Oh what a class...

Classroom management is a topic that is important when considering the job of a teacher. Yet, when I watched the movie "Chalk" it was quite interesting the LACK of classroom management that was seen. Overall, I found the movie to be funny and depicted the lives of teachers in a comedic-over exaggerated-realistic way. One particular teacher, whom I believe anyone that watched the movie will remember, didn't seem to be aware of order in a classroom. From day one he was clearly unreceptive to proper body language and verbal language that should be portrayed in a classroom with students.

Looking into the future I can't help but fear that I will someday be lost in my own classroom, students throwing spit balls or threatening each other with switch blades. Granted, I don't know too many 1st graders that know what a switch blade is, but it still is a scary thought. Order is something that needs to be found in a classroom to make sure that the students are able to learn in a comfortable setting. Maslow created a hierarchy of needs and one that is important is safety needs. Creating an environment of a "family" helps students learn easier and even shows some that don't have good backgrounds how people should be treated.

Another teacher that had an interesting method in dealing with students was the hopeful "Teacher of the Year." I'm not gonna lie, at first I found him to be a pretty cool guy and seemed to connect well with the students. I can recall a teacher from my high school that was very similar to him, always trying to be the friend of the students. As the movie continued there came a scene where he holds two students after class is dismissed and procedes to tell them that they need to "tone down" their smartness because they are making him look bad. If that doesn't scream unethical I don't know what does. Last time I checked it was the teachers job to encourage students to do their best and push for excellence. It is important for teachers to have their students strive for excellence. Later on in the movie, the same teacher had a discussion with one of the smart students about his dropping grade. Could this poor grade possibly be due to the fact that his teacher told him to not try so hard and to not be "smarter" then his teacher.

Words of Wisdom

Recently I had the opportunity to listen to some words of wisdom from a professional in the education field. Starting off as an elementary education major, Mr. Chambliss went on to work as a teacher, special education coordinator, and even the superintendent for Decorah schools. One thing that he stressed in his presentation was that teachers should not stick to one content area while teaching. In fact, teachers should switch every 5 years or so. I found this to be very interesting and do agree with it to an extent. Teachers should definitely keep themselves changing things up, but as long as you are successfully doing your job of helping children learn, you shouldn't necessarily have to change your job.

In my future, I don't know what I see. It's so hard to sit down and plan out something that is so up in the air. I noticed after listening to Mr. Chambliss and our new teacher panel, it seems that your life will always take on different paths then what you originally plan. Who knows where I'll end up, but I do know that I will keep an open mind. Right now I plan on starting off in an area where I am unfamiliar, like inner city. I'm from the Minneapolis area, so I have a feeling that's where I might end up. I know that whereever I end up, things will only be as good as I make them.

New-Teacher Panel

On Monday, our Educational Psychology class held a panel of new teachers located in the local area. As I sat there thinking about who they were and what they did as teachers, it was very interesting to see where each of them was in their careers.

When one starts off in the real world it can be incomprehensible at times what is expected of them. Teachers are constantly having to figure out what goes where, much like a puzzle piece. One thing that stood out to me was the way that each one talked about their classroom and the behavior that students displayed. It's not that the students were horribly behaved, spitting gum wads into each others hair or swearing at the teacher, it was more so the fact that many of the students seemed to not be receiving developmentally appropriate materials in their every day lives.

As a child, I grew up like many other children with my parents telling me the woes of their time and "How hard school was when everything needed to be done by hand." It seemed to them, much like the teachers that sat in front of me talking, that children were losing sight of the important things in life. One issue that was brought up included the use of technology in the classroom. Living in the 21st century has enabled us to generate more technological advances then anyone has ever seen. Children are very impressionable people and when they see people within their microsystem constantly using, they adapt similarly, even receiving cell phones at a very young age.

I feel as though with each new generation the developmental stages of children are slowly becoming sooner. Especially with technology, many children are lacking developmentally, not experiencing face-to-face interactions like "the good ol' days." An important part in a child's development is language and without practice it can hurt them severly in the future with reading, writing, and even social skills. In the tv ads with the babies talking, you gotta wonder if children will ever get like that.

Maybe we are right in criticizing children these days, but before we do, maybe it's time to look at reality and realize that times are changing and how much can we really stop it?



Check out this article discussing the littlest of technology users
http://www.babble.com.au/2009/02/25/the-littlest-surfers/

TV ad commercial: Babies talking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_npD8zzFi0w

Paper Clips

Recently in our Educational Psychology class, we watched the movie "Paper Clips," a documentary covering the Holocaust project done by Whitwell Middle School in Tennessee. The movie was very well done and presented the story of Whitwell Middle School in a great way. I found the idea of the project very unique as well as a great experience for the students. As a future teacher it is great to hear of new techniques in getting students actively learning and interested in the subject matter.




One thing that I did wish the movie touched on was how they taught the unit of Holocaust. It was evident that the students collected paper clips to demonstrate the number of Jews killed, but we weren't shown how the students were taught. It was amazing to see the affect that the project had on some of the students and the community. The great thing about the Paper Clips project was that it not only got the students involved in learning, but guest speakers were held for the public, as well as the students, getting them involved in the lives of the students.