Teaching is great!

Melissa Kelly suggests that teaching is a special calling. Student potential and success are her first two reasons to become a teacher and I have to agree. A significant experience that has clarified my commitment to children and teaching is the result of a particular event that I personally had when I was in elementary school. I can remember back when I was in the fifth grade; I had a teacher whom I looked up to. My third grade teacher provided me comfort in a time of need. She was extremely patient, kind, and understanding to me. During this particular period she would spend extra time with me during her lunch and after school to go over any academic or personal items I was struggling with and wished to discuss. Now that I am older, I look back realizing the time she took to spend with me during a complicated part of my life has affected me very deeply and has a strong influence. In a season that was full of chaos, my teacher provided a helping hand of encouragement. My goal to become an elementary school teacher is so I too can make a difference in the life of a child. The imprints that she and many other teachers left upon me are the same I would like my future students to remember, and be guided by.

The importance of diversity in the classroom

Unfortunately there are no universal solutions for responding to race, gender, socioeconomic class, religion, sexuality, disabilities, religion, and cultural diversity in the classroom. However, I do believe that it is important to treat each student as an individual, and respect each student for who he or she is. One step in assisting children in having a positive feeling about racial and cultural identity is by displaying diversity in the classroom setting. For example, at one time I worked in a child developmemt center that contained only white dolls and books reflecting one religious view. Children will notice when the only dolls there are to play with are not similar to their own appearance, which does not help children of color feel good about themselves. Books, toys, and images that relect physical, racial, and cultural diversity help all children feel positive about their differences; therefore, I will make it a personal goal of mine to remove materials and visuals that promote sterotypes and replace them with images of the children’s families in my classroom. If the group of student’s that I am teaching is not cultural diverse, I will display images of diversity from the community, different nations, or U.S. society.

Another experience that I had while volunteering in a first grade classroom demonstrated how the teacher was using the month of December to discuess Hanukkah. It was great to teach the children another religious view, but what a great opportunity it could have been to ask all the children in the classroom about their holiday traditions. This experience got me thinking how I would have done it differently if I could have taught the lesson. Charting the children’s response to their holiday practices whould show how different cultures express similar ideas. Furthermore, this idea could be expanded with a variety of topics; such as, the celebration of birthdays in other families, how love or time is demonastrated, the different names that are used for particular family members (grandparents, siblings, parents, ect.), or common music and dances from other cultures.

These are just a few examples of how flexible teachers must be in order to implement practices that efficiently meet the needs of each student to ensure personal and academic success.

Academic success for the ESL student

Working with English language learners is a reality in the teaching field and becoming more common in Josephine and Jackson county. I found this really cool web site that offers helpful hints, lesson plans, handouts, and other resources that can be used in the classroom when working with ESL students. Although it is inevitable that I will have ESL students in my classroom and it will be my job to assist these students to the best of my ability , I do believe there is too much of an emphasis placed on the schools to get ESL children mainstreamed as quickly as possible. Language should been seen as an individual right. I believe schools should not encourage a family to speak only English if it is not the home language, in order to keep parent child communication lines open with one another. My idea about ELL students was to have more effective ESL programs in schools to better equip students. However, I currently see the ability to be bilingual as an asset and it saddens me to watch many school systems suppress language minority students instead of utilizing these languages for educational, economic, commercial, and political growth. If funding was not an issue I would like to see more programs that support home language instruction along with English instruction, with the end result of these programs being bilingualism and biculturalism.

Integrating Technology

Why use technology in the classroom? Is it really an effective learning tool or are there problems that may arise by integrating the Internet into the classroom? The article by Melissa Kelly shares concerns, but also gives solutions. The Internet is never going away, in fact I am sure the newest technology will be the bulk of how students are taught in the future. In the mean time teachers need to be aware of the problems that they will be confronted with by using the Internet as a teaching tool. Cheating, parental objections, plagiarism, and time are just several of the concerns that the article discusses. The time concern really relates to my challenges of using technology in my classroom. My eight year old son can probably navigate through the Internet better than I can. It takes me forever to learn new techniques on the computer and I don't know if I will have the time to implement technology into my classroom on top of being a mother, wife, and fulfill all my other teaching duties. However, the article suggests trying one project a year, which is something that I think I can handle. I am aware that sooner rather than later I need to get over my fears because technology being implemented into every classrooms is inevitable. I do think that computers can be an assest to the learning student if integrated correctly and used after addressing all other concerns that go along with using the Internet in the classroom. I also believe that children are truly intersted in computers and this can be an easy way of getting children excitied about learning.

Top 10 Worst Things a Teacher Can Do

I can't tell you how many times I have seen a teacher stop a lesson in order to confront a student about a problem, usually talking in class or not paying attention. Kelly does not go into detail about what she considers a minor infraction to be. However, she does discuss not being a door mat and not giving the control over to the students. So my question is if you let students inappropriately disrupt your lesson and not address the situation immediately how is that not giving students the control over your classroom? I don't believe in purposely humiliating students in front of the entire group, but there are times when things need to be addressed so everyone in the class realizes what you, as the teacher, are expecting from their behavior.

Furthermore, I realize a tough stance should be established from the beginning, but teachers not smiling, come on, really? I sure don't want to intimidate my students, especially because I am planning on teaching younger grades. The first couple of days of school can be frightening for children and I want to be able to connect with my students for their success, not scare them away.

Art in the classroom

As a future teacher I think that it is important to be aware of the many challenges that we will be faced with in the classroom, which includes dealing with children and their emotional issues. One teacher has found a way to promote art therapy techniques to diagnose stress. I believe that it is critical to have art incorporated into a teachers weekly curriculum, especially in elementary classrooms.
Although as teachers we are not trained to have actual "art therapy" sessions with our students, only a licensed art therapist who is properly trained can help foster a true art therapy experience. However, the process of making art can help children overcome physical and emotional problems by using creative outlets to express their emotions. Art therapy is used on the belief that this creative process involved in the making of art is healing and life enhancing. There are various forms of art therapy such as: drawings, painting, sculpture, collage, sand, puppets, clay, mask or wand making. Art provides a way for young children to express the unspoken words of emotional conflicts in a healthy manner. It also provides children an opportunity to use art when words are not enough. Sometimes events in a child’s life are so traumatic or painful that words do not begin to express their feelings. Children may also have experiences in which they have not yet acquired the adult vocabulary to describe what happened. That is why it is so important to have specific classroom time set aside to allow children the time to express themselves through different types art media.

No Child Left Behind Act

I came across the Fact Sheet: No Child Left Behind Act presented by President Bush and I think that the Bush administration intended NCLB to improve the academic achievement of all students attending the nation’s public schools, with a particular focus on children of low income families and disabilities. However, sometimes things look better on paper, then when actually implemented in real life scenarios. Becuase the federal government has spent billions of dollars in order to improve public schools and this investment in education has not reduced the achievement gap between well-off and lower-income students or between minority students and non-minority students, I believe that changes need to be made.

If or when the Act is reauthorized I think standardized tests need to stop being treated like the precise instruments they are not because they do not adequately reflect a student’s abilities. Currently, the one-size-fits all assessment requirements in reading and math force teachers to teach “to the test.” This not only promotes bad educational practices, gets in the way of creative instruction and impedes learning, but it also does not accommodate the many different types of learning styles. There needs to be different consequences under NCLB’s accountability sanctions for schools and teachers. Teachers can be accountable in many different ways. A reauthorized NCLB should exclude any provision linking student test scores to teacher compensation. Furthermore, NCLB does not authorize nearly enough funding to meet the new requirements that are supposed to eliminate all test-score gaps by the 20013-14 school year. In fact, all mandates made by the federal government should be paid for at 100 percent because currently they are not fully funded. Finding the right balance is going to play a large role to the No Child Left Behind Act and the future of Education in the United States.