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I find that it is also very important to understand the pictures or illistrations in a book. Its not just important to understand the text but also the illustrations because they help and guide you in understanding the text. These chapters discussed how this is important when reading. Being a math major I realize just how important it is for someone to be able to understand the text and the illustraions. A lot of the time in math you may be given a diagram or a picture in which you might read about/ get a question on. If you are going to succeed at answering that question then you will need to be able to understand the illustrations as well. I know that they talked more about picture books and stuff but as I read this is kind of what I kept in the back of my head. The picture books are so great though for younger learners because they will become much better at understanding and knowing that they need to understand both the text and the illustrations. This will help them succeed more down the road in life/school.

The News article that I chose to read was one about technology in schools and how it’s actually become bad for schools. This is more aimed towards colleges than high/elementary schools but it was still very interesting. It is all about how forms of technology are being mis-used in classrooms. For instance students texting in class or students playing games or talking over the internet. I agree that this is most definitley a very big problem within schools. I will even admit that I fall victim to it all the time. Last semester I almost didn’t recieve a C or higher in one math class because the class was computer oriented and all I ever did was play games on it. Luckily I was able to pull away with a C though. The article is correct though. It’s gotta be really hard for a teacher/professor to monitor a full classroom and be able to teach a good lesson at one time. This is an interesting subject though and something that should get looked into a little more than it is.

The article that I read about this week is about a 6th grade teacher who had a relationship with one of her students who is an 8th grader. When the police began to investigate their relationship the two ran off to Mexico together. I found this interesting one that someone who is 25 is going for an 8th grader that is maybe like 14. Pretty messed up stuff if you ask me. I also found it interesting though because it makes you think about how there is a relationship line that teachers and students must keep. I find it extremely important that a teacher needs to have a good relationship with all of their students and they need to be there for their students when they need it. I also feel though that there is a line in which must be put up for this. There are things that are okay and then not okay. Teachers really need to keep in mind that even small things that you may not intend on being a “teacher, student sexual relationship” are always seen that way by other styudents and faculty. For instance in my school there was once a teacher who was helping a girl after school. He ended up having the door shut while helping her. Well other girl realized this and they didn’t like the other girl, so then they began the rumors of that teacher and the girl “hooking up.” Teachers just need to keep in mind that they need to be extremely careful because people are always out to get you or others.

I found the Frankenstein conference to be pretty interesting. I have never actually read the book before this and everything so I never really knew that Frankenstein really came about due to human deformities. I always just thought that it was a made up movie monster. It was extremely interesting to hear and see all of te other pictures and stories of deformities that people saw as “monsters.” It was just rediculous to hear about the story of the lady giving birth to rabbits. I found it pretty funny but just rediculous to think that people would actually believe something like that.

The article that I read about this week is an article about stress in a school. A principle at Needham High School has began to do training with students in the school to reduce stress. This whole thing came about a couple of years ago when a few students had comitted suicide. The schools aren’t completely blaming stress on the incidents but they feel as though it was still a matter that needed to be looked into. Now this principle is doing things such as having yoga classes during some periods in school. Also the principle has assigned teachers to have things such as homework free weekends or homework free holidays so that students can catch up on other work and whatnot. Some people object to this but for the most part only good things have come from it. In my own opinion I believe that this is a great thing that is happening. Being a student myself, I go through all of the stress that college brings about. Even in high school I was always under a lot of stress. I would have loved to have classes to just relax and get rid of my stress. Thankfully now I kind of do my own things though. One thing that I might do to reduce some of the stress that I might be under from college is I might go out hunting. When I’m out in the woods school is one of my last worries and it’s nice to be able to do that once in a while. So I really believe that all schools should do something of the same sort, in which Needham is doing. Sometimes students just need a break and they aren’t always given it.

Well Tuesday we began class by going over the long term assignments. I believe that they range for over the next 3 weeks or so. Within these there are some dates to pay attention to about when class times are and in what rooms they will be held; along with what we will be doing in there. After going over all of this ,which is posted in the wiki, we then got into our book groups and began to talk about our book. The object of this was first to just talk briefly about what was in the book, our likes and dislikes about reading it, and then the dificulties of reading it. Once we established all of this then we began to brainstorm on how we were going to do our mini-lessons. Things that we discussed in all groups were what pre-reading methods were going to be used for teaching the mini-lesson on the book. Many groups at first thought we were actually teaching the mini-lesson about the book but the whole point was to just do a lesson on strategies and ways you would introduce your book to students.

On Thursday we presented our mini-lessons. I thought in all that everyones lessons came out pretty good. There were some great ideas used in all the lessons. It was also nice that for the most part every group used a different strategy for introducing the book. We had a substitute for the class, whom I rather enjoyed, because he was quite the comedian. Danielle was rude to just about every person in the classroom even though she didn’t mean it. Dr. Jacobs, she wasn’t actually rude or anything, it’s more a joke so don’t get mad at her. We ended up leaving the class about 15 minutes early since we finished up early. Oh and lastley, we found out that I may be a math major but I still don’t know math. The class was pretty fun though and everything went very smoothly.

          The article I read this week was about a middle school in Maine that offers a clinic like a physicians office to students. Here students can get condoms, birth control, and testing for pregnancy and diseases. Some of the people in the article had a problem with this and others thought it was a great idea. I think that it is a good idea. Now days kids are so much more sexually active than they were say about 10 years ago. I have a little sister who is 15 and I hear some crazy things about how sexually active kids are in her grade, younger than her, and older than her. These things I never really heard of going on when I was her age that’s for sure. Although the clinic almost does say yes, it’s okay to be sexually active; kids are still going to explore whether the clinic is there or not. So why not protect the kids some? I don’t see what the big deal is at the school either since the only way a student can use the clinic is through the parents signature on a waiver done every school year. People need to just finally come to the realization that sexual activity is going on at a very young age now days. Half the reason is due to media and pressure. Something needs to be done to atleast try and protect these very uneducated kids and I think that this clinic is a good idea.

           The article that I read was about a student from a Cleveland school that went in to school and shot 2 teachers and 2 students before suicide. He did so after he was expelled for getting into a fight. If I were parents of the students of this school I would be livid. There were so many signs of this kid doing something like this and no one payed any attention. For instance, he bragged about plans to make targets of his tormentors, hespent time in detention centers due to violance, he has threatened to commit suicide while in a mental health facility, and he had been suspened from school before for physically harming another student. Maybe it is just me but something was obviously wrong with this student but what really amazes me is the fact that people in the article said how they never thought he would do something like this. Something definatley should have been done with this student sooner and now it is too late. Fortunatley though the teachers and students he did shoot are fine and didn’t die.

                    From what I got out of the equity article this country has a pretty large problem when it comes to our education systems. For the most part the places that need the most work done on them is the schools with high poverty rates. I also got out of this article that this country has fallen way behind in it’s educational success when it comes to comparing against other countries educational success. It really blew my mind to see that the US used to be the best educational country for many decades and now we have slipped to the 13th. I’m also really suprised that the most resources are spent on the wealthiest schools instead of the poorest schools. This is something that many other countries are doing opposite of and they are achieving much more than we are. Some reasons for our countries downfall in educational success have come through growing childhood poverty rates, homelessness, a lack of access to health care, and student needs. Something else that blew me away and actually makes me mad is the fact that two states spent nearly as much on prisons as they spent on higher education. I don’t understand why we should care and worry about prisons when our education systems are so poor right now. This article stated it correctley saying that, “Our future will be increasingly determined by our capacity and our will to educate all children well.” Right now I’m not convinced that everyone is thinking this way in our country. We need to focus on getting educational resources, skilled teachers, and quality curriculum to these high poverty educational facilities.

             This article was very helpful and informative. I found myself shocked by some things that were in it and also impressed. I totally agree with the statement that a teacher needs to be very supportive towards a student dealing with poverty. The statement that says “education is a way out of poverty and the goal is that you’re going to get into a 4-year university, and that is going to change your life” is a great support to the students. This kind of statement tells the student that you believe that they can learn, succeed, and that you are going to help them succeed. Telling these students the truth that school is hard work and they are going to have to work hardto succeed, I think is also good because this could create a trust between the student and the teacher. It was really interesting to hear the different ways that teachers use to help to help teach the poverty students how to act in society. Getting parents and other students involved is also a huge deal because it takes some pressure off the teacher, creates a greater learning community, and opens up new doors for everyone.

             The article, I Stand Here Ironing, made me mad. I place a low of blame on the mother for her daughter not succeeding. I don’t think that the mother didn’t try loving her daughter enough but she made horrible decisions. It really bothered me with the fact that they are living in poverty with the daughter not getting the care and food that she needs and the mother goes and has another child. I’m sorry but if you can’t support one child then what are thinking going and having another. Another thing that bothered me is that the mother said she wouldn’t make her daughter go to school and kept her from going sometimes. If the daughter doesn’t go to school then how is she going to have a chance to succeed. This would make it very difficult for a teacher to try and help this student succeed.

             I read from Page 183 to page 231 in the book. It was basically all about what this teachers class is like and what he is like. I was extremely suprised when I read some of the book. For example when he spoke about the lessons that he had where he had his junior clas students bring cook books into his class. I relly didn’t understand what it really had to do with English but it was also pretty cool because it was a lesson that would engage the students, be fun for them, and get the involved and participatin in class. These are all things that teachers need to do. I could tell that this was a good teacher and that he knew what it takes to be a good teacher. Through out the chapters he mentions a few different aspects. He states that teachers have to keep students involved, get their attention, and challenge them. He also says how he always shares stories with students which is good because it brings students closer to the teacher and that is why it seemed as though the kids were very comfortable with him and that they could tell him personal problems. The last thing I nticed is that his classroom seemed very stress free with a lot of deep thinking involved which also helps to create a class that is always involved.

                  The article that I read today was about teacher parent confrences. It was actually a pretty wastful articl I thought because it was more about how parents shouldn’t say anything to teachers when they are wrong. During the confrence a parent proved a teacher incorrect and then the student ended up doing poorly in the cass. It seemed like it was going to be a good and informing article but it turned out to have no good information or anything.

        Chapter 4 was primarily about textbooks/ books again, just as we read in the last two chapters. This time though it talks about how a teacher can bring different texts into their classrooms. They say how it doesn’t have to be an actual textbook but could be something of your content area that may be interesting to the students. When I read this I thought about my own content area and how I could do this. Then I came up with the example of the little puzzles of Sodoku. Something of this puzzle would be great for students in a classroom. It’s something that is challenging, makes students work with numbers, and it is actually a fun activity. Many of my teachers so far have talked about how a good teachers needs back up plans for when they end a lesson early and there isn’t anything to do. I felt this would be a great thing for a back up plan and fun activity for keeping your students thinking math and keeping them from getting out of control.

             Chapter 7 was about building a community based classroom. I feel that this is an extremely important thing for a good teacher to do. By making a good community based classroom there are so many good things that come out of it. One thing that comes out of it is that the classroom management will be better because the students won’t be acting out towards eachother so much. Another good thing that comes out of it is that the students will be more likely to want to be there instead of sitting there counting down the minutes until the class is over. What I think would make for the best thing to come out of it though is that it would make everyone get along and maybe participate more and not be scared to speak in the class. This is something that I have had trouble with before in classes. When I wasn’t in a class where I felt I didn’t know anyone and the teachers didn’t have a community based classroom, then I just always felt uncomfortable and wouldn’t participate ever. I believe that having a community based classroom is extremely important for both the students and the teachers success.

The New York Times article I read about was about the math and reading tests that students take through out school. They talked a little bit about the state tests and the national tests. They claimed that the national tests are better than the state tests. The whole article was mainly about how math scores have, for the most part, risen but the reading scores are on a downfall. Many people say that he reason for the rise is because of the No Child Left Behind Act but others claim that the math was on a rise before the law was made. I chose this article because it somewhat goes along with the article i read last week. I still feel that all schools base everything way too highly on tests. I don’t think that these national tests should mean that much when it comes to schools.Not everyone is as good at taking tests as others are.