Reaction to Behavior Movie 101

With this student I would have gone out in the hall with the student and had a private conversation about why his behavior was inappropriate in the classroom and how he will behave next time. I may even talk with him about a contract for his behavior and have him sign it with the punishment for misbehaving again being getting a weeks worth of detentions.

Since the scene seems to have already escalated past that point though I think I would escort the student down to the principal's office to have a conversation with the three of us and maybe even get a parent involved. Again, we would have a talk about what he did wrong and how he will behave in the future.

Chapter 10: Going Beyond the Classroom

I was really surprised by how many ideas this chapter offers about finding ways to get students outside of the classroom but still learning.

I didn't realize there were so many programs for students to take during breaks and summer. I really liked some of the suggestions about getting students out of the classroom during the regular school year too. I think all of the ideas in this chapter are really great ways to teach students both about whatever subject I'm teaching in school and about real life.

Chapter 9: When Things Go Wrong

One thing that surprised me in this chapter was the story about the guy who only went to school before the report cards came out and for the final but still managed to get B's.

This surprised me because I don't understand how even with 150 kids each day a teacher could just not notice that a students is absent all the time or that they haven't turned in work all year. Even in a larger school I expect the teachers to be paying enough attention to realize that kid hasn't been in school. It is no wonder that so many kids feel invisible, especially their first year of high school.

Chapter 8: Teaching Teenagers who are Still Learning English

This chapter said a lot of interesting things about how to best teach students who do not speak English as their first language. What surprised me though was that a few students commented that teachers would not help them or expect much of them in class. One student even had one teacher do her test for her while she wrote down the answers.

This surprised me because these people are teachers! Their job is to teach not to get frustrated and give up simply because of a language barrier. There are other ways to communicate. I'm surprised that so many teachers just give up. I can see that it would be frustrating but you can't just give up.

Chapter 7: Teaching Difficult Academic Material

One thing that surprised me from this chapter was that the students really understood the importance of having a good teacher. The students understood that a good teacher is passionate and puts a lot of thought and effort into keeping the students engaged.

This surprised me because I remember many times as a student where I wondered why we needed the teacher. The teacher would just do a power point everyday and that material what was on the test. I could have easily taken the notes, studied them and gotten a good grade on the test without needing to go to class. The fact that students know they need teachers means they know they can't learn it on their own.

Chapter 6: Motivation and Boredom

the most surprising thing from this chapter was that students understood why it is important to be in school and then they often refuse to do the work or attend.

This really surprised me because if you know why it is important then why would you not take it seriously? Students listed very good reason to go to school that showed they really understood why it is important. Why doesn't that knowledge lead them to stick with school? Yes school is boring but that doesn't seem like a good enough reason to give up on it.

Chapter 5: Teaching to the Individual, Working with the Group

The thing that surprised me the most in this chapter was that students wouldn't ask questions if they didn't understand.

This surprised me because it only makes sense to me that if you don't understand you ask questions. If you don't understand then how will you ever find out? However, on reading the chapter more it started to make more sense. Sometimes we are so lost that we don't what questions to ask and we don't know that if we just say "I'm lost" we'll get help.

Chapter 4: Creating a Culture of Success

The students talk about being embarrassed when they do badly. That wasn't surprising to me at all. What did surprise me though, was that a few students said that they liked being praised in front of the class.

That some students like being praised in front of the class surprised me because I hated that in school. I had one teacher who would ask if you wanted to see or hear your test grade after he had graded our tests. If I thought I did well I always asked to see it. I didn't want the other students to know how well I as doing because kids are really mean to you if you are doing well in the class and they aren't. And if they aren't mean then they are begging you to let them cheat. I would have imagined that other students would feel the same way I did.

Chapter 3: Classroom Behavior

I think what surprised me the most was how much the students were frustrated by having substitutes in the classroom.

I think this surprised me because when I was in school a substitute meant we didn't have to do anything and that was good. I would think that instead of being frustrated by how little they are learning with the substitute that students would more enjoy not having to work. On the other hand, I can understand that if a substitute is in charge of the class for a long period of time it would start to feel pointless and frustrating.

Student Sample

This video is a reenactment of a scene from The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Students were asked to create a scene from the novel based on their own interpretation while staying true to the plot, characters and themes of the novel. This is the scene is where Dominique invites the press over to Howard's home to find evidence of her having an affair with him. This scene was chosen because it is a major turning point for the character. This is her announcing to Howard, herself and the world that she is ready to be happy with her life and that she no longer cares what anyone else thinks of her.

My contributions to the WebQuest wikis

I added two examples of Consensus building tasks to the Consensus Building page.
I added one example to the persuasion task page.

How to help someone use a computer

"Having convinced yourself of these things, you are more likely to follow some important rules: Find out what they're really trying to do. Is there another way to go about it?" It has always been helpful to me that when my approach to a problem doesn't work if someone shows me an easier and more effective way to accomplish the same thing. I liked this one because it involves looking at other possibilities when trying the same thing a hundred times doesn't work.
"First you have to tell yourself somethings: If it's not obvious to them, it's not obvious." This one was good too because I remember when I first started working with computers being told something was easy or obvious was frustrating. Especially because by the time I asked for help I was already frustrated.

I can use these when teaching about how to use Second Life both in general terms to a new user and to a teacher by remembering it is not obvious and it is often best to find another way to do it.

Agre, Phil. "How to help someone use a computer." 1996. 2009 Feb, 05. http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/how-to-help.html

Web 2.0 Educator

I picked Scott Walker the author of the blog "Technology Tips For All Teachers -TeacherTechBlog". His specialty seems to be technology. His blogs are about different technologies that can be effectively used in the classroom. There was a lot of good information here. In reading his blogs I learned some about glogs, about eInstruction Classroom Performance System and about saving Youtube videos to play in powerpoint. It seems that he uses a lot of different technologies in his classroom and is open to new possibilities.

Type I and Type II Technology

Type I technology is technology that students can use on their own with no help from a teacher. They are programs that help students repeatedly practice such skills as adding and subtracting, typing or colors and shapes. Type II technology is technology that is used by teachers to enhance their teaching. Examples include the use of power point, smart boards and graphing calculators that can be hooked up to be viewed by the whole class.

Maddux, Cleborne and D. LaMont Johnson. "Introduction". Type II Applications of Technology in Education: New and Better Ways of Teaching and Learning. The Hawthorn Press, Inc. 2005.

My MEL Experiences

• Student/teacher relationship: Junior year of high school i was in an AP English class. The teacher I had was Mr. Wells. He was excited about English and writing, he was funny and very positive. The class was very discussion based and in the past I had found difficult to share in the discussion because my teachers would ignore my hand in the air. Previous teachers were tired of me doing most of the discussion so they would refuse to call on me. It made me feel like an outsider and I eventually stopped bothering to participate. Mr. Wells made me excited to get involved again and made the other students feel the same way so I didn't feel ignored or too smart.
• Autonomy: In the same English class as before all of the topics for our papers were decided by ourselves. The teacher gave us a topic but we had to pick exactly what we would write about. For example, the last paper of the year was on love and I decided to write my paper arguing that it is possible to fall in love more than once. I based it mostly on my own experiences since my mom and dad are divorced and remarried, and my grandmother has remarried after the death of my grandfather 19 years ago. I argued that seeing them find love again proves to me that it is possible. It was easier to write papers for this English class because I was able to find something interesting about each topic to write about and therefore, make it relevant to me.
• Avoid Rewards: Throughout high school I took Spanish and all four years I had the same teacher. Her way of motivating us to participate in her very wacky class skits was by giving us stickers after. We ended up competing to see who could get the most stickers on their binder before the year was over. I think that some rewards are just fun and silly enough that it makes students want to participate. After all, they were just stickers and we could have bought them at the dollar store. I could see why other types of rewards would be a bad idea though. They would get so used to getting rewarded they would expect it every time.
• Helping Students Succeed: A big part of this one is having high expectations for students. My director for all of my high school plays probably had the highest expectations for me in school. As the four years went by and I got more and more involved in the theater I found that I got even more challenging roles. I always rose to the challenge of doing my best in these roles because I knew I was expected to. It was expected that I would have my lines memorized first, that I would know my character inside out and that i would deliver on the night of performance. My most challenging role was probably as Maggie in Act 3 Scene 5. I had to play the part opposite my younger brother. There was a fake kissing scene that looked very real offstage.
• Hands On: I actually really hated these things in school. They involved getting up and moving. Also, they usually happened in science class and were called labs. I am really bad at labs. I follow the directions completely and still manage to somehow do very poorly. All of my friends loved them though so they helped me not fail science by helping me with the labs and I put the readings in language they could understand and helped them do the equations. I really don't know why the hands on activities are so hard for me.

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

Something that surprised me in this chapter were the comments about respect. Students seemed to really stress that teachers needed to respect themselves and their students before they would respect their teachers.

This surprised me mostly because it seems so obvious. I have always been taught that if you want to be respected it is necessary to respect yourself and the people around you. I would assume that more teachers would understand that. The fact that students felt it needed to be said suggests that there are a lot of teachers out there who don't respect themselves or their students.

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

In the first chapter one of the students makes a comment about a survey her history teacher gave her on the first day to find out more about the students. The student states that this is the first time a teacher had asked about how she learns.

This surprised me because I always got sick of being asked those same questions over and over again by all of my teachers. My first day always consisted of teachers going over their syllabuses and then handing out these surveys that every other teacher in the school seemed to have. I always got really sick of having to give out the same information over and over again. But, I suppose that it is helpful information for a teacher to have and that it would make some students feel like the teacher cared about who they are.

Learning Style Inventory Results

These are the results of your inventory. The scores are out of 20 for each style. A score of 20 indicates you use that style often.

Style Scores:

Visual 6

Social 13

Physical 8

Aural 4

Verbal 20

Solitary 15

Logical 12

For my Edu 221 class I had to take a survey on my learning style. The survey results are posted above. My highest score was in verbal, with a perfect 20. This makes sense because I spend so much time reading and writing in my freetime. I was also required to do a paper version of this test with Dr. Grace today and that one also says that I am very verbal. However, it gave my secondary learning styles as a tie between logical and intrapersonal(solitary) and the online version has me has more social than logical.

learning-styles-online.com. 2007. 21, Jan. 2009

http://www.learning-styles-online.com/inventory/results.asp