Our research paper presentations start next week. As with the narratives, please e-mail me your paper the evening before your presentation date, along with your three discussion questions for the class.
Please note: the next blog (soon to be posted above this one) will be where you can continue to comment on the film, Stand and Deliver. Sorry for any mix up.
Have a great weekend.
Amanda wrote:
ReplyDeleteFrom the last two classes I would like to mention that prepareing for the class presentations to present some material to the class was beneficial. I enjoyed how we were able to work in a group and it made the presentation part a bit easier having other people up there with us. Working within our groups allowed us to be able to communicate within our group and get people's perspective on things that we may have needed clarification. These types of activities help many students especially since many people in class would like to teach. This activity gave us some hands on experience of the teaching world.
I also would like to mention that the movie we watched in class was really good. I enjoyed the movie. I found that the 1st day of class for the teacher was very hard and he came in with a new technique and had a different approach. I like how he introduced humour within the classroom which engaged and motivated his students. I think it is important for the teacher to gain respect from his students and this is exactly what happened. I have found in the past working with kids that not all kids learn the same and one needs to be passionate and motivated to help kids. I work in east Vancouver in an inner city school and I find that motivation and drive is key to help students succeed.
Deanna wrote:
ReplyDeleteInnovative spaces under controlled circumstances.
After watching the video it made me rethink the tight rules and regulations we have in the classroom. In my opinion the teacher crossed many boundaries or did things that would be considered boundaries in the classroom now. His classroom is not the average classroom either so perhaps he has more flexibility. I guess it is a common question when thinking about the creative process. Some creative practitioners work well under constraints and boundaries and other will reject them entirely if they are put upon them.
I think many classroom standards are in place for a reason but do they inhibit innovation? Here he is breaking rules about class conduct, infringing on personal space, perhaps getting involved too much in their lives outside of school and pushing their boundaries. However, this seems to be providing opportunity and creating expectations for the students that are not even imaginable from the other teachers on staff. So with our current constrained environment about what is and not accepted by students are we missing opportunity? I never questioned his intention or motivation in the film. Does the notion of appropriate then become contextual?
Givan wrote:
ReplyDeleteAfter watching parts of the movie in class on Tuesday, it got me thinking what a good teacher is like. Indeed, the protagonist in the movie is kind, generous and caring, however, I am not sure if this kind of generosity can be applied to our society today. He might have shown too much caring for his students? In my opinion, I think if a male teacher were to hug a female student, rumours would start and although it wasn’t the intention, but both parties may get in trouble as I have witnessed this before in my school. It is great to see a teacher believing in his own students and willing to take the extra step to help every one of them. I also like how he uses humour and different techniques or methods to teach his students. Nonetheless, again I believe there should be a limit to what kind of humour he should use in class. Once it gets over the line, in return, it may hurt certain people’s feelings. It is not easy to get all your students to pay attention and focus in class work but he managed to do so without complaining one bit. He teaches to benefit his students and not just for the salary he earns, like most people would view their own career as. In conclusion, I appreciate his work and approach in teaching because it’s from the bottom of his heart and his only intention is to be kind and caring, but in today’s society, we have to be really careful not to go over the line. Our society today seems to be more sensitive and bias towards these type of situations and I do not agree with where these views are taking us but until these biased perceptions are solved where people become more open minded and less self-fish then perhaps everyone can be or have a good teacher.
Today, we watched the movie called “Stand and Deliver”. Although the movie is quite old, it portrays a very interesting story about a dedicated and remarkable teacher who has changed students’ perspective on life and learning. I think that Escalante is a very effective teacher. He uses props and humor to illustrate abstract concepts of math and conveys the necessity of math in everyday lives. For example, he uses apple and pie to illustrate the concept of fraction. I find it very helpful for students in understanding math.
ReplyDeleteI think he is also a very ambitious and caring teacher. For example, he holds a summer course to prepare students for pre-calculus material. Nowadays, there are not many teachers like Escalante who spends extra time to help students to prepare AP exams. I feel that most teachers would not take an extra summer off to teach students something advanced. Perhaps, it was not part of their job.
However, I encountered an elementary Math teacher in China, who constantly pushed us further to develop better math skills. Every weekend, she brought 5 or 6 students to her home, and a new math teacher would teach us advanced math that prepared us for the Olympics International Mathematical Contest. When I reflect back now, I do not think it was a good choice that she only picked 6 of top math students to have a private lesson. I think it would be more beneficial and fair if she allowed everyone to have an equal chance of participating in advanced mathematical class. This would have encouraged more students to be interested in math and simulated their self confidence in the subject. Despite the fact that she only selected certain students to be in the advanced math class, I think it was still very helpful and effective to the students who participated in the advanced class. I think it gave them an opportunity to learn more, think about everyday life problems, increase self-confidence, increase learning interest, and improve problem solving skills. I was thankful to have a teacher like her. I was able to learn so much more than just from textbooks but also learn about real world problems. This made me realize how useful and interesting mathematics is, and why math is important. I was learning not just for grades but to be able to apply what I learned to solve real world problems. Still, I wish that she had provided an equal opportunity for everyone to gain knowledge and skills together.
The opportunity to interact with my peers and discussing the topics read was very productive and useful. Our chapter examined the different types of learning teacher can use in their classroom. One type of learning is group work; having students form groups and learn from each other by discussing the given materials.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed teaching the class about our chapter, however; our presentation could have been organized better, I found that our group have not talked about each person’s role in the presentation which did cause some minor disturbances, not allowing the presentation to run in a productive manner. This experience helped me to see the importance of communication and organization needed in order to be a good productive teacher.
In the chapter our group was discussing it mentioned a different types of learning used by teachers in the classroom, one being behaviour modification: rewarding and reinforcing good behaviour. This is a theory used when working with kids with Autism. As a behaviour interventionist I have used this theory in my work. An example is when I was working with a five year old boy with autism. His program was identifying pictures of vehicles by pointing to them. I would ask “point to truck,” the correct response is to point to the truck. Every time the child was successful in the task and was able to demonstrate the appropriate behaviour, he would be reinforced by being allowed to engage in a preferred activity. This would also be generalized to the child’s daily life.
While doing the class readings and during the class group presentations I was amazed by some of the statistics concerning children’s education, especially children with disabilities. I was shocked by the fact that 41% of students are diagnosed with some form of disability, including audio and visual disorders. Although I don’t fully understand what they defined and categorized as a disability, the statistic seems exceptionally high. I, also, started to wonder how helpful it is to label children with their disability; in the end could it be more harmful then helpful? I believe, if teachers do not have the proper training in special education and are not prepared to get to know the student as an individual, in order to encourage the student’s strengths rather than focus on the student’s disabilities, then labelling could be discouraging and harmful to the child’s development. If a teacher cannot see past a label then the child will feel alienated from the person is supposed to be a positive role model for the class. However, if the student has a support system of qualified, caring teachers as well as support workers, family and friends then diagnosing and labelling the child’s disabilities could be advantageous. Labelling the child’s disability encourage school districts and families to help the child get the correct support system as well as qualify the child for government grants to get new technologies that could assist the child in everyday life.
ReplyDeleteMy group’s presentation was focused on different teaching methods as well as testing and grading systems, these topics spawned some interesting discussion. It was clear that even in our small group of 5 people we had diverse ideas of what kinds of teaching methods we believed to be the most effective and which forms of grading would correctly show a child’s knowledge and progress. No matter which method a teacher focuses their teaching on, I find that as a teacher it is most important to be able to adapt, to both new technologies and techniques as well as adapt to each child’s learning needs. Teaching is not a static profession, the methods of teaching will continue to evolve and teachers must learn to adapt. I believe that keeping up to date with new education studies, regular peer discussion and reflective narratives are key elements to ensure that as a teacher you are able to support your students and share your expertise and knowledge in the best and easiest possible manner. As for the debate on grading, I am still uncertain because there are so many unknown factors. Perhaps the best solution is to get to know your students and use their understanding of a subject and their willingness to learn as guides to developing the best grading system.
The topic of our group is the methods of effective teachers which ties closely to the movie, Stand and Deliver. During the group discussion, we have taken a closer look at what kinds of method that make teaching effective. There are four methods: cooperative learning, theory into practice, behaviour notification and non-direct testing. According to the textbook, all four methods are important for teachers to be effective, but in my personal opinion it really depends. I think every student has their own ways of absorbing knowledges and class materials, and even though sometimes they can be identified into different groups because of their learning style, there will always be some subtle differences. I believe an effective teacher should be someone who relates to the students, takes time evaluating individual development and in general cares about the students. Education is not just about academic, like Aristotle states. It is about being virtuous, so the definition of an effective teacher should be shifted to someone who teaches the moral and ethical values and skills of making the right judgements, where the theory into practice plays an important role. The quality of decision the teachers make will determine the effectiveness of teaching and learning, so I believe it is the most important aspect of a good teacher.
ReplyDeleteThe topic of small presentation in the class on Tuesday was how to treat talented students. When I read the textbook, I had two concerns. First one is that according to the textbook, teachers who can treat such great students have similar characteristics. My concern for this is whether there are so many “talented” people in the world. I guess not. At least, such talented people tend to be researchers or artists who pursue their “talents” deeply. So, I wonder how many of teachers are “talented”. Another concern is skipping grade system. To treat talented students properly, this system is good. However, I always think that this system also take the opportunity to learn interpersonal skills with similar age groups away from them. Even though it is a great thing that 15 years old student graduates from the university, for instance, it means this students cannot gain enough “life” experience. So, I think we should consider how to treat this issue.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of reading, I personally think the hidden curriculum is more important than explicit curriculum. Since explicit curriculum depends on teachers’ knowledge regarding the subject, it can be fostered by studying. However, each teacher’s personality effects strongly to hidden curriculum. This cannot be fostered easily and students, especially young age kids, are sensitively affected by teacher’s personality rather than knowledge. I have one experience. When I was in high school, my math class was horrible. I heard that the teacher himself was good teacher, but since he could not capture our interest, he could not earn reliability from us and the class environment was collapsed. This is typical real life example for me. Even though teachers have sufficient knowledge, if they do not have certain social skills like communication skills, the class can be ineffective. So, I think hidden curriculum concept is important.
It goes without saying that students will have varying degrees of ability when they first enter school. These levels of ability will be due to multiple factors:pre-school parental engagement in the child's development, the child's ability to focus etc. The ideal goal of the teacher should be to bring all students to their full potential within the school environment. Not all will achieve the same level of knowledge and understanding, but the attitude of the teacher, and the ethos of the classroom they create, will have a marked effect on their pupils level of performance.
ReplyDeleteGrouping students by ability is not necessarily a negative thing if they are then able to return to a co-operative learning group to share their knowledge. This can enable the class teacher to spend less time on instructing those who can grasp a concept more quickly - leaving them to progress through set work - while then being able to help those who are not so quick to comprehend to advance in their understanding of a concept. Co-operative learning could then take place during the next class, with the more advanced students sharing their knowledge with the rest of their group who, while not yet at the same level, will not be so far behind. The more advanced pupils would then be consolidating their learning while leading others in the group to understand what they have grasped. The goal being to narrow the gap between the two groups. While there will be those students who "shine" across all subjects,there may well be a divide between those who do better in math based work, and groups who perform better in other areas.The aim being for all pupils to experience the role of mentor in their co-operative group in at least one area of knowledge.
I think that a related topic to the issue of inclusion is teacher expectations and assumptions. When as teacher we hold assumptions about the abilities of our students we may be hindering their learning. When a child is labelled with a learning disability the assumptions that the label carries affects the teacher’s interaction and expectations of the child, which can either help or hinder the child.
ReplyDeleteMy grade 10 math teacher was Iranian, and as an Iranian teacher he believed that all Iranian students are advanced in math and science. His assumption stems from his experiences from teaching in Iran. In Iran math and sciences are valued over the arts, therefore the students are taught at a higher level compared to North America. Grade 7 math in Iran is equivalent of grade 10 math in Canada. With this belief my teacher assumed and expected that as an Iranian student I would be advanced in math, needless to say math is one of my weakest subjects. My teacher’s assumptions and expectations of me resulted in him paying less attention to me in class. He ignored my questions or would answer them by saying “you should know this already”, “Shiva, come on, this it not difficult”. His assumption and expectation hindered my learning because through out the year I became distant and participated less in class. I stopped asking questions because I was afraid of what he might say. I began to internalize his expectations which made me feel stupid and hopeless in math. Needless to say I failed math 10, and had to re-due it the next year. My teacher’s expectations blinded him making him less reluctant to help me.
I think this is connected to inclusion because when children with disabilities are diagnosed the label carries assumptions about the diagnosis, these assumptions are not always true of all individuals and they should not influence the way in which the teacher interacts with the student. When students with any disability are placed in a class and their needs are not met, or they are ignored they began to internalize their teacher’s expectations or assumptions which is detrimental to their academic success and self-esteem. Being aware and mindful of our assumptions and expectations is important in determining our effectiveness as teachers with helping our students become successful.
Sorry for the late response. The movie "Stand and Deliver" really related to a significant portion of the material that we have covered this far in our class. Near the beginning of the semester, we discussed what constitutes a "perfect" teacher. The teacher portrayed in the aforementioned movie came pretty close to fulfilling the criteria for an ideal teacher. His perseverance as an educator is one quality that every teacher should have. The limits he went to to reach out to every student were infinite. For one, he made sure every one of his students was caught up to the rest of the group before proceeding with the next level--nobody was left behind. Second, he got to know the kids on a personal level and tried to accommodate their schedules as much as he could without too much leeway though. By no means did he let them slack off or miss a lesson because of their family issues, but at least he let them know that he understood, and was pushing them that far so that their futures would be better than the path set out for them without a proper education. An educator has to put themselves first sometimes, too. When the teacher in the movie's health rapidly declined, he ignored his signs of near-death, and continued with his commitment to his students. Sure, this is a very admirable trait of his, but he has to think of his own health, too. The worst quality of this teacher--which should never be present in the classroom--was his personal criticism of the students. This treatment may go hand in hand with the time period in which the movie was set, and was more acceptable back then; nowadays, there is no room for personal attacks on anyone. For example, his comment to a female student, "this girl's gotta do some work from the neck up", was completely unacceptable. He was trying to be realistic and funny, but as a result, he lost a student's respect. A fine line exists between being a student's respectable friend and being dishonoured. Somehow, the teacher has to learn to be a friend without breaking any rules, while still maintaining the leader-follower relationship.
ReplyDelete