Which theories and historical influences should most impact the schools we'd like to have?

IN CLASS:

We were put into groups randomly and were asked to create a school of our choice. We had to create the school, decide who was in charge, the line of "power", if the school affects the community or if the community affects the school. In my school we were a very community oriented school. We had the children doing a lot of things for the community during the school year.

OUT OF CLASS:

I went to many school board meetings during my junior and senior year in high school. I went fighting for my swim team because we were becoming a new team and needed money put into the budget. I enjoyed them so much I started going to meetings on a semi-regular basis. Now I am on the UMF student senate doing the same thing for UMF students that the school board does for their students.


Question/Concern/Topic:

What are some other types of school government besides the typical school board and student council?

How Can I Use The Knowledge of the Learner to Become a Better Teacher?

IN CLASS:

We haven't really done anything in class to help us learn how to do this I feel.


OUT OF CLASS:

Some teachers I have noticed do an overall test at the beginning of the class so that they can find out where in average the entire class is on the certain topic they teach.



Question/Concern/Topic:


What are some other things that teachers can do on the first or second day of classes that will help find out what the students already know?

How Can I Be Successful at UMF?

IN CLASS:

In class we created a four year plan and things that NEED to be taken and done before we can receive our diploma. We also needed to find out who our advisor and peer advisor are. This gave us the tools to really succeed here at UMF.


OUT OF CLASS:

Having a really rough semester last semester I have found out about all sorts of resources here on campus. For example, the writing center, CHD, and Student Life.


Question/Concern/Topic:


Is the blog idea really going to go all the way through senior year? Or is it going to stop at EDU 101?

How Do I Become a Teacher?

IN CLASS:

I feel so far in the class I have learned how to become a teacher through when we talk about the different seat arrangements. When we do this we discuss what people benefit from the arrangement and which students do not. Then we try and figure out how with the current arrangement we can benefit the most students in the classroom.

Also, I feel making the cover for out notebook really helped me look at what I want in myself in a teacher. It put everything that helped me through my education.


OUT OF CLASS:

I was a teacher's assistant in an eighth grade English classroom my senior year in high school. I got to help teach the class and learn how to use the teacher's best friend, the photocopier. I really got to learn how to help the students that were mainstream and the ones that were placed in the classroom from Special Education.

I was a Sunday School teacher at my church from seventh to twelfth grade. I learned how to teach very young children through arts and crafts, song, and simple stories. It was a very interesting because I had to bring what I was saying down to their level of intelligence.


Question/Concern/Topic:

I would like to discuss what we as students need to do to start our portfolio.

Symposium Day

Wednesday, April 11, 2007 was UMF's Symposium Day. On this day many undergraduate students show their research to the community. Classes were cancelled so that every student had the opportunity to attend the presentations that they wanted. There were all sorts of topics being discussed, from geology to fine arts to tours of the new Education Center on campus.

I personally attended the presentation at one o'clock in Ricker Addition. It was to show the rest of campus exactly what the Early Childhood program here at UMF do during class. I went with my friend Arielle because she is taking one of the classes and wanted me to see what it was like. She also got five points extra credit for a guest that she brought because unfortuantely the program did not make it into the booklet. We used a lot of diffearnt materials to make differant art projects. We used foam finger paint, regular finger paint, bubble paint, stampers, and marbles. It was a lot of fun. I loved how it was very hands on and I got to get messy. The people overseeing were very friendly and willing to answer all my questions. Arielle was great too because she explained a lot about the Early Childhood program and how it works.

New School Review

I must be honest and say that I was rather disappointed that certain people targeted my groups community school when our school was the most like public school today.

Yes....we picked the unicorns as our mascot but some people were rather rude to our group.

I didn't appreciate how it was only our group that had any comments made about it and none of the other groups. My personal opinion is that our school is the school that is most likely school to succeed in the world today. I haven't seen the non-democratic school yet but from what I overheard from their discussion I don't think it will work.

This little fact just really bothered me and I was hurt that people wouldn't let it go that we were the unicorns. Oh man I could keep going but I am going to stop. I wish people would be a little more considerate and respectful.

Poverty Articles 1-4

*photo: Ruby K. Payne Ph.D. author of the poverty articles*


Article One:

“When individuals who made it out of poverty are interviewed, virtually all of them cite an individual who made a significant difference for them.” This is an inspiring and important quote because it shows that teachers can actually make a difference in an individual’s life and that is the most important part to teaching.


This quote really spoke out to me because my family wasn’t in what people would call “poverty” but we were really tight for money for quite some time. My dad went to school to be an accountant and worked for Hilton Hotels for many about seven years. However, he got tired of the three piece business man routine so he and my mom moved to Maine and decided to have me. My dad stayed home and my mom worked. However, she was a teacher. So my family (including my brother who was born two years later) lived on a single teachers salary for almost fifteen years. Then my dad became an educational technician at my high school in the Student Technology Center.




Article Two:

“But these structures can be built. Someone built them in the minds of students who come to school ready to learn.” Some students who do not have the will to learn sometimes just need a stimulus to learn, they need something interesting to tie in the material they are learning.



I agree very strongly with the point that a student who does not want to can be taught to learn and enjoy life. They are not just a “dead weight” in the class. Teachers may have to try just a little harder but if you as the teacher can inspire a student to want to learn, you have completed your job and succeeded.




Article Three:

“Educators tend to speak to students in a parent voice, particularly in discipline situations. To the student who is already functioning as a parent, this is unbearable….”. Students who are already their own parents need someone to look up to, they need a role model, a mentor. Someone to show them how and what they are supposed to do.


I know personally as a student I do not like it when a teacher takes on a parent role in discipling me or other students around me. I already have two parents and that is quite enough.




Article Four:


“Having students write multiple choice questions.” Writing test questions for a section on a test helps students by having them write the right answer along with many wrong answers that are similar to the right answer.



Personally I do a lot better when I am asked to make questions for a test because I am forced to know the material and know what are right answers to other questions that might be similar to the question I am working on. It challenges me to think like a teacher and provide a challenge not only to myself but my peers.

Middle School Issue

In today's world there are three major schools that you enter through out your K-12 career; elementary school, middle school, and highschool. In the middle school stage the children are from the ages of 11-14 and going through puberty. It is a very tough time for the kids both physically and emotionally. “One middle school student is like three high school students in terms of their behavioral needs and the issues you’re confronted with,” said Fred Walsh, principal of the School for International Studies in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Many education system employees feel that the transition between elementary and middle school can be too traumatic. The students need consistancey and not a big transition to throw off their groove.

The other transition from middle school to the highschool has got education system employees worried as well. This is because today highschool educators only have four years to really prepare their students for college and most feel that this is not enough time.

As a solution to these two problems two new types of schools have been going up all over the nation. The first one being a K-8 school where the students keep that consistancey and keep the support system for them that has been there for them since they were very young. The second type of school is the 6-12 school giving the educators more time the prepare the students for college. The educators who like the K-8 system don't like the 6-12 system because they feel that the younger students will be more traumatized by being surrounded by the older children of highschool. On the other side of the fence the educators who like the 6-12 schools don't like the the K-8 schools because they feel they are still being babied. They feel the students need the older students as role models and they feel that the younger students would be more comfortable talking to the older students for support and help.

Sometime in the near future if is known we will see a definate removal of the middle school stage and a dominant set of either of the new schools. I personally am in favor of the 6-12 schools because my main group of friends was always older than me by quite a bit. I also did not feel as prepared for college as I could have been when I left the high school.

The article did a great job of showing both sides of the spectrum and doing it in a nonbiased way.