"Chalk"- Part II

I must admit I was a little disappointed with the second part of "Chalk". It was not as funny as the first part. And the ending left me wanting more. Did the history teacher renew his contract? Did the AP quit being an AP? Who was that other guy who ate lunch with them all the time and fell flying a kite?

Austin, MN

Since the topic of SPAM was brought up today in class I thought I would educate everyone on a little SPAM knowledge I've picked up over the years.  My hometown (Austin, MN) has a second name... and that name my friends is SPAM TOWN USA!!!!!  Good old George C. Hormel lived in Austin and created SPAM there and now it is home to the SPAM Museum!

"Great" Educational Websites

edutopia

ed.gov

education.com

Barack Obama's View on Education

quotes on education

(will help motivate teachers and remind them why they teach)

"Chalk" Part I

I absolutely loved "Chalk".  It is probably my new favorite movie.  I love The Office and to have a teacher version that was almost as equally awkward and hilarious made my day.

One thing I learned from "Chalk" was that you need to have good classroom management.  If you don't have control over the classroom, the kids aren't going to be learning anything because they won't let you teach them.  They will be too busy running around the room, getting into fights, or talking on their cell phones.

The worse thing I saw in the film was the teacher who only cared about winning Teacher of the Year.  He actually told his students to not outshine him in front of the class, because he doesn't know that much about history.  I think that teachers should probably know a little about what they are talking about, and at least know more than the students do!  When he spoke with the woman who won the year before she said "the focus needs to be on the students, and not on the prize".  I think that is good advice for all teachers.  And really, isn't the prize to teaching the plain and simple fact that students are learning?

I really enjoyed the gym teacher.  She seamed like the best teacher to me.  I would have loved to have her a gym teacher.  I really enjoyed it when she was trying to explain that you need to believe in the children.  I think she said something along the lines of "the students are what they think you think they are", it is less confusing to just say "if you believe in the students, the students will believe in themselves".  The students do better and think that they can do better if someone else believes in them.  It relates to that wonderful little boy speaking to that group of teachers.

And lastly, again I hear it that teaching will exhaust you and you won't have time for a personal life.  Can't wait for that!

3/2/09

"Dalton Sherman Speaks" was so amazing.  This young boy walks out to the stage at what I assume is a teacher convention and speaks to them about believing.  Believing in the students, their coworkers, and themselves.  I hate to admit it but I honestly started crying because it was just so awesome.  When he said "You better not give up on us.  No, you better not.  Because I do know in some cases, you are all we've got.  You're the ones who feed us, who wipe our tears, who hold our hands, or hug us when we need it.  You're the ones who love us when sometimes it feels like no one else does; and when we need it the most."  That statement is sad, but like he said, in some cases, it is true.  He is one extraordinary young boy, and whoever helped him prepare for that speech did a good job!

I think if we trusted each and every student, school atmospheres would be a lot different.  I think the students would be more willing to learn and be well-behaved.  Sadly, this doesn't happen.  Students have reputations of bad behavior so at times teacher can automatically judge that and that is unfair.  A lot of students are struggling with believing in themselves and finding out who they are and what they are good at.  They need someone to believe in them.

Response to Mr. Chambliss:

I appreciate that Mr. Chambliss came to talk to us.  I feel like I did take some things from his talk.  First of all, the past 40 years of his career I thought were very impressive.  I thought it was interesting that he started out as an elementary school teacher and became a superintendent.  I especially thought it was interesting that he got his masters only after teaching for one year.  I greatly appreciate his advice on getting a masters degree and to not do the same thing for 41 years.  I know I will definitely take that to heart when I am a teacher.

Another major thing that I took from his talk was that things are pretty crazy in the world we live in now.  As teachers, we need to help bring better adults into the 21 century.  We need to prepare students to know how to problem solve and do critical thinking.  We need a new model for teaching and our generation is the one that has to come up with it.  Which kind of scares me but at the same time I want to do my part.  I know that part of teaching is not just teaching a certain subject but also teaching the students how to be good citizens of the society around them.

I enjoyed his last words/advice for us.  He said "a life of service provides you lots of rewards".  Being a teacher will drain me at times, and I can't save everybody, but it is a rewarding career.  And that is something I am excited about, because I have already experienced a small part of the reward of teaching during my Ed 185 course.

Are One-to-One Laptop Programs Worth the Investment?

The article "Are One-to-One Laptop Programs Worth the Investment?" did not persuade my opinion on third graders having personal laptops.  I personally believe that it is unnecessary to have one-to-one computers in the classroom.  I understand that it may be helpful for a more hands-on approach to learning, but I also believe that it causes more harm then good. 

Technology is rapidly growing and I understand that today's children will be living in a highly technological world (even more so than we are living in right now), but I don't think schools need to teach them how to use a computer.  My first computer class was in the 6th grade, and I knew how to use a computer better than my parents even before I took the class!  Kids today know how to use technology, I have no idea how, but they do.  I don't think their parents need to buy them a laptop to take to school, unless they are going to college.

Schools don't need to spend money on buying laptops when that money could be better spent on other things.  Art and music classes are not being provided in some areas because of financial reasons.  Do we want our children to know how to blog or play a game on the internet?  Or do we want them to appreciate a painting, or struggle through music theory?  We should want our children to be well-rounded.  As a younger student I loved music and art class.  I would probably love goofing around on computers during class too.  It is easy to say "No playing games on the computer during class."  However, that rule can not be enforced every single second of the class period.  How would the teacher even know?

Lastly, who is going to trust a third grader with a laptop? Those things are expensive!  My hard drive just crashed and I did not enjoy spending the money to buy a new one and have someone replace it.  If each child had their own personal laptop, I can just imagine how many "accidental" things could happen to it.  The students can understand that a laptop is expensive and they should be careful.  But accidents do happen.  A lot.  Especially with the younger ages.

Reflection on the New Teacher Panel

The new teacher panel, for me, was not very helpful.  I appreciate that they took their time to talk to us, but a lot of what was discussed I had already heard (my mom is a teacher) or could assume for myself from the things I have learned in classes.  I did think their view on teaching in a small school was interesting because that might be something I am interested in doing.

I did think it was kind of sad that students these days are not healthy and have low self-esteem.  Things are way different than when I was in elementary, middle, or even high school.  It is so sad that all kids know how to do is use the computer or play a video game.  I was outside getting dirty and getting bruises when I was in elementary school, not going on the internet on my personal laptop.

Paper Clips

I thought the movie "Paper Clips" was very touching and emotional. However, not until the last five or ten minutes did I find out that students actually learned something from the project.

It was nice to see the journey that the students and teachers went through. It certainly was exciting. I think it would be pretty neat to get a letter from the dad in Happy Days. I am definitely jealous of their experience with the Holocaust survivors. I think that that was one of the most emotional parts of the film, when it showed the survivors telling their personal stories.

As far as relating the film to educational psychology...
I do not think that the teachers were very knowledgeable in the subject prior to the start of the project. I do, however, think that they did a good job of motivating and working effectively with the students. I think that the teachers took a constructivist approach in their teaching because the students did a lot of research on their own. I also think that of all the ecucational philosophers, Dewey would do a project like this. I also think that when the teachers started this project they didn't really know where it was going to go. I don't think there was any long-term planning, or any short-term planning. I think there was really really short-term planning.

I think, though, that it was a good thing what these students and teachers did. They started out trying to learn about diversity, and the learned that plus much more. They touched the lives of many people. That was not the aim of the project once it started, but that is what happened.
I like that their memorial is used for other schools to come and have the students teach them about what they learned.

Teaching Abroad Speaker 2/3/09

Teaching abroad is something I am a little interested in so I went to the speaker on 2/3/09.
Something he said caught my attention right away: "Overseas education is one of the best kept secrets in the world".

We watched a video on the Singapore American School. Since I am interested in teaching middle school I thought it was pretty crazy that just their middle school has over 900 students. The video approached the transition from America to teaching abroad at the Singapore American school by saying that you would be treated like royalty your first month. Meaning, people will help you set up your bank account, show you around, discuss the benefits, basicly help you out in the new setting away from home. The housing in Singapore is very modern and is equally as nice as living in the United States.

I was surprised at the perks of teaching abroad:
-it is easy to travel
-competative salaries
-at some schools there is an allowance for housing as well as an anual amount of home leave!
-things are different in other countries: the kids go to school because they actually want to learn!

The things that are not so great about teaching abroad:
-no job security (no union)

Something that I thought was very interesting was that our speaker told us that of his time spent abroad and in the United States, one person was expelled in 15 years while he was abroad but he could see 19 students expelled in one year here in the US.