Final Summarized Field Blog

Throughout the year I have been trying to observe how teachers generate productivity and activity within the classroom, and I have found out quite a lot. One of the most simple ways that I have seen that have helped teachers generate productivity is by arranging the desks in the classroom into groups or pods, or by working in groups. This system worked at all levels of education, those being early childhood education and elementary school, middle school, high school, and I have noticed my college professors use it as well to help stimulate the class’s productivity if no one is participating in class.

Another strategy that I have noticed that teachers use to generate productivity and activity in a classroom is to do group work. Many students struggle a little bit to do work on their own, or do not like to participate in class because they are too shy or are scared to be wrong if they answer or comment on the conversation during class. Working with a group of peers makes it easier for those students to come out of their shells and work with the rest of the class. This type of activity with other students in the classroom helps student’s learn. Class participation and activity helps not only the one student but the whole class learn. 

Clinical Reflection

The clinical teaching experience was a fun, but also stressful experience. I enjoyed doing it but i do not believe that our group was fully prepared for the task. Which is when i learned that the phrase "It is always better to be over prepared", the phrase i have heard from countless teachers is almost too true. To teach a lesson you must know what you are going to do inside and out, and must have plans for emergencies or if something just doesn't work out. Going in i thought that our group was prepared to do the lesson and get all the way through the fifty minutes of class that we were responsible to teach, but i think that we found out very quick that we were not fully prepared to teach the class. I was not ready for what i experienced. I was very stressed out about the lesson. I was worried about doing a good job teaching and hoping that people would participate in class, and etc. I believe that the students we had in class were ready to learn, and that they had read in preparation for the class, which really helped with getting through the lesson. I know this because they came in and participated in the class discussion without hesitation.

This is believe proposal

I believe that creating a safe learning environment is imperative to having a good classroom

where everyone can learn. If a child does not feel safe in a classroom or school then they are not going to learn as well. There are different extremes to it, but it ranges as serious as a child is being bullied in a school so bad that they will not even come to school anymore. Even something as little as being too little scared to participate in class can make a large difference in the education a student will receive, and it will effecting that student for the rest of his or her life.

There are countless differences in race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and more in schools all over the world. I believe that the first and one of the most important steps in the right direction for our schools is to teach our students to accept everybody else for who they are. It will not only help students get a better education, but it will help society as a whole.

There are many issues, hopes, and dreams that my personal beliefs respond to. One of my biggest problems with society today is that we do not accept people for who they are. I believe that a person should be able to do whatever they want that makes them happy without having to worry about other peoples judging them for their choices. I believe that you should always do what makes you happy, and it bothers me that people in the world do not accept others because of some of their choices. The prior experiences that form the interests on topic of my research paper come from my childhood. Some of my family’s closest friends are two lesbian women named Shelly and Molly, and I also have an aunt that is a lesbian as well. I grew up with them around me all the time and I didn’t think anything of it. I knew that Shelly and Molly were a couple, and it just seemed completely normal to me, but when I started growing up I realized that not everyone felt the same way that I did about gay relationships, or people that identify as LGBTQ in general. Many people think that is wrong to be a part of any part of the LGBTQ community. It bothers me that people think this way, and cannot be accepting of other peoples views. Other topics that I will make connections with/ study will be bulling, discrimination, or just simply the non-acceptance of other people’s life styles in general. The big questions that I have to ask on the topic are, what kind of improvements would be made in our education system if everybody was accepting? How to create a safe learning environment in a school and classroom? And, how do we teach people to be accepting of other people’s life styles?  I want to know what kind of cultures are not accepted by others and how this effects the learning environment of students.

References

Herback, J. (2005). Creating a Safer Learning Environment. Book Links. 14(3). 30.

Gayle, B. M., Cortez, D., & Preiss, R. W. (2013). Safe Spaces, Difficult Dialogues, and Critical   Thinking. International Journal For The Scholarship Of Teaching & Learning. 7(2), 1-8.

Creating a safe Learning Environment to Improve Student Success. (cover story). (2013). Internet@Schools, 20(5), 8-13.

Creating a safe Learning Environment to Improve Student Success. (cover story). (2013). Internet@Schools, 20(5), 8-13.

FieldBlog: Shaker Middle School

In the first classroom that my group observed at Shaker Middle school the teacher had the students working on a project when we walked in. It was a seventh grade class and had about twenty kids in it. Each of the students had a computer to work with. The teacher told us about all of the other projects that she had her students do and it seemed like a lot of fun projects that would create not only productivity in the classroom, but it would also spark a lot of creativity as well. The second classroom we went to was a mix of sixth and seventh graders and had eighteen students in it, they are both relativly small classrooms.The second one had two sides of desks with an isle going down the middle so there was no back of the room. Mrs. Roth was the teacher in this room and she had been teaching for seventeen years. She had the students working i small groups or with partners on a project to write a rap about events that they were working on in the chapter that they were reading. It was a good way to connect the students to subjects that they may not have been interested in while connecting them to something that they already relate to in rap. We were not in either of the classes very long, and in the second classroom there was not much to observe because the students were finishing up a project. She did answer many questions about being a teacher though and she was very helpful.

BlogPost 10

From what I have learned in class, and what I personally believe from my past experiences in education, I think that to have a good education you need to have a few things. The first thing that you need to have a good education is to have a safe learning environment. A safe learning environment is crucial, if a student feels uncomfortable in a classroom, and is too scared to participate in class because they are afraid that they are going to be wrong then the student is not going learn very well. A student should also not have to be worried about being bullied or discriminated against for any reason in a classroom. Everybody should be accepting of others no matter what their beliefs, sexual orientation, race, etc. I believe that everybody should do whatever makes them happy, and that they should not have to be worried about what others think of them. But even better than that i think that people should just accept others for who they are. We are all human beings so we should all respect each other for who we are, no matter if it contradicts what we personally believe or not. Everyone is equal and should be treated that wayAnother key component to having a good education, is for the teacher to know all of its students very well. A teacher needs to know how the students learns to be able to teach them. If they do not know the best way their students learn then how are they going to teach them to the best of their abilities.

Observation Hours: Hours 6-10

I was with Mr. Joseph again. He continued the project from the day before in class. During these periods the classes were just finishing up what they had started the day before. Since they were almost near the end he just watched most of the time and let the students work until they needed help. He also added another part of the project, he made the students find a pop culture reference that related to the section that they were assigned to summarize. To help them out he gave them an example of a song that had lyrics about war in them. If they needed help with this he would give them more examples of what they needed that led them towards something that was relatable to the subject.

Observation Hours: Hours 1-5

For my ten observational hours, I decided to observe a teacher at my former high school, Mr. Joseph. He is a freshman world history teacher at Kirtland High School.
Observation:
For his lesson on the first day he posed a situation for all of his classes where his students had to write summaries of sections of the chapter. He broke the students into seven different groups where they were each assigned a section of the chapter. Mr. Joseph explained the project to the students and then let them go on their way. After a few minutes of letting the students get set up and beginning to work, he went around to each group and helped them out if they had any questions. He did not simply give them the answers, he gave them help and guided them to the correct responses he was looking for.
What Happened:
This lesson was very useful for many reasons, instead of standing at the front of class lecturing the entire class period he broke them into groups and sort of delegated the power and productivity to the students. The students had to do the learning and work themselves instead of it being spoon fed to them. Some of the students struggled with parts of the sections and would ask questions. Some of the students were just being lazy and wanted an easy way out so he would push them to figure it out themselves. Other times there were students where he knew that they needed a little more guidance to get to the right conclusion so he would give them a little more help.

BlogPost 7

When Ayers talks about building bridges, he is talking about building the bridges between students and teachers. The bridges connect the student and teacher to help them relate to each other. Two other pertinent examples of building bridges was childhood to adulthood and the bridge toward  the center, from the powerless to power.
I do not understand this portion of the the blogpost. I will finish it after I ask quesstions in class on how to do it.

FieldBlog 2: Heights High School

Question Posed for observation: How does a teacher generate activity and productivity in their classroom?

For our second school visit at Cleveland Heights High School I was supposed to observe Mr. Evans freshman history class. I was unable to do so because his class was taking the new Parks test. Instead of observing his class he took me to another teachers class, Mrs Underwood. Mrs. Underwood taught remedial English to juniors.

Observations:
Class was started with bell work that everybody had to do. The question was, what are the three types of sentences found in a paragraph? After the bell work was completed students were to finish an outline that they had previously started in class. No student was done with the outline yet, but after they finished it they were given a OGT prep prompt to about. Throughout the class the teacher worked individually with the students.

Opinions:
The bell work was a productive way to get class started and to get the students focused. It was a fairly easy question but none of the students knew the answer off of the top of their heads so the teacher allowed them to look it up on their phones. She also allowed the students to use their phones throughout the entire class period. They were a group of kids who did not focus or cooperate very easily so it looked like her allowance of cell phone usage was a way to get on their good side to get their cooperation. During the class period the teacher mostly worked individually with the students to give each of the students the extra help that they needed. The class only had 7 students in it which made it easier for the teacher to do this.

Post-it Blogpost 6

Before I started reading this article I assumed it would be about a new progressive type of education that is not very well known yet but is growing in popularity. As soon as I started reading the article I realized that it was quite the opposite and that it was a discussion about a terrible type of education called the banking concept. It did not take me long to realize that this banking concept was basically dehmanizing all those that went through this form of education. It creates something my Nana calls educated morons. These people are smart but do not understand simple concepts at times, they do not have common sense, and cannot think for themselves. 

Then when I came along the part in the article where it talks about populist manifestations as an example for using this type of system to control their populations I thought of Nazi Germany when Hitler was in charge. He made his people burn books, which is what many controlling governments do to control their people so they cannot be educated. I felt like the oppression of his government fit a perfect example of how people could be controlled by what they know. 

BlogPost 5

I went to one public school my entire life and now I am here at John Carroll. My school was in a very small town not very far from here. Throughout my whole education at that school there was very few LGBTQ people so there was not much of problem with harassment or homophobia. I do remember one guy that came out as gay after he graduated. Although he never came out until after everybody knew it already. They did not ask him about it or harass him in any way, everybody respected how he was and let him be, or even if someone was not accepting of how he was they did not say anything to him. My school did practically nothing to address any homophobia or heterosexualism at hand, but it was not completely necessary for them to do so.

When Rofes discusses childhood he talks about how children have no rights and how as soon as the child is born they are characterized as either boy or girl. When this happens boys can only do boy this and girls can only do girl things. If someone breaks this social characterization they are looked at like they are odd or bizarre and will often receive harassment or some sort of social stigma that reflects badly on them. People have not addressed homophobia or hetersexualism for a very long time, so most people are actually unaware of how it happens and what are the consequences. Liberal distinctions would be to raise a child as it is born and then when it gets older it will know their gender identification. A radical distinction would be to raise the child gender neutral until it is ready to decide. 

I believe that someone should be able to be whatever they want and not have to deal with any persecution for who they are. I believe that someone should do whatever makes them happy and that nobody else's opinion should matter. I think that schools and society should accept everybody for who they are or who they want to be. If there is a little boy who wants to be a girl, or a little girl that wants to be a boy they should let them be. I think it is terrible that people would deny someone who they want to be just because it is against the social norm, and that is another problem itself. Society as a whole needs to be more accepting of other peoples view's, orientation, or anything. There is to much discrimination. 

When/ If I become a teacher one day my vision for a school that I hope to work at would be completely accepting of everyone no matter what their orientation is. If i cannot work at a school like this then i hope that i will be able to help get the school to that point so everyone can be comfortable in their own skin and create a safe learning environment for all. 



What do you believe and what is your vision for the school where you hope to be teaching in the next four years? (250 thoughtful words).

BlogPost 4

Most people, including teachers, are not informed that someones linguistics are something that is very important to them as a person. It is how they were raised and a part of who they are. If a teacher tell their student that the way they grew up speaking with their friends, family, and loved ones is wrong then the teacher is in for some trouble. The student will begin to resent the teacher for their comments, and will not want to be taught by them. Saying that the way they communicate is wrong would be like saying that your family is wrong and that would not sit well with the student. Teachers must take this into account when teaching, especially if they are young students. The relationships that are formed between families are extremely important to an individual. They are the first relationships that someone forms in their lives. Family is at the roots and at the core of all people, so when another person tells you that they way you and your family is living incorrect and they try to change the way a person does things it hits that person at their core. 

If teachers were to take this into consideration when they are teaching children, they may be much more effective in teaching them the material. Most of the time constantly correcting people for their linguistics will only do damage to the student teacher relationships. Which will of course damage the students education. This is why it is important for teachers to keep personal linguistics in mind while teaching students. 

BlogPost 3

The Lisa Depit quote, “We do no really see with our eyes or hear through our ears, but through our beliefs.”, is very powerful. She is explaining that we as people do not just see things that are in front of us as everybody else sees them. She is saying that the way people see things is through their own beliefs which means that you can put something in front of one person and ask them what they saw and their explanation of what they saw with their eyes could be completely different than another persons. And it goes the same way with hearing things some people could hear something and if you ask them to explain that then compare it to another explanation you could have two totally different descriptions of what just happened.  Everyone has their own opinions and beliefs, no two are exactly alike. I have had experiences exactly like this on any number of occasions. It is just as simple as people playing a game of one on one in basketball. One time i was playing basketball and i shot the ball and my friend hit my arm on the play while i was shooting the ball. I thought that my friend had fouled me on the shot, but my friend claimed that he was just playing good defense and that it was his ball. We got into an argument because we had different views on the subject. This type of occurrence could have great significance in much larger subjects that could cause a lot of problems among people.  

FieldBlog 1

In our first school observation we went to Boulevard Elementary School. It was an open school, which was a completely new concept to me. I had never heard of one, none the less been in one or observed how one of them would have worked. The idea was very interesting to me, open schools had no walls which could create for a very stimulating setting, or in which there were unrelenting interruptions creating problems with nose from classrooms all over the building. If a certain classroom was loud or even just a single student were too loud the noise could be heard through the whole building. But the students in the classrooms where we observed did tend to work very quietly and did not create as much of a problem with sound that i would have thought it would be. They actually handled themselves very well for young children. There were often loud noises coming from classrooms nearby and the students would not even flinch at the sound. The students were very well behaved and would just keep working and ignore the sounds that were coming from the other room. When I was younger there is no way that I could have done this. Even in my high school we had walls in every room, but if there was something loud coming from a different room everyone would get distracted and off the subject at hand, sometimes even the teachers.The school was also a STEM school, which means that they specialized in science, technology, engineering, and math. Which is also an interesting addition to the school because it puts students on a track at such an early age before they can decide for themselves what kind of career path that they would like to be on. In most cases tracking in schools is not a positive thing for students. It labels students and puts them on tracks that effects the ways that they are educated.

In the first classroom my group observed a class of third graders. In the classroom the desks were put into groups of four or five spread out all around the room, When we came in the students were preparing to start a reading lesson. They read sentences off of a packet and certain words in the sentences were italicized. After the students had read all of the sentences the teacher asked the class one at a time what each word meant.The students had to use context clues and the knowledge they had to try to understand the meaning of each word. If the students did not know the meaning of the word the teacher would guide them with the help of other students to find the correct meaning of the word. She used examples using the word in different ways to help explain to the students.This lesson seemed to be very effective. The only problem that i saw in this classroom was that the teacher seemed to miss an entire group of students during this activity. Their group of desks sat in the corner of the room and the teacher lost track of them because she was standing in front of them and they did not get any involvement in the activity.

In the second classroom, which was also a third grade class, the desks were rows but at the time the students were not sitting in any of the desks. There was only about eight students in he classroom with the teacher at the time and they were broken up into four groups. Each student had a partner and they were working around the classroom towards the edges with each other in an activity. They were playing a game against one another to match two half's of a sentence to make one complete sentence. The game was very engaging and kept the students attention very well. They seemed to love it, each of the students seemed eager to learn more and more. It was extremely nice to see so many students so excited to learn. The teacher went around working with each of the groups helping the students if they needed it checking to make sure they did not need any help. She was also very eager to teach they students. It was a great vibe in the room there was so much excitement to learn going back and forth form the teacher to student.

The third classroom that we observed  was a second grade class. When we walked in the teacher was reading a story to the class, but the story did not have any words. It was just a picture story which was very cool. The students looked at the pictures and put words to the story themselves. It was fun to watch students this young put their own words to a story and make it their own. The activity was very engaging the students were all paying attention and participating in class. Again the students were very eager to learn and participate in class.

The last classroom that we say that day was a fifth grade classroom. The desks in the room were arranged into groups of four or five. The activity that they were doing at the time was a game classifying species of animals. Each table had a set of cards and everybody was participating in the game. The students worked with one another to help each other learn if they did not know the correct way to classify the species. The activity was very engaging, it let the students help one another with the subject at hand. There was a lot of group work in all of the classrooms. This was very good because students are often too scared to ask the teacher a question and it is good to have peers around that can help them out.

BlogPost 2

Description:
A grown women with two teenage girls with her. All three were carrying bags from a store that they just walked out of.

They were all dressed in nice clothes, and had jewelry on.

A man with gray hair and a large smile on his face. He was walking in the other direction of the 3 girls.

Other people walk by, some carrying one bags, others carrying more than one.

Interpretations:
The older women was the mother of the two girls and they were sisters. The mom had just paid for all of the stuff that the two daughter and the mother had got from the store that they just walked out of.

They were probably wealthy because they could afford nice clothes and jewelry for all three of them.

The man probably just heard good news or something funny that made him smile. Or he really enjoys walking through the mail.

The people carrying multiple bags bought things from multiple stores. The people with one or no bags either put all of their things every store in one bag or put the clothes they just bought on before they walked out of the store so they did not have to carry a bag.

Parking Lot:
wealthy, fortunately raised, unaware, happy, optimistic, bored, nothing else to do

Reflection:
I learned that we cannot judge people with just simple observations of them. A quick look at someone cannot tell you what they are like, and will often lead to false observations about that person. I also learned that if you take a closer look at things you can see things that you never did before and it can help you get a new perspective on things.

BlogPost 1

www.aaronsblog.com

Personal Information

1. Aaron

2. Kirtland 

3. High school History

4. I like to play a lot of basketball, but i am not on the team i just enjoy playing pickup. I like to think that i am a fun guy that just tries to have fun. This semester I am trying to get good grades, not very noteworthy but its all that i have planned for this semester so far.

 Learning style

www.aaronsblog.com5. I must know my teacher and my classmates well.

6. I can be very oral in class but i can also be quite it depends on the day and my mood. I am almost always prepared for class. I am extremely honest i think it is one of my best qualities. The first thing i do when i do not understand something is ask a friend.

Past and present edu

7. a teacher gave the class a decision to decide on choosing the letter A or B if everyone in the class chose A everyone got a perfect score if one person picked B, the person who picked B would get a high score and everyone else who chose A would fail

8. A significant issue in the educaion field right now is the common core, i believe that it does not do a good job educating our students at the level they need to be at and should be reformed.

About Dr. Shutkin

9. What made you choose the technological based doctorate when you were a student?