Looking back

Looking back on my question from Module one was about the difficulty teaching in inner city schools when there are good teachers and the technology to help students learn. My question kind of got answered this semester because we learned about how different students learn from one another, but not really about inner cities schools. I wish the course would have focused more on using technology in inner city schools and not schools in general. The class should focus on Milwaukee and the surrounding communities and focus on the resources that are available at those schools. We know that students use the computer and Internet for fun and in the Growing up Online video clips that I watched I didn't realize it was as much as it was. When looking at Marquette, all news come through the email and we have to check it at least twice a day to keep up with classes and projects. Socializing has become a big part of our generation and if teachers could some way add that to the classroom using blogs or other sources of technology I believe that would help.

Side note, I thought the Growing up series was very interesting because it showed how some parents don't know whats going on in their child's life and how their child might be living a different life. It also showed that kids are smarter than some parents and can get around what they see and what they do online. I never thought that we, as a generation, would be so into the Internet and everything a few years ago, but times have changed and we need to be on the computer. That is going to have an effect on how we can get kids to pay attention because everything can come from the Internet and sometimes it is easier to get from the Internet. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens next.

More Control!

When thinking about my future classroom and how I would control my students, I began to think about how I am not the one to go after control, but I like knowing that I have it. To clear that last statement up, I won't forcefully go after having control of a situation, but if I need to I will. My senior year of high school I was a student aide for a Junior English class and I had to be able to control the class when the teacher was out of the room or when there were group activities and she was talking to one of the groups. I liked having that control because it made me feel that I had some respect from the students and it also made me feel like I could control a classroom. I can't wait until I have a classroom to myself and I can really experience what it is like to have total control of a classroom and of the students and what they learn. Hopefully I won't have to forcefully get control of a classroom, but I know I will be able to get it if I have to.

Control in the Classroom

While I was sitting in my math class waiting for the teacher to get there, I began to think about what I was going to write about for this first blog about control in the classroom. As I sat, my teacher came in, she did not say anything and the rest of the class just kept talking and finding their seats. Class had official begun and students were still talking and Mindy, my teacher, just sat down in the front of the class and looked at us. Slowly, the my fellow classmates took notice of her and they stopped talking. Than class began like it normally does with her making her announcements and than on to today's lecture. It hit my right than and there that teachers really do control the classroom and even in very subtle ways which most don't notice. I think teachers need that type of control because if there was a lack of control, nothing would get done during class. Also, I believe controls goes hand in hand with the students respecting the teacher too because we know from day one that the teacher is someone we have to respect and that they are there to help us learn. So in my mind there are two parts of control when it comes in the classroom. Who knew that math class would be helpful when it came to this blog?!?!

Personal story and insight about an article.

First I would like to talk about an experience I had in high school with Choice Theory. It was in my high school American Government class my senior year. The project was to create the United States cabinet using person, fictional or real, that we wanted to and write why we did. We were allowed to pick our groups and I was in a group with three of my friends. The Choice Theory is about having a memorable experience because it was fun, there was some freedom, you felt like you belonged, and you had power. To me this project had it all. First it was fun because I was able to work with my friends and I really liked this class and thought it was a cool and unique project. Also, every group had freedom to choose who ever they wanted in their cabinet and there was really no boundaries set up by our teacher, Mr. J. When you are able to get your ideas out in the open in a group and your members except your ideas, you feel like you belong to that group and they really care about what you have to say and what you think. In my group I felt like I had a lot of power because I took on the responsibility in writing the paper part of the project and everyone agreed in letting me write it. Maybe it was because they had trust in me to do a good job on it or they just didn't want to do it themselves, but whatever I liked writing about the project. I really enjoyed going over our ideas with the rest of the class and in return for all of our hard work we got 100 percent on the project, which always makes things so much better.

I could see myself using the Choice Theory in my classroom because it keeps the students interested. Whenever you can make learning fun and memorable that means you have done something right as a teacher. I want to be a high school History teacher, so I can see myself using the concepts of making fun, letting the students have some freedom, yet feel like they belong to the whole class, and letting the students have some sort of power in the classroom. Out of all the material we have learned about this semester, this is the first I have actually liked and could see myself using in the future.

To change the focus for a minute, I want to blog about the article by William Glasser. It was about having violence-prevention programs (VPP) in all schools to help reduce the violence. In the article it was about have counselors there for unhappy students so that they would not go out and start fights or do something worse. I believe that having someone there to talk to does help some students feel better and probably will prevent a lot of school violence, but coming from a high school that on average had probably two to three fights a week, just because there is someone there doesn't mean that the violence will stop. My school had extra security and had counselors to help with any problems, but in the article it talked about only unhappy students going out and starting fights, and my school had gangs to deal with. I knew kids that wouldn't talk to anyone because they felt like they were putting themselves in danger if they told anyone about anything that might happen. There needs to be that trust and when students know that whatever they say might be told to someone else, that is when they stop talking. I am all for VPP in schools, but I don't believe that it will stop all the violence especially if students don't talk.