Monday, December 9, 2013

Return to Greatness : An Overview of a Lecture by Timothy B. Jones

What are the symptoms of attack?

  • cuts to public education
  • Students performance not being competitive with global learning 
  • vouchers marketed as a choice 
  • shifts from education problems to problems with educators 
  • loss of market share 
      He emphasized the fact that we are not competing globally. Education is looking at problems and saying we just do not have enough money to fix that. Well, a new edition of a textbook is really not going to make that much impact on if your student. It is up to you to understand the learning abilities of your students and know that the choices are endless. 
 
Problems we need to Solve:
  • schools need to reflect the real world
  • stop restructuring 
  • stop teaching the way you were taught
  • tell our story 
     One thing I found interesting was that he brought up the fact the brain only learns by two ways : pleasure and fear. So, what are we doing as educator to make it pleasurable? Are we truly teaching our kids to learn or we teaching them we we know. 

     I also found the fact he said "stop teaching the way you were taught." I think this a harsh reality but, one as students we need to learn. The world is forever evolving it is up to us to see to those changes. When we were in school, we didn't learn like they did the 1800's, we learned to the newer age. We have to be teaching around the problems, culture, technology and strategies that go with the year. We always have to be looking for newer and brighter ways to make this pleasurable. In order to return to greatness,  we must rid of, "one size fits all."

Here is a video of what I thought was a good example: 
After hearing him talk I really want to read his book! 

The Education for the Human Brain by Timothy B. Jones


My Aldine Field Trip

Aldine ISD field trip really opened my eyes on to just how much I can actually impact children lives. The children were some of the most well behaved children I have ever seen and the passion of the teacher’s was unquestionable. 
It differed in so many ways from the two school districts I have seen, which are Mckinney and Bryan ISD. Since it was an urban school district, their fears were centered around dropout rates in minorities expanding, more of bilingual education, to give anyone and everyone the education they deserve and gangs. Never before have I really seen how schools deal with gangs and how they can affect the student body so much. These teacher’s try to give them the opposite of gangs which is education and the outlook of vast opportunities in life. They mention how important it is for them to start getting their students to look for colleges right now. They did this by alumni days, college posters in the library, and each teacher had a sign on her or his door. This was refreshing to know it really is never too early to encourage the students to take hold of their future even if it is not right around the corner. The school also had an “art on a cart.” This showed me, they might not have the perfect environments\ to do the normal art class but that will not hinder the students ability to learn innovation and power of encouragement of art. 
This school also seemed to put so much emphasis on reading levels. No matter what the grade or subject in every classroom you saw word walls. These had mixture of english and spanish depending on the grade. I know this is a strategy we hear about a lot, but the way the principal explained it to me, created excitement. She talked about just how you will be surprised how much it helps student remember what they have learned and how you can vastly expand some kid’s vocabulary. She talked about how some of the best word walls also had some of the best reading levels. 
They emphasized the usage of anchor charts as well. I have heard of them before but have never seen just how normal teachers use them. They were even in kindergarden classes. These anchor charts really seemed to be helping by keeping the students in line. It tells them clear definition of what they have learned and even what the expectations are to be followed in the classroom. You can tell it helped with discipline and making sure that the objectives are mastered. 
The usage of “Pick Five”or “Daily Five” interested me as well. This allowed multiple intelligence to be used as well. Allowing you as a teacher be able to play in the weakness of a student and also the strength of the children as well. These are focused around reading and writing. One teacher told me she uses it as stations while another says she goes strictly around the needs of certain group of students. Many also had anchor charts at each station to make sure the students were aware of what they were suppose to be doing. 

As a future educator this trip taught me to never underestimate the abilities of you and your student’s learning capacity. That learning never seizes to stop and improvements can always be made. Also, what I really need to be looking for when it comes to student teaching and making sure to ask how the school can help me become a better teacher. I have never really thought about looking for that before. Also, that to make sure I know many can teach but few can teach with passion. 






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoNQCm89ZZg

What is my manifesto?

Recently, our class has been asked to make an education manifesto and as I am attempting to get my thoughts settled to figure out what teacher I want to be, I thought I'd share! Teachers are something unique and an instrument who shapes the future of the mind of young children. In some cases, we will be the majority adult face that they see all day. Five days a week, roughly eight hours a day, adding up to 40 hours a week with these young impresiable minds. I can't help but to think of my past teachers and what allowed me to accell and what kept me stagnet throughout my learning process. Throughout this semester, we have learned lesson planning tactics, strategies to keep engagement in the classroom, history, technology advantages, and many thing more. It is still hard to just pick ten things that I will take personally to heart to pursue throughout year.
  This brings up a fear I guess or hope we all have. Will I be the Impactful or Affective Teacher, that changes lives. I found a couple videos that helped me shape my manifesto!

One of my favorite quotes is
"If education is your only way out, make it a good one"
                                -Claire Boostra

TEDxTalks, C. (2012). Claire boostra- on the shift to value[Theater]. Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEDM3zzYN_I


What is Conscious Discipline?

December 8, 2013

What is Conscious Discipline?
Conscious Discipline is a comprehensive self-regulation program that integrates social-emotional learning 
and discipline.

Every educator knows or will one day know what it feels like to have a child that may need some extra attention or some extra help calming down and getting back on track. Throughout out college career, we will find methods that work, other that don't, and many more than definitely do not work at all. With Conscious Discipline, we were able to learn methods to treat every situation into a learning situation. By following steps for help, always consult a teaching partner to learn with. 




Resources: Classroom Management: Creating a Successful K-12 Learning Community
http://consciousdiscipline.com/about/conscious_discipline.asp

Core Curriculum


December 8, 2013
Re-post from November 27, 2013


Common Core State Standards

The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.

As discussed in our BEFB 474 course at Texas A&M University, there are ups and downs to the education push for Common Core State Standards. Although, I stand against the change, as do many other educators, what is keeping the United States government from moving forward with changes to help the United States of America build state born geniuses? 

-Dina Valdez


APA Style: Mission Statement: http://www.corestandards.org/

Link: Video to learn about the positives of what is to come for education in the United States: http://vimeo.com/51933492

Utah High School Football Coach Suspends Team for Cyberbullying


Repost from September 29, 2013:

December 8, 2013

"Utah High School Football Coach Suspends Entire Team Amid Reports Of Cyberbullying"


As a parent, hearing that my child was suspended off the football team would make me really upset. However, having learned why, I would become more understanding and eager to stand behind the coaching staff.

Students athletes of Union High School in Roosevelt, Utah had been caught discriminating on many harmless members of their school and taking part of activities that were off-limits to them as teenagers and as members of the Union High Varsity Football team. The coaching staff lead by Coach Labrum, said "It just felt like everything was going in a direction that we didn't want our young men going,"..."we felt like we needed to make a stand."

This topic is widely covered in almost every education course, cyber-bulling is when some one (male or female) looks to cause harm to someone else online through social media, text and picture messaging, phone calls, and a growing amount of ways of communicating. This is a topic covered in our Texas A&M University course BEFB 472, a subject that all educators and administrators must teach their students/children about in order to keep them safe. When getting to know your students, building a trust relationship is the first key to saving them from harm, because they know they can come and ask for help at any time.

This coaching staff wrote a letter to their players stating that there were to participate in community service activities, take character-education classes and attended extra study hall sessions in order to earn their right to play again in future games. The letter read on, "The lack of character we are showing off the field is outshining what we are achieving on the field. We want student-athletes that are humble to learn and grow through adversity and success on and off the field."

Please share this with any administrator or educator you feel may need a little extra push on knowing they hold the key to their students' success!

-Dina Valdez

Learn about Rules & Consequences: Classroom Management: Creating a Successful K-12 Learning Community

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/26/utah-school-football-suspends_n_3991469.html

Friday, December 6, 2013

Effective Teacher

As I am finalizing some of my projects for the semester I came upon something I created at the beginning of the semester. I would like to share my effective teacher assessment tool. Look at it and let me know what else would you add that is necessary for an effective teacher.

~Maria


 Effective teacher

Circle the boxes that apply under each category. Write the score in the box provided for each category. Add all the score from both pages. Effective Teacher Score_______/30.





Borich, G. D. (2013). The Effective Teacher. Effective teaching methods: research-based practice (Eigth ed., pp. 2-35). United States of America: Pearson.