my outlook on my present situation. I knew that I needed to continue on my teaching journey and that I needed to work harder to reach my goal of becoming a teacher.
After I watched Eric Thomas’s speech I started playing more motivational speeches by him. I also subscribed to his YouTube channel. I found out that he grew up in Detroit, Michigan and became homeless after high school. He got caught up with the wrong crowd. He finally got to the point where he was tired of living his life the way he was living it. Long story short, he ended up changing his life around and is now a successful motivational speaker, speaking for Fortune 500 companies, top educational schools, and for professional sports teams. By watching this speech it motivated me to watch more speeches. It made me realize how important motivational speeches are for people. I decided that when I became a teacher, if I ever taught an older grade, that I would show a motivational speech every Monday and call it Motivational Monday. This past school year I started Motivational Monday in my class. I showed a motivational speech to my class every Monday and we had a deep conversation about the video. My students enjoyed coming to school on Monday and I believe by talking to my students about life that it made a positive impact on my classroom and my students.
4. How do you get a student to want knowledge? Once you get them to want it, what are the best ways to help them get it?
I think to get a student to want to learn a teacher needs to treat everyone alike differently, like the author of The Big Picture states, and personalize education so teachers can teach one kid at a time. The primary responsibility of a teacher is to educate the individual students, not to teach the same curriculum and not to teach to the test. The student needs to be the primary concern of the educational system. Teachers need to show students that they care about the students as individuals and that the students matter to the teacher. The students have to believe in their heart that their presence matters. Teachers have to show students that they want them to be successful and have their best interest at heart. Students have to feel valued and respected by their teacher. Teachers have to allow students to learn about topics they are interested in. They have to open students’ eyes up to what is going on in the world and show them how fun and cool learning is. Once a student finds a topic interesting the student will go out and seek more information about the topic and spend their personal time learning more information about the topic. A student will gain a deeper understanding of the topic, that extends far past what they learned in their textbook. I believe that when a student is interested in a topic, they will learn despite who their teacher is, and there is no limit to the extent they will go to learn about the topic. A great teacher will allow his or her students to explore topics they are interested in and show interest in the student’s work as well as challenge the student to gain more knowledge. In a classroom a teacher can provide the students with a range of topics for a project and then tell the students that they can organize and present the information in a way that works best for the students. The students can make a PowerPoint presentation, a poster, write a poem, write an essay, create a video or commercial, create a diorama or model, etc. When a teacher demonstrates how learning can be fun and by allowing student choice, the teacher is making the students more motivated to want to gain more knowledge.
Big Picture Reading Reflection #1
Chapter 1
1. What are your "real goals of education"?
I really enjoyed reading chapter 1 of the Big Picture book. I agreed with a lot of the points that the authors, Dennis Littky and Samantha Grabelle, made. I feel I have been blessed because from a very early age I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. As a little girl I spent countless hours in my room playing school with my dolls. I was the teacher, principal, office secretary, cafeteria worker (I had a kitchen in my bedroom to set up a cafeteria), and yard duty. I made all of my dolls textbooks out of binder paper. To this day I can still tell you the first names of all of my dolls and I still have the textbooks that I made my dolls. I believe, from a very early age, I had a passion for teaching. As the authors state in the Big Picture, the goal of education is to spark an interest in the students, to make them lifelong learners, allow them to enjoy what they are learning, and be able to apply what they are learning to real life situations. As I was reading the first chapter it really made me realize how powerful the advice was that my father gave me as a young child. The best advice my father ever gave me was to pick a career I would love doing for the next 40 plus years. He said if I pick a career that I do not like then I would spend 40 or more years of my life being miserable, but if I choose a career that I enjoyed, it would become something that would give me a reason to want to get out of bed in the morning. This piece of advice is something I often tell my students in my class. I just finished my sixth year of teaching, 2 years in first grade and four years in seventh grade. My goal as a teacher is to teach my students academics, but in a fun and meaningful way. As I was growing up and trying to figure out what grade I wanted to teach when I became a teacher I always told myself I would teach any grade, except seventh grade world history. The reason being is my teacher for seventh grade world history was very boring. All we did was come to class and then he would tell the class what lesson to read. I would then read the chapter, be expected to answer the questions at the end of the lesson for homework, and then turn in my work the next day and then continue the same routine the next day in class. I had to do all of this while my teacher sat at his desk the whole period. I was so bored out of my mind the whole school year. I have no idea what I learned in that class. Because I was so bored, I told myself I would never teach that subject. Five years ago when my vice principal approached me to teach seventh grade Physical Education and World History all the memories of my boring seventh grade history class came flooding back to my brain. I told myself that my goal was to make history fun for my students, meaningful, and allow them to not only understand what happened in the world thousands of years ago, but to be able to understand how it applies to their world today. To summarize, I think the goal of education is to allow our students to learn academic content, to know how to apply it to their everyday lives, and to have enjoy learning the information along the way so they can become lifelong learners.
2. How would you define the differences between "learning" and "knowledge"?
To me there is a huge difference between learning and knowledge. I like to characterize knowledge as the memorization of random facts and formulas. Students who are knowledgeable about a topic can spout off the year that the Roman Empire collapsed, can tell you the formula for the Pythagorean Theorem, or the chemical formula for magnesium citrate. These types of students perform well on tests and get rewarded for doing well on tests. These types of students are also the nerds on game shows, like Jeopardy, who can become overnight sensations and win hundreds of thousands of dollars because they know random facts that are useless in everyday life. These are the types of people that I am envious of because I am not good at memorizing facts and I struggle on tests. I often times would feel stupid when I would see my results on the STAR Test, which was the academic state test. I would usually see below average or average written on my test under the performance categories. I got super stressed out on these tests and would not perform very well. Seeing myself as average or below average was very disheartening and not good for my self-esteem. Whenever a student is learning knowledge they will learn that there is only one answer and there is only one way to teach the topic. For example, when students are learning about Christopher Columbus they will learn that he discovered America in 1492. There is only one correct answer for the year that Christopher Columbus discovered America. Oftentimes when students are learning knowledge it is when the teacher is lecturing in front of the classroom and the students are taking notes and listening to the teacher.
On the other hand, learning is the process of applying knowledge so it makes sense to the student. Learning is taking information and making it meaningful to a person's everyday life. For instance, when learning about Christopher Columbus students shouldn't just memorize the year he discovered America, but rather how his discovery of America led to the downfall of the Native American culture and how the Native American culture is impacted today by this historical event. Learning is also the act of being able to explain a topic to another person, to explain the steps of how to solve a mathematical equation. Learning is also personalized, it looks different for everyone. Learning happens in all shapes and forms. It can happen when a student creates a poster about the digestive system, when a student gives a speech on the pros and cons of school dress code, when a student creates an animal habitat of their favorite animal, when a student creates a PowerPoint on the effects of drugs and alcohol on the brain, or when a student writes an essay about their favorite athlete. Learning is multidimensional and multifaceted whereas knowledge is one dimensional and monotonous.
Chapter 2
1. How should we be preparing kids for the real world? What is the real world, anyway? Can you identify some real-world skills or knowledge that every child should learn or know?
I wholeheartedly believe we should be teaching students by first appealing to their social-emotional side. I once read in a book that we can not teach kids, until we reach them, which goes right along the lines of what the author of the Big Picture was saying. If children do not believe that each of their teachers care about them, then they will not listen to what their teachers say. I truly believe that this past school year I did an outstanding job at preparing my students for the real world. As a social studies and physical education teacher I am fortunate enough to set aside time for social and emotional learning. From day one I teach my students that I care about them and show them this as well. I talk to them about their futures and ask them where they see themselves in the future. Everyday I pick two or three students to have a conversation with and I get to know the students outside of the academic setting. I even follow up with students about conversations we have had on previous days. I talk to my students throughout the year about goal setting, about skills they need to be successful, about finding a career they are passionate about, and about how to treat other people with respect. I incorporate these skills in my Motivational Monday lessons. Every Monday I have my students watch a motivational video that I choose. My students get really excited to come to class on Mondays because they can't wait to see what video I have picked out for them. As I watch some videos that have sad content I cry in front of my students. I tell them how much they mean to me and how much I want them to be successful and happy in life. I tell them that once they are my students, that they are forever my children and will always have a place in my heart. When I see a student who is absent for a few days, when they return I make sure to tell them I missed them and ask if they are ok. I often have students that stop and ask me at the beginning of the period if they can talk to me about an issue they are having. Several times I have walked over to a student during class who I have witnessed silently crying. I ask them if they are ok and if they need to talk. Just like Motivational Monday, I also have a Circle Friday Day. Circle Friday is where all my students form a circle and I ask my students a question and they have to each answer it. Circle Friday are ran one of two ways: either everyone makes one big circle and shares, one at a time, or an inner/outer circle where everyone shares with a partner. The questions are questions where I either get to know more about the students or where I am asking them to think about issues that effect them in school or in life. For example, I may ask students questions like: What is your favorite movie, what is one country or city that you would like to visit one day, what is the best advise you have ever received, describe one way you have helped another person in your life, and describe a time you have either been bullied or have bullied someone else. My students always look forward to answering the questions on Fridays. They also look forward to coming to school on Friday as well. I have a particular student in my class that took a special interest in Circle Fridays. This student was an African American male who constantly got in trouble in his other classes. Some days he would spend more time in the office, than he would in class. He was constantly arguing with his teachers and being defiant. For whatever reason, this student and I got along great. He enjoyed answering the questions and always volunteered to go first. On many different occasions, he actually picked the Circle Friday questions for me. I would let the whole class know that the question was from him and he would get a big smile on his face. I wish every student would be as passionate about school as my specific student was about Circle Fridays. I think by appealing to a child's social-emotional side it allows a teacher to reach them on the academic side. You first have to reach the heart, before you reach the mind. Before you reach the mind, you have to reach the ears. If you want to reach the ears, you have to give the student a reason to want to listen to you. Real world skills I think students need to know are: how to be respectful, how to reach deadlines, how to be responsible, how to be passionate as well as compassionate, how to do arithmetic (basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), how to write, and how to read. I also think they need to know how to apply information they learn in school to their everyday lives as well as how to integrate knowledge from one class into all their other classes.
6. Why do you think kids drop out of school? If you have known a high school dropout, what was his or her experience after leaving school? What do you think needs to change in the way schools and society deal with dropouts?
I think students drop out of school because they feel that they will never amount to anything and that no one cares about them. The majority of students will not remember what you taught them, but rather how you made them feel. These kids become so used to feeling like ghosts because no one gives them attention in the classroom or makes them feel appreciated. They get to the point where they feel that if they just vanished no one would notice they were not there. I think a lot of students drop out because there has been at least one teacher or adult at their school that has made them feel like less than a human and they have had a negative interaction with. Another reason I think students drop out of school is because they are so far behind academically that they feel like they cannot catch up to the other students, they feel dumb and embarrassed that they are so far behind. These students, unfortunately, have been ignored by their teachers and have been moved to the next grade even though they have never passed the grade level standards in any grade. I once showed my students a Motivational Monday video about a student in high school who could not read. He was so embarrassed when his teachers would ask him to read. He would often get in trouble on purpose so he could go to the office. He would spend more time with the janitor at the school, than with his teachers in the classroom. He went on a college visit with his high school and was extremely moved by a speech that an English professor gave. This particular professor showed an interest in him and he ended up becoming an award-winning author. This happened all because one person believed in him and showed interest in his passions, despite the student's bad grades in English. I think by not having a high school degree, that life is very difficult. A lot of jobs require a basic high school diploma for a person to even apply. Without a high school diploma, students make a lot less in their annual salary than if they had their diploma. It is very difficult to move up in the world with a diploma. I'm not exactly sure what schools should do with high school dropouts, but I know that what they are currently doing is not working. Maybe high schools can offer more night classes or internet classes that people can take to receive their diploma. They can also offer more opportunities to teach reading skills and math skills, tutoring programs for the struggling students, affordable babysitting programs (babysitting services that watch their children while they go to school), opportunities to learn English, etc. There is a lot of progress we need to make with high school dropouts and a lot of actions teachers need to do so students do not think their only choice is to drop out of high school.
1. What are your "real goals of education"?
I really enjoyed reading chapter 1 of the Big Picture book. I agreed with a lot of the points that the authors, Dennis Littky and Samantha Grabelle, made. I feel I have been blessed because from a very early age I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. As a little girl I spent countless hours in my room playing school with my dolls. I was the teacher, principal, office secretary, cafeteria worker (I had a kitchen in my bedroom to set up a cafeteria), and yard duty. I made all of my dolls textbooks out of binder paper. To this day I can still tell you the first names of all of my dolls and I still have the textbooks that I made my dolls. I believe, from a very early age, I had a passion for teaching. As the authors state in the Big Picture, the goal of education is to spark an interest in the students, to make them lifelong learners, allow them to enjoy what they are learning, and be able to apply what they are learning to real life situations. As I was reading the first chapter it really made me realize how powerful the advice was that my father gave me as a young child. The best advice my father ever gave me was to pick a career I would love doing for the next 40 plus years. He said if I pick a career that I do not like then I would spend 40 or more years of my life being miserable, but if I choose a career that I enjoyed, it would become something that would give me a reason to want to get out of bed in the morning. This piece of advice is something I often tell my students in my class. I just finished my sixth year of teaching, 2 years in first grade and four years in seventh grade. My goal as a teacher is to teach my students academics, but in a fun and meaningful way. As I was growing up and trying to figure out what grade I wanted to teach when I became a teacher I always told myself I would teach any grade, except seventh grade world history. The reason being is my teacher for seventh grade world history was very boring. All we did was come to class and then he would tell the class what lesson to read. I would then read the chapter, be expected to answer the questions at the end of the lesson for homework, and then turn in my work the next day and then continue the same routine the next day in class. I had to do all of this while my teacher sat at his desk the whole period. I was so bored out of my mind the whole school year. I have no idea what I learned in that class. Because I was so bored, I told myself I would never teach that subject. Five years ago when my vice principal approached me to teach seventh grade Physical Education and World History all the memories of my boring seventh grade history class came flooding back to my brain. I told myself that my goal was to make history fun for my students, meaningful, and allow them to not only understand what happened in the world thousands of years ago, but to be able to understand how it applies to their world today. To summarize, I think the goal of education is to allow our students to learn academic content, to know how to apply it to their everyday lives, and to have enjoy learning the information along the way so they can become lifelong learners.
2. How would you define the differences between "learning" and "knowledge"?
To me there is a huge difference between learning and knowledge. I like to characterize knowledge as the memorization of random facts and formulas. Students who are knowledgeable about a topic can spout off the year that the Roman Empire collapsed, can tell you the formula for the Pythagorean Theorem, or the chemical formula for magnesium citrate. These types of students perform well on tests and get rewarded for doing well on tests. These types of students are also the nerds on game shows, like Jeopardy, who can become overnight sensations and win hundreds of thousands of dollars because they know random facts that are useless in everyday life. These are the types of people that I am envious of because I am not good at memorizing facts and I struggle on tests. I often times would feel stupid when I would see my results on the STAR Test, which was the academic state test. I would usually see below average or average written on my test under the performance categories. I got super stressed out on these tests and would not perform very well. Seeing myself as average or below average was very disheartening and not good for my self-esteem. Whenever a student is learning knowledge they will learn that there is only one answer and there is only one way to teach the topic. For example, when students are learning about Christopher Columbus they will learn that he discovered America in 1492. There is only one correct answer for the year that Christopher Columbus discovered America. Oftentimes when students are learning knowledge it is when the teacher is lecturing in front of the classroom and the students are taking notes and listening to the teacher.
On the other hand, learning is the process of applying knowledge so it makes sense to the student. Learning is taking information and making it meaningful to a person's everyday life. For instance, when learning about Christopher Columbus students shouldn't just memorize the year he discovered America, but rather how his discovery of America led to the downfall of the Native American culture and how the Native American culture is impacted today by this historical event. Learning is also the act of being able to explain a topic to another person, to explain the steps of how to solve a mathematical equation. Learning is also personalized, it looks different for everyone. Learning happens in all shapes and forms. It can happen when a student creates a poster about the digestive system, when a student gives a speech on the pros and cons of school dress code, when a student creates an animal habitat of their favorite animal, when a student creates a PowerPoint on the effects of drugs and alcohol on the brain, or when a student writes an essay about their favorite athlete. Learning is multidimensional and multifaceted whereas knowledge is one dimensional and monotonous.
Chapter 2
1. How should we be preparing kids for the real world? What is the real world, anyway? Can you identify some real-world skills or knowledge that every child should learn or know?
I wholeheartedly believe we should be teaching students by first appealing to their social-emotional side. I once read in a book that we can not teach kids, until we reach them, which goes right along the lines of what the author of the Big Picture was saying. If children do not believe that each of their teachers care about them, then they will not listen to what their teachers say. I truly believe that this past school year I did an outstanding job at preparing my students for the real world. As a social studies and physical education teacher I am fortunate enough to set aside time for social and emotional learning. From day one I teach my students that I care about them and show them this as well. I talk to them about their futures and ask them where they see themselves in the future. Everyday I pick two or three students to have a conversation with and I get to know the students outside of the academic setting. I even follow up with students about conversations we have had on previous days. I talk to my students throughout the year about goal setting, about skills they need to be successful, about finding a career they are passionate about, and about how to treat other people with respect. I incorporate these skills in my Motivational Monday lessons. Every Monday I have my students watch a motivational video that I choose. My students get really excited to come to class on Mondays because they can't wait to see what video I have picked out for them. As I watch some videos that have sad content I cry in front of my students. I tell them how much they mean to me and how much I want them to be successful and happy in life. I tell them that once they are my students, that they are forever my children and will always have a place in my heart. When I see a student who is absent for a few days, when they return I make sure to tell them I missed them and ask if they are ok. I often have students that stop and ask me at the beginning of the period if they can talk to me about an issue they are having. Several times I have walked over to a student during class who I have witnessed silently crying. I ask them if they are ok and if they need to talk. Just like Motivational Monday, I also have a Circle Friday Day. Circle Friday is where all my students form a circle and I ask my students a question and they have to each answer it. Circle Friday are ran one of two ways: either everyone makes one big circle and shares, one at a time, or an inner/outer circle where everyone shares with a partner. The questions are questions where I either get to know more about the students or where I am asking them to think about issues that effect them in school or in life. For example, I may ask students questions like: What is your favorite movie, what is one country or city that you would like to visit one day, what is the best advise you have ever received, describe one way you have helped another person in your life, and describe a time you have either been bullied or have bullied someone else. My students always look forward to answering the questions on Fridays. They also look forward to coming to school on Friday as well. I have a particular student in my class that took a special interest in Circle Fridays. This student was an African American male who constantly got in trouble in his other classes. Some days he would spend more time in the office, than he would in class. He was constantly arguing with his teachers and being defiant. For whatever reason, this student and I got along great. He enjoyed answering the questions and always volunteered to go first. On many different occasions, he actually picked the Circle Friday questions for me. I would let the whole class know that the question was from him and he would get a big smile on his face. I wish every student would be as passionate about school as my specific student was about Circle Fridays. I think by appealing to a child's social-emotional side it allows a teacher to reach them on the academic side. You first have to reach the heart, before you reach the mind. Before you reach the mind, you have to reach the ears. If you want to reach the ears, you have to give the student a reason to want to listen to you. Real world skills I think students need to know are: how to be respectful, how to reach deadlines, how to be responsible, how to be passionate as well as compassionate, how to do arithmetic (basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), how to write, and how to read. I also think they need to know how to apply information they learn in school to their everyday lives as well as how to integrate knowledge from one class into all their other classes.
6. Why do you think kids drop out of school? If you have known a high school dropout, what was his or her experience after leaving school? What do you think needs to change in the way schools and society deal with dropouts?
I think students drop out of school because they feel that they will never amount to anything and that no one cares about them. The majority of students will not remember what you taught them, but rather how you made them feel. These kids become so used to feeling like ghosts because no one gives them attention in the classroom or makes them feel appreciated. They get to the point where they feel that if they just vanished no one would notice they were not there. I think a lot of students drop out because there has been at least one teacher or adult at their school that has made them feel like less than a human and they have had a negative interaction with. Another reason I think students drop out of school is because they are so far behind academically that they feel like they cannot catch up to the other students, they feel dumb and embarrassed that they are so far behind. These students, unfortunately, have been ignored by their teachers and have been moved to the next grade even though they have never passed the grade level standards in any grade. I once showed my students a Motivational Monday video about a student in high school who could not read. He was so embarrassed when his teachers would ask him to read. He would often get in trouble on purpose so he could go to the office. He would spend more time with the janitor at the school, than with his teachers in the classroom. He went on a college visit with his high school and was extremely moved by a speech that an English professor gave. This particular professor showed an interest in him and he ended up becoming an award-winning author. This happened all because one person believed in him and showed interest in his passions, despite the student's bad grades in English. I think by not having a high school degree, that life is very difficult. A lot of jobs require a basic high school diploma for a person to even apply. Without a high school diploma, students make a lot less in their annual salary than if they had their diploma. It is very difficult to move up in the world with a diploma. I'm not exactly sure what schools should do with high school dropouts, but I know that what they are currently doing is not working. Maybe high schools can offer more night classes or internet classes that people can take to receive their diploma. They can also offer more opportunities to teach reading skills and math skills, tutoring programs for the struggling students, affordable babysitting programs (babysitting services that watch their children while they go to school), opportunities to learn English, etc. There is a lot of progress we need to make with high school dropouts and a lot of actions teachers need to do so students do not think their only choice is to drop out of high school.