Monday, February 25, 2008

Security in Schools

After experiencing the lockdown on Wednesday, it really got me thinking how the school administrators and faculty handled it. As a future teacher, this may happen at a school I teach at. What would I do? This time I was the student, and for the first 30 minutes, I will admit, I was scared. But when you are the teacher, you are responsible to stay calm and let your students know what to do. I would need to know what to do to make sure my students are safe, and that is a very big responsibility, probably one that many people do not think of. I'm sitting here, and I am really thinking of this. It is very scary. As scared as I may be during a situation like this, I need to stay calm for my students. I can't panic because I will have a classroom of students.
Saint Peter's College did an excellent job with the situation on Wednesday. After realizing what was going on, I felt very safe and secure. I'm sure as nervous as it may be to be in a situation like that, the school I will be in, as well as my classroom, will have good guidelines to follow. Although the school will have rules and guidelines, I will make sure my classroom has the right guidelines to follow during a situation or procedure like that.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Pop Quizzes

After sitting down in Friday's class and hearing, "Pop quiz!" I think I almost had a heart attack. Personally, I am not, at all, a big fan of pop quizzes. I don't know about the rest of the class, but I hate the feelings I get after I hear those horrible words. Even though right after, I found out it was fake, I still felt uneasy. In those 2 seconds, my mind was racing and i panicked. I feel that those words and the scare of a pop quiz can really hurt a student's ability. Even though the quiz was fake, and it was only making a point, I felt so uneasy. My mind was all confused because I took it so seriously.

I am not sure how I feel about pop quizzes, like whether I will or will not use them in my classrooms. Pop quizzes, personally bother me, but I am not sure how everyone reacts to them. There can by many advantages and disadvantages to giving students pop quizzes. I feel more of the advantages lead toward the teacher. With pop quizzes, teachers will be able to see which of their students are studying and which ones aren't. As for the students, not everyone may have read the assignment or even understood what they had done. We have discussed this in class, and we all know that students learn on different levels and ways. By giving a pop quiz with a paper and pen, students may become confused with all the information swirling through their head. Usually, from what I have heard, pop quizzes do not turn out well.

In order for a pop quiz to be a success, the quiz needs to be simple and cover the basics. Those that did not do the assignment will not know the answers, but those that did, will. The quiz can not go into too much detail because the student/s may have wanted to go over the material that day. Pop quizzes are really tricky, and I do not like them.

Here's a video from youtube that I thought was pretty funny.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=d8QZMJVgxmY

Thursday, February 7, 2008

New cultures and languages in classrooms

A few classes back, we were talking about how new students enter classrooms who do not speak a word of english. We noticed that in a few years, there will be many spanish speakers, even more than english speakers. Even in classrooms today, you may find five different students from different countries. The United States is changing very much with languages.

A few days ago I was watching Nick Jr. because my son watches The Backyardigans. Anyways, as may people know, Nick Jr. has Dora the Explorer and has recently added Go, Diego, Go. Both of these shows teach young children english and spanish. The shows are very educational, and the children learn a new language. With new students coming into classrooms, these shows help a lot. If there is a new student that comes into a classroom and only speaks spanish, there will be another student who may know a few words because he or she watches Dora and/or Diego at home. These shows can be very beneficial to the student, the new student, and even the teacher. Nick Jr. is also introducing a new show called Ni Hao Kai-lan. This show follows the same baseline as Dora and Diego, except the little girl is Chinese. This show, just like Dora and Diego, will be teaching children Chinese and the Chinese culture. I couldn't believe it when I saw it on tv. Nick Jr. is really expanding with different cultures and backgrounds. For a while, Nick Jr. has the show Little Bill. I feel Nick Jr. is really changing with their shows. They are accomodating everyone's background. The show looks really cute and educational, just like Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go.

If anyone is interested, here is a link explaining what the show is about.
http://www.nickjr.com/shows/ni-hao-kai-lan/kai-lan-about-the-show/ni-hao-kai-lan-about-the-show.jhtml

Today, teachers are worrying about how to communicate with new students, pretty soon they won't have to because they will be learning from their own english speaking students.

Chloe

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Cell phones in schools?

Everyone is probably going to wonder why I am posting about technology in schools, which was discussed over a week ago. The reason is that my computer completely crashed, and so I am trying to catch up with what I would like to post.

http://www.ergoweb.com/news/detail.cfm?id=1180

Here's a link discussing how teachers and administrators want to use cell phones in schools.

This class discussion on using cell phones in class really got to me. How could they start using cell phones in the classrooms after reprimanding it for so many years? I can remember in high school students getting their phones taken from them or getting detention because they would be receiving phone calls or texting someone else during class. Cell phones were the biggest problem in schools and still are today. There are many professors today that make a very big deal about having a cell phone in class or even seeing it out.

My opinion is that I really do not think it is going to work. How can they have students use cell phones for essays or tests? The student will have everything in the palm of their hand from a copy of an essay from the internet to the answers to a quiz. A teacher or professor can not stop the students usage of their cell phone. Being so small, they can do anything, and not get in trouble because the teachers are "allowing" cell phones in the classrooms. If the students are given permission to use their cell phones during class for a lesson, how can you be so sure they are focusing on the lesson? They are probably texting their friend in another class room or surfing the internet. Cell phones just don't seem like a very bright idea. There is a reason why teachers do not allow them, it's a distraction and not effective.

-Chloe