Closure Week 4

This week's readings dealt with classroom management.

I think teaming can help with certain aspects of developmental responsiveness. One way to promote developmental responsiveness is to place children in groups who are on the same level and let them work together. Implementing teaming in this situation could help meet the individual needs of the students. The teaming group could be broken apart and each one could be assigned as a mentor for each group.  In addition, teaming can help teachers solve problems that they may encounter with lessons or with certain students. Teaming offers up different points of views and can help teachers learn different methods and ways to teach and reach their students.

Making a classroom enjoyable, inviting, and a good learning environment for students can be a challenge. The room needs to be inviting and fun.  One way to do this would be to use warm and bright colors throughout the room. Dull and monotonous colors are not inviting, nor do they stimulate interest. I think the teacher should not place herself behind the desk or podium, but she should move among the students so that she seems approachable. Also the teacher needs to portray an attitude of openness, the teacher needs to seem like she cares and that she is willing to be there to listen to her students.  Furthermore, I think a classroom should have vibrant fun signs that say things other than welcome, they should have neat sayings about learning or school in general.

I remember my 12th grade English teacher, Mrs. S, she had great classroom management. She was a wonderful teacher and I loved the way she managed her classroom.  Mrs. S. was more lenient on us and did not force rules upon us, I think she adopted this attitude towards us because we were older students.  When Mrs. S. saw we were doing something detrimental to our learning she would not tell us to quit, or call anyone out, she would simply ask, "Is everyone on task?" This simple question was enough to get everyone to do what they were supposed to be doing.  Also she was very open with us, we would spend the first couple minutes of every class period just talking to her about things not related to her class and she would listen and encourage us.  I think the attitude she portrayed made us as students not want to cause any problems or go against her rules because we related to her.

Observation Week 3

This week I observed a group of children at a birthday party for a boy turning 12 years old. At the party were 12 boys age 11-13 and two girls, both of whom were 15. The boys seemed to have yet to go through puberty, while the girls appeared to have experienced it already. The parents and family were also in attendance and everyone who attended was Caucasian.

While I observed, the boys took part in several activities which included basketball, riding four-wheelers and dirt bikes, and the blowing out of the candles on the birthday cake. I noticed that throughout all these activities, the two girls did not participate.  They stayed huddled together and only interacted with each other. In addition, the children tried to stay away from the parents, as if they were too cool or embarrassed to be around their parents.  When it came time to take part in the singing of the birthday song and blowing out the candles, it was clear by the children's comments and their reactions that they thought this activity to be childish.  In addition, when the children took a break from playing ball, a couple of parents began to play. The children enjoyed laughing and making fun of them as they failed or completely missed the goal. The children also did not like being told not to do something or to be careful.

This week's observations allowed for several connections to the Brighton book to be made. One thing I particularly noticed was the abrupt mood swings.  One moment the kid would be happy and goofing off, but once the parent said something to him to correct his behavior, the kid became sullen, and a minute later he would be cheerful again. Brighton points out that teens are prone to change their attitudes in a very short time period.  Furthermore, the children seemed to enjoy that their parents were failing when playing basketball. "Young teens often will look for flaws in their parents and seem to be delighted when the parents make a mistake or do something foolish" (Brighton, 2007, pg.97). This could not be truer, the kids loved to laugh at their parents and make fun of them. In addition, the boys had yet to go through puberty and as a result they did not seem to want to have anything to do with the two girls.  It was as if the girls were still their enemies.

As I watched these kids and the attitudes they had towards their parents, it made me startlingly aware of how challenging it is going to be to connect and be able to reach these children during such pivotal years. Children are going to have abrupt mood swings and are not going to like taking directions. As a teacher I will have to realize, that sometimes, students can not help but be moody and have mood swings. I have to remember I was there once myself and I have to think how it is best to address students when they are like this. Furthermore,  I know that during this time in their life they do not like taking instruction and as a teacher I will have to find a way to approach students so that it does not seem like I am being bossy. Teaching is a challenge and students in this age group may be the hardest to reach because of their constantly changing bodies and hormones.

Closure Blog, June 23

This week is the end of the wiki postings for our class. While I may be happy not to have to post to the wiki anymore (simply because it takes time), I am glad that we did have to do this.

 I found certain sections/pages of the wiki to be more valuable than others. I believe that the first wiki page on physical development is the most important.  The wiki postings are all about children coming of age.  I feel that coming of age all begins with the physical changes that begin in a child and spiral into other changes.  Physical changes bring about mood changes, attitude changes, health issues, problems socially, and can lead to intellectual changes occurring. I feel that physical change is the start or basis for which children develop into themselves.  On a personal level, I think that the section in health and wellness that covers nutrition including children being undernourished, bulimia, anorexia, obesity, etc is extremely important because I have witnessed children struggling with aspects of nutrition on a regular basis, especially in Mississippi. Providing nutritional food is now, more than ever, a concern because of the number of people in the U.S. who struggle with it.

Personally, I wouldn't say that any of the parts of the wiki are less valuable than others, but if I had to choose I would choose the section on brain development from the moral, religious, and character development chapter mainly because it is full of theories and more complex words. The information included in this chapter is important, its just a more technically written chapter.

The hardest thing about these wikis was finding solutions to the issues that students will face.  It was hard to think what to do for the student from the viewpoint of the teacher. As a teacher there are certain boundaries that one should not overstep and I had to consider this when I was coming up with the solutions to the issues.

The wiki is overall extremely helpful. The wiki provides very good summaries of the chapters in the Brighton book and even provides a way to quiz us on the information.  I like that if there was a certain section of the book that we found unclear from the author's perspective, then we have the ability to see it from a student's perspective on the wiki.

Observation 2

This week I chose to observe children competing in a local gymnastics competition.  Even though there were numerous children present, I focused on a group of ten girls from one gymnastics school.  These girls varied in age from 10 - 12. Eight of the girls were Caucasian while the other 2 were African American.

 The girls were all in matching outfits and stayed grouped together near their coach. It was as if the other children present were their enemies.  It was evident that they did not want to have to interact with the other students if they could help it.  I did, however, witness amazing team unity.  The girls were always cheering each other on, boosting each others spirits, and telling each other how well they were going to do and that they could do it.  These children were very focused.  I was surprised to see how intently they listened to their coach, whenever he spoke to them.  It seemed that no matter how long his advice to the girls was that they were focused on him 100%.  In addition, when it came time to compete in their event, one could see the focus evident on the faces of the girls. After the girls performed, it was clear that they felt their self worth based on how well they did.  It was clear that those that received criticism felt less sure about themselves and tended to "hang their head low", whereas, those who excelled became cocky.  They walked about with a sense of arrogance.

I made several connections to the Brighton book after observing these girls.  For instance, according to the Brighton book, children at this age usually have an attention span of fifteen minutes unless they are truly intrigued by what is occurring, being taught, etc.  This was evident in the gymnastic girls, when their coach was talking to them, their eyes never wandered. They listened to his every word because they were focused on winning and saw him as a ways to better their cause.  In addition, I also saw that the children determined their self concept or self  worth through their achievements in gymnastics. In  Brighton's book, he references the Self-Perception Profile by Harter, which names the various domains in which a student establishes their self concept.  Among these domains, is athletic achievement.  The girls who excelled and ranked high held their heads higher and walked with an air of arrogance.  Children are easily offended and criticism often offends them, even, if it is meant to be constructive criticism.  When the children messed up in a competition, the coach would tell them what they did wrong and then tell them how to fix it.  However, even though it was meant to help in the future the children took it personally.  They walked about with their heads down and their confidence decreased. As Brighton says, "Any negative comment from an adult, regardless of how tactfully couched, may constitute being "yelled at "(Brighton, 2007, 70)."

This week's observations gave me several insights into what I need to do as a teacher in my future.  For one, I have to be able to find as way to hold the attention of my students.  I will have to learn to make lessons fun and attention grabbing.  This will be a difficult task because some subjects can appear very boring to students, but it is possible.  In addition, if I can make it interesting students will benefit because their grades will increase and learning will occur.  I also have to be very careful when it comes to constructive criticism.  Children  are very sensitive, this is something I have to remember. I remember being very sensitive to every word that came out of an adult's mouth, thus I must keep this in mind when I correct students.  Lastly, I need to remember to complement students when they do well and to encourage them when they fail.  Children absorb comments and feed on them.  As a teacher it is always important to bring your students up, not down.

Closure Week 2

     This week's reading from the Parks book focused on diversity and what diversity means in relation to a student's behavior in the classroom.  Much of the information that makes up this chapter comes from "A Framework for Understanding Poverty," by Ruby Payne.  In this book, she elaborates on what students from the three backgrounds ( poverty, middle class, and wealth) bring to class.
      According to Ms. Payne's book, the motivational and driving forces of each class are pretty concrete.  Based on the chart one would expect a child from the poverty class to believe that getting an education is not a reality. One would expect them to speak in a more brass manner, and for their main focus to be on survival.  The middle class seems to value education and view it is a means of "getting ahead and climbing the ladder."  They speak in a formal tone and focus on negotiating. Their main goal seems to be to move up the social ladder.  Finally, the wealthy class view education not as a goal, but as a chore.  It is simply something that has to be done to maintain their wealth.  They speak in a more formal tone with the main emphasis on building connections.  I feel that Ms. Payne's view is correct for the most part, but there are of course exceptions.  There are those who have experienced a "rags to riches" story and vice-versa. I knew of a young man that was from a poor family that then became very wealthy.  This change in status did not change him or his family though.  They still spoke in a casual tone and their main focus was always on survival.  He would still wear hand-me-down clothing to school because his family was always afraid of retreating back into poverty.   This young man did vary in one aspect though, he always viewed education as very important and knew that he could succeed.   I myself identify with the description of a middle class person. My driving force for becoming educated and going through school is to hopefully gain financial security and achievement.  Education has always been a goal and to me a means of achieving a comfortable life style.
     Also pointed out in this chapter are behavioral problems that a teacher may encounter with students from the poverty class. The one idea that really stands out in my head is that "many behaviors stem from survival outside of the school, and the importance of self-governance is diminished" (Parks, 2010, 64).  As a teacher, one must realize what a student goes through on an everyday basis.  One must understand where a child is coming from and why he or she acts the way they do.  For example, a poor person's main focus is on survival, so their gut instinct is to do what it takes to survive with no thought to their actions.  In their minds controlling themselves no longer matters, preservation does.  For example, a poverty student is having lunch and he gets up from his seat to do something, while he is up someone decides to be nice and take his tray to the dishwasher.  The poverty stricken student sees this and confronts the person and gets violent with them.  There were only a few scraps of food left on his plate, but for him it meant survival and thus it is his base instinct; it is how he lives that made him attack the person who was just trying to be helpful.  As a teacher, we must observe our students and be able to understand their backgrounds so as to be able to relate to them.  Dealing with diversity will be a challenge, modifying a student's behavior will take time and effort and is no easy task.

Observation Week 1

OBSERVATIONS:

     This week I chose to observe a group of 9 middle school students at Six Flags located in New Orleans, LA. These students were on a class trip and were there to ride attractions and have fun. It was a reward for their excelling in school.  All of the students were members of S.W.A.T. or Students with Advanced Thoughts.  This group was composed of 7 Caucasians and 2 African Americans.  There were 5 females and 4 males that were between the ages of 10 and 12.

     As I watched the students I witnessed two clicks form.  One click was made up of three students who were dressed in very laid back clothing.  The other 6 students were dressed in more stylish name brand clothing including Hollister and Aeropostale.  Teachers and parents were there to supervise, however, I noticed that when the teachers directly addressed the students or asked them to do something they acted as though they failed to hear the requests.  It was clear that they did not want to be associated with the teachers because they seemed to view it as uncool.  I observed that the students felt themselves to old to need adult supervision. I noticed that the clique of 3 was more willing to listen to the teachers than the other clique. In addition, I saw that the teens showed great camaraderie, they had constant contact with one another through hugging, play hitting,  and picking on one another.

REFLECT:

     In Brighton's book cliques were discussed and I saw for myself two cliques. I saw that they were separated by their style of clothing. Each clique had adopted their own code of dress. In addition, Brighton noted that as children get older their associations become more heterogeneous.  I saw that this was the case. Both genders mixed together as well as two races. Also noted in the book was the need for companionship and to be close to others.  This was clearly evident by watching how the students interacted with one another.

FUTURE:

    Seeing the students interact outside the classroom showed me that teaching adolescents can be very rewarding.  As a teacher one can see students excel and as a result one can witness the students be rewarded with things such as trips and awards. It makes me excited to think that I can help students achieve and be happy. In addition, seeing the attitude the students had towards the teachers outside of the classroom showed that students want to be independent and have space.  I think this will influence how I teach.  I will try not to be overbearing or too helpful. I will strive to make learning a challenge and give the students the chance to solve issues and problems on their own.

Closure Week 1

1.  I found this week's readings very interesting. I particularly found Chapter 3 of Brighton to be very helpful.  I liked that it gave details of what middle age students are going through and how we as teachers can help them.  I found it interesting that at this age students have an abundance of energy because of hormone fluctuations and that it is hard for students to sit on hard surfaces for any length of time due to ossification. According to this  chapter these are things that we should just ignore, teens are going to be fidgety and not want to sit still, but it is not something they can control.  The issue of privacy concerning having to change clothes in front of students is one I myself personally remember.  When it came time to change for  gym there was always a line to get into one of the two stalls that were located in the locker rooms and this often caused students to be tardy for class. I think respecting a teen's privacy is a very important thing that is often forgotten. In addition, I enjoyed learning about in loco parentis from Parks Chapter 1. In loco parentis means that you are in the position of the parent.  This was very important for me.  As a teacher I must always remember that I am responsible for every single student and every action and word I say in front of them and I must always remember this.

2. One interesting thing I learned was about the lesson from the cow.  I was wondering do other teachers mind people borrowing their ideas and methods?  Do they find it insulting or flattering that we would like to take their ideas and change them?

3. I am interested in learning many things about working with middle school students.One thing that I would like to know is how to best connect with middle school students.  I want to know what middle school students most expect from their teachers.