Group 9 Presentation

Group 9 did their presentation on 21st century schools. They showed a video clip on how far behind the United States is in regard to 21st century skills that we should have today in this society, and how important it is to engage students by using these skills. The key for effective teaching is motivating students, if students are motivated they will have positive attitudes abouts school and will want to achieve. They also interviewed a SPED teacher and asked her how she keeps her students motivated. She said she uses a preffered item strategy. She uses it to give the students insentives to want to achieve. Teachers should also plan effective teaching by selecting topics important to all students so they will all benefit. Some essential teaching skills they mentioned were organization, focus, feedback, and caring. I think these are all very important, but the one that really sticks out to me is caring because I think it's so crucial in creating a great learning enviorment is letting your students know you care. Group 9 did a great job introducing some great ways to keep students motivated and creating an effective teaching style.

Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor

By: Tori Altermatt & Stefanie Pearson

Should Minnesota Teachers be Tenured?

            Much controversy has been stirred up about whether or not teachers should be tenured. There are many benefits to the teacher tenure, but I believe the negative aspects out weight the benefits. The tenure contract does not take into consideration the quality of the teachers. This allows teachers to become complacent and less motivated to improve their teaching style. We need to think about the students first. Are they receiving the best education possible, and are the teachers who are responsible for these students highly qualified?

Unfortunately in many schools, this is not the case. There are a great amount of schools that will get rid of their new teachers, even if their great, simply because they are not tenured. This negatively impacts recent teacher college graduates. Schools are not as willing to hire newer teachers, who many times, have great fresh ideas and could benefit these students greatly. In many cases, new teachers will be hired and right before they are tenured they will get laid off. I have witnessed this personally. One of my friends would be getting his tenure contract next year, but they recently sent him a notification saying his contract will not be renewed next year. This is because he was one of the two teachers to be hired last into the system and he currently does not have his tenure. The school didn’t take into consideration how well his students are progressing and how effective his teaching is. The only aspect that was looked at was whether or not he was tenured. Now tell me, how does this benefit the students?

Teachers should be kept because they are great teachers. One bad teacher can put a child behind for the rest of their schooling, but on the other hand a great teacher can send a student above and beyond what is expected of them. Statistics say that a bad teacher will teach about 50% of the required material and a good teacher will teach about 150% of the curriculum. Good teachers are able to go above and beyond what is asked of them, taking initiatives to give the students the best future possible. The impact loosing these teachers is huge on these students’ lives. The tenure contract is in no way encouraging the school systems to keep their really great teachers.

Good teachers should be rewarded not punished by getting fired simply because they are not tenured. We need to reward teachers whose students are making progress and show improvements in teaching each year. Instead of giving them a tenure year contract we need to think about a system that rewards teachers like giving them raises if they are making visible improvements. I also feel we need to better prepare our future teachers so these students do not continue to fall behind. Teachers should be observed and critiqued intensely throughout their whole career. For example, teachers in Finland receive a great amount of experience and feedback throughout their training. They also require high standards in regards to getting accepting into the teaching program. Citizens in Finland find it to be a privilege to become a teacher. In the United States it seems that the bar isn’t set very high for future teachers. Finland must be doing something right since they rank amongst the highest nationally on the PISA tests. So, I think instead of continuing to do the same things in our education systems we need to look at what’s working in other countries in regards to preparing teachers since we are continually falling behind and we need to take another look at how the teacher tenure is impacting the students.

Science Express

http://www.facebook.com/scienceexpress

Today we got to go on the Science Express. The Science Express is a laboratory on wheels that bring hands-on experience in science, technology, engineering and math to K-12. I thought this was a really great experience for us future teachers because I think it's really great for us to be introduced to new, fun ideas such as the science express. I think this is a wonderful way to get students excited about science/ math, which are in high demand right now in the United States. We did a few experiments with pipettes and chemicals; it was fun to test out the equipment. We also got to use little devices that test how much force you are using to squeeze this device using your hand and thumb. It also had a graph on the device, which is really great for students to help understand and analyze graphs. I'm really glad I got the opportunity to see the science express and hopefully I can take my students on it someday :)

Group Eight Presentation

Group eight talked about some really great ideas for classroom management and things you can do to make your classroom a warm welcoming enviroment. They talked about the daily five, which I actually experienced through my field experience, it worked really great for the students. It helped them work independently while the teacher worked with a group of students. Some ways they discussed to make your students feel welcomed is: calling them by their first names, asking them how they are doing, giving them extra time for help if they need it, and involving students in lesson plans. They showed a test that students can take so you can be aware of students different learning styles. I thought this was a really good way to try to meet each students individual needs. They brought up a great discussion on smart boards. Many classrooms are using these so I think it's really important that we all learn how to use one. The group also talked about the importance of parental involvment. It's important for parents and teachers to work together to provide a productive learning enviroments. This can give kids a positive attitude about school, higher long-term achievement, more willing to do homework, and they would be more likely to go graduate and go to college. The final aspect they talked about misbehavior intervention. As teachers, we need to be aware of what's going on in our classroom at all times. It's also important to preserve students dignity, we need to make sure we are handling behaviors in a respectful way. Being consistent with our rules and guidelines is also very important. I think this group did a great job going over this chapter and gave some really great ideas we could all use in our classrooms.

Class Discussion Questions

Advantages/disadvantages of tenure...
*Some advantages are that you have job security. You also may be more willing to speak up on issues because you are way less likely to get cut when you are tenured. Some disadvantages are that teachers who aren't effect are less likely to get cut even when they should be and new fresh teachers are more likely to get cut.

Religion in Schools...
* I think teachers should be very careful about what they discuss regarding religion because there are many students who will have many different religious beliefs and it's important not to offend anyone. Teachers should welcome all religions and it's their job to make students feel welcomed.

Corporal punishment in schools...
*I don't believe that corporal punishment should be allowed in any schools. I think teachers should use positive reinforcement to encourage good behavior instead of reinforcing their negative behavior.I think if teachers use positive reinforcemenet it will also create respect between the student and the teacher creating better classroom management.

Group Seven Presentation

Group seven did their presentation on chapter 10- School Law. They discussed the U.S legal system and how some aspects such as constitutional amendments that play into school laws. They showed a news clip on facebook and where the lines should be drawn in regards to becoming friends between teachers and students. I think teachers should simple not be friends with their students on facebook or even their parents. This comes into play when asking "what is ethical?" I don't think that students and teachers should have that type of relationship outside of school. I think this could take away from the respect aspect and very likely could put your job on the line. They also showed a clip on the Wisconsin protests. They also did an interview with a man who was a principal in a Wisconsin about the protests that are going on there. He talked about how everyone has come together to get the best for the students and their education.

Finland vs. United States Teacher Prep...

Finland is the highest ranked country in the world in regards to education standards. Families in Finland value education and have many of the same goals for their children. School in Finland is relaxed and casual, student's address teachers by their first names. Their schools are much smaller than the average school in the United States, this gives teachers a better chance to give each student attention and time. The classes in Finland really encouraged students to think rather than memorize.Once students get into their upper classes they have a choice to go on a technical and vocational track or a more general education track.
* To be able to become a teacher in Finland you must have good grades to even get accepted into the college. If they are accepted, they also have to do well on the entrance examination to get into the teaching program.
*People in Finland have a five year program to become a teacher, they are required to get their masters.
*When training the teachers in Finland, they get a great deal of classroom experience and coaching from professors and teachers.

Philosophy of Education

In class we took a test that exames your philosophy of education. There are four different categories: Perennialism, essentialism, progressivism, and social reconstructionism. I scored the highest on social reconstructionism. This is the idea that teachers believe in asking social questions, questions about society. It's about improving the world around them and making students think critical and make their own conclusions. I scored the next highest on progressivism. Progressivism is a student centered way of learning. The idea that you learn by doing or doing  hands- on scienetific experiements for example. I think both of these philosophies really benefit the students in the long run. Learning in these types of ways teaches students skills they will need throughout their lives, instead of just memorize material for tests. Doing this survey made me think about what I really want my philosophy to be, it's somethings I never really thought in depth about, but I think it's really important to understand what your goals are through teaching.

The Type of Teacher I Want to Be.....

I want to be the kind of teacher who makes a huge impact on the student's lives. The type of teacher where you look back and think of all the great memories you had in that class. I think making learning fun and interesting for the student's is really important. I know I specifically have great memories of my 2nd grade teacher because he put a huge prioritiy in making sure the student's were engaged and having fun. He would have us play a lot of games and do different activities to change things up. I know that you can't always do "fun" things in school, but I really want to try and make my classroom as fun and inviting as possible. I also want to be a caring and understanding teacher. I want student's to feel comfortable talking to me when they have a problem. Letting your student's know that you care is so important in creating a good learning enviroment for everyone. finally, I hope to become better educated with in helping student's with exceptional needs. I plan to get a minor in special education because I think it's really important that I know how I can help these student's since I will always have a variety of student's with many different needs, these student's deserve to get a great education just as much as any other student does. I look forward to getting into my student teaching and learning new ways to become the best teacher that I possibly can.

Students First Website

http://www.studentsfirst.org/

The website, studentsfirst.org, is a website that strives for a movement to transform public education. It's lead by Michelle Rhee, who is the former Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools. When a new mayor was hired Michelle Rhee was let go, but instead of stopping her fight to change the educational system she decided to start the "student's first" website and organization, she started this because of the huge demand for a better educational system in America. One of the huge issues is that unions are putting the teachers first instead of the students. The goal of this  mission is to put the "students first" and imporve the quality of the education they are recieving. We watched a video in class where Michelle Rhee explained the goals of the mission and introduce a petition that can be sigined on the website to get things started. There is clearly a problem with our education system and I think this is a great website, and hopefully will be the start to some much needed impovements and changes.

Group Six Presentation

Group six did their presentation on school governance. They sent around a really interesting booklet on Anoka-Hennepins finances. It was a good example for us to see and how schools might decide how the money will be spent. Levies are also something that many schools ask for to pay for past debts, this is voted on by the community. The biggest issue for funding inequity is that each school district has different needs. They also had a group discussion about how we could fix school funding issues. It's such an important topic, yet very hard to think of a solution.
They also brought up the idea of alternatives to local control. Instead of having school boards some cities are appointing the Mayor of the city to take control over their school district. I have never heard of this so I found it interesting that some schools are actually doing this. An example of this was in the movie we watched "Waiting for Superman," when Michelle took over the schools, this was a very controversal issue because many people in the community did not like the decisions she was making, especially when she tried to take the tenure away from teachers. On the other hand, some schools think this idea works great saying schools tend to run more efficeintly and budgets are  balanced. They interviewed  Finacial officer of Anoka-Hennepin School District- Michelle Vargas. She gave some really good information and opinions on what needs to change in the financial part of school districts.
The final aspect they went over was schools choices and the pros and cons that come along with the different schools. Schools such as public, private, charter, and KIPP schools. We also watched a video clip on charter/KIPP schools. At the end the group handed out crossword puzzle on the material they covered. Overall I think this group did a really good job, I was introduce to many things I wasn't familar with and got me thinking about what needs to be changed in our schools in regards to budget.

Waiting For Superman

We watched the movie, "Waiting For Superman" in class. I thought this was a really good movie. It covered many things in our education system that need to be changed and things we need to focus on. The movie also focused on some students in Washington D.C who were looking into getting into Charter schools. These students were not receiving a great education, so they applied to charter schools. Each school had a lottery to pick which students would be accepted. Only two out of the five students were picked to be enrolled in the schools. It was really difficult to see how hurt these students and their families were. This made me realize how fortunite I was to not have to worry about my education it was just something that I guess many of us take for granted. This movie opened my eyes to the flaws in the United States education stystem. For example, we are not able to get rid of bad teachers because of the tenure contracts that many teachers have. I think if we got rid of the tenure and based pay off of performance, like Michelle suggested in the movie, this would improve teaching and encourage teachers to put time and effort into such an important part of a child's future-their education. We clearly need to change our priorities, it shouldn't be about the adults, it should be about the students.

Group Five Presentation

Group five did their presentation on chapter eight: The Organization of American Schools. They showed us two really interesting news video clips. The first one was on virtual schools, many people are saying we could get rid of teachers and have all online learning. I don't really agree with this because I know I learn best when I am in class, it's really hard for me to learn something if i'm reading it over the internet, especially math. I think this idea would also be really crucial because it would lack the social interaction skills all children need to be successful in life. It may be an options for some kids, but not everyone can learn like that. The other video they showed was about all day kindergarten. Many schools were switching from half days to all days. This idea was nothing new to me because ever since I can remember my school had all day kindergarten. I think it is really helpfull for students and gets them prepared for 1st grade. Group five also mentioned some ways schools could be set up, like a four day week instead of the traditional 5 day weeks. I actually think this idea would be nice because it gives teachers the chance to do bigger projects and have more time for lessons. I think it would be really nice for students to have a longer weekend and get refreshed. This way I think they would be more ready to learn after the long break when they come back to school. This also gives a free day for teachers and students to make appointments and do other extra activities. In the long run it  should help cut back on the school budget. I have never attended a school like this, but I think it would be really interesting to see how it worked. I think group five did a great job with their presentation and it was interesting to hear the different ways schools could be organized because I wasn't familar with a lot of them.

School Organization

The school that I attended was Wabasso Public High School. I attended this school from pre-school until 12th grade. Starting with pre-school we had the option of going full days or half days. My mom decided to have me go for only half days in pre-school. In Kindergarten all the students attending for full days. Throughout elementary we only had one class for each grade so I was always with the same classmates. Wabasso considered k-6 to be elementary, 7th & 8th grade was junior high, and 9th-12th grade was high school. Once we were in 7th grade the students from the catholic school joined our class so we then had two sections instead of just one. Wabasso also followed a traditional school year. Class started at 8 and ended at about 3, this gave students a lot of time for extra activities after school, like sports. My school also had the three months in summer off. Since that's all I grew up with it's really hard for me to imagine what it would be like to have school all year. I'm not sure if I would really like that because I know the summer is when I made a lot of memories with my friends since we were all off in the summers. The only thing that I think would really be nice about school all year is that students would maybe remember the material better if they didn't have such a big break in between.

2 Million Minutes

I thought the movie 2 Million Minutes was very interesting and eye opening. It's very clear that schools in the United States are very different then the schools in China or India. Americans don't seem to be aware of the world around them and that they are competeing with the rest of the world. The first thing that really shocked me was how much time Americans spent on homework compared to the other schools. The average student in America spends about one hour a night on homework and this does not include weekend. Instead of having our main focus be academics we put a lot of emphasize on our athletics and social lives. The kids who are interviewed from the U.S admitt that they don't put a ton of time into studying and their school work, but the one's who were interviewed from the U.S got into the school of their choice and the student's interviewed from China and India did not get into the schools they wanted to because there education is so competitive. I noticed that in India they have very good family support. They families want them to stay focused on their future. Many of them decide what they want to do with their future at a very young age. China also seemed to have very strong supportive families. Since they are only allowed one child per family many of the families invest their money and efforts in to that childs future and education. Both of these countries put a very high emphasize on their studies, and less on sports and social events like the students in the United States do.

Group 4 Presentation

Group four did their presentation on chapter seven, the philosophy of education. They went through the four areas in which the philosophy of education covers. These areas are They were Perennialism, Essentialism, Progressivism, and Social Reconstructionism. They gave us a inventory type worksheet that determined which philosophy described how we wanted to teach the most. I really liked this worksheet because I think it will become very useful when we start writing our final papers. They also used some really great quotes in their presentation and the incorporated some clips from a few movies that gave us a chance to see what some of the areas in the philosophy of education looked like. Overall, I think this group did a really good job covering such a broad and important topic. The information they presented will be very helpful for deciding which philosophy we want to follow in the future.

Global Achievement Gap: Chapter 6

*Chapter six is about closing the gap and Wagner talks about a few schools that inforce the seven survival skills. The school he talked about alot was High Tech High, which is a school development organixation consisting of k-12 public charter schools. These schools are very well known for their highly rigorous education practices.

*High Tech High doesn't base their education off of textbooks. They use interdisciplanary projects which is project based learning to help teach students. They don't teach students to just memorize material for the standardized test, yet their scores are amongst the highest in the country compared to other schools.

*The original reason High Tech High was formed was the concern that kids were leaving high school knowing how to memorize facts and they were unable to apply what they know to the real world. In other words students were not being prepared for real world skills that they needed to succeed.

*Some of the common set goals at High Tech High were..
-Serve student body in response to ethnic/diversity of local community
-Integrate technical and academic education in both high tech and liberal arts fields
-Increase the number of successful student in math and engineering
-Graduate students who will be thoughtful, engaged citizens

*Warwick was one of the teachers Wagner interviewed. Warwick said they way they teach at this school is a way in which the students will be perpared for the real world. He said when they graduate the goal is that they will have the ability to articulate their thoughts, beliefs, and feelings.

*HTH is a new graduate program that was formed off of these High Tech High associations. It's a program for future teachers, they spend the majority of their school working with a mentor in classrooms. I think this is a great idea and will teach the students so much more than just sitting in a classroom.

Ideal Teacher Prep Program

 I think many things could be done to improve programs for teacher preparation. The first and most important thing I think they should change is giving more time for student teaching. I have talked to so many people who are teachers today and they say they have by far learned the most during their student teacher experience. I think allow students more time to get hands on experience is so crucial because the only way you get better at something is to actually get out their and do it. I don't feel that the time that we have for student teaching is near enough right now. Another aspect I think that could be included is requiring general educators to take more classes on special education, specificially on strategies on how to teach these student's with exceptionalities because they will all be in our classrooms. I am going into elementary education and for that reason I am planning to get a special ed minor, but many teachers do not have that minor so I think more classes should be required to take for teachers who are planning on going into general education. The last thing I believe would improve the teaching preparation is requiring students to take 2nd language electives, maybe switching some of the goal areas that are recommended for generals and instead of just offering the 2nd language actually require teachers to have to take a couple of those classes so they at least have a background of another language. The student's that I did my field experience with had spanish class two days a week and I think it would be very helpful if the main teacher also was familar with the language so they could not only learn it during those two class periods a week, but incorporate it into some of their everyday activities.

Group 3 Presentation

Group 3's presentation was on chapter 6, which is on the history of education. They started off the presentation with a short youtube clip that gave some expert opinions on how our education system needs to change to fit the way student want to learn and the new technology that today's society is comming out with. They also went over the different periods throughout history on our schools and how these periods have helped shape what our education system is today. I really enjoyed their interview. They interviewed two teachers that taught in California. They gave some really good advice for future teachers. One of the most important things I took out of it is always ask questions and take workshops. I think this is very important in order to grow and become a better teacher. At the end of their presentation they gave us a crossword on key terms over their powerpoint presentation. I think this group did a great job and their information will be helpful to know in the future.

"Unequal Education"

Tuesday in class we watched a video called- Unequal Education. It was about two schools in the Broncs and how unequal their education and opportunities for success were. The children in the upper class families went to one school. These children had a school full of highly certified and trained teachers. Most of the teachers that were hired were teaching in their specialty area. The school with the lower economic class students had very unqualified teachers, many of  whom were not teaching in their specialty area. This movie showed a dance teacher who was actually teaching their health class and a couple other classes that he had no background in. He had very little patience for the children and very low expectations. The kids at the upper class school had very encouraging teachers who expected them to succeed. They had many resources like microscopes, computers, and books. While the other schools struggled to even have enough books for each student. The movie also talked about after school activities that the schools offered. The upper class school had many community resources for after school programs where the children were in a safe environment, the lower class school had very few community resources that gave kids a safe environment for students after school. Many of the students there said they were scared and didn't feel safe in the area that their school was and where they were living. I think the differences between the schools are astounding, and we try to blame the kids for failing in school. With unqualified teachers and limited resources how can we expect kids to want to come to school and every gain the knowledge that they will need for college. The way we fund our schools today is obviously not working, the profits are only going to major schools, the schools that have the families with money. It's sad to see what happens in these lower economic areas and how little they actually receive.

21st Century Skills

We watched a clip about the global achievement gap. It was called 21st Century Skills by Tony Wagner. Wagner is the author of the Global Achievement Gap, in the clip he explained the list of seven survival skills like he did at the beginning of the book.
1.) Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
2.) Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by influence
3.)Initiative and Enterpreneurialism
4.) Accessing and Analyzing Information
5.) Effective Oral and Written Communication
6.) Curiosity and Imagination
7.) Agility and Adaptability
He feels that in order for students to be successful in life they need to have these seven important skills. He explains that most of our schools in the United States do not teach these types of skills. Our teachers simple teach students how to memorize and take test. This skills are more realistic and important for all students to learn. I think what he is saying is true, but we need to train our teachers differently so they can affectively teach our students these skills.

My Field Experience

I learned some great lessons throughout my field experience. Mrs.Eichten was so helpful and encouraging. I appreciate that she gave me the chance to get involved in the classroom and help out the students. She introduced some things  to me that I thought worked really great in her classroom.

1.) For reading the students did what was called "Daily Five." The purpose of the daily five is to build stamina and teach students to work independently while the teacher works with one of the three reading groups. She works with each group for about 30 min, she tried to place them in groups based on reading ability, this way she can give each group appropriate material based on where there reading level is at. The daily five- or what the students can pick from while the teacher is working with a group include:
*read to yourself  *read to someone  *work on writing  *listen to reading  *spelling/word work
Mrs. Eichten said you only want to introduce one daily five at a time so for the first month she just introduced read to yourself. The goal is to get them to be busy reading the entire time without having to be told to do so by the teacher. She said at the beginning the students would only last a couple of minutes, and then she would ring the bell and they would all have to go back to their seats. She wouldn't pick out anyone specifically but she would say would they were doing wrong and the kids would have to demonstrate how to do it the right way. She said after a few months she was amazed with how long they could work independently. For my field experience they did great with this, they knew exactly what they were supposed to be doing, this gives the teacher a great chance to work with a smaller group and in the end I think they all benefit from this.

2.) The teacher also used an award system. She would give out tickets when she would see someone doing something that they were supposed to. She also had reading goals, they were supposed to read at least 60 min every week. Everyday before class they would bring their folder in and if they read last night there parents would sign a calendar they had in their folder and they would get a ticket. She would aslo make them give back tickets if they were misbehaving or not listening. This really seemed to work because no one wanted to give a ticket back!! She had two prize boxes one for 50 tickets and one for 100 tickets, so they got to choose which box they wanted to pick from- obviously the 100 box had better prizes. I noticed that Mrs.Eichten didn't take away tickets as much as she would give them out, she told me this was because it's so important to point out what the child is doing right and make them feel good. This also helps encourage kids to behave properly

Field Experience: Day Five

This morning a little girl was telling me all week how she had made a present for me at home and she was going to bring it to me on Friday. She told me this morning that the forget it and she was pretty sad about that, but she told me it said "I will miss you," I told her that was so sweet and that I was going to miss them too. She drew me another picture instead since she forget her other present! They got to studey there spelling tests with a partner this morning before they took their test. Mrs. Eichten let me give them the test, I thought it was fun being up there and getting a little taste of what it would be like to be a teacher :) After they took their test they did their daily five reading again. The got to listen to the story "A Man on the Moon" on tape and then they took a test on the story and I helped Mrs.Eichten correct the tests while they watched a movie about space. She went over the tests with them after we got them all corrected so they could see which ones they got wrong. After that they looked at a chart the teacher put up on the projector, the chart had information about what weight you would be on different planets. They got to work on reading a chart and they also learned about gravity and why you would weigh less on the moon than on the earth.
In the afternoon they finished up their planet books and I helped Delany finish her book while they read over theres. She told me she really liked me and didn't want me to leave, how cute! After they finished the book they split into their math groups. The worked on word problems with money today. Mrs. Eichten had each of them do one on the board and they also went through a worksheet together since many students struggle with word problems right away but they did great. When math was over the students got to count up their tickets today and they could either get prizes from the 10's box or the 50's box, a couple of students choose the 50 box with the bigger prizes, but a lot of the students picked a few prizes from the 10s box. Mrs.Eichten and I doubled checked that they counted their tickets right for them, if they didn't we would have them recount them. After they finished up getting their prizes it was time for p.e. and it was the end of my field experience :(
The student's thanked me for helping out in their classroom and I asked me if I would teach them next year in 3rd grade....I told them I wish I could but I still had at least 3 more years left of school until I could become a teacher. Delany, a little girl who I had been giving a little extra help to all week gave me a big hug and said she would miss me, it's so great to see that you can make a difference in these kid's life and how much they look up to you. I'm sad that I have to leave the 2nd graders, but it was a great experience and I told them I might come back and visit some day if I don't have school!

Global Achievement Gap: Chapter 5

*Chapter five in the Global Achievement Gap is about motivating today's students and tomorrow's workers. Wagner starts off by talking about the concern about poor work ethic in our youth. Some people are concerned about this while others say it is not poor work ethic rather they are just differently motivated.

*Today's youth generation is full of technology. Today students always feel they need to be multitasking whether it be on the phone, computer, doing homeworking, listening to music. No one wants to do just one thing at a time anymore. This brings up the concern whether or not this is affecting student's ability to concentrate on one task and finish one task at a time.

*Wagner mentions how young people strive for immediate access to information. In turn people say that this makes us less patient and more demanding. Because the internet gives us answers so quickly and easily we rarely have to use the library and search for information, we can just simple google everything. College student's especially rely on technology, for the most part assignments and other important messages are sent to us through e-mail or on D2L- so in college being able to use the interent is dire.

*Since technology has grown so much throughout the years it's so important for us to take into consideration the different ways students are learning today. We need to incorporate this technology into our lessons because this is what they are familar with and technology will always be growing.

*I found one of Wagner's quoets from the book to really stick out, "Most students want learning to be active not passive." He's saying that most students actually do want to be challenged and they want to be given more opportunities from creativity and self-expression. We have to this by knowing our students and giving them the right mix of challenge and support. He also talked about the importance of a teacher-student relationship. It's important that our students feel like they can talk to us and relate to the teachers.

Field Experience: Day Four

During their "Daily Five" I worked with the little girl again on counting money, she thinks it's pretty great that she gets to spend sometime with me. One of the boys asked why he can't count money for me so I had him count out a couple for me. After teir daily five they read short story about the moon and they had to write down what the topic was and what the main idea of the story was. They have also been making a little booklet that has all the planets on it and they work on it throughout the day when they have a little free time. They worked on a little cursive after reading time was over, they learned how to write the "x" today. I was impressed with how well they handwritting was. After that they some more work on alphabetizing and how to put them in order when they all have the same first letter. During social studies they got to watch a short video on Washington D.C and learn some fun facts about the capitol. This afternoon we went over math again. Mrs.Eichten did problems on the board and I pulled aside students to go over the problems they got wrong on their worksheets from yesterday. The spanish teacher came in at the end of the day to teach them colors and names of animals in spanish. They played a fun singing game to help them learn their spanish and they also got to do a crossword in spanish.

Field Experience: Day Three

In the morning the student's did their "Daily Five" again while Mrs.Eichten took one of the reading groups. A couple of girls have been wanting to read to me all week and they finally got to read a book to me yesterday so they were pretty excited! Mrs. Eichten asked me if I could help on of the little girls who was struggle with counting money while she was with the reading groups. So me and the little girl sat on a back table and we used the big bucket of play money they have to help her count because it's easier for her to physically see it in front of her. She told me it was really important that she learns how to count money and I told her that was very true and the more we practice that better she will get at it :) She was so determined to learn how to do this, how can't you love helping a child who is so motivated. After reading time they went over some vocabulary words and they got to play a memory game with the words, if they found a match they would have to use that word in a nice descriptive sentence in order to keep the pair. I played with a little boy and he was pretty excited that he beat me TWICE ;) In the afternoon they had math and they worked on counting money again. Mrs. Eichten wrote some problems on the board and the students got to go work out the problems on the board. They were also working on the greater than and less than sign, I really like the way the teacher taught it. She would tell them the big number gets to dots : and the little number gets one dot . then you connect the dots to make an arrow. They really seemed to understand this, it seemed like a great way to explain it. For health they learned about the different parts of teeth and they took a group tests on it after the teacher reviewed the material.

Group Two Presentation

Group two did their presentation on Chapter five: Student Diversity-development, ability, and exceptionalities. First, they passed out a couple different examples of IEP's so we could see what they looked like. I thought this was great that they gave us these because we realized how important these plans are for the students and how much work needs to be done to make an IEP. After that they had us do an activity and we would stand up if the question applied to us, this was a good way to get us involved. They also showed us a clip in the eyes of a student with a learning disability. This gave us a good picture of what a student with a disability goes through in a normal day. The group covered alot about students with special needs and they also gave us some great information about how the teacher is involved in their life. I think this was a great presentation and something we all need to learn about because we will always have students in our classroom who struggle and it's important that we can give them support and be that caring teacher for the student.

Group One Presentation

I was part of group #1's presentation. Our presentation was on chapter four-Student Diversity. We started off our presentation with a short clip that was an overview of what we were going to be covering in our powerpoint. The main topics we covered were cultural diversity,multicultural education, and how this affects our students. We also had a group discussion on whether or not holidays should be celebrated in schools, which went over really well. Everyone had some great input which I really appreciated because I wasn't sure if I wanted to ask that question right aways because I didn't know if people would have dominant opinions on it. Dane interviewed his cousin who works in a diverse school setting and she did a great job giving him alot of input about how that impacts her classroom. We also showed a video called Did you Know, this video had alot of intersting statistics on our world. Finally, Stefanie presented our jepordy game. I thought this was a fun way to get the class involved. Overall I think our presentation went well, it was very helpful that everyone participaited and gave us their full attention. I think it was a lot of fun and a great experience for us future teachers. :)

Field Experience: Day Two

Today was my second day of my field experience. They started the day off with calendar again but instead of spelling words they worked on computers. They each had their own lab top and they worked on Microsoft Word. They already knew how to do a few things like font size, color, ect. Today they learned how to place their fingers on the "home row" and how to type "J" and "F" while keeping their fingers on the home row. They also learned how to use the space bar with only their right thumb. I Found it very interesting that 2nd graders are already learning about computers, but I think it's really important that they do because technology is changing so much. After computer they did the "Daily Five" reading and I got to listen to two students read to me, they were reading chapter books and did an excellent job reading. I also went over some students math tests with them one-on-one. They were working on money so the students who got some wrong on their tests I helped them fix their tests for them. After reading the teacher did an experiment to show how much sugar was in different kids of pop and they got to measure out the sugar into plastic cups so they could all see how many tsp of sugar they were drinking.
In the afternoon they worked on money counting money again. There are two 2nd grade classes in the school, so for math they split up, Mrs.Eichten has the group that needs a little extra help, which can be challenging at times but they just take things a little slower while the other group can be a little bit more challenged. I think this is a great idea to split them up because students learn at many different levels and they all have different needs.  After Math the spanish teacher came in for about 20 min. They went over colors and animals in spanish and a couple songs in spanish. It was great getting to see this kids learn spanish, I'm amazed by how much they know already and how fast they catch on to a 2nd langauge it's great! Today one little girl who was in Mrs.Eichten's math section asked me if I could come to their classroom because she's normally in the other half and she wrote me a letter that said "I like you." :) Little things like that make my day more than they even know. As much as we can make a difference in their lives they also make a huge difference in our lives.

Field Experience: Day One

Today was my first day of my field experience. I am doing my field experience in the school that I used attend , in Wabasso. I am in a 2nd grade classroom with my old 4th grade teacher who now teaches 2nd grade, Mrs. Eichten. In the morning they start off their day with the new spelling words of the week and calendar. After that they did reading and I got to listen to two students read me a book during this time, I also got to help them do a worksheet on pronouns that was given out when they were getting a little extra help in title one with their reading. So I explained to them what the worksheet was about and had them read the directions to me and I helped them do the problems that they missed. I'm really glad I chose Mrs. Eichten's class because you can tell she has a passion for her job and she really enjoys what she does. She did a great job making me feel welcome already and it's only the first day. Some of the students asked me if I was a mom because they said I looked familar, I thought that was kind of funny. I told them I was in college and I was going to become a teacher someday like Mrs.Eichten. One of the girls asked me if I was in Jr. High yet :) They are all very curious but I think that's what would make teaching the younger grades so much fun.

I went back after lunch in the afternoon and they first did math. They were working on counting money so I handed out and explained the worksheet to the student's after they finished up their tests while the teacher went over there tests. I realized that learning how to count money can be very challenging for some students and now that the coins are changing is extra hard to tell some of them apart, I know when I was in elementary we never worked with the half dollar coin and now they use that and they also try to work with different state coins so they are familar with all the types they might see. After math they did some social studies, they were learning about our United States capitol and some monuments in Washington D.C. They really enjoyed looking at the images of the monuments that Mrs. Eichten pulled up from the internet.
Overall I think my first day went pretty good. I'm glad I get to go for the entire day because I get to see what a full school day is like for the students and I get a taste of all the subjects. The kids asked me if I was coming back tomorrow and they were excited to hear that I would be there all week.

Global Achievement Gap: Chapter 4

Chapter four was about reinventing the education profession. Wagner talked a lot about how we need to make improvements on how our teachers are being prepared and evaluated for teaching.

I personal agree with one of his quotes in this chapter, "To improve students learning we much first work on improving teaching and the coaching of teachers." I think we all need someone to give us input and let us know how we are doing and what we could do better. That's the only way we will know if what we are doing is working and whether or not to change what we are doing.

He also talked about the evaluation systems our schools have. For the most part, principals come into the classroom to observe your teaching for maybe about 10-15 minutes then review the evaluation later on. Wagner talked about how he was excited for his first evaluation because he really wanted some insite on what he's doing and well and what he could work on, but he later found out all the evaluation was going to be was a bunch of cateogories were the principal circles satisfactory needs improvement and there's a few in between there. In no way did his principal give him valuable and useable feedback. This is a clear example of why evaluations and observations are not improving our teaching.

"Learning walks" were also mentioned in this chapter. He stressed the importance of talking about what we see and what we want for the students. Teachers need to do these learning walks and get insight from each other to find "good instruction" for their students. Along with the learning walks video taped evaluations were also mentioned so we could actually see ourselves teach or even go into other classrooms to help improve your teaching.

We also need a clear definition of rigor. What we excpect our students to know and be able to do. For example: colleges want essentially the same skills-critical thinking, but this brings up the question, how many teachers actually know how to teach that. When it comes to the k-12 classes there really is no clear definition of rigor, no essential goals for the students besides passing the standardized tests.

National Center on Universal Design for Learning

http://www.udlcenter.org/

We were introduced to the website, National Center on Universal Design for Learning, it's a site that has sets of curriculum development that gives all individuals equal opportunities to learn. It provides many different approaches to changing text and content to customize or adjusted to individuals needs. This tool can provide a fair and equal opportunity for all students to learn. This site also gives suggestions for appropriate goals, methods, materials, and assesments to fit each individuals needs.

I find the UDL site to be incredible, I think it will be a great tool for future teachers. Student's have so many different ways of learning and this tool can help those students who struggle more and give teachers some more ideas to help them improve their learning abilities. I'm so glad we were introduced to this because I don't think it's a very wide known site, but I believe all teachers should know about this and utilize UDL. Websites like these are what could help change our students futures in their education and hopefully help them to enjoy and look forward to learning everyday.

Intercultural Development Inventory

We took the Intercultural Development Inventory in class last week, this is a test that measures your level of intercultural competence. Intercultural competence is the capability to shift perspectives and adapt behaviors to cultural communities and differences. The test is based on five different levels: denial, polarization, minimization, acceptance, and adaptation. Adaptation is where we would all love to be as teachers because it is very important for us to accept and adapt to culturally diverse enviroments.

 For my test results my precieved orientation was 130.15, which is  right around adaptation on the scale. My developmental orientation was 120.44, which is in between acceptance and adaptation. I found my results to be very suprising. I actually thought I would score lower because I did grow up in a very small non-diverse town and school. I was happy to see that even though I don't have much experience with diversity I still have the ability to adapt and make adjustments. Although my score was pretty good I know I still have a long way to go to get to where I want to be in regards to cultural competence. There's always things you can improve on a couple things I could work on are increasing my knowledge in a foriegn language, increasing cultural self awarness and gain specific skills and knowledge about different cultures.

Speaking in Tongues

We watched the movie Speaking in Tongues yesterday in class. It was about Chinese immersion programs. I think these programs are great for children. At first I thought it might interfere with there learning of english, but from what I've seen it actually helps with their learning. Studies have actually shown that becoming bilingua expands our brain capacity. It is also said that learning another language taps into an area of the brain that usually isn't working at such a young age. In the United States some people seem to think we our children should just learn english, I think it's becoming more and more important every year that students become bilingual with the cultural that we live in. I think in the long wrong children who are bilingual will  have an advantage over others because our culture is becoming so diverse and there are so many languages being spoken in the United States.

The Global Achievement Gap: Chapter 3

The first part of this chapter gave samples of state tests that 10th grade students had to take Massachusetts. Wagner goes on to say how some of the parts in the tests can be completely interpreted wrong, for example the poem that was on the test could have been taken in two different ways. Also many of the math problems would require more time then they were given so many students did not pass this portion of the test.

Reading these sample tests just makes me think back on when we had to take the standardized tests in high school and how much I dreaded taking them. As Tony says in the book these kinds of tests do not determine whether someone is ready for college or the "real world," they don't accurately measure what they are said to be measuring.

Wagner also brought up a good point about advanced math being required for college even though many majors don't require you to take advanced math. Most people take statistics, probability, and basic computational skills. They say that advanced math will better prepare you for college but there is no proof of this. Wagner suggests just  taking any academically challenging course in hich school will show an assocaition with success in college. Which I think is true because the only way for our minds to grow is if we challenge our mind.

When the organization of the PISA tests were giving a short briefing, a man for the organization was asked about the importance of moving away from multiple choice tests and turn towards more relevant authentic assessments. He told them that the U.S students tend to be good in multiple-choice tasks, whne four choices are clearly laid out and that we have a much harder time with open-ended questions. Which is the truth, but this just shows that the students do not have the ability to apply what they have learned so this just proves that those tests don't not properly show that knowledge that students gain.

AP courses were also mentioned in this chapter. Wagner interviewed some students who have taken AP courses and many of them said they think they were helpful, but again alot of the material that they learned was more focused on memorizing terms than analysing and interpretting material. I think these courses are good to have because I think they can be more challenging for the students who need the challenge, but I think they need to be reconstructed in a way  that they mimic what most of the college level courses require you to do like research, critically think and apply this to situations.

The Global Achievement Gap: Chapter 2

*In the second chapter of The Global Achievement Gap Wagner visits some of the top public schools in America to see what and how the students are learning. What they saw was a teaching style that mainly taught students how to take standardized test and not the 7 most important survival skills

*The first thing that Wagner mentioned and that shocked him about the first school he visited was in a placement chemistry course. Students were in groups and they were supposed to follow directions to make a mixture and one of the groups mixtures started to smoke. Instead of thinking critically about what may happen they instead watied for the teacher to tell them what happend. When Wagner asked what their hypothesis was and they couldn't even give him an answere. This was just the beginning of the discouraging things that were seen throughout the chapter.

*In one of the schools that he visited Wagner and the superintendent visited the classrooms unannounced and normally the superintendent would tell the teachers when she was coming in. She said the teaching style that day was completely different than what she sees when she lets the teachers know she is coming. The teachers seemed less prepared to teach and encourage students to learn.

*The one classroom Wagner actually saw a great teaching style was in an Algebra II classroom. The teacher put a problem up on the board and had the students in groups of four. He told them that they have never done a problem like this but the needed to use the skills they have already learned in previous lessons to help them figure it out. He also told them that he would randomly pick one student from each group to come up to the board and explain two different ways to do the problem. This teacher was really making his students think critically and also they were using teamwork to put their minds together and figure out how to go about doing the problem. By telling them he would randomly pick a student this encouraged all the students to be engaged in the process since they didn't know who would  be going up to the board. I think this type of teaching style shows so many of those survival skills that were said at the beginning of the book and this is the type of teaching we all need to bring into our classrooms.

*Although the algebra teacher did a great job teaching his students, the other classes mentioned did not. Most of the classes consisted of memorization and preperation for tests. This just encourages kids to memorize things instead of actually learning the material. Wagner never blames the teachers he just stress how important it is that we change the way our students are learning. The NCLB act is actually putting our students further behind and we need to think of a better way for students to learn.

Global Current Event: More Germans Are Opting to Study Abroad

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/world/europe/24iht-educSide24.html?_r=1&ref=internationaleducation

More and more students in German are choosing to study abroad. The number of students studying abroad nearly doubled from 2000 to 2008. This more than likely has to do with the fact the Germany government is now pumping in additional money to higher education. France is shown to be the most popular place to visit and Spain and Britian follow right behind. The German Academic Exchange Service represents 365 higher education institutions, which gives students the oppurtinity to studay abroad my offering loans and scholarships.

I think it's great that Germany is encouraging students to study abroad and giving them a chance to do that by offering scholarships and loans. I'm sure studying abroad would be a great experience for teachers in particular because they could bring their experiences into the classrooms. I think America should look at putting some funds into study abroad programs and maybe more students would take advantages of these great opportunites, but with all these budget cuts that the educational system is looking at it doesn't seem like something that will happen anytime soon. It would be great to give everyone the chance to study abroad.

Local Current Event: Springfield High needs your vote to win $100K

http://www.kare11.com/news/schools/education/article/905943/213/Springfield-High-needs-your-vote-to-win-100K

Springfield High School, a small school in southwestern Minnesota entered in a national contest called samsung's "Solve for Tomorrow," the student's produced a video on who scienece technology can help the enviroment. In the video the students highlighted things that the school has done to conserve energy. They are already guaranteed $50,000 for making it into the top five and they are currently at number one with tomorrow being the last day to vote. The winner of this contest will revieve $100,000 in technology and grants.

This article caught my eye because Springfield is just actually 30 min away from my hometown and this is actually where my boyfriend went to high school so I'm very familar with the school. I think it's great that a small school like this could win up to $100,000 dollars. It would be great for all schools to get new technology and grants. I think it's also great that they are teaching the students ways to conserve and teaching them good habits for the future. I really hope they do win and I will definitley give them my vote!

Global Current Event: Chinese students suffer as university entrance exams get a grip

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jun/28/chinese-university-entrance-exams

Millions of Chinese teens are taking the very challenging exams that are required to get into Universities their. The exams are the only aspect that the universities consider. The test cover everthing that they have learned in school  since kindergarten. These exams last two days and are so stressful that the month leading to the test is called the "black month," during this month suicedes increase. Nearly 10 million students battle for about 6.6 million university placements. It is estimated that around 40% of the students will fail these tests and not be allowed into the top universities. The upside to the exams are that people who do not have much many can still have the oppurtinity to go to expensive schools if they do well on the exams.

These entrance exams seem to be a bit much. I thought the ACT was horrible I could not imagine taking these exams. I have never been a fan in these tests  because I don't think it accurately shows your intelligence level. I think there is a lot more to someones intelligence besides these basic test. These tests don't seem to measure critically thinking skills they just encourage us to memorize and not actually learn the material. The thought that these test in China are so hard that people our committing suicide is really scary and I think something needs to be done about this. Like it said in the article its great for students who can't afford expensive schools because it allows them to get a good education, but I also think everyone deserves that chance to further their education.

Local Current Event: Senate Approves Pay Freeze for Minnesota Schools

http://www.kare11.com/news/schools/education/article/906604/213/Senate-approves-pay-freeze-for-Minnesota-schools

The Minnesota senate approved a two year pay freeze for teachers and other public employees, this also probides anyone from going on strike. One of the sponsors says they are actually trying to save teachers positions by keeping the pay rate flat. They mentioned the idea of capping superintendents pay by $130,000 a year, but they ruled that as irrelevant to the topic since it's based on just teachers salary.

I think this is scary to think that they are now freezing teachers pay because we are out of money in our education system. It just makes you wonder what they are going to do next, I think the teachers earned there pay increase and should continue to get an increase if they are doing their job. It's unfortunite that teachers already get paid so little and now they want to make it even less. Something reallly needs to be done about our education system and how this money and budget is being looked at. The mentioned in the article that the purpose of this was to save teaching positions, but it seems like more than just having a wage freeze needs to be done. It really makes you wonder what our future is going to be like as teachers and where we are going to go from here.

Global Current Event: France wants to 'reinvent' English language teaching

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/08/tefl-france

Chatel, Frances minister, says that children could start learning enlish in France nursery schools as young as the age of three. Chatel and a team of specialist were examining options to boost students skills in english and other foreign languages. He also wants to develop online language learning and encourge students to go on trips to english-speaking countries. The problem that comes about with all of this is that high-qaulity language teachers have been questioned on whether they can be provide. Because of the education budget schools may loose up to 1,000 specialist language assistants by next year.

I think that this is a good idea to get students to start using a second language at a young age. Three seems really young but I think it would be good for young children to be introduced to different languages because I have heard that it's easier to learn when you are younger. I'm not sure how this new program is going to work if they plan  to cut language specialist teachers because it is so important to have someone teaching the language that knows it very well. It's great that Chatel is encouraging students to visit different countries that speak english, this could help make the students more multicultural and open minded. I think the United States should consider something like this since we don't have that many students who are bilingual and I think the majoritiy of the students in the US are lacking a global perspective.

Local Current Event: Anoka students suing district

http://www.twincities.com/ci_17232358?nclick_check=1

Two lesbian students are suing the Anoka-Hennepin school district for discriminating against their sexual orientation. They were elected for Snow Days and they were told that they would not be able to walk up together in a school  Snow Days pep fest. School administration say they did this to protect the two girls from getting bullied and they wanted everyone to feel comfortable so they thought if they let them walk up together some people would feel uncomfortable. This is not the first time Anoka-Hennipin school district has discriminated against LGBT students. Their were several suicide of these students and also discrimination against cross-dressing.

I think it's a very courageous decision these two girls made, to try to sue the Anoka-Hennipin school district. I believe the school made the wrong decision by saying they couldn't walk up together because they are clearly not letting these students express their sexual orientation and they are discriminating against these students. Also, the school used the excuse by saying they were trying to protect the girls so they wouldn't get made fun of, but obviously they don't have a problem with their sexual orientation if they are open about it. The only ones that really seem to have a problem with them being openly gay are the administration at Anoka who are saying they won't allow them express their sexuality.

Bullied

Today I watched the movie Bullied,

As a future teacher this movie touched me in more than one way. It made me realize the hurt and pain one can go through. It also made me realize how important teachers can be when it comes to issues such as bullying. In the movie the teachers could have made a difference and helped Jamie out, but they chose not to. He was reaching out to them and calling for help and the refused to acknowledge that. I am going to take this movie as a learning lesson. It helped me to see the hurt these kids go through in a different light. This movie encourges me to do all that I can to help stop bullying when I do become a teacher. This movie really had an impact on me and I hope all future teachers get a chance to watch this, and hopefully they use this movie as motivation to help stop bullying in their schools and also to reach out to students who are calling for your help. No one deserves to go through what Jamie had to go through everday, unfortunetly many students are still going through this today.

Global Current Event: Educational Gaps Limit Brazil’s Reach

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/world/americas/05brazil.html?_r=1&ref=brazil

Over the past decade Brazil's students have scored among the lowest of any country on basic skills exams. This could have to do with their president, Mr. Da Silva, who only went to school until the fourth grade. He got a slow start by not strating the government education program until four years after he was in office. Although Silva got a slow start he has high hopes to help make the students educational experience better since he didn't have the chance to have that as a child. Improvements are being made, a program was created to give out 700,000 scholarships to low-income families so their children can attend private colleges. There has also been a new test created to evaluate student's performances.

I think this is unfortunate that Brazil's president didn't realize their struggling education system as soon as he took office. They were already so far behind and his efforts to get there education programs caught up is very difficult since they did fall so far behind everyone else. The also noted in the article that their growing economy is lacking the education so it's hard to fulfill the jobs since the studen'ts don't have proper education to work in some of the positions. They seem to have dug themselves into a big whole that's going to be very hard to get out of, but it's good to hear that things are being done to try and improve the education. You have to start somewhere and small improvements are being seen.

Local Current Event: Lancaster High School Changes Mentoring Program

http://www.fox43.com/news/wpmt-mccaskey-homeroom-changes,0,7163280.story

Lancaster High School in Pennsylvania is now changing their mentoring program they have in their school because of controversial issues. The school broke down there homeroom classes into 19 classes. In three of these 19 classes the students were all African American. They say the program was developed to improve test scores and give students an oppurtinitie to learn from their mentors. The staff say that the subgroups were strictly based on student- teacher relationship and not race. Because of all the controversy teachers are going to open up the homeroom mentoring program to everyone and not based on gender or race.

In regards to this article I can see why it could be a very controversal subject. I think they should have thought about what other people would think before seperating these kids into racial groups even if it had nothing to do with their skin color it's still not promoting multiculturalism and acceptance. This is what our schools need so much more even with the changing culture and races that are coming to schools throughout the United States. I think it's important to mix students up so they don't feel like anyone is being segregated against. I think it's good that they took into account how other people felt about this and they are actually doing something about it and trying to make it better for everyone as a whole.

The Global Achievement Gap: Chapter 1

I just started reading The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner and I already found the first chapter to be very informative and I think it will be a great book to read for us future teachers. He brings to our attention that our education is increasing falling behind and not keeping up to other education systems around the world. Our schools are more worried about if our teachers are doing a good job than if our students minds are growing. Because our education system wants to make sure teachers are teaching certain things they implemented more testing, therefore students are being taught how to take test inside aspects such as critical thinking and problem solving.

Wagner covered seven survival skills that all people should have. The seven he mentioned were critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration across networks and leading by influence, initiative and enterpreneurialism, accessing and analyzing information, effective oral and written communication, curiosity and Imagination, and Agility and Adaptability. I think these are also very important skills especially for teachers to have so they can be successful and also so they can pass these skills on to their students.

The final thing that Wagner mention was the importance for our students to have a global prespective. So many people in the United States are not aware of what's going on around the world, especially our students. This is because there is not enough emphasis on other countires in our education system. In other countries students are bilingual and we have very view children who can speak more than one language. I think it's very important, with our growing economy and diveristy, to be able to speak different languages or at least be educated about diversity and people around the world.

SPED200 Class Feb1st & 3rd

This week in class we discussed the Minnesota Teacher Licensure Exam. It's an exam all futre teachers have to take and it consists of Reading, writting, and math. We also looked at a website called Teach for America. Which is about giving students and equal opportunities for education. The minorities are the ones who are recieving the worst education. It's important for everyone to get a good education. This website encourges teachers to teach in areas with poverty and where students need the most help. Teach for America is putting an effort to improve the quality of public education. The also watched a clip about the global achievement gap which gave a list of seven survival skills.
1.) Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
2.) Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by influence
3.)Initiative and Enterpreneurialism
4.) Accessing and Analyzing Information
5.) Effective Oral and Written Communication
6.) Curiosity and Imagination
7.) Agility and Adaptability

Global Current Event: Italian students demonstrate against education reforms

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12058434

Students in Rome are protesting against the new reform. The reform will cut the number of university courses, merge smaller universities and reduce funding for grants. Italy already spends less than 5% of its gross domestic product on education, which is lower than most developed countries. Students and teachers are naturally upset about these reforms. It is estimated that about 130,000 jobs in the education department will be lost. Although this bill hasn't yet been passed it looks like there is a good chance that it will be signed.

I can understand why the students and teachers would be upset. The teachers are going to lose their jobs and students won't have as many opportunities for education and choices of classes as they used to. I think it's unfortunate that their government picked the education department to make cuts in. I think this is one of the most important systems to have, especially for the youth. In order to get a good job you need to get a good education and some of these student's feel like they are being deprived of a privilege they deserve to have.

Group Project

Our group was assigned to present an issue in Chapter four, which is on Student Diversity. We decided to do it on cultural diversity. I am going to specifically cover the education response to cultural diversity. I will touch on multiculturalism and culturally responsive teaching. Stefanie is going to cover cultural attitudes and values and Dane is going to be covering urban schools and cultural patterns. We plan to put the information we learn onto a powerpoint and hopefully find a short clip relating to our subject. We also plan to interview one of the teachers we know, we have a few options. This is such a broad topic so it's hard to just break it down into 30 min, but hopefully we can get our main points across in a creative fun way.

Atomic Learning: SPED200 class (January 27th)

On Thursday January 27th we had a presentation on how to use atomic learning and we were also introduced to edutopia. The atomic learning site is a good website to learn new ways of presenting information or how to do new things with technology. It's a great resource to have because everything is there for you right in one website. We specifically looked at how to write papers using APA style format. I think this will be a great resource for me because I always have guestions about how to site my papers so now I can just use this website and everythings there for me. We also looked at more information about blogging. The atomic learning website had a bunch of different applications to learn how to do a variety of things on our blogs. It had information like, how to upload videos, pictures ect. This will also be a great site for all of us since we will using our blogs for the entire semester and hopefully continue using them in the future. The final website we looked at was edutopia, it had a variety of different applications. I found lots of great education articles with great ideas and information for teachers and future teachers. It also gives a list of blogs that they follow on the website with some great discussions for educators. I think this is a great website for teachers to learn about new and creative things for their classrooms and also for me as a student to learn about what I want to do in the future and things I can use for class assignments.

Local Current Event:St.Cloud schools see mixture of spoken languages

http://www.sctimes.com/article/20110129/NEWS01/101290019/St-Cloud-schools-see-mixture-of-spoken-languages

I think it's great that there are so many different languages being spoken in the st.cloud area schools. Not coming from the St.Cloud area, I didn't realize how diverse the community actually was. I also think it's wonderful that these schools offer the ELL program for students who didn't learn english as their first language. It's a great opportunity for students because they still get to be with their classmates and be in the mainstream classroom for the majority of the day. I think having a diverse variety of students is a great way to bring multicuturalism into our classrooms. This is yet another reason why we as teachers need to be educated about issues all over the world and bring multiculturalism into our classrooms.

Global Current Event: Free schools in England

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12308512

The education secretary wants all new schools in England to be free. There has been 249 proposals already, but most of these proposals are in the early stage of the proposal process. There has only been one school that has been approved and they are getting a plan set up. The government has not said how many schools will be opening in the fall, but many have begun their admissions process.

I think it's great that they are giving students the opportunity for free education. Some students come from low income families so this gives them the same oppurtinity to grow in their education as it would for the more wealthy families. I think everyone should have an equal chance for education.

Local Current Event:The reading pays off!

http://www.kare11.com/life/community/schools/education/education_article.aspx?storyid=903917&catid=213

Principal Scott of Maple Grove Elementary school set reading goals for her students. She made a deal if they met her goal she would spend a night on the school roof. She would imagine they would meet the goal sometime in March or April but they actually met it in January! So she had to spend the night in 10 degree weather and her students brought her hand warmers and hot chocolate to keep her warm. They read more than six thousand books combined to meet their goal.

I thought this story was very warming, I think it was great encouragement for the students. It's very important for students to start reading at a young age and hopefully learn to make it a habit. I think schools should really continue to enforce things like " I love to read month," is an example of what we did in our school and I'm sure many other schools do it to. It's a great way to get kids to read and make reading fun.

Global Current Event: Transforming Africa Through Higher Education

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/world/africa/17iht-educSide17.html?_r=1&ref=africa


Mr. Awuah is a man who went to Ghana to study abroad in Africa. Since the education there was so low and after seeing all their struggles he couldn't just sit back and watch them fail. He started by maker sure Ashesi was equipped with modern computer facilities, with the help of Microsoft where he was employed. The school’s bachelor’s program is now designed to collaboration with professors from Berkeley, Swarthmore and the University of Washington, these were the schools Mr. Awuah originally attended. Tuition at Ashesi University is between $10 and $5,000.  Most students benefit from private grants since they wouldn't be able to afford it. The Ashesi University Foundation, based in Seattle, enables U.S. and international donors to support the school. I think it’s very ambitious of this guy to take on such a huge mission, something that seems so impossible. He even said in his article sometimes it feels like they are getting nowhere because there is so much room for improvement. But I think everyone deserves to have an education and the option to further our education at universities. We barely think twice about having so many opportunities for our education here in the United States, we don’t realize what great privileges we have. I hope they continue to improve their education at Ashesi University and further that into other schools in Africa.

Local Current Event: She ate 162 school lunches

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/21/nutrition.year.review/index.html?iref=allsearch

Mrs. Q works at an urban school in the midwest. Her mission was to eat the school lunches and then she would write about them on her blog and also take pictures of what the lunches looked like. This blog caused lots of controversies on what should really be on children's plates. Some experts wanted to argue that not all kids get meals like these in schools, since this school in particular was an inner-city school where most of the children received free/ reduced priced lunches. Mrs. Q said they were starting to make small healthy changes to their lunches and she plans to write a book about her experience. I also think it is very important what children are getting in school today, good food choices would not only make them healthier, but it would also help their performance in school. I think it's sad that some students don't even have the choice to eat healthy because of budget cuts and low income in families. If they don't receive healthy food at home or in school where will they ever learn the healthy eating habits that will benefit them for the rest of their lives. Obviously something needs to be done about school lunches, I think it's always a working progress, but hopefully some day it won't be a problem in schools.

Global Current Event: Shanghai Schools Push Students to Top

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/world/asia/30shanghai.html?_r=1&ref=internationaleducation

In December, an international standardized test was taken by students from Shanghai and 1,500 of those students outperformed students from about 65 different countries. American students came in between 15th and 31st place in three categories on the standardized test. These results proved China's progress in their education programs. But the scores really couldn't be represented of China since it was the majority of   students who scored exceptionally high. Their high scores were probably due to their very disciplined classrooms, rote learning, and test preparation that they teach. I think we need to look at these schools that receive such high scores, like Shanghai schools, and take into consideration what their school systems are doing. I think we should try to take the things that make the schools like these work and try to incorporate them into our school systems. I know nothing is as easy as that, but obviously we aren't doing everything right in our schools systems and there is always room for improvement. One of the teachers in the articles mentioned that discipline is rarely ever a problem in their school. You hear of so many schools in the U.S, like inner-city schools, that have problems with discipline day in and day out. I think it would definitely make it easier to teach in classrooms where the kids are respectful and willing to learn, this would create a great learning environment for the students, but it’s not that easy to teach things, such a discipline. The students need to grow up with this and I think all of that has to do with parenting, which we really can’t change.

The Freedom Writers

1.) Erin hopes to become a motivational and respectful teacher. She also wants to make an impact on the student’s lives. Her goal is to help them achieve in every way she can.

2.) The administration weren’t very helpful in her goals that she had for her students. They weren’t willing to buy the students books that Erin requested so she had to buy them herself.]The students were not cooperative and school wasn’t their first priority by any means. Right away it was a huge struggle and challenge for Erin to get her students motivated and get the administration to appreciate her work.

3.) The students were inner-city kids who came from rough backgrounds. Many of them were into drugs and gangs. Most of the children’s families were broken up and they didn’t have that supportive system most children are privileged with.

4.) At the beginning they had bad attitudes and this affected their academic performance in a negative way. They didn’t put the effort into their school work and their grades showed it.

5.) Erin used journals for the students to write their stories in. This was a way for them to open up to her and a way for them to get things out in the open if they chose to do so. She also used interactive strategies to get the students to communicate and be civil with each other. Through this they learn that they are all struggle in some way and they need to stick together rather than pull apart from each other like they were doing.

6.) Right away the students weren’t so cooperative with her teaching methods, but they grew to respect what she was trying to do. She used books that she had bought, since the administration wouldn’t buy them, to teach the students. Erin used books that they could relate to and would be interested in. She also brought in speakers so they could get education outside the books and the classroom.

7.)  Like I mentioned above Erin used books that she thought the kids would be interested in. This was how she got them to participate and enjoying reading. Another part of the curriculum that really seemed to help the children were the diaries Erin made them write their stories in.

8.) The administration and poor attitudes. They didn’t believe in what Erin was trying to do. They also didn’t believe that the students had the ability to academically achieve like Erin believed they could.

9.) Erin’s expectation about her students had a very positive role on their learning. They didn’t have many people in their lives that had such high expectations for them like she did. This helped them to realize someone does care and they could achieve more than what they were showing.

10.) This movie taught me many different lessons. In regards to my first year of teaching this movie makes me realize it may not always be what you expect right way, but you should make the best out of whatever situation that comes your way.  The way Erin becomes so intrigued with her students and so motivated to get them all to succeed is what inspired me the most. I think all teachers should care about their students like she does and I hope I feel the same way about my students when I become a teacher. I think this movie really shows the struggles of schools and inner-city kids that most of us can’t even imagine. It made me look at teaching outside of what I have known all my life.