Reflection #12

This week’s class was online instead of an actual meeting, and the topic was performance-based assessments.  This is when the teacher plans for an assessment based on how he or she believes the student best is able to learn.  This week’s online designation was so useful because I was able to meet with my group and work on our Unit Planner.  We did our unit planner on slavery, and we refreshed our memory with many new interesting facts that we had forgotten about.  Our group worked well together, and I enjoyed the activity.  I believe that this class has been very helpful because it has forced me to think outside of the box and the normal scope of teaching.  I enjoyed learning about talents, and I plan to use them in my future career as an educator.  In regards to the class, I really enjoyed the hybrid model.  It provided an opportunity for self-study and a break from physical meetings.  I would like to see this incorporated more into the other classes here at the university.  I think this class had many great points of discussion such as the charter school Socratic circle. I plan to use the Socratic circle idea with my own class.

Reflection 11

Today was a very interesting day in class because we were introduced to different colored hats. There were six different hats and each person chose which hat they were. Each hat was based on a different personality trait.I thought that this hat lesson was very creative, and I think that it is easily implemented in the everyday classroom setting. Teachers must search deep within themselves and be creative in order to maintain the attention of their students. I love the fact that the hats were original and very creative. They definitely got my attention- mainly because the hats were covered with glittery sequence. Kids would love this type of appearance too because it is attractive and very playful looking. I think this would also be a good activity for students because it would help students discover who they are. Finding yourself is something that a lot of students truly have a difficult time doing, and I definitely think that this hat activity can help ease the pain of discovering. I have learned so much from this class, and I hope I can remember it all so that I can implement it all in the future. I want to be a competent teacher who is able to reach students in a way that goes beyond the general level of education. The skills that I have learned in this class will definitely help me achieve this goal.

Reflection 8

This week was another very interesting week in class because we went further in detail about Talents. I think that talents are going to be very beneficial in my career as a special education teacher. I really like the idea of teaching students to think critically and analyze information in a deeper way than what they have done previously. The five talents are productive thinking, communication, forecasting, planning, and decision making. I think these talents definitely belong in a good lesson plan. We also made drawings today out of lines. I was not very good with mine, but I really enjoyed looking at some of the creations from my classmates. I didn't think people could be that creative, but they truly are creative. My classmates really thought critically about what they could make out of the line, and they worked hard to achieve a good creation. I really liked the line lesson, and I do think that it would be a great lesson to incorporate later with my students. I think that students would be able to create even more creative things than we did. I really enjoy being creative, but I am not an artists of any kind. I am much better at being creative with thoughts and ideas versus drawings. This was defintely an eye opener lesson.

Reflection #6

This week was an online class, and I found the material very interesting. This weeks topic was using technology to teach differentiated instruction. Virtual field trips were a major topic this week as well as teacher tube, Google docs, and Google wiki. I really think these resources are great because they are free. Teachers have limited funds from their school districts to buy supplies, so taking advantage of free resources is an amazing task. I also really like Virtual field trips because they can be rewarding for students when they are physically unable to go somewhere because of a physical disability. All student, regardless of disability status, should have an excellent quality of life. This quality of life entails being active in school field trips and experiencing hands-on educational activities such as field trips. I really believe that the stigma for students with disabilities is that they are incapable of understanding, but research has shown that this is not the case, especially in regards to Autism. I believe in giving every student the opportunity to enrich their lives with countless opportunities. I think that teachers should set and maintain high standards for all of their students. This includes including students with disabilities on field trips even if virtual field trips are the only reasonable method.

Talents Reflection

Academic Content:
I introduced the topic of slavery to a small group of students, and I feel that I did an excellent job. My students were interactive because I had them list the advantages of slavery for the south and the disadvantages of slavery for the north. We discussed all the items they listed and it turned out to be a highly effective group lesson. I believe I scored a 5/5 in this area.

Thinking Process Warm-Up:
I asked the small group of students what they already knew about slavery, and I asked them to briefly discuss this with the class. I believe the students were knowledgeable about slavery enough to form a good group discussion, and the discussion worked out well. I believe I was highly effective in this area. 5/5.

Teacher Talk:
During the teacher talk I discussed the idea that we must learn from the past so that we do not repeat it in any capacity. I discussed the decision making is a critical component of life, and all decisions must be taken seriously. I asked the students to reflect on why they believe Americans made the decision to enslave African-Americans while using the decision making matrix to discuss who benefited from their enslavement. I also asked the students to think about the long-term benefit of slavery. The students took turns sharing their thoughts with other group members, and they all had very great points regarding slavery. I found this to be highly effective as well. 5/5

Student Response:
The students responded in a great way because they all participated and were actively involved in a positive way. I was very pleased with the level of student interest in the topic as well. The students responded in two ways: writing and speaking. Their critical thinking skills were greatly enhanced. This area was highly effective as well. 5/5.

Reinforcement:
We began to discuss Frederick Douglass and his narrative Up From Slavery. I discussed his significance to slavery, and assigned this narrative as a required text. 5/5

Reflection #9

Argument against Charter Schools

Douglas Taylor

I have a much better understanding of Charter schools, and I would like to share them with you and the class at our next meeting. In researching charter schools, I have found that the disadvantages far out weight the advantages. A charter school is exempt from all state mandates, so the school itself does not have to abide by any state rules or regulations. This means that the teachers are NOT required to be certified or highly qualified in any subject that they teach. The school also does not have to participate in state standardized testing. From my research I have also found that charter schools have VERY high turnover rates among their teaching staff, and this is mainly due to the lack of work unions and protections for teachers under the law. Teachers often have longer work days and heavily increased responsibilities. This causes them to flee to more traditional schools or leave the teaching profession altogether. Furthermore, leadership is often hard to find for charter schools because the principal is often the sole leader in the school without any support. It is safe to say that no real progress may be accomplished because the charter school is continually changing staff every year.

Next, there is the issue of funding. Charter schools do not receive money for startup costs from the state government, so the buildings are often old and worn; there are in terrible conditions. Thus, classrooms are often equipped with fewer resources. So, the utopian tale that all charter schools are well-equipped with all the resources that are needed is simply not true. The charter school is funded over time, so students do not receive any real additional benefit unless the charter is funded by wealthy business and families. Furthermore, charter schools have a lack of standards which means that they are not required to follow the state course of study. This could be a positive attribute except for the fact that they could theoretically teach a course of study less than what is appropriate or fulfills the appropriate standards as suggested by the state board of education.

Another argument against charter schools is the fact that they pick and choose whom to accept into their programs. In a normal public school all students are accepted regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc. In a charter school this is definitely not the case. They would be allowed to discriminate on any basis because they do not receive federal funds or state funds. They are completely independent as long as they maintain their charter from the state. This is definitely a negative attribute because all students should be guaranteed a free education. This does include ALL students, and this would include students in special education. In a charter school special education students would likely not be welcomed because they would bring down the charter with low scores because they are clearly not performing on academic grade level, or else they would not be in special education. So, it is highly unlikely that a charter school would admit a student in special education, not to mention having to pay an extra teacher for special education. Where will this money come from? Funds are extremely limited!

This is not to say that all charter schools operate in this way, but I am speaking from a general perspective. It cannot be simulated that by allowing a school to come to the state of Alabama that does not have to meet state standards, teacher certification and licensing, discrimination policies, state testing and accountability, teacher unions, and many other standards will likely “progress” the state of Alabama in a positive way, especially considering that people feel that our schools are already in poor condition. If our current standards are not good enough for Alabama, then how can arguably lower standards be good enough—charter schools could teach less? In my opinion, it would open the door to the abolishment of teacher unions and public schools because more schools will become private. If schools are private and not public then how can we mandate what is taught in the minimum state curriculum and standards? I do not believe that this would be beneficial enough to our state to invest the time and energy into this, not to mention the students who would become segregated in schools among the most “elite”. If you think about a charter school, it must do something to KEEP its charter. This means that it will be held on some sort of accountability measure by the state board of education. So my question is, what would a school be willing to do in order to keep its charter- discriminate against different groups of people? Perhaps they would be willing to remove the lower performing people from the program, and if they do this are the students really receiving this world class education that the public school so miserably failed? Maybe a charter school would be willing to fudge accountability measures to show that they are maintaining a standard when in fact they may not be, or perhaps a charter school could become a group of racist people who hate the opposite race—it’s just an idea but a possible idea.

I enjoyed the talent board assignment because I rarely get a chance to be creative with my learning. I enjoy the Spider Man theme because I always enjoyed Spider Man as a child. I really have enjoyed learning about talents as well, and I do think that I will be able to incorporate it my future classroom. My talent board is made up of birthday party assortments. Each talent is a plate, and the webbing hand is the academics. The idea is that Spider Man webs the talents into his hand. I thought that it would appeal to younger children and immediately capture their attention. I plan to keep this board for future reference. I think it will be helpful to get children to think critically about their lives and the decisions that they make when they are young. I really enjoy making children think about their actions, even if it means embarrassing them in front of the class. In my experience this has been a good method of changing the behavior of a child. I think that the thinking skills model could prevent alot of children from making illegal mistakes, and could therefore prevent them from living a life of crime if implemented correctly.