A Love Story for Your Life

I just finished watching Randy Pausch's, The Last Lecture, and it makes a person think. As a husband, father, and professor, he has inspired and motivated hundreds and hundreds of people. And that is part of being a teacher because you are helping young lives find their futures. After seeing if for the first time in class, I felt very inspired. But after seeing so much more inside his life, I feel that I can get through absolutely anything. As a future teacher, I want to motivate and inspire my students and let them know that there are no limits in life. And just because there are brick walls does not mean you can not get through them. Life is about living, not dieing, and that is exactly what Randy is doing. And you know what, I may just carry a crayon in my pocket as a reminder.

Religion and Public Schools

For thirteen years as a student, these two words have been like night and day. Math, English, and science were taught in school and religion was taught on wednesdays at CCD or on Sundays in church.
When I came to Saint Peter's College, I realized the difference right away. Crosses were in every classroom, Catholic holidays were celebrated at school, and people spoke about God in class. I knew this was a catholic school, but God in class!!?? That was not allowed where I came from. My town is mostly of Catholics, but no one was allowed to even mention religion in the classroom. I remember one day in high school where our teacher somehow got to the topic of God, and immediately he had to change the subject. This was so normal to us because we knew religion was not allowed.
There is a lot of controversy about bringing religion into public schools. Many people, such as parents feel that the Bible should be brought into public schools, but will everyone be Catholic? Of course not. If there are Catholic schools, shouldn't there be other schools for every religion? Now that's a lot of religions.
Here's an interesting clip from youtube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_EnOAPwJwjY

tests, tests, and more tests!!!

Friday's class brought back so many memories. All throughout middle school and high school, it was nothing, but major testing. Even though it was one test, the studying and preparing lasted for years. When I entered sixth grade, GEPA was all I heard until the day of testing came around. I remember preparing so much. Our english teacher had us writing practice picture prompts and narrative stories. It almost seemed endless. After three years of getting ready for the test, the week finally came. I have never been more stressed out because the teachers were making this into such a big deal. It was finally over, and it was a big relief.
I graduated eighth grade, and I started high school. All of a sudden, it was all about HSPA! It started all over again for another three years!! People were saying if you don't pass the HSPA, then you can't go to college, and I was so nervous.
Of course, I passed both tests, the GEPA and the HSPA, but it was a really stressful time. Teachers make these tests seem like the most important thing a student will ever do, but like I have heard before, "it's just a test." The stress that comes from these tests can actually hurt a student's ability to work. Who can get a good grade on a test after being stressed out over it? That's why from past experiences, I want to have a calm atmosphere for my students when preparing for these tests. The preparing part isn't supposed to stress them out, but prepare them calmly for what is ahead. A teacher can't stress the student's out because then they will stress themselves out, and I have already been stressed out for many years in middle school and high school.

Teacher to future teacher . . . .

While having dinner at my boyfriend's house, his mother and I got into a good conversation about her teaching. She teaches high school biology, and she was explaining to me what she goes through as a teacher. After talking to her, I realized I DO NOT want to teach high school. I don't know how she does it. She was telling me about a 350 pound student of hers who has a lot of problems and barely ever comes to class. He had been kicked out of the school many times, but keeps coming back. He has a lot of family problems, and this obviously affects his education. She feels bad for him, but there is really nothing she can do. The school knows about it, but they don't know what to do with him. She says that he walks around and curses, and he says horrible things to the girls.

It's sad to think how much a student's family life can affect their education so much. This young man obviously is suffering with a lot problems at home, and it seems like he doesn't care about anything. He needs a lot of help and attention to deal with these problems, and teachers can play a big part. Besides parents, teachers are like the second pair of parents. Students see them every day for about six hours a day.

After a long talk about being a teacher, I was tired. It really made me think about how much more there is to teaching. As a teacher, you are not only grading papers, but you are also taking care of your students and being a part of their life.

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.

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

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