1. Why do so many students describe their educational experiences as boring?
I believe that so many students describe their educational experiences as boring because the topics or learning is not of their interest. Although not every subject or topic is interesting, there are some topics that can be adapted to be fun. Then there are others that there is not much one can do to make it better. I agree with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who "describes when he says we can “do no better than to call for . . . the opportunity for young people to experience intense concentration in any activity that requires skill and discipline, regardless of its content.” I try my best to make each lesson entertaining and always use realia. I've seen that when students can relate it to their own life, it suddenly grabs their attention, and helps them remember and comprehend the content with ease. I also believe that all content begins with the teacher in building relationship, making the content relevant and rigorous. For example, when I am working on practicing our spelling words on independent white boards or sheets. I first dictate the words, then have them show me their answers for immediate feedback. If students did not get the word correct, they need to rewrite the word correctly to learn how to write it the correct way. I believe this meets all three things for second graders because of the immediate feedback and having them rewrite the word correctly. 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? I could have an internship in any area, I would love to have it in a successful dual immersion school. I would love to have a mentor that does not see other teachers as competition, that is willing to clearly show and share things that are working for them. I would like to see a mentor that helps kids think. A mentor who teaches their students how to learn to identify and how to come up with a solution and see it through. I would like to see what it looks like to truly be not a perfect teacher because we all make mistakes but a teacher great teacher who gives it their all. During my Bachelors and Credential program, I felt like I only observed what not to do and not really What I can do and what good true teaching is.
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1. Imagine you’ve found out that a kid you know is really interested in astronomy (or cooking, or video games, or fashion, or baseball, or music, or police work, or whatever). How would you help her go into depth in this area? What might she learn by exploring her interest more deeply?
I teach second grade so students still have a while to do many activities to what their interest are. Meaning they can't go out and do things for themselves. They highly depend on their parents or guardians to help them take those steps to their interest. When I find out what a students interest are, I do my best to relate what we learn as much as possible to their interest. That way what we learn becomes of interest and a better and easier way for students to retain information. Other ways that I would help my student go into depth in this area is by finding reading books of their interest so they can see, read, and have a better understanding of their interest. Things that they might learn by exploring their interest are what it takes to be or get to what there interest are, how to start or have an idea of what do. I love to have students share their interest or activities, I also try to ask frequently. I want them to know that I care about them and interested in what they do. 5. Is there anything you always cut out, file, jot down into a note-book, or add to the pile on your desk? What is it, and why do you save it? I find myself now as an adult/teacher I do this a lot more. Not only because I forget things because of my age lol but because it is always nice to have things to reference back to. I always save or make copies of use ideas, anchor charts, strategies, steps that can help me teach my students with particular lesson. As well as for personal use . As a teacher, their is a lot of collaboration being done with other teachers. Teachers always have different strategies or work that is different and might have a different effect than what one was doing. I save these types of things because whether it might or might not work for me one year it might not another. Every year a teacher has different level of students and different learning styles. I always want to be prepared for any situation. Tell about a time where something you learned motivated you to learn more. What
implications does this have for education? I would have to say that the time where something I learned motivated me to learn more or at least that I can remember was until college. Learning more about the Spanish language and the proper, educational way really intrigued me to improve my Spanish and become a better reader, writer, and speaker. I remember always being laughed at because I did not speak it clearly enough. People who live in Mexico ask me, “you aren’t from here huh?” I would always ask why and they would answer because I would get stuck in certain words or they would say I wouldn’t really open my mouth fully to say the words. Also because I would say things like “parqueadero” instead of “estacionamento” which means parking. So when I really had the chance to fully understand my language I started to incorporate at home. I remember asking my parents why they would never correct me for saying things wrong. My parents responded that they knew what I was referring to so they never thought anything of it. Another time was when I was learning History, we learned about our ancestors who were in the Bracero Program and Women when giving birth at hospital were always put to do a c section. The doctors would wrongfully tie their tubes without the women's consent so that they would no longer get pregnant. When Learning about all of this, it made me reflect on my own family since my grandfather was in the Bracero Program. It made me think about how many families of Mexican descent were wrongfully treated. Furthermore, things that were of my interest or things that I was able to relate to not only made learning intriguing but also made me dig further and enjoy what I was learning. To this day, in my own class I do my best to incorporate realia to everything I do. That way I can make learning for my students intriguing, fun, and something my students will remember. Write down what you believe are the most important things every child should learn. Ask your colleagues and friends to do the same. What is different? What is the same? Are our schools ensuring that children are learning these things? When thinking about what I believe are the most important things that every child should learn, it made me put things into categories like educationally and as a person. In school I believe that every student, according to the current constant standards and what needs to be taught is foundational skills like learning their letter and sounds, reading fluently, and writing. As a person I think students have forgotten manners and social skills. After speaking with a couple of colleagues I found that many thought of education right away and that is where there were similarities. We spoke about how for many students it will be hard for them if they do not have their foundational skills mastered. The differences that I found was that some also thought about what students should learn as a person. Things that were mentioned were emotional skills, regulation, collaboration with others, learning how to work together, forming and reforming groups, tolerance of differences with others when working together, and patience. I feel like teachers nowadays have so much on our plates, that we constantly have to wear and change different hats. We are no longer just teachers, but also therapists, caregivers,and more. I feel like schools are not ensuring or do not care if students are learning these things. Practically all students whether they have mastered or not their learning are just moving them up. Setting them up for failure due to not mastering their foundational skills. All that they care for is for the money they receive from each student. Do you and your colleagues share the same philosophy or vision about your school or workplace? Why or why not? How does this influence the way you work together and think about your work?
I believe all my colleagues agree that everything that is done is for and about the students. Within my team, there are three of us. I would say that our vision of the work place is about the same but the how that is done is where I think there starts to be difference. This effects how we work together because she likes to do things her way on her own. In a way, as well does not like completely share what and the how she does things. At times, we feel like its a competition with the classes or quality in the teaching. The other colleague and myself share our work and discuss our highs and lows. Especially during the time we had Distance learning, we created our lesson and shared them with each other. We wish we would have this trust and work ethic with the veteran teacher, but we accept the help we can get from her when she wants to give it. 4. Think of a story you know about the various “communities” in your life: your school, your neighborhood, your workplace, or even your family. What does that story reveal about the community’s culture and values? When I think about my schools that I attended, my neighborhood, workplace and especially family. I see that that they culture and values everything leads to respect and discipline. Always do what you are told. Listen and don't talk back. Always follow the rules. We were aloud to have fun and play as long as we followed the rules. As I am writing this, I would say I took the strictness to my classroom. It's not because I want to feel in charge, but for safety of all students, structure, and to build relationships within each other and respect. Every school year, I had my my students think and create our class rules. I have seen that students hold each other accountable, since they are rules they created themselves. your work? If our society committed itself to the idea that we care about kids more than we
care about schools, what would need to change? Society always wants the best and says to care for kids more than to care more about schools but some are not willing to do what it takes to really fulfill that. I believe that for many teachers, counselors, and administrations, have been put a hold to do politics, content standards, grading. I think the main thing that should change is like in chapter 2 of the “The Big Picture” is that “ we measure what we can measure not what we should or even want to measure”(34). Teachers are to teach certain things and have students get close to/ master what is being taught. Teachers rarely have time to teach social and emotional skills to help them understand, and love themselves. I believe the first two to three months is when teachers really have that time to not only teach classroom management, rules, and icebreakers for students to get to know each other and feel comfortable in the classroom. But also other things that involve teaching the students about themselves, life, and self care. A second thing is having counselors do my workshops shops than just talking about bullying. If you agree that the ability to believe in yourself and to love learning are important skills schools should teach, how would you go about teaching them? The ability to believe in yourself and to love learning are important skills that should be taught. I believe the keyword to build that is the word “yet”. I always tell my kiddos That they are students and they are in school to learn. That mistakes will happen and that It is ok to make them as long as we learn from them and do our best to master them. They Learn that that they might not know something YET but with hard work they will. It is A great feeling when students master something that they didn’t know before. It not only Brings great confidence to my students but also the courage to keep on going and approach New challenges. You can definitely see that shock and joy in the students faces when They master a challenge. 3. What is your reaction to Dewey’s statement that “education is not preparation for life; education is life itself”?
My reaction to Dewey’s statement is that “education is not preparation for life; education is life itself” is positive. It reminded me of the class discussion of why innovation is important and needed. That the world is constantly changing, adding new things each and everyday. Whether it is with technology, work, or different thinking strategies. As for myself, that is why I believe that education is life itself because we never stop learning new things to make our daily lives more interesting, easier, and less time consuming and stressful. As a teacher we are constantly learning to keep up with all new strategies, social skills, and curriculum that are continuously adapting and changing to the new life. As well as making all the teaching fun, interesting, and in a manner that is easy to understand. So that students are able to reference back to when trying to find solutions. As stated in the text, “the only really substantial thing education can do is help us to become continuous, lifelong learners.” As a professional and as for our own person and personal use. It doesn’t matter whether we learn from a professor or through a book, audio, podcast newsletter. As long as we are learning something new and implementing what we learned we are adding new knowledge to our brain bank. This statement not only made me reflect as a teacher but as for myself, as a wife that I am, and sister, daughter, and now aunty. It made me reflect if I am putting in my own work to constantly learn new things that will benefit me to always help my family in the best way possible. As a professional, it really made me reflect on what I have been teaching, if I am just teaching what is on the lesson and not really thinking on why am I teaching this. Is this and will this be useful in my students' life as a child and adult. I will start to pay more attention to the purpose of what is being learned and adapt it to what is beneficial for my kids in their learning and not what a textbook wants them to follow. 4. Do you agree that “learning is personal”? If so, how would you go about explaining the concept to someone who may not be as convinced? I believe this is exactly where I was leading to in what question three made me reflect on as a teacher. Robert J. Sternberg said “In higher education, there is often a huge split between what we are taught and expected to learn, and what is actually important “out there”. I believe one clear example that I’ve heard throughout the years is that why do students have to learn PIE? When would you ever use PIE outside of the classroom. That is not making learning personal, it is just information that we memorize at the moment and really won’t use it outside of the classroom. I do agree that learning is personal, I would say in my own words that it is when you are able to take something that you learned and apply it to your daily life. It is not just a one way, one stop for only one thing. If we can use the knowledge we have and what we learned then we just made our learning not only personal but meaningful. We should be able to use what we learned and be able to figure out how to identify and how that something can be solved. |
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