Week 11: Review

The three websites that I chose to tweet this week and why:
http://corestandards.org-- This is a website where you can click on the state you are teaching in and see what the standards are. My friend who is a teacher in Mississippi says she uses this on a weekly basis to get their weekly standards for common core.

http://educationnorthwest.org/traits-- Useful for writing assignments. Offers an overview with research to support the 6+1 trade writing program, lesson plans, writing prompts, and rubrics. Also includes writing samples to practice scoring and see how other teachers scored the work.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/resources-for-teachers/-- Offers many different teacher tools such as student activities, lesson plan ideas, and bell work. Also includes information on scholastic books and an area where teachers can blog and get ideas from each other.

Brighton-- I enjoyed learning about the different types of parenting and the pros and cons of each kind
Parks-- I learned that the easiest way to make a parent an ally is to send something positive about their child before they have to come to me.
Parent Involvement Research Summary-- The ten recommendations for increasing parent involvement were helpful for me to learn.

Week 9: Reflection

Notice how Ms. Hall takes 10 seconds to review her expectations for participation:
I think by her only taking up that much time she is able to keep the student's attention. She doesn't harp on and on about what she expects. She just gets their attention and explains exactly what she expects briefly. Keeping it concise makes it easier for students to remember.

What is meant by the narrator's statement of "always show you mean business"?
I think that if you continually let things slide, students begin to lose respect for you and you slowly lose control in the classroom. If you always mean business, students will respect you as the teacher and will be more likely to follow rules and comply with what they are asked to do.

How does Ms Hall's positive approach encourage participation?
By continually verbally affirming the students she encourages them to participate. Like she said, for some students raising their hand and speaking in front of all of those people is a huge step so she wants to encourage them to continue to voice their thoughts. When she hands out stickers and cards, it is a physical positive response to students who are giving good answers. This is on top of the verbal praise she already gives.

How do you think this will or will not inform your practice as a teacher?
I am the type of person who learns by being positively affirmed so I will teach in this way, as well. Seeing Ms. Hall positively affirm her students verbally and through visible rewards gave me the idea of coming up with multiple ways to encourage students. For some students it might be the verbal praise that keeps them working hard but for others it could be a tangible reward. I think that by having multiple forms of encouragement I will be more likely to reach the entire class.

Week 8: Closure

The Kohn article for this week really opened my eyes. Although I had already decided that in my future classroom I would want my students to be a part in making the classroom rules, this article made it clear why this is so important. Not only is it important for students to feel like they are a part of the rule making, it also helps them to understand why certain things are acceptable and others are not. It helps them begin to develop a way of thinking that is not so black and white. Up until the point of reading this article, I thought involving the students was just a way of encouraging a student teacher relationship or getting the students to participate from the first day. I now see the bigger picture. Like the author said, "the process is the point". Helping the students to understand why certain things will help the classroom run smoother and helping them process why these expectations are important is opening a door to bigger discussions and a broader way of thinking for students.