End of the Semester Reflection

This class has been an incredible learning experience for me. Although I still have no clue as to whether or not I'm actually going to teach at a middle school or not, I have learned so much and developed more as a person. This class allowed me to put everything I've learned so far into place and then apply new learnings along the way. It has been a crazy ride.
I have learned that it is important to stand up for what you believe in. Math is important to integrate into interdisciplinary units, and just because you don't have the skills or you aren't as confident with your abilities does not mean that you should not attempt to work math into your classroom. But, on the flip side of that, it is also important to include art, music, technology, as well as PE. My experience at Dirigo Middle School was incredible. It was amazing to see this team of sixth graders, as well as the art, technology, music, and PE teachers working together to bring a unit alive in all subject areas. Spending time with these teachers was very powerful for me. I had to step back and realize that I need to think about how to integrate these other content areas into my lessons as well. Sometimes math gets forgotten, but so does music, art, and PE as well. I think that creating an integrated unit is incredible. The process is a lot of work, but learning to work together with your peers/colleagues in a way that benefits the students is important. It fosters a healthy environment where students can learn to work together with their peers as well.
I have also continued to learn more information about technology. When I created my student sample, I took a risk and decided to create a podcast. This was new to me. I thought that I would try something new so that I could use this tool in my classroom. It was quite the interesting experience. I had fun in the process, and I learned a lot about what my student's would be going through their first time as well. I am still a firm believer in the use of technology in the classroom. I think there are so many ways in which you can use a type II technology, and this is important as we hope to meet the needs of the tech savvy kids we are going to be teaching. I have also learned a lot about various new programs I can make use of as well. There was the online time line generator, Publisher, the podcaster program, smartdraw, inspiration, freemind, cutePDF... etc. I have also increased my knowledge on how to build a strong wiki as well. I think I am leaving this class with more technology resources, and I am very excited.
Adolescents are a touch group of individuals. They have so many needs. They are constantly developing and changing during this time period, and it is extremely important to have a good background of development during this time. You have to understand where they are coming from to be able to teach them. You have to understand their needs and desires and their strenghts and weaknesses and what great things they are capable on in order to inspire them to reach out and achieve success and then some. This is extremely important.
I suppose one of my questions that I have a hard time with is still whether or not I want to teach at a middle school. This is going to plague me for a long time, because my heart is torn. I know that I absolutely love the middle school environment. I did my practicum there, I got along well with the students, I fit in because I am just as crazy as they are, and I had an awesome experience. I also know that if I did teach at a middle school I could work on early intervention with students. I would have the ability to influence their lives early on so that they might make good choices later in their lives. This is important. A huge aspect of why I chose to become a teacher has to do with being able to help students make good and healthy choices in their lives. I know that I could infect change early on. But, at the same time, it is so much more intense being in the middle of real problems in the lives of high school students. I have been volunteering at the high school for this school year, and it has been an incredible experience. The students there are making bad choices, and you can see the pain in their lives on a daily basis when they walk through that door. Sometimes it's a front. It's easier to shut people out than to let them in. But this is exactly why I want to be a teacher. I want to be a part of their lives. I want to be that person that they let in and who they allow to influence their lives in a positive manner. I want to change student's lives for the better. I also think that sometimes it is harder to influence the life of a high school student, and I think a lot of people give up trying. They need good role models and a good support system, and their problems are often slapping you in the face. It's real and it's painful. I just don't know whether or not I want to be on the pre-intervention end, or the post-intervention end. I do know that I live for all of it though.
This semester, and school year, have been important on my overall development as an individual as well. While it is important to have structure and organization, I have also learned to let go of some of that. Sometimes learning isn't structured and organized. Sometimes it is more hands on, moving around and experiencing the lesson rather than being told about the lesson. I have become more of an advocate of the moving around and the hands on bodily/kinesthetic learning this year. I believe it is an extremely powerful tool to use and incorporate, and it gets students motivated and engaged. I have also become a firm believer in thought and expression. I believe that education should not be laid out in a specific format, and that students should not be told how to think and what to think. I have benefited from having the experience where I am given a project and then told to develop it on my own. It is then that true learning happens. It happens at awkward moments, when you least expect it, and it is about topics that you think you would never be interested in. This is important to me. As I stated, this is when the true learning takes place. I think this is important for middle school students. We need to develop people who can be more independent thinkers and learners. It is important to have structure with some creative licensing to go where it takes them. I know this is hard to do with math, but I have been inspired by a couple of great professors at this University. (And, mind you, not professors in the math department.) But I hope that I can bring this into my classroom and encourage my math students to do the same. I think that would be another one of my questions. How can I effectively teach the math concepts so students will meet the standards, but still find a way in which I can teach them to think on their own, in a different way? How can I encourage deep thought?
I am excited for what is to come. I am more knowledgeable about this age group. I have many resources that I can take with me forever to come. I have gained some much insight and information that I feel as though I am ready to take on the world. (Well, I mean, I always was ready for that anyways.)

Becoming a Wiz at Brain-Based Teaching

It's now almost been a week since you guys presented your book and my brain still hurts from all the information you packed in. I don't really see this as a negative thing. Your group went through the whole book in detail. I really enjoyed all the links you incorporated. They really added to the presentation. The whole idea about brain based teaching is intriguing and I definitely took away a ton of information about the subject.
The wiki your group designed was packed full of great information about the book, which was great. It just seemed a little boring listening to each of you talk one right after the other. The activities that were incorporated were great, but I wish you had done a few more. If you had gone through a section of the wiki, then done an activity, then more from the wiki it would have broken up the lecturing part of the presentation.
I did notice that someone from the group was moving around the room at all times. I thought this was good, even though it had nothing to do with your book. It kept us all on task so I thought I'd note it. Overall, you guys did a good job and I took a lot of information about brain-based learning that I can use in my future classroom!

Becoming a Wiz at Brain-Based Teaching

Wow. So, I think I'm going to start with all of the positive things about your lesson first. I LOVE your wiki. It is a great resource and has a lot of valuable information on it. I think you did an excellent job at finding resources to support the learning that you guys found in the book. Awesome job. I can't tell you how much of a great tool this will be for me in the future. I also love that you broke up the book evenly and everybody had a chance to share their part. I loved the fact that Eileen was walking around during this lesson, because it reminded me of actually teaching a class full of students, and it was a great demonstration of something you can do in your classroom. I'm not even sure she did in on purpose. I loved the activities and the quiz. The quiz was an excellent way to get me emotionally involved in your lesson. I thought it was great that you started out with that.

Now, for my suggestions. Your lesson contained A LOT of information about Brain-Based Teaching, but I wish you had presented it in a different way. You TOLD us about how the brain needs hands on, kinesthetic learning. You TOLD us how 12th graders can only pay attention for a maximum of 17 minutes. You TOLD us about a lot of things that were important to this book. That was the problem. I feel as though it would have been more beneficial if you had taught us the information the way in which the book says is the best way for students to learn based on brain-based teaching. How much more powerful would it have been if you would have done that. I honestly can tell you that I am glad that you made the wiki because now I have that as a resource to go back and figure out all of the information that I missed. It was a lot to digest in a little amount of time done through a lot of talking. That is just something to think about.

Becoming a Wiz at Brain Based Teaching

I enjoyed the activities this group presented, such as the right and left brain quiz and the folder activity. I also liked some of the sites that were on the wiki (by the way, nice job creating a wiki). I saved the links so that I can continue to go back and read the sites; my favorites were "Top 10 Tips for Classroom Discipline and Management," the "Wicked Witch" site, and "Classroom Environment: the basics." Marilee Sprenger's steps to turn sensory memory into long term memory and the focus time and processing information was very interesting - I may have to print this out!

I appreciate the suggestion of journaling. Many teachers stop this in elementary school, but I feel it can be helpful to any teacher and student at any grade level, as long as it is done correctly. I want to make note that I agree, rituals are so important! Not many people like it when they are expecting one thing and they get something else - I think as educators we need to keep this in mind because it really does have an effect on our students.

I would have liked to see more movement, the presentation was quite long and at times hard to sit through. When talking about exercise and movement in the classroom, it would have been nice to get up and try out some stretching techniques. Also, I feel the presentation was long because it seemed more of a lecture presentation and not an active presentation. The best way to teach someone something is to model and I know I would have taken more away from the presentation if I had been involved or had seen how to use this book in my classroom.

This is a hard habit to break, and I find myself doing it a lot too - but please keep the "you need to do this" or "it's better if you...." to a minimum -- all I seemed to hear was "you." At times I felt like I was being attacked (goes with the lecturing aspect), and I felt like I needed to defend the way I do things.

A WHOLE New Mind

A Whole New Mind seemed to emphasize a whole new way of thinking, and more importantly learning. I thought the presentation was great: the PowerPoint, equitable distribution of speaking time, music (rhythmic learning; score), and hands-on activities made me think deeply and thoroughly about the concepts being introduced. I liked his/yours/whomevers description of the "conceptual" age, and how we as humans need to "put the pieces of the puzzle together." It reminded me of all the teachers that stress creativity and provided authentic and varying learning experiences. It also made me reflect on today's technological society and how the job market demands a higher skilled, and thus higher thinking worker (something that was reinforced from practicum, where we learned that a large percentage of the world's future jobs have not yet been created). I especially liked how the activities and how the centered around creative thinking. They got me thinking meta-cognitively (that is, thinking about my thinking processes) about my personal teaching strategies and pedagogical philosophies. Seriously, I really want to read the book, and I think you did a tremendous job of informing me of the new theories and selling the book.

A Whole New Mind

I absolutely thought your lesson was amazing. It was nice that you provided some information about what it was you wanted us to learn and then you allowed us to participate in an activity to reinforce the information. Great way to engage us in active learning, which increases the amount of information that we are actually retaining. I like your explanation about the negative space, although I didn't really understand what the point of it was until Sara W. explained it to me. This is funny, because it just reinforces the fact that that most of the time I don't think outside of the box, which I feel a lot of people don't these days. But, the fact is that the world we are in is changing and that we really do need to do more thinking outside of the box. So that fact that I didn't get it was a good reinforcer for me to actually try a little harder in that aspect of my life. I love your presentation because it discusses the important idea that again the world is changing and we need to be able to teach our students how to adapt to this new world, and we have to do so through the ideas you discussed in your lesson. Also, it was a good lesson for me because it made me wonder about how I can make things have more meaning in my life. That is a good thing because a little bit of self reflection goes a long way in the learning process. Nice job guys. (Now that I've pretty much shared my life story with you in this blog.)

SOC!!! (No, it doesn't stand for Sociology)

I thought your group, and your book, brought up a key point: traditional forms of education are not effective for every student, and are becoming less effective as we move from the technological to the conceptual age. I thought you highlighted some solid key points. Among my favorite were:
-Students who struggled with SOC curriculum were the "A" students in traditional settings; they seemed to struggle because they were successful in the old style and thus were more comfortable learning that way and wanted more 'structure'
-Trust and team building are integral in creating student oriented curriculum (the activities we participated in during the presentation were good examples of strategies to build such teamwork and trust)
-The importance of reflective journals for both students and teachers, so they can see exactly what works, what doesn't, and what some trouble areas are in SOC units
I also thought that the presentation was concise and fluid. The Wiki was easy to follow, the team building activities were fun and brief enough to keep our attention, and the PowerPoint had a a lot of good pictures and short text (thus allowing for more speaking from the presenter and was more engaging to watch). The Wiki was packed with information, maybe a bit too much. If this was lessened I think that it would help reinforce BIG ideas and impressionable examples.