Role Play: "High Stakes Community Schools"

For one of our evening sessions, a role-play was conducted about the “High Stakes Community Schools.” Professor Langholz and Professor Knick were the two individuals presenting the proposal for these schools. The basis of these schools is increasing student achievement within the school district. With this plan in mind, the students and teachers will be held to much stricter standards. Teachers will even be fired if their students are not showing improvements throughout the school year. The students will be held back or forced to enroll in summer school if they are not succeeding academically. These new aspects of “High Stakes Community Schools” not only affects the teachers and students, but also the parents, administrators, and local business owners. With these ideas in mind, a role-play was conducted. During the role-play, different groups within the class were told to represent various individuals who were affected by the changes within these schools. My group represented the parents of low-achieving students. If these students continue to be low achieving, they will not be allowed to participate in sports. Our group had to defend the parents of these individuals and attempt to stand up for their best interest. We thought that it was unfair to force students to repeat a grade or attend summer school, as their lack of success could be caused by poor teaching or other factors. After we presented our case to Professor Langholz and Knick, other groups also rebuttaled this plan for the school district. Ultimately this role play helped me to realize that schools not only have a role in the lives of teachers and students, but also parents, community members, and local businesses. As a teacher, it is important to keep this in mind, and to try to effectively deal with each of these groups of people in an effective and appropriate manner.

Disciplinehelp.com!!

One day in class, we talked about discipline issues and classroom management. While discussing this, we visited a discipline website. This website is absolutely great! It contains about every discipline issue one could ever think of. From tramp to loner to the do-nothing, this website covers different issues that these individuals are going through and how to deal with these students. Personally, I think this is a great tool to have and keep up to date with. As teachers, we will constantly be confronted with various behavioral issues and conflicts with our students. By utilizing some of these suggestions made within this website, these conflicts and issues can be minimized, and classroom management can improve dramatically. For me, having students within my classroom who act out and do not have any respect for me is one of my greatest concerns with classroom management. Hopefully by using this, I can learn more about the various discipline issues that I will be confronted with and will become more at ease within the classroom.

To visit this website, go to:
http://www.disciplinehelp.com/

Edutopia

One of the websites on the Educational Psychology 2008-2009 was one entitled “Edutopia.” This website is full of interesting insights to education. The main emphasis is on public educations along with new and different ideas for making this system better. There is a section on core concepts, blogs, special reports, videos, and one can even subscribe to their magazine. For the core concepts of public education to work, the website lists integrated studies, project learning, social and emotional learning, technology integration, teacher development, and comprehensive assessment. For each component, there is more information about it, why it is a vital part of our school system, and how to make it better within the classroom. Ultimately this seems like a great tool to refer to for new ideas and concepts with teaching.

To visit this website, go to:
http://www.edutopia.org/topic-overview

iMovie: Stand for the Best

For one of our projects for ED Psych, we were told to read a book on education, and create an iMovie based on the book. My group chose the book Stand for the Best. This book is about a man named Thomas Bloch. Mr. Bloch was the CEO of H&R Block, but decided to leave his job to become a teacher. He started off as a teacher for an inner city school, dealing with middle school students. After doing this for a few years, he decided to start his own charter school. The majority of the book was on this charter school and some of his experiences with starting it up. Since he was stable financially, he was able to create this school; however, this could also be done with the help of donations and finding sponsors for the school. Ultimately, the main message I took from the book was that you should never be afraid to go after your dreams. Mr. Bloch chose to step down from his position at a job that was started by his family. This was a big risk, but he knew he wanted something more in his life, something that would satisfy him far beyond his experiences at H&R Block. As future teachers, I think it is vital to keep this message in mind. Teaching is a job that requires passion for the job and commitment to one’s students. In order to be an effective teacher and to be fair to one’s students, future teachers must pay attention to how they feel about the job and whether or not it continues to be the right choice.

"What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?"

One day in class, we were given an article entitled “What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?” After our class discussion and reading through this article, I started to question some of the teaching methods we use here in the United States. Here in our country there is so much pressure on kids to do so well in so many aspects of their lives. Kids are expected to do well in music, sports, class, and sustain meaningful relationships with their friends. Along with these expectations comes the pressure that parents put on their children. Every parent seems to want their child to be the best, and if students are not living up to those expectations, parents get mad and the students get punished. However, what if all of that was taken away. According to the article, schools in Finland do not have sports teams, marching bands, or prom. The emphasis of schools is “back to basics.” Within the school society, adults do not hover over the students, but rather the kids are given lessons that fit them. In addition, the only rules are basically that there cannot be any iPods, cell phones, or hats within the classroom. Other than that, there are not rules and students call their teachers by their first names. The atmosphere seems to be extremely relaxed compared to what we are used to here in the states. I remember in high school on the first day of class, the entire class periods would be going over rules and expectations. Perhaps we are placing too many restrictions upon our students, and maybe we need to give them more freedom in schools. Finally, the last major component of Finnish schools is how important reading is. From reading the article, it seems as though students actually enjoy reading. They incorporate it into all aspects of life, even including libraries in malls. I think this would be a huge change for our culture in the United States, but perhaps some of these changes could have positive impacts on our school systems.

The article "What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?" can be found at:
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120425355065601997-7Bp8YFw7Yy1n9bdKtVyP7KBAcJA_20080330.html

Brain Development Presentation

For one of the evening sessions, both ED Psych sections went to the Decorah Middle School to hear Karen Williams speak about brain development and research. Her presentation was very interesting. She explained that the memory is the essence of all development. Also, during a person’s lifetime, there are three main periods of brain development, which include while in the womb, from age one to six, and from age twelve to sixteen. The time in the womb is the starting point, then the second period is a time of learning the basics, and the third period is learning new basics. The years in-between these periods are when the individual improves the basics or new basics. These developmental stages occur with exposure, they do not just happen. The brain develops in stages, on schedule, and matures around the age of twenty-five. Karen Williams said that the brain develops back to front, and the last part of your brain to develop is the executive thinking function. Since the front of the brain is the last to develop, it is extremely beneficial for young adults to avoid alcohol because their large thinking skills have not developed yet. Alcohol consumption by teens also has a large impact on their learning. While learning new information, teens have a much more difficult time recalling the information and remembering if they have become drinkers. Ultimately this presentation stressed the importance of helping children develop from early on, so that their brains can fully develop during each of the three main periods. Karen Williams’ presentation also emphasized the negative effects of teens drinking, due to the harmful consequences to the brain. All in all I thought that the presentation was very interesting. She was extremely dramatic, which helped to keep our attention, and she successfully got the information across to her audience.

More information on Karen William’s presentation and UCLA brain development research can be found at:
http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~thompson/DEVEL/PR.html

Speaker: Doan Van Dieu

On Monday evening this week, we were fortunate enough to hear Dr. Doan Van Dieu, a professor from Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy in Vietnam, speak with us. Dr. Van Dieu spent much of the time talking about education and culture within Vietnam. I thought it was really interesting to hear about how his culture differs from ours in the United States. One of the things that shocked me the most was the fact the large role of parents within their children’s education and their methods of parenting. There seems to be a large focus on working hard and for each student to perform to the best of his or her ability. All parents seem to want healthy kids, and they really stress being good students. Another thing that was quite interesting to me was when Dr. Van Dieu was talking about arranged marriages. Apparently this used to be very common in Vietnam, and is still prominent today. To many in the United States, I think this seems quite odd; however, he made an interesting argument that the way we choose our significant others is more similar to arranged marriages than we would initially think. For example, he showed us some research that shows how important it is to many individuals that their families approve of their significant other. Though many in this country are free to make our own decision of who we spend our life with, we definitely take our families into consideration, just as those in Vietnam do. Additionally, I thought it was interesting to hear about how their parenting style differed from the styles I have seen in the United States. He talked about how many parents do not praise their children because they want them to be humble and not become arrogant. Along the same lines, he stressed the importance of respecting one’s elders within Vietnam, as well as respect from elders to the young individuals. All in all, learning about the culture in Vietnam was very intriguing and seems to be one of modesty, humility, and full of hard-working individuals.

More information on Ho Chi Minh University of Pedagogy can be found at:
http://english.slu.cz/ho-chi-minh-city-university-of-pedagogy-vietnam

"Chalk" video

On two of the Monday evening sessions, we were able to watch “Chalk.” This video was really interesting, yet made me a little nervous for some aspects of teaching. It made me a little worried about what to do in a situation when a child does not like you or respect you, and overall how to effectively manage your classroom. However, as the movie went on, these worries began to be less prominent as I saw a couple of the teachers learn and grow. I thought that the first year teacher made the most significant improvements. Despite the fact that he was thinking of leaving the profession at the end, I think that it was a great learning experience for him and I bet he grew a lot from taking on the challenge. I did not think that some of the other characters were as impressive, especially the man who lost the “Teacher of the Year” award. He seemed quite conceited and full of himself. I think to be an effective teacher, you need to put your students first and not your own personal image. Overall, I thought that this video was very entertaining and carried some important messages with it. Ultimately I think one of the main messages was that teachers need to love kids and have a strong passion for teaching in order to do a good job at being a teacher; if you do not enjoy young individuals and do not care about their success, then you should not be teaching. That probably seems like a fairly logical statement; however, I think many people have had at least one teacher who did not enjoy children, so it is definitely something to keep in mind. I liked “Chalk” and even though it confronted many obstacles teachers face, I am still really looking forward to being able to teach someday!

More information on the Chalk movie can be found at:
http://www.chalkthefilm.com/#/home/

"Autism and Education" article

Overall, I thought the “Autism and Education” article was very intriguing and made some important points. Since so much emphasis is placed on the No Child Left Behind policy, I never really thought very much about what is being done to challenge our gifted children. After reading about Lindsley’s son and daughter, one is confronted with an extremely controversial issue. Should more money be spent on gifted children versus the children with disabilities? I feel awful debating this issue because as educators, we want all students to succeed; however, at some point one begins to wonder if money would be better spent on the “gifted and talented” students. I understand that the No Child Left Behind policy was put into place for a reason, but maybe there needs to be some changes made. Perhaps gifted students should be given just as much special attention, in some situations, as students with disabilities. This article makes me think that despite the importance of attending to the needs of students with disabilities, maybe gifted and talented students should be given similar attention in the future.

For more information on autism:
http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer

Spring Convocation

At the beginning of this semester, I went to the spring convocation with Diane Griffin. Most of her talk was about infectious diseases as a global problem. She informed us that most infectious diseases affect children. One of these infectious diseases are measles, which can be prevented by a vaccine that came out in the 60’s. Malaria and HIV/AIDS are also some examples of infectious diseases. Malaria is the largest cause of death in developing countries. This is really unfortunate because it is completely preventable with a vaccine. Another thing Diane Griffin talked about was the fact that there is a problem of acceptance with vaccines in developed countries. After traveling to some developed countries, I think this is definitely true. I have found that some individuals are in denial or they do not want the social stigma of having a disease, especially HIV/AIDS, associated with them. She also made the point that some individuals have a problem that the vaccine is not “natural,” there are too many shots, and some are concerned about safety and the vaccines causing autism. Overall, these issues are definitely very real and a major issue in the world today. As a wealthy, developed country, many middle class Americans are not confronted with these issues; however, it does affect many individuals around the world. When Diane explained that it was a global problem, she emphasized the fact that it threatens world peace, it hampers economic development, increases childhood mortality, and it also hampers education. All in all, I think that Diane Griffin made some very important points and discussed an extremely vital topic; however, I wish that she would have spent more time talking about what we, as Americans, can do to help with this issue. Much of her time presenting was explaining facts, research, and data. I think it might have been a little bit more effective if she would have related it to her audience more.

More information on Diane Griffin and her work can be found at:
http://faculty.jhsph.edu/?faculty_id=281

Teacher Panel

On Monday evening, we had the privilege of hearing a group of Luther graduates discuss their experiences teaching thus far. I thought it was really interesting to hear all of their unique stories. From an elementary teacher, to a special education teacher, to a physical education teacher, they all have had various experiences in the real world thus far. Despite the fact that they all teach in different areas, I thought it was interesting to hear that they were all facing similar issues. They all brought up the issue of technology and how the students are so dependent on it, as well as the constant use of a cell phone by the students. As time goes on, I’m sure that this issue with technology will continue to occur. Aside from the issues that they are facing, one part of the discussion that really stuck out in my mind was the experience one woman had with student teaching. She was able to go and do part of her student teaching in Brussels. I’m sure that was an unbelievable experience and would like to explore something like that for myself when the time comes. All in all, I felt as though I learned a lot about all of these teachers and am eager to begin teaching in a few years.
Overall, I really enjoyed hearing the experiences of all of the teachers; however, I would eventually like to hear from teachers who are in a more diverse environment. These were all white teachers who are primarily teaching white students in small schools in northeast Iowa. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but I would like to hear about different experiences teachers are having in other parts of the country or the world. I hope that throughout my experience at Luther I will be prepared to not only deal with the white population in my classroom, but with the diverse population as well.


More information on the Luther Education Department can be found at:
http://education.luther.edu/

Paper Clips

Both Educational Psychology classes were given the opportunity to watch the movie "Paper Clips". This is a film about a group of middle school students from a little town of Whitwell, Tennessee who did an unbelievable project. Since the majority of the population was homogeneous, the vice principal decided to educate the students more about the Holocaust. By doing this, the students would be exposed to a completely different culture and they would be able to develop a better understanding of diversity and stereotypes. I was completely blown away by how captivated the students were by this topic, and how passionate they were about learning more about it. It was extremely moving and inspiring to see a group of young people care so much about the Holocaust and the millions of people whose lives were dramatically changed because of this tragic event. I thought that the teachers, principal, and vice principal did a phenomenal job instilling interest and excitement within these children. As future educators, I think there are definitely some major lessons we can learn from these individuals, and hopefully we can apply them to our own classrooms one day.
Once we finished watching this movie, we were able to talk about it within our discussion groups. One of the issues brought up was when is it appropriate to teach issues, such as the Holocaust, to children. I actually was in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic over J-term studying the Holocaust. While there, we were given the opportunity to visit five previous concentration camps, along with various museums and important sites related to the Holocaust. While trying to make sense of all of this information, it just became more clear to me how vital it truly is to educate our young individuals about events such as the Holocaust. By doing so, we can teach them what evils stem from negative stereotypes, discrimination, and hatred. Hopefully then can we help to stop an event, such as the Holocaust, from ever happening again. All in all, I was very moved by this movie and felt a great sense of hope in our young children, especially after returning from studying the Holocaust.


More information found at:
http://www.paperclipsmovie.com/synopsis.php