Reflection on the semester

Well, this semester is nearly over. Only one day of classes left and one week of finals. This semester flew by very quickly, and I can't believe how much I have learned in just a few short months.

Educational Psychology is the first "real" teaching class I have had. (Intro. to Music Education didn't really teach us about teaching.) I found this class to be very interesting and inspiring. As I read the chapters of our textbook, I found myself circling and underlining things that I could apply when I am a teacher. Instead of memorizing who wrote what theory and the individual parts of that theory, I asked myself "How can I use this information in my classroom?" This was just my natural reaction to the class. Because I naturally thought like a teacher, I hope that that was a sign that I am meant to be a teacher. There are days when I doubt my choice, just as most people do, but in the end, I think that I will be very happy as a teacher.

Before taking this class, I was very nervous for my first year of teaching. Now, I know that my first year will be hard (as evident from the textbook and the movie "Chalk"), but I feel more prepared for it and ready to meet the challenge. I know that my first year of teaching will probably be my worst, but as I gain experience and confidence, my years of teaching will just become better and better.

I am just itching to get out into the classrooms and apply what I have learned thus far. This summer, I will be able to apply my new knowledge at the child care center where I work. That will be a good start. I'll keep you posted.

Reflection on i-Movies

I have been very busy this week with Christmas at Luther, so unfortunately this blog will be short in the interest of time.

On Monday night we watched i-Movies of book presentations. I enjoyed watching the movies, because I was able to learn about the books by watching the movies. Reading is a favorite hobby of mine, so I was disappointed when I did not have enough time to read more books from our book list this semester. Watching the i-Movies about the books helped me narrow down which books I will read this summer. The "Freedom Writers Diary" i-Movie looked great, but as I don't plan on teaching in an inner-city school, I will probably not read that book. "Last Child in the Woods" looked very interesting. I love nature and being outside (I could never live in town - I have to live in the country), so after watching an i-Movie about the book, I think that I will read that book over the summer.

I think that the i-Movie project is a good project to require. I had never used i-Movie before, so I learned a great deal about that. The project also forced us to really dive into our book, "Teacher Man." I don't think that our discussions about the book would have gone that in depth or had so much meaning if the i-Movie hadn't been assigned and we were instead just assigned to read the book and discuss it with our group. The project also taught me that I can't depend on technology (like youtube) or sometimes, people.

On a side note, watch "Christmas at Luther" on TPT/PBS December 22nd at 9pm. (That is when most stations are showing the concert. Check TPT's website or your local paper to find out when it is showing by you!)

Reflection on "Chalk"

During lecture on Monday night, we watched the first half of the movie "Chalk." I found this movie very interesting and realistic, although exaggerated. While watching the movie, I wrote down some quotes and observations which I would like to discuss.

Quote 1: "War stories from the front lines of teaching."
I did not like this quote. I don't think that teaching should be compared to a war. We should think of it more as a cooperative and collaborative experience. This quote gives the connotation that teachers and students are enemies. If a teacher has this opinion, he/she will not become an expert teacher.

Observation 1: During the opening clips of the movie, the new teacher seemed like a boring, non-expert teacher. This is contrasted with the male history/social studies teacher, who seemed fun and engaging. As the movie went on, it became clear that my initial observations were incorrect. The "fun" teacher was very self-centered and only cared about being awarded "Teacher of the Year." His educational goals were not focused on his students, they were focused on himself.

Observation 2: The new teacher did not have any control over his students. He could not gain their respect or their attention. His classroom management skills were very underdeveloped. It is clear that his education/training did not prepare him for managing a classroom. As the movie went on, he became better at managing his classroom, which came in part from experience and part from more education (reading a book about classroom management).

Observation 3: The "fun" teacher told his giften students to act average and to dumb down, because they knew more than he did about history/social studies. This is a perfect example of not challenging the gifted students. Instead of giving them a special project to do, or using their intelligence to advance the class, he completly shut down their special abilities. I hope that that never happens in a real classroom!

Reflection on Chapter 10

Click on the picture to see all the words - I couldn't get it to fit in the post. It ties in perfectly with Chapter Ten!

After reading Chapter Ten, which is about motivation, I decided to evaluate myself to try to find out what my motivators are.

I believe that I am very motivated by performance goals. According to our textbook, a performance goal is the intention to seem competent or perform well in the eyes of others. One way of seeming competent is to get good grades. Throughout high school, I was extremely motivated to get good grades. My parents expected me to get good grades, and did not reward me with money or treats for getting A's. I pushed myself to get all A's so that I would not let my parents down.

Now that I am in college, this has changed. I still am motivated by performance goals, but to a lesser extent. I'm ok with getting a B in a class (although I would still rather get an A). I know that I just need to do the best that I can, which is almost like a mastery goal. Our textbook defines a mastery goal as a personal intention to improve abilities and learn, which leads students to seek challenges and persist when they encounter difficulties.

My goal this week: Work ahead as much as I can so that I can enjoy Thanksgiving Break instead of doing homework during the whole break.

Lecture: Islam and Christian Muslim Dialogue

Last week, I attended a lecture by Dr. Charles Amjad-Ali. The lecture was titled Isalm and Christian Muslim Dialogue: Theological and Political Challenge and Opportunity. I analyzed his lecture in relation to education and teaching.

First, Dr. Amjad-Ali was twenty minutes late to his own lecture. It didn't seem very professional, and in a sense, made the audience a little negative towards him before we had even met him. When I am a teacher, if I ever show up twenty minutes late, my students would be left unattended and could injure themselves or get in other forms of trouble. I would be in trouble, too, especially since I will be teaching elementary students, who would not know what to do if I didn't show up to class.

When Dr. Amjad-Ali did arrive, he had a very professional appearance. This made him seem confident in what he was teaching. He also had a strong and loud voice. His voice commanded attention and made me want to listen to him. These are things that I can do when I'm a teacher. I can look professional (which will be a requirement anyway) and I can have a commanding voice. If I am confident in myself, and show that confidence to my students, they in turn will be confident and engaged.

Dr. Amjad-Ali made some jokes during his lecture. This helped to break up the seriousness of the lesson. It also made him seem more personable. I will have to remember that my entire lesson can't be filled with only work; there must be some play, or fun times during the lesson when I can make a joke or reference to something my elementary-age students will understand.

Along with making jokes, Dr. Amjad-Ali looked happy during his lecture. This made it seem like he enjoyed being there. It also made the audience think positively about his lesson. This goes along with an idea we talked about in class. We think that when elementary level teachers are negative towards math, this causes their students to be negative towards math. If Dr. Amjad-Ali had been negative towards his lecture, the audience probably would have been negative towards it, too. As a teacher, I will need to be careful with how I display my attitudes towards anything.

A final note about the lecture, Dr. Amjad-Ali talked clearly and slowly, which helped me to understand him, as he had an accent. It will be important for me to do this when I am a teacher, because I will probably have students in my classes whose first language is not English. I do not want to put them at a disadvantage because they can not understand me.

I will finish with a few quotes from the lecture:

"I don't have private property on intelligence."
"I don't have permission as a Christian to hate."
"Man is not tempted by wisdom. He is tempted by woman. Woman is tempted by wisdom." - in relation to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve

Reflection on Chapter 8

One section in Chapter Eight is devoted to creativity and creative problem solving. I made lots of pencil marks in this section, because I think it is imperative to use creativity in the classroom. Most classes are of a lecture format - the teacher talks for an hour and writes notes on the board while students copy the notes or just zone out. I do not want my classroom to be like that.

Our textbook makes the point that "creativity is important for an individual's psychological, physical, social, and career success" (p. 309). Therefore, creativity should be used in every classroom to help the students become successful.

I especially liked our textbook's suggestion of "avoid describing the feats of great artists or inventors as if they were superhuman accomplishments" (p. 309). When I am teaching elementary school students, I will probably teach them a little about the great composers. I will keep this suggestion in mind, so that the students see the great composers' accomplishments as something that they can accomplish, also. I would probably follow up that information with an improv activity or song-writing activity to really bring home the point that "everyone is capable of creativity" (p. 309).

I enjoyed planning a lesson for my classmates. It allowed me to be creative and practice teaching others instead of just learning about teaching others. I chose to teach a math/science lesson on conversion factors. My students converted recipe items from g - oz, gal - c, and lb - oz. Once the ingredients were in the same units as they were on the recipe card, we made our recipe of Oreo Cookie Salad. I thought that was a fun way to introduce conversion factors and make them seem more real life to the students, instead of just something they learned how to do in class.

Video Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHWPC85Nr6M


Here is a link to a video from YouTube of a music lesson at an elementary school. (There was an error when I tried to upload the video to my blog, so a link to the video will have to suffice.) In the video, the students learn about rhythms.

While watching the video, I noticed that each of the students have their own carpet square to sit on. This keeps the students from bothering others. I also noticed that the teacher kept a fast pace and moved on to the next activity immediately after the rhythm song was over. The teacher probably used a visual evaluation of the students. I think that she watched each student during the song and noted which students excelled and which ones need more help with rhythms.

Halloween Slideshow!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I finally figured out how to make a slideshow! It only has three pictures, but it's a start! Enjoy!

Reflection on "Teacher Man"

One of my assignments for this educational psychology class is to read a book about education. My discussion group chose to read the book "Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt. I just finished it over Fall Break, and enjoyed it very much. Instead of blogging about the chapters from the textbook, I am going to use this blog to reflect on a couple key quotations from the book "Teacher Man."

McCourt writes this in Chapter 13: "You can't be liked by every one of the hundreds of kids you have every year" (p. 207 in my version). This idea stuck with me. I had worried about being liked by my students. I want to be liked by all of them, but this quote made me realize that that is very unlikely to happen. Even a successful teacher like McCourt was not liked by some of his students. As McCourt did throughout his teaching career, I will try to reach out to the students who dislike me, and change their opinion.

A second quote from Chapter 13: "I ask you, is it the task of the teacher to supply canon fodder for the military-industrial complex? Are we shaping packages for the corporate assembly line?" (p. 211) This quote seems to fit perfectly with our discussions in class. We have focused on No Child Left Behind and how it can take away creativity in the classroom. McCourt's quote seems to support creativity and not support teaching to get a good score on a standardized test. As a music teacher, I will not have to prepare my students for a standardized test, so I will hopefully be able to teach creative, interesting lessons, like I remember learning in elementary school music class.

I will finish this post with a quote that eased some of my worries about teaching. "Find what you love and do it" (p. 255). I love sharing the joys music with children, so I know that I am supposed to be a music teacher, and I will enjoy doing it for the rest of my life.

It's Almost Fall Break!

Tomorrow is the last day of classes before Fall Break!

I am very excited to apply some of what I have learned in Ed Psych when I am home over break. I am going to apply my new knowledge when I visit the place of my summer employment: a child care center. This past summer, I worked mainly with the toddlers. After reading the first chapters of our text, I now know more about the toddlers and why they do the things they do. For example, one of our toddlers loves to pull the teacher's hair. He thinks it is funny and he keeps pulling hair, despite repeated punishments of various kinds for doing so. I learned from this course that the toddler is probably not pulling hair because he doesn't want to listen; rather, he is pulling hair because he does not have the perspective-taking ability. He does not understand that others have different feelings. I also learned that, according to Piaget, toddlers are part of the preoperational stage. Therefore, toddlers are very egocentric and assume that others experience the world the way they do. From the information presented in our text, I have concluded that the toddler believes that the teacher also thinks it's funny when he pulls her hair.

Who knows what other opportunities to use my newly founded educational psychology knowledge will arise over Fall Break.

Reflection on Chapter Four

During class on Wednesday, Professor Langholz asked us if we would use IQ tests in our classrooms, and if we would use the results to separate our class into groups based on intelligence level.

After reading chapter four, which was about intelligence and learner differences, my answer to Professor Langholz's question is no, I would not use IQ tests in my classroom. I feel that if I did use IQ tests, I would unfairly separate and label my students, especially if I looked at the results before I even met them. I want each of my students to be on an equal playing field when they come to school. I don't want to already have John or Jane labeled as "not as smart as the others" because of one score on one test.

Another reason I would not use IQ tests is that I don't believe we can accurately measure intelligence when we don't even know what intelligence is. The book states that groups of psychologists have met to discuss intelligence, but they have never agreed upon a solid definition or the structure of intelligence. The book also gives many examples of proposed types of intelligence, such as fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, the theory of multiple intelligences, and the triarchic theory of successful intelligence. I don't think that we should test students on something that we can't even define.

A note on the lecture - I really enjoyed this role playing activity. It made No Child Left Behind real and interesting, instead of just something we read about in the book. The activity gave us a chance to experience the effects of No Child Left Behind before we become teachers. It really made me realize that when I am considering implementing a new activity for my students (such as a mandatory concert or new grading system) I need to think of all the different points of view first.

Reflection on Chapter Three

I think that Erikson's theory is very interesting and helpful. As a future elementary school music teacher, I focused on the information for that age group of children. According to Erikson's theory, the children I will teach will be in the fourth stage: achieving a sense of industry and avoiding feelings of inferiority. Industry is defined in our book as "eagerness to engage in productive work."

As a teacher, I will have to make my students eager to engage in their work, but also keep them from feeling inferior to their other classmates. This will be hard to do. If a student is eager to work, but discovers that their work is inferior to their classmates work, then the student will be discouraged and stop working. The book offers some suggestions as to how to avoid this. I liked the idea of tolerating honest mistakes. To incorporate this idea, I am not going to require my students to perform a piece of music perfectly before they can move on to the next piece. As long as they understand the basic concepts and are trying hard, it's ok to make a few mistakes. I will also try to encourage all my students, not just the discouraged ones, by complimenting them every day and pointing out all that they learned in each class period.

Last night, our lecture was about the library. I thought the lecture time could have been better spent. All of us took Paideia and were required to use the library website to find scholarly articles. The databases were updated this summer, but all that was changed was the look of the websites, not the actual way of finding articles. The presentation could have been summed up in five minutes and we could have spent the rest of the time discussing something important. Chapter Two of our text mentions teaching in the Zone of Proximal Development. Last night's lecture would have been in the Zone of Proximal Development for anyone age 50, not people age 19/20. We already knew the material she was teaching. (Refer to the picture above for more information about the Zone of Proximal Development.) I would suggest cutting this lecture from the syllabus for next semester's class.

Reflection on Chapter Two

I found this chapter to be very interesting. I have never taken a psychology class before, so Piaget and Vygotsky's theories of development were new to me. I agreed more with Piaget's theory, but I also see the importance of culture, which Vygotsky stressed.

I thought this sentence from Chapter Two, page thirty-six was a good one to think about: "Real understanding will take place only if students are able to go beyond the superficial use of memorization." It seems like many classes today have become focused too much on memorization. For example, a typical history class. The students memorize all the information from a chapter, take a test on it, then forget it all and memorize the information from the next chapter. I thought the cartoon above tied in well with memorization. The man doesn't remember anything he memorized in class, but he remembers Schoolhouse Rock history, because it taught him the correct way. I tried to think of ways that I can "go beyond" memorization when I become a teacher. I am planning on becoming an elementary school music teacher, so my students won't have to memorize things that often. One way I can "go beyond" memorization is by letting the students use music when they play/sing. This will also help them learn to read music, instead of just memorizing the motions.

A note on the lecture - I understand that we need to make sure all teachers are smart enough to teach others, but I do not agree with requiring teachers to pass the PRAXIS tests. I think that our ACT/SAT scores should prove that we are knowledgeable. The ACT was a lot more difficult than the PRAXIS test, so why should we have to pass a test of lesser difficulty? In my opinion, the PRAXIS test is a waste of time and money. I believe that the PRAXIS test requirement should be replaced with a score of a certain amount on the ACT/SAT.

SAC Lecture: Gary Tuerack

On September 16th, I attended the lecture by Gary Tuerack entitled "Better Grades in Less Time!" This lecture was very fun to attend and very interesting to evaluate from a teaching standpoint. The main theme of his lecture was learning to read faster, which will improve your grades.

Before the lecture started, there was a slideshow entitled "Things To Do To Annoy Your Friends With Your New Free Time." The slideshow was playing while the students took their seats and waited for the lecture to begin. This kept the students entertained and occupied while they waited. It also got the students excited to hear the lecture. This could translate to teachers writing a trivia question (related to the class material) on the board at the start of every class period: it will occupy the students and get them excited to learn the answer and the lesson for the day.

Instead of diving right into the lecture, Tuerack began his lecture with fun activities, like a game of Simon Says and a funny slideshow about college life. This helped the students adjust from "play time" to "work/school time." This concept can be applied to the classroom. Teachers can start their lessons with fun activities or games and slowly adjust into the lecture material.

Tuerack related to the students attending his lecture. He told a story about his previous visit to Luther College. He also shared his history of being a very slow reader, and training himself to become a very fast reader. He knows what the students are going through because he's been there and went through the same things. This helped the students trust him. Teachers can do this every day by relating to their students. I think it is good for teachers to be friendly and open with their students, like Tuerack was by telling us his stories.

During the lecture, Tuerack moved from one activity to another very quickly. He also included stretch breaks to keep the blood flowing. This kept the students engaged and made the time pass quickly. Every teacher should do this in their classroom. Instead of planning an entire class period of lecturing, or reading from the book, teachers should break the time up. And having a fast pace will also help the teacher teach more material in each class period.

Tuerack's lecture was very interesting and fun to attend. My opinion of his lecture has a lot to do with the teaching techniques he used. Hopefully I will be able to apply some of Tuerack's strategies in my own classroom in the future.

Reflection on Lions for Lambs, Part 2

While watching part of the movie again, I began to understand the true meaning of the quote "Professors are not teachers; they are salesmen." The next line in the movie is "We [teachers] sell you [students] to you." When I heard that line, the quote made complete sense. (As you can see from my previous post, last week I was confused on the meaning of the quote.) As teachers, we need to sell the students their abilities and talents. We need to hold the mirror up for them so they can see who they truly are and what they can achieve.

I also like the quote "The best way to change things is to fight for it." Nothing will be accomplished by just complaining and not acting. This applies to working in a school. Some of the school policies may not be up to par, or may be unfair. I have heard teachers complain about school policies while they eat lunch in the break room. That is not going to change things. They need to speak out and "fight" to get the change they desire. I will remember this when I become a teacher.

Reflection on Lions for Lambs, Part 1

After watching the first part of the movie "Lions for Lambs," a few quotes from the scenes with the professor and troublesome student stuck out in my mind.

The first quote: "A teacher's gift is the ability to recognize someone with an extraordinary gift." To me, this is part of why we teach. Teachers help their students recognize their natural gifts, and teachers encourage their students to use those gifts.

The second quote: "Professors are not teachers; they're salesmen." This is an interesting quote. I was not sure what it was supposed to mean at first. After thinking about it, I believe that this quote ties in with the first quote. Teachers are supposed to "sell" things to their students, like encouragement, guidance, hope, and inspiration. The mission of education is not to teach, it is to help students recognize their potential, or to "sell" them inspiration for the future.

I also liked that the Professor had an individual meeting with the troublesome student instead of just giving up on him. It really showed that the Professor cares about each of his students. I liked that instead of lecturing the student, he encouraged the student. For example, the professor said to the student "You are a student who gives me hope." I think that this method of dealing with a troublesome student will be more beneficial and will positively change the student's attitude than if the professor had lectured him.

First Time

This first blog is to make sure my account works.

A quote from our movie which stuck with me:
"Professors are not teachers; they're salesmen."