Chapter 14: Succeeding in Your Teacher Education Program--and Beyond

My concerns for becoming a teacher is that I will forget a important part of the curriculum I am teaching to my students, or I will not teach it effectively enough so that my students will understand. Also, be able to get my students under control, if they do not respect me how will they be comfortable learning, and how will I look like a high-quality teacher if my students do not behave?

My concerns were mostly informational and personal, but also a little bit of management. They are on my ability to succeed as a high-quality teacher.  My stages were mostly in Self and Task.

After looking at this chapters resume suggestions I see that I need to put down some of my qualifications and make sure I look like a qualified teacher to anyone who could higher me. Community service, outside interest, and certifications are also things I would add. My organization also needs to be changed. A philosophy/ bio paragraph is something else I will add, in which I will talk about why I want to be a teacher, and why schools are important.

Chapter 13: Improving Teachers and Schools, and School Reform

Hopefully, before I graduate I will have some field work in classrooms, especially in Practicum. Having my degree, and some extra hours teaching before actually getting hired will be tremendously helpful in adapting to a classroom of my own later on in life. I hope to experience some problems while working in a practicum classroom with students so that I can learn from them, and be able to encounter them with swift action in my own classroom.

In my first 5 years of teaching, I will definitely come across some misbehavior. I will have to learn and abide by my schools behavior management system, and learn some conflict resolution techniques to deal with my students misbehavior.  My students grades on the standardized tests will show what a high-quality teacher I am. Both of these encounters in my first 5 years of teaching will help show how I am progressing as a teacher on my resume.

All schools are managed different ways, I hope to figure out how my school is managed and the chain of command. After I am a teacher for a while, I hope to acquire a high-quality teacher ranking, and also my master's degree. If the school I am teaching in has low test grades I hope to bring them up, and be able to help other teachers bring their students grades up as well. I also think that teacher to teacher communication is very helpful, and working together with other teachers(perhaps on a class or giving ideas on how to teach a specific student) will be helpful to both parties.

Chapter 7: Thinking about Teaching and Learning

• The first thing I might add to my teaching philosophy when it comes time to rewrite it is to implement a teaching style like Hilda Taba's. I would diagnose the needs of the classroom. This does not just concern supplies and what we will need to teach certain subjects, but the needs of the children. What do my students need to accomplish by the end of the year? Then I would work on making goals/objectives for the students and myself included. So that we can all succeed and learn and have a plan to go by for the rest of the year. Then, according to what my students need to learn I will select some curriculum to teach them, and organize it according to levels individual students need, and preference. After I implement the curriculum I have picked out based on what my students need, I will access how well they are learning from it. If their learning is not satisfactory I will try a new method. If they are all succeeding then we can further test their compacity for retaining that knowledge. Evaluating their knowledge retaining skills, and giving tests with similar material that has already been taught, and also including new learning material in the tests as well.
• I would also include the Discovery Method. This method was made by Jerome Bruner. It teaches thinking skills necessary to the development of problem-solving abilities. I have noticed this first hand with my precalculus teacher Lori Koban. In past math classes in high school I was simply taught the formula's to get specific answers. Whereas in Dr. Koban's class she does not teach us just the formula's. She starts out with how to get the formula's and asks us questions of what we would do. Not just giving us all the answer, but making us think criitcally about the right answer. Her class is not done by the book, or by each specific formula. We are truly learning pre calculus and will be able to understand how we got to this specific formula and why we use it for this specific thing.
• Another thing I would include in my philosophy is Metaphysis. Some teachers would put the subject matter they were teaching ahead of the childs needs and individual learning style. I think that the child is more important than any specific subject matter. Instead of focusing solely on subject matter I will focus more on the child, and when the child learns well being taught a specific way. 
• One more thing I would add would be to collaborate with teachers, especially ones who have been teaching for a long time. They know what works and what doesn't in a specific school. Getting basic information on what works (teaching methods) and trying it out in my own classroom to see if it works, will give me a head start on how to improve on teaching methods. Change is not a bad thing for education What is difficult is letting go of the no-longer-useful ideas(Joy of Teaching, 273)

Chapter 6: Social Context of Schools

Artifact: I used this picture as an example of what some girls see of themselves when they look in the mirror. I want to raise awareness of the diversity and how we see ourselves.


Concern for your image starts as early as elementary school. We start worrying about how we look as society impacts our decisions, and we learn more about what is popular (skinny models, buff surfers). Girls equate being skinny with being popular in our world because more stars and models, who are popular, are thin and beautiful. Girls become especially obsessed with their image. Some so much that they undergo surgery to change their appearance. Some students do not abide to change their physical physique, and therefore don't have the "popular" look. Students who do not fall under the popular quota are made fun of: for being fat or wimpy. Yet, put yourself in their shoes. This makes girls that are overweight, or boys without muscle feel rejected, depressed, and develop low self-esteem.
Lesson:
In our world, a boy who is tall, dark and handsome is commonly sought after as having a perfect physical physique. Many girls have these guys on their most wanted lists for possibilities. Meanwhile, girls are supposed to be blonde, blue-eyed and skinny.
Now lets Brainstorm. How many people in this room would fill this quota? Who is blonde, blue-eyed, and skinny for girls? Who is tall, dark and handsome for boys?
Show video of Bullying... Get reactions. Starting with Bullying Type #4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GcqSnNklq4
What could you do to stop this if you saw it happen? What if it was happening to you?
Card Game:
Everyone starts with 3 cards. You lose them by answering "yes" to one of the following questions.

Have you ever looked at an overweight person and thought that they should lose some weight so they would look better?
Have you ever thought you should lose some weight?
Have you ever felt pressured to look good when going to school, so that students might think what you are wearing is cool?
Do you go to the gym? To stay fit? Skinny? Give those around you the image that you are keeping fit and healthy?
Have you ever fasted and not eaten food for days to lose weight?
Have you ever used steroids?
Do you know someone who has used steroids?
Do you know someone who has committed suicide?
Fasting, excessive exercising, depression, steroid use, plastic surgery, implants, anemia, obesity, etc. Are all major affects to those who are harassed because of their appearance. Now I just have one more question.
Have you ever bullied someone because of their appearance?

How do I start thinking like a teacher?

I think I am still thinking like a student, except when I go mentoring. Then I have to think of things to do to keep my mentoree busy, which I guess is kind of like making a lesson plan. I don't think like a teacher in a normal classroom though. It doesn't occur to me, "How could I teach that differently?", or "What is a way I present that if I didn't have those tools?" I think that we should do a teaching exercise in class. Maybe prepare a lesson plan, or create a lesson to teach the class! Something that's hands on, and gets me thinking like a teacher, and then actually teaching a lesson.
Question: When I do start thinking like a teacher will I be taught to make lesson plans?

Which theories and historical influences should most impact the schools we'd like to have?

In the past, students have not been up to standard in their education. Schools all over the country are lacking in good instruction. We have implicated better teaching standards, so that teachers must be very qualified to teach. Making sure that teachers are even more qualified in the future will be a great aspect to have in every school.
If schools are going to get more racially and ethnically diverse, so aren't our communities. So shouldn't are teachers be just as diverse? This may not be the best example, but diversity among teachers is rare. Teachers are majorly white and women (I learned this in class.)
If our students aren't learning then we should teach something a different way, if that doesn't work get another teachers opinion. Communication among teachers is key. Without it, we don't know if another teacher is making progress teaching a student that you are having trouble with. Maybe they have figured out a good way to teach that specific student, or come up with a new, good strategy to teach all students.
The community is a big part of any school, without it there is no support at extracurricular activities or concerts. Without parents and others from the community there would be no taxes to support the local school. Incorporating them and making them feel as welcome as possible in the school will make them more supportive.
Question: Is it good to have a lot of schools? Or a few in a concentrated area? Yes, it means more jobs if there are more schools, but what if there are not enough students attending to support it. What if there are so many schools in one area that they can't be supported. But what if a school is overpopulated if all the kids from a certain district go to the same school?

How can diversity in the classroom help me be a better teacher?

Diversity in a classroom can help me become a better teacher tremendously. Diversity can help me create new ways of teaching, incorporating everyone's cultures and making them interested in learning. Teaching their a students interests is always helpful. It's not just diversity of race, but diversity of my  students learning ability that will help me become a better teacher. Schools are becoming more and more racially and ethnically diverse. I learned this from the Chapter 2 reading assignment. The only way that teachers will be able to teach such a wide variety of students to adapt our teaching abilities to those of our students and not just regular standards. We must go above and beyond, and get involved with not just the students but our community. If we don't know anything about the community our students live in then how will we know our students or what they go through. I learned a lot of integrating myself into the community by going to the talk in Lincoln Auditorium with the Teacher of the Year panel, on Involving Parents in Your Classroom. The Chapter 3 assignment was also helpful in understanding how I can become a better teacher through diversity in my classroom. Not only will having diverse students help my students learn about the different cultures within their classroom, but it will also present a way for my to integrate culture into my curriculum with the students help. They can give me prime examples of their cultural differences, giving my students a first hand experience as well as me. Yet, if not all my students are getting along because of the diversities, what am I supposed to do?