amy in education

Final Thoughts

2008-12-10T10:45:00.000-08:00

I know that there could be a million things I could say here in my final thoughts section, but what I feel is most important is how much I have changed since the beginning of the semester. I have consistently felt like I needed to prove myself to everyone around me, my classmates, teachers, etc. but I have since discovered that what I really needed to do was prove myself to ME. I have such confidence issues I have struggled with forever and I am so happy that I am finally starting to break through these issues. And again, I have the learning center to thank for a lot of this. I don't know if I make things up in my head or not, but I feel like I surprised a lot of people with my center. When I first think about this it kind of hurts my feelings until I realize that I surprised myself with it, so really I need to stop worrying about everyone else and start telling myself I know I do fine and I know I will be a successful teacher one day and I cannot wait until I finally get to have my own classroom and students. After all these years I have finally discovered where I am most comfortable and it is so very exciting to be starting a new chapter in my life!

A List of Ideas

2008-12-10T10:15:00.000-08:00

After reading William Cronon’s “Only Connect: The Goals of a Liberal Education” for my Teaching Adolescents class, I have decided to make my own list to organize the ideas that have come into my brain during these last few months. This list represents things I wish I could be (and hopefully one day will be!), and also derives from qualities I find myself admiring, and even envious at times, in others around me. I think everything on Cronon’s list is just as important in being a free and intelligent person, but these traits I not only desire to have myself, but also hope to employ in my future students each year.
The list is as following:

1. They can live without fear or limitations.
I have spent too much of my life being held back by my fears, from public speaking all the way to failure of any sort. In order to make progress in life, you have to really put yourself out there without worrying about negative outcomes. This is not to say you should not be conscious of the possible results or make irrational or irresponsible decisions, but you should never NOT do something just because there is a chance it will not end as perfectly as you might have hoped. People who have the ability to do this have the potential to make great changes in the world and I so hope that one day I am able to join them.

2. They are confident, but not too much.
Obviously a person needs to feel good about what he or she is doing, to feel comfortable and knowledgeable, and overall confident in their skills. The most important part in my opinion though, is to be able to question your own abilities and have the selfless intelligence to know when you need to make changes and/or further your understanding. This way, you are constantly learning new information or adapting new ideas to things you already know, but you still feel worthy and capable enough to use your knowledge to help yourself and others live a fruitful and rewarding life.

3. They take what they know and apply it.
Of course once you learn new things, you have to be able to understand them well enough to know how to apply them to your own life and to the lives around you. What is the point of having knowledge if you do not know how to use it?

4. They can see both sides to situations.
Having opinions is human nature. Seeing valid points from both sides is a little bit trickier. It is hard to see value in something you strongly oppose but I feel like having the ability to do this would make the world a much more peaceful place (cliché but true.) Besides, if you can find good in every side to an argument, it not only makes you more intelligent, but it makes you optimistic!

5. They employ both knowledge and wisdom.
It is one thing to be blessed with brains but it is quite another to have the desire to actually shape and use them. An intellectual individual contains loads of knowledge but a wise person makes the conscious decision to do something with this knowledge and actually try. Too many people in this world waste their potential. How different life could be if this were not the case.

6. They are pillars of inner strength.
It is simply fact that every person on the planet goes through rough times in his or her life. The people I find myself admiring the most are those who do not simply overcome the situation, they turn it into something good. It takes a great amount of wisdom and patience to be able to do this.

7. They draw connections from everything in their lives.
Okay, so this one was already stated in Cronon’s “Only Connect,” but I felt that it was so important it needed reiteration. Being able to see all the relationships between everything in our lives, our experiences, and the world itself is something I wish every person had the ability to do. This is what allows people to discover the purpose of their own endeavors and to me, is the most important aspect of them all in being an intelligent person. I want to be able to show the world how alike we all are and how we are able to create peace within our own worlds even if it might be impossible, or less likely, to do so on the greater scale worldwide.

These are just a few of many traits people could have to help shape a better world, but these are the ones I have found to be the most valuable in my life. Fortunately, teaching these kinds of ideals would be easier to do in English and creative writing then another subject such as math. This, however, might just be because English comes more naturally to me then math so someone proficient in that subject may feel differently. I am confident, though, that as I am exposed to more experiences, influential people, places, and new information I will continue to grow in each of these areas and continue to seek the deeper and ultimate purpose. I plan to be able to also inspire my students to experience this growth as well. So if I have twenty students a semester and work for thirty or so years, there would be about twelve hundred students I have the potential to inspire into fashioning a better world (and I said I did not like math!). I can only hope that they will be as passionate about making a difference as I am so that together we can work to create a better place for future generations.

Learning About Centers

2008-12-10T09:41:00.000-08:00

Well last week our learning centers were due. I know I have irresponsibly been A.W.O.L. in blogtown, but this crazy learning center took over my life for a while. However, I am so pleased with the outcome. I'm not bragging, just stating that I am 100% satisfied with the work I produced.

I won't deny the fact that this was a lot of work, but I was surprised at how much I thoroughly I enjoyed doing it. It was homework, stressful, and time consuming in an already busy time, but I found myself getting more and more excited about it the more time I spent on it. I even had to cut myself off because there just wasn't enough room or time to complete all the ideas I had! This is particularly good news because it means (hopefully) that when I actually finally get to be a real teacher, I am going to be happy doing it and excited to go to work everyday, except for maybe the getting up at 6 am everyday. That part is not so enthralling.

Regardless, the point is that as time goes on I am feeling more and more comfortable with the things I do and I am finally starting to be a little bit confident in it. I am so glad we did learning centers because it really was the final push to give me this. I even felt so good about it, I sent friends here and at home the assignments I had created and the photos from when it was all complete. I got so many compliments on it, from the "cleverness" of the title to being able to make writing enticing. So really, if you haven't already picked it up yet, I couldn't be happier with the outcome!

These are little drawings that go with one of my assignments. You have to draw your face while looking in the mirror without looking at your paper! It's quite difficult. Mine is the top left, though I'd like to think my face isn't as chubby in real life.

Here is a photo of my help center, supplies, and student folders.

Finished backboard!

Complete project! :D

More on Goats (Because They're Fun)

2008-11-16T09:53:00.000-08:00

While at the pumpkin patch, the owner showed us probably the coolest invention since before the refrigerator. This crazy old machine is a classic product of technology developed for the need of efficiency. You take a piece of corn and stick it in the opening and then simply turn the handle and the corn spins down the ridged metal pieces around it that in turn pull off the corn kernels. So at the end you have a whole bunch of kernels in the bottom of your box ready to feed to the chickens or goats, etc. and a blank cob to use for whatever you heart desires. The owner said she usually uses them in starting fires, which seems like a pretty smart idea to me. The point though, is that technology is so awesome because it takes a problem, whether it be something damaging or something tedious, etc. and comes up with a solution for it. Can't get any better than that.

Here you can see the kernels flying off the cob.

This really tickled my hand a lot! :]

"Field" Trip

2008-11-16T08:10:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago the class went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch where we got to do all kinds of exciting things including picking our own pumpkin. Here is mine:

Along the way we counted cows (a difficult task), gas stations, and calculated the average time it would take to get from school to the farm. I really enjoyed looking at all the differences in the houses and buildings along the way because they were so diverse. I took these through the window of a moving car so they're not that great.

From this house (that looks like it has on an old school metal army hat)

To this little guy. We had to turn around in this driveway because Bobby drove right past the pumpkin patch! :]

Once we arrived there was all sorts of things for us to do. Some students completed a maze, some raced on to find the perfect pumpkin (or destroy the rotten ones WITH permission of the owner), some stayed in the shed with the warmth of the fire, and some (like me) found the most entertainment from the animals there, particularly the goats.

I was fond of this one. Okay, I was fond of both. But this one smiled for me.

In the following weeks our class circulated the entire curriculum around pumpkins. So not only did we enjoy ourselves on our trip, we also learned an important lesson in how simple it is to incorporate all subjects into one simple idea. It sounds like a task but once you start, it just spirals out and actually becomes effortless and really is a much more effective and efficient way of teaching.

Encouragement

2008-11-15T19:00:00.000-08:00

I visited my old high school last week when I went home to do some observations and I was glad to see some improvements. When I went there the place was beyond a joke. I never had to try to succeed at all because everything was either way too easy (in general, not because I'm a genius) or because the teachers didn't care enough to even try. I graduated first in my class, which to most people would be something to be proud of, but I don't consider it a great accomplishment since I didn't have to work for it. This has been so damaging to me because it has conditioned me to think I won't ever need to work for something, which is obviously very untrue. When I came to Berea I was so overwhelmed and overall behind, I thought I would never catch up and it was hard not to think I was stupid. This has been something very hard to get over and I hope I will one day be able to use my own negative experience there to make some changes. The most disheartening thing about it was that I did have a couple good teachers while I was there, but they usually ended up leaving and teaching at the rich/smart school instead and deserting all of us when we were the ones who needed the help.

When I visited the other day, I was surprised to see more than one room covered with exciting things students had created. One door I paused and sneaked a photo and tried really hard to read as much as I could without lingering since there was a class going on in that room and next to it as well (if you look close enough you can see a girl looking at me like I'm crazy so I didn't get to stick around long enough to read the entire assignment.) However, each student apparently had gotten to make a mask and they had collaboratively written on sheets of paper "What We Learned", "What We Excelled At", "What We Need to Improve", and "Plan of Improvement" and listed ideas respectively. This reminded me so much of things we have done in 150 and I was happy to see a little bit of light in such a dim area. Hopefully things will continue to improve!

Westward Bound

2008-11-15T17:57:00.000-08:00

So this January during Short Term, I am westward bound yet again. This time though, instead of going out to sunny California to do wedding photography, I'm going to Arizona to teach on an Indian reservation.

There is a group of about eleven of us going and I think I'm guilty of being the one who is most nervous. I wish I had more confidence in myself and my abilities so I wouldn't be quite as worried, but I can't seem to stop being my own worst critic. Despite this nervousness though, I am incredibly excited. We're not flying either, we're going old school and road trippin' it. I think that is so cool. Driving across country (or close enough anyway) is definitely one of those things you want to do before you die. Plus, we're going two different routes one the way and returning to Berea so we can see all sorts of interesting things. I am super excited about the ample photo opportunities I am certain I will have throughout the entire trip.

Hopefully though, the best part of the trip will be working with the students. I haven't yet gotten my placement and I am very anxious to see what subject area and what age group I get to work with. I am positive I will be happy with whatever I get and I can't wait to get started!

Ali in the Jungle

2008-11-14T23:31:00.000-08:00

So while I was sitting here thinking about the ol' B-L-O-G, I started listening to the song playing and got inspired by it. The video is posted below but warning: profanities included.

This song to me is very inspirational. It talks about how, well, "everybody gets knocked down" but what's important is how fast you overcome it and make something good out of it. It gives examples of hero-worthy individuals such as Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, Beethoven, Helen Keller, etc. whom have all overcame great obstacles to make a positive change in not only their own lives, but those around them.

I think including the music aspect of incorporating this in the classroom could get students a lot more interested instead of me just standing up there lecturing about these [remarkable] individuals. I would love to see what kinds of things students write about in regards to their own lives after hearing about these others or even each others. I just think it is a great concept to think about though...what will you do with the bad things that happen to you in your lifetime?

Teacher's Square

2008-11-14T18:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at work, while reading the news I happened to stumble onto an article about how our features can help tell about ourselves. I found it particularly interesting reading about how all kinds of different cultures have or continue to do this. Apparently the Chinese traditionally read faces and the Japanese even read into blood types. Reading all this lead me to palmistry, which I found/find incredibly intriguing!

According to palmistry, I should be a teacher! There is a little square of lines on the mount under the index finger which is usually indicative of someone who would make a good teacher. It implies the ability to pass on knowledge, that ambition drives the person towards possible academic achievement, and indicates perception, sympathy and a humanitarian view toward other people. When these are combined, the qualities can represent a person who has teaching abilities added to the desire to benefit others. If only I had consulted my hand sooner!

Teacher's Square

While this might be uninteresting or even unbelievable to some, I was and still am so intrigued. Regardless of whether or not you believe in such practices, it is still a neat thing to read about what certain cultures now and even some dating back to days of cave paintings believe(d). This could be an exciting thing to bring up in the classroom to get students interested. I mean, have you made it all the way through this post without looking at your own hand?

Technologic!

2008-11-11T21:33:00.000-08:00

Click play!

Thoughts on Pilgrimages

2008-11-10T17:46:00.000-08:00

After reading all about Elias Chacour and his life experiences, I started thinking of the idea of pilgrimages. When hearing the word “pilgrimage,” one often does not think of one’s own journey. I know I never did. That is, until I had such big scares. The word “pilgrimage” to me brings up thoughts of Native Americans and Thanksgiving or various religious people on journeys to a place of some spiritual significance. But it is something much different, much simpler than that.

Upon reflecting this idea of a spiritual journey, I am certain those I have encountered were not ones I sought out, but instead were ones I stumbled upon. I have fast discovered that inner peace is uncovered better when you are not trying to find it, in my experience anyway.
In my life, I can recall at least three “pilgrimages” I have encountered and unfortunately, they have all seemed to occur in a dark time of my life. This leads me to believe that you cannot have a proper journey unless some suffering has occurred, as is true in Elias Chacour’s case as well.

I so clearly remember experiencing yet again this overwhelming sense of peace when I woke up in the recovery room after having my surgery. I know I was completely knocked out during the whole procedure and yes, I was under the influence of some pretty hardcore [prescription] drugs, but I am absolutely certain I knew everything was fine. Before going in I had no idea if I would be able to keep my uterus and/or both ovaries, whether or not the mass was cancerous, whether or not I could have cancer anywhere else, etc. but I have never in my life been so clear in my mind thinking I was okay as I was laying there in that hospital bed. I did not even need them to tell me they were 99% positive it was benign and that I would still be able to have kids, because I knew and I felt more content then I have in my entire life. Even though I did have this overwhelming feeling and I know things turned out the best they possibly could, it was and IS still a hard road. And although I am still traveling, I have come so far and it truly has been a journey.

Now I know this instance wouldn’t really be defined as “pilgrimage” in the traditional sense, but despite the lack of going on a quest for this inner peace, I found it. I do not necessarily feel like traveling from one location to another is the only way to experience an inner journey (obviously) but it is more of a travel from a part of oneself to a whole new aspect of oneself, sort of like a complete inner transformation.

I want my students to be able to experience these kinds of transformations, and hopefully via writing. To me, writing is therapy and it helps put together a scrambled group of thoughts in your brain into one cohesive collection of ideas that begin to make more sense. Then you have these pieces of writing as a representation of how you are growing, healing, etc. Of course, I certainly don't want my students to have to go through awful experiences but, honestly, the fact of the matter is that they will, so I want to be able to help them turn their experiences into something good, to grow and learn from it.

Blood Brothers

2008-11-09T19:56:00.000-08:00

Recently, I have been reading Blood Brothers, a non-fiction novel that gives the personal account of the author's life story growing up in the midst of the war in Palestine beginning in the 1940's. The story is beyond amazing but also is quite heartbreaking. It tells the history of the Zionist movement into Palestine and the underhanded theft of the Palestinian land in which they had lived for hundreds of years.

Elias Chacour, the author, has spent his life working for peace in his homeland. His father had ingrained Christian ideals of inner peace and forgiveness into his children and called their Jewish neighbors their "blood brothers" since they were both descendants of Abraham. Chacour based his life off of these beliefs and is now an Archbishop and has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I had the honor of hearing him speak last week and meeting him after the presentation where he signed my copy of his book and took a photograph with me. I was so nervous! The meeting was very fleeting since there was a line nearly to the other end of the building but it had such a profound affect on me. He is such an inspiration and I can only wonder what he saw in me when our eyes met.

The most important lesson I have learned from this book is the misrepresentation of Palestinians and the power media holds over us. As a teacher, I vow to teach honestly and without biases as best to my ability and can only hope to also ingrain the drive for peace within my future students. I wish everyone could read this book. It seriously has changed my life.

Archbishop Elias Chacour and myself. Ahh, such an honor!
Read the book, seriously.

Rainbow Bright

2008-10-30T17:54:00.000-07:00

I have recently discovered that at exactly 8:30 am, the sun has perfectly aligned itself so that as soon as my alarm sounds, there is a small band of rainbow stretching itself across my face and pillow. The first two days I could not figure out what in the world it was reflecting off of, but alas, this morning I finally made my discovery. There is a mirror on the back of my door across from my bed and there is about an inch and a half of the mirror along each edge that is angled at just the right angle to make a perfect array of colors bathe me with a wake up call. Normally, I might be a little grumpy to be woken up by the sun, but a rainbow? What a cheerful way to wake up!

It made me think of the observations we have been doing all semester long about the habits and motion of the moon. Obviously, like the moon, the sun moves across the sky and at such a fast rate that by the time I am out of the shower, my little rainbow has traveled to the very edge of my bed and drops off and disappears shortly after. I am curious to know how many more days I will get to experience this spectacle before the sun moves along to a new location at 8:30 am. Now if only some Skittles could come raining out of the rainbow like in the commercials, that would be a real Halloween treat!

I hope that when I become a teacher, together my class and I can stumble upon little discoveries like this and incorporate them into the classroom. I feel that you can't really make accurate lesson plans prior to meeting your students because I think it is important to revolve what the class does around what the class is interested in. I mean, to me that is kind of common sense and that is how I want to fashion my future classroom. I guess, though, that this also means I will have to be a bit of a procrastinator in my lesson plans and whatnot, but I don't think I will have much trouble accomplishing that :]

I took a photo of the rainbow on my pillow instead of my face since most people, including me, look gross when they first wake up.

Cloud of Thought

2008-10-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend I did a bit of cloud watching while on the way to Cincinnati (obviously I wasn't driving) and I couldn't help but think of all the amazing things we can learn from clouds. I remember my first scientific discovery as a child and how remarkable it seemed. I was on a walk with my mom and I unmistakably noticed the clouds moving across the sky. Shocked, I reported this observation to her. She informed me that while the clouds do in fact move and change, they also appear to move because the Earth is rotating as well and if I watch close enough, I can see the turn.

Not much longer, my family was spending the summer at our family farm. Several of us had gone for a walk around the lake nearby just before dusk and fog was beginning to collect. My cousin and I saw a cloud sitting neatly upon the top of a knoll and we ran straight for it, obviously, in order to discover the inside of a cloud. Instead, we found nothing but misty air around us and ended up a little bit more wet and cold than planned. What a let down!

The important thing though, is that I was able to, with a little assistance from my mom, make discoveries and create knowledge on my own. It's amazing how much more I remember how astonishing this was to me, as simple as it is. I think it is so important to recall the things we learned as children and how we learned them in order to use these memories to develop lessons and teaching methods that will be most beneficial to our students. If we didn't enjoy it then, why should kids enjoy it now?

Ferris Bueller, You're My Hero!

2008-10-22T18:13:00.000-07:00

So the other day I was sitting on my bed working on homework when I looked up and saw none other than Ferris Bueller staring back at me. Now I might be a little biased since Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is my favorite movie, but I genuinely feel as though that movie offers such great advice! I also feel like it could be great in the classroom. How could this be, you ask, since the movie is about skipping school? Well I will tell you. It is blatantly obvious Mr. Bueller and his friends learn way more in their skipping then they would have if they had gone to school instead. They eat foreign cuisine, go to a parade, see priceless works of art, etc. etc. They fully immerse themselves into their culture, and to me, it is just so inspiring. One of my favorite quotes of all times (and one I try to live my life by) comes from that film:

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

I don’t want to encourage my students to skip class by all means, but rather encourage them to stop and appreciate things. Live life and enjoy it for Pete’s sake! Let us indeed “Save Ferris” and save his ideals to make our own lives better. So thanks Ferris Bueller, you really are my hero :]

Balls and Ramps!

2008-10-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

So for my Teaching Adolescents class last week, Brenda asked if I could teach the Ball and Ramp experiment we did in the Intro to Ed class in order to teach constructivism. Obviously I agreed to do so and I can't believe how well it went! The premise of the assignment is to build a ramp with both an incline and a decline of at least 3 inches (first drop doesn't count) and then have the ball roll exactly 6 feet and stop completely on it's own. It is certainly a lot harder then it sounds but I was shocked to find that one group completed this task very quickly. Once they got it to stop exactly at the 6 foot mark, they simply quit though instead of continuing to test it, even though when they presented it, it still went exactly 6 feet. I also found it particularly interesting that the two groups who had the future math teachers, were the ones who were most successful. Here is a photo of the beginnings of the winning ramp:

The Craft of Crafts

2008-10-14T16:08:00.000-07:00

One of the other classes I am currently taking is Appalachian Crafts. I love it! This class, along with all my others, can unexpectedly show me a lot about creating a successful classroom. So far in class we have woven baskets (frustrating), carved wooden utensils from hand (VERY frustrating), did a blacksmithing project making a candlestick holder (metal is stronger than I am), and now we're working on a gourd project. The point is that I have had to learn to be extremely patient with these projects and work around my weaknesses, both figuratively and literally. Plus since everyone seems to enjoy the class, it's important to make note that doing these active projects is a much more pleasurable way to learn about life in Appalachia in the "old days." And even though we're all assigned the same project, it's so interesting to see the different way people interpret it, i.e. diversity! Check out some photos:

Me carving on my gourd.

My very frustrating fork that started out as a spoon but broke :(

Some of the finished utensils - mine's the fork!

A Sea Full of Fish

2008-10-13T21:03:00.000-07:00

One of the big projects I worked on when I did my internship last January was an art project about fish. The students were doing a unit on the rain forest and were really into it. They read about it for language arts and reading, wrote about it in English, and studied ecosystems in science. So when I had to come up with an art project for the school-wide art show, I decided to try to incorporate what they were studying in their other subjects.

The project consisted of drawing their idea of a fish and then tearing different colored tissue paper and painting glue water over their drawings. Then once it dried they cut them out and traced their fish onto another sheet of paper and did it all over again. Once it dried, they cut it out and then stapled the two halves of their fish together. Then we used plastic bags (in order to promote recycling!) to stuff their fish to make them 3-d. Overall, they turned out great! Each fish was so different than the others so the students were not only learning about ecosystems, recycling, and methods of art, they were also getting a fresh lesson in diversity.
I sat up the display in the hallway for the art show and put a little character of each student (using a photo of his or her face I had taken earlier) above where their fish was hanging. I wanted them to be able to make their own character but sadly, there just wasn't enough time! Here's what the results were:

Art display in the hallway.

Catch of the year!

One of the students holding up her fish.

An Anniversary

2008-10-13T16:04:00.000-07:00

So Saturday marked the six month anniversary of my surgery - six months since I was sliced open and dug around in - and six months since I thought I was going to die. It's crazy to think about really, how far I have come and all. Six months ago I was in a world of pain, so much that I can't really even think of an accurate way to explain so you'll just have to take my word for it.
Living through this experience has certainly changed a lot of things. It seems as though I needed a big scare like that to reignite some passion back in my life. These days I am even more driven to be the best teacher I can be and I really feel like this inner desire will really help me to push myself to constantly do better. And hopefully, by making it through all of this (and coming out stronger!), I can continue to learn from the experience and use it as a tool. By the time the one year anniversary rolls around, and I'm certain it will be here before I know it, I can only hope that I have been able to not only touch someone else's life with my experience, but use it to change my own, for the better of course! I'm proud of what I lived through. So happy "half"-birthday Scar! You're finally starting to grow on me :]

Spanish Inquisition!

2008-10-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

Last January I spent Short Term working in a fourth grade classroom at the elementary school near my home town. Everyday I assisted with all the subjects but Spanish and Art were the lessons I got to design on my own. The students loved learning Spanish so I worked hard trying to cover as much as possible in the short time I was alloted. We did various activities ranging from obviously singing songs about the alphabet, to each student making his or her own Spanish booklet, all the way to having a fiesta at the end of my time there. The fiesta was particularly interesting because as an art project, each student was given a Spanish-speaking country and he or she was asked to create that country's national flag and to be able to locate it on the world map. They also got to eat traditional Spanish foods, and some of the students learned pretty quickly how spicy these can be! Overall, I tried to incorporate as much hands-on and engaging activities as possible so that they could get a break from the traditional sitting around memorizing (and most likely subsequently forgetting) facts. I know they enjoyed themselves and learned at the same time so now I just hope they can retain the information learned!Spicy!

Flags of the World!

A Bit of the Background

2008-10-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

I guess since our class started our blogs a bit after class had began, some updating on what we have been doing since then is needed. From the very beginning of class, we have done several small experiments that have helped further our understanding of what inquiry is, how to build a constructivist classroom, and of course, these experiments always strengthen our own classroom community. Here is one example:
This experiment was done on my first day of class (I started late). We got into pairs and were given a balloon, a bowl, and an infinite supply of various other random objects. The goal was to make a basket of sorts for our balloon and then add items to the bowl to make it float at the same height as the pink balloon. Sounds easy enough but it certainly proved to be quite a complex task! In the end though, we learned an incredible amount of information, from how the change of temperature in the room affected the helium in the balloons, to the effect of classmates moving (or even breathing!) too close, and of course, it helped us learn the value of teaching hands-on lessons.

A Gooey Lesson

2008-10-08T18:14:00.000-07:00

Last week in class we did a simple experiment studying what happens when you mix glue and starch. When I first started this assignment, all I could think about was how gross it was (see below)! I did not want to touch it because I thought it would be disgusting and stick to my hands, but everyone else was doing it and it was apparently working much better when it was literally “hands-on”, so I sucked it up and did too. Once I started digging in, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. Then the more I messed with the two substances, the more I started thinking about why chemical reactions happen and started connecting it with all the things we are learning about chemistry in my science course right now. It surprised me that I started drawing connections from that class to this one, two subjects (education studies and chemistry) that I would not normally think would have too much of a relationship. Just sitting there thinking about homework I had in science lead me to thinking about chemical bonds, valence electrons, and how all that works. Of course, I don’t fully understand (or even more than partially understand) how all of it works but it was still neat to make the connections.
This experience helped build on my understanding of constructivist learning and the importance of interconnectedness between subjects. Inquiry also came into play because we worked within our group discussing best ways to thicken or thin our substance, color it, stir it, etc.
I also think this activity was very successful in hitting all the levels on Bloom’s Taxonomy, all the way down to evaluation. In that category we measured, judged, tested, compared, etc. each of our substances.
All five standards for authentic instruction were met because the higher thinking skills were obviously covered and then the experiment helped me build upon my knowledge from my chemistry class, and obviously, science is connected to the world beyond the classroom. We were also able to converse within our group and provide support and helpful suggestions to each other. So overall, this quick (but messy!) experiment provided us with yet another example of something simple we can do to create a more exciting, yet still educational, classroom.

2008-09-27T15:06:00.000-07:00

I watched a movie for one of my classes this week called “Killing Us Softly” about how advertising negatively influences views of women. In it, the speaker talked about how the objectification of women often leads to violence against women and then of course everything in advertising anymore is sexualized. So it is easy to imagine how mixing those two together could lead to a bad outcome.

Anyhow, in class we discussed how we could integrate teaching against such advertisements in with the normal curriculum requirements created by the board of education in whatever region we are teaching. I could not help but think about a particular teacher I had in high school, who also happened to be my advisor, and how she was exactly how I DON’T want to be like when I finally get to be an actual teacher. After I was sexually assaulted senior year, the school started scrambling trying to save themselves because, although it was late October, we had never done the required sexual harassment “talk” in homeroom and had not signed the paperwork that went along with that either. So one day we had to go to homeroom specifically to do all that. Everyone knew why and several of the guy’s friends were in my homeroom group, so naturally it was already awkward and embarrassing enough to have to go through that in itself but then my insane advisor started making everything worse. She actually had the nerve to stand there and say girls who wear certain things, such as skirts and shirts that show bellies etc., are asking for something to happen to them. And she went on and on about this and all those guys started chiming right in with her. So not only did I feel specifically targeted ANYWAY, I was wearing a skirt that day naturally. There was nothing wrong with it though and it met the school dress code, wasn’t overly short and I had a sweater on with it and everything. I can’t hardly ever remember being so mad in all my life so I got up and walked out of the classroom, slammed the door behind me and went straight to the principal’s office. Not surprisingly, nothing ever came out of it, none of it really. The only thing I learned by turning that jerk (to put it nicely) in was that I could not really rely on the system to back me up. However, if I could go back and do it all over again, I would. I would not change that it happened, but maybe I would go back and kick some butt…a little harder than I already did :)

But getting back to the point here, is this what we should be teaching our students? That when something bad happens, the school is not going to be there for support? Children today, especially teenagers, get all these negative influences on how they should look, dress, act, etc. (all sexually!) but when something bad happens to them at least in part “because” of this, they can’t turn to the people who are supposed to be working solely to be a guide.
I want to be a teacher to be a support system and the stability in my students’ lives. That is why I want to do it, not because I particularly want to stand around and talk about English grammar or sentence structure etc. all day (even though all that is also important), I just want to be able to teach my students important things I have learned in life, and continue to learn. I think it would be important for them to discover the value in learning from negative experiences they have gone through but also from what their peers have gone through. This not only broadens their knowledge of problems but they can work together to collaborate to find better solutions. I think it is also very successful in creating a great learning environment because when they start opening up to each other they realize how alike everyone really is. So, I hope someday instead of being an evil old lady like my past advisor, I can provide support for my students through not only myself, but also my classroom in general.

2008-09-25T08:44:00.001-07:00

I can vary my teaching methods to include all different kinds of learning styles (including visual, audible, hands-on, etc) in order to maximize the learning experience for all students while also making the material interesting and enjoyable.

2008-09-25T08:43:00.002-07:00

I can prove that the ways of learning listed (inquiry, experience, time, interest, self-correction, and external criticism) makes sense to me.

2008-09-25T08:43:00.001-07:00

I will demonstrate that I have general knowledge and in-depth understanding of the content I am responsible for in this class.

2008-09-25T08:42:00.002-07:00

I can prove I understand that inquiry lies in the center of a learning community, that communication is a vital part of this, and that confidence develops in participation.

2008-09-25T08:42:00.001-07:00

I can prove that I am responsible for my own development and my own learning.

2008-09-25T08:41:00.001-07:00

I can show that I understand the importance of knowing how to use and also have accessible, appropriate technology in order to aid developing students’ knowledge, understandings, skills, and dispositions.

2008-09-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

I can show I understand the value of diversity in creating significant lessons to teach all children.