Engagement

I was most interested in entry #48, which deals with journal writing. I have always been a little on the fence about journal writing. On one hand, the students get practice writing for fun, about anything they want, and they're usually not graded for punctuation or grammar, but on the other hand, I think students will use the opportunity to try and impress the teacher with their worst experiences or all the problems they have in life. Isn't journal writing just begging for information about illegal, unethical or unhealthy decisions that our students are making? Don't get me wrong, I want to know about my students, but I don't want to have to be their teacher AND their parent AND their counselor. It's not that I don't want to help them, but I don't feel qualified to diagnose their problems, and I don't want to have to break their trust. I will though. I will assign journals because my kids will have problems, and if I don't hear about them, if I don't champion for their future healthy life, maybe no one will.

1950-1980

This section of the "School" video was quite interesting. Even though I was already aware of a lot of the larger parts in history, like desegregation, I didn't know the smaller things, like the 30,000 black teachers who were displaced. Over 60 years of legalized segregation, that's unbelievable. Like someone mentioned in class on Tuesday, 60 years isn't really so long, but when you're in the history, when it's 60 years that you have to wait, that's when it feels like forever. I'd like to think that segregation will never happen again in my lifetime, that people would never be so cruel, but I cant be sure. It's obviously that Maine still has a long way to go.

1900-1950

Sometimes I forget that the history we learn in school isn't actually that long ago. A hundred years seems like a long time to us, a bunch of twenty-somethings, but for our grandparents and great-grandparents it's pretty near the time when they were born or small children. I found myself being really impressed by the Work-Study-Play program, also known as the Gary Plan I believe. I have a hard time swallowing our current situations in school because it seems everyone has forgotten exactly who we have in the classroom–kids. Kids need to play, not sit down for eight hours a day until they turn 18. It was interesting to see when standardized testing came along. I think it's a necessary evil. You can't expect to know how well students are learning and what they're learning and how they compare to students in other states if you don't test them. Results like the ones we receive from SAT's and other tests are important. I bet if we lowered our standards or raised our scores, we (teachers and probably students) would be complaining about them less. There certainly is too much emphasis placed on doing well on these tests, but I still think there is value in having them. Questions arise about who decides what we teach our students. Lately, we teach according to what the students will be tested on. I wonder what would happen if we didn't do that.

Mixing and Managing Four Generations of Employees by Greg Hammill

Abstract
Hammill dissects the differences between the four major generations that current make up our workforce. Each generation acts in different ways from one another in similar situations. Hammill argues that many workforce problems could be avoided if employers took the time to figure out if the problems are generation related. For instance, Generation Y employees, born between 1980-2001, tend to communicate through technology instead of directly face-to-face or even on the phone. This can become an issue when someone from the Veteran generation, 1922-1945, is trying to get a hold of them for something work related. This day and age is unique in the way that there has never before been four generations of employees working side-by-side.

Reflection
I never realized that each generation could be grouped according to workforce traits, that's pretty neat. I'm not sure if I buy into the idea that our generational gaps are the reasons for so many issues at work. I think that good communication is good communication. Either you have it or you don't. Coming from a person born in Generation Y, I realize that I do prefer to use technology to communicate, but even email has it's own language for deciphering what people are really feeling. The traits were interesting nonetheless.

Challenges Reflection

My favorite section was number 21, the first one. There were a couple things that struck me. First, it was a good idea to bring the kids outside and I'm glad that the teacher thought of it. It must be really hard to have a classroom that traps in all the smells. Second, I don't think I've ever heard of a school having codes but then again, I guess this wasn't a normal school. I was disappointed that the student knew code blue but the teacher forgot. Although, that could be taken as a good sign, like maybe they didn't get codes called very often. The most important thing I took for the story was how, at the end, the student didn't say he was going to stop hurting himself. I think many teenagers are involved in high-risk behavior, and it must be extremely difficult to help them because none of them really want to help themselves. What do you do?

Anticipation Reflection

I connected best with #17. The section starts with a student asking "If you do it standing up, can the girl still get pregnant?" Moments like these are either what every new teacher hopes will happen, or hopes will never ever happen. On one hand, you have a chance to make a real difference in this kid's life. Because of how you answer this one question, they might finish high school, they might wait to have sex, they might have a conversation with their parents or significant other about having safe sex. If you don't answer the question or ignore it, you let a perfectly good moment to teach slip right through your fingers...but...you might not get any parent complaints, you might just have a talk with the Health teacher, or you might have some pregnant students and soon-to-be fathers.

Diversity, Learning Style and Culture by Pat Burke Guild

Read: Diversity Article, write abstract/reflection (2 paragraghs, 6 to 8 sentences in each paragraph, single space) and bring a digital copy to class.

Abstract
This article discusses the varies ways students learn and the varies ways teachers teach. Guild suggests that teachers must be most concerned with students' individual cultural background and specific and/or multiple learning styles, insisting that just knowing your students' learning style is not enough. Four styles are discussed in depth–cognition, conceptualization, affect and behavior. Public school systems seemed to have mainstreamed all learning types into a program that puts most students at a disadvantage. Students with non-Caucasian heritages are the most at risk in a mainstreamed instructional plan. The idea of nature vs. nurture is briefly talked about.

Reflection
After reading this article, and the chapter on Diversity from our textbook, I'm almost convinced that culture has such a large impact on education. I think that this article did a really crappy job of defining what a student's culture really is. Guild was mainly focused on race and ethnicity, which is only a small part of one's culture. I would love to get to know my students in a more meaningful way; I'm tired of the run-of-the-mill "getting to know you" index card. I think the best (and easiest) way to incorporate this in the classroom would be student-led lessons. They know their culture more than I do, they should be the teacher. In theory it sounds wonderful, but the reality is a bit more unrealistic.