The one thing I especially found interesting from this week's reading was the importance of understanding yourself in the context of how you teach, etc. "Self-reflection" is all we hear about, but it really is an important part of bettering yourself as a teacher. In my student-teaching and my internship, self reflection has been very important. It helps me to understand how who I am as a person affects how I teach. Sometimes it could be my personality, or culture, or temperament. Understanding how these factors impact you while you teach is important. They can affect how you relate to kids, understand them, or interpret them. It's important to understand your own identity, and the influence it can have in the classroom.

This made me think of a professor I had at UConn. His opinions, ideas, and even his personality were very evident in how he taught the class. It was a geography class, but at least once every class, he would share his political thoughts, and opinions on many issues. Furthermore, he was very oppositional to other viewpoints, so several times throughout the class, there were debates between him and the students brave enough to oppose him.

His personality and opinions really impacted how he taught, and how I percieved him as a teacher. I personally didn't care for his teaching style. This is why I think it is so important to consider how we let our own identites imapct our teaching.

Dwight Elementary School Experience

I REALLY enjoyed the experience I had at Dwight Elementary School. I did my student teaching in Windham, and being at Dwight Elementary reminded me how much I love urban schools. The kids I worked with were really great--both students were very cooperative and enthusiastic. Even though my experiement was very simple, the students like it.

Both students made different predictions about the experiment, so one student was able to validate his prediction and the other had to explain why his prediction was incorrect. I think both students enjoyed doing the experiment, so I was very happy with how everything went. One problem I didn't forsee, however, was that the floor in the hallway was really uneven, so it was hard to roll the ball accurately.

Another thing I found interesting was that both students loved my computer! Both of them wanted to touch it and type something on it. I let them type something on it, and they both enjoyed that as well.

Dwight seems like a really great school with wonderful students. I'm glad we had the opportunity to visit and work with some students there!

Response to Culture and Education

This is the second Sonia Nieto article I've read, and in both instances, I have found her ideas to be original and though-provoking. As teachers, understanding our students' culture and the implications it will have in the classroom is extremely important. I don't think we can teach our students in the best ways unless we understand where they are coming from. For example, a teacher in Japan teaches much differently than a teacher in the United States. Culture has a huge impact in the classroom.

One idea that I liked is how she states that culture is a "human creation" and not a given. I think this is very true, and could have importance in the classroom. Since we create culture, why not create a positive, safe, nurting culture in our own classrooms? With such a culture established in our classrooms, kids of all cultures can feel safe to learn. Of course there will still be some differences, but the culture in the classroom is something they can all share, belong to, and relate to. This can encourage bonding among students, and between student and teacher.

Another interesting idea was the hypothetical situation she propsed about what it would be like if "Black English" became the new standard, replacing "Standard English". When she discussed what the implications in education would be, it really opened my eyes. She mentions how African-Americans entering school would have an advantage. However, I wonder how many of us has considered what it must be like for a young middle-class black student entering a predominantly white school. Again, I think this really highlights the importance of understanding and accepting students' different cultures and backgrounds.

Considering the increasing diversity and multiculturalism in today's classrooms, its important to understand and value student's backgrounds. Celebrating our differences can help us to become less afraid of what is not the same as us. I found this article to be very interesting, and I think many of the ideas in it can help us become better teachers.

Response to "Yes We Can"

I found this article to be a great read after last week's reading "Unemployment Training". What I liked most about this article is that it supported the idea that teachers and parents can make a difference in the education system.

Most of the control over education in our country lies with the government. While it is idealistic to say that education is important and should matter to everyone, this is not always the case. Even voters who don't have children in school systems may not be concerned with the educational needs our country faces.

Parents and teachers, however, should use their power to enact change. For example, the parents who used test scores as a means to change the testing. The education a child is receiving should be a concern for the teacher and parent as well.

I like how the article pointed out that we can do something about the problems in school systems. It does not have to remain how it is, but it takes motivation and hardwork to change our school systems.

An idea in Monday's class discussion really got me thinking: if a student can't have a hands-on experience with something, maybe that isn't something you teach them in science. I found this idea to be very surprising, and challenging everything I thought I knew about science, and teaching science. For example, we discussed the idea of teaching students about the solar system, but since students can't directly experience different planets, perhaps it is something that should not be taught in science. If students simply read about the planets, that is more of a language arts activity, rather than a science one.

This discussion has caused me to reflect on an experience I had student teaching. I was responsible for teaching my 4th graders about different habitats as part of their science education. But now that I reflect back on what we did, I am wondering if I truly was teaching them science. Since my students had no direct contact or hands-on experience with jungles, grasslands, forests, and deserts, did I teach them science? They studied pictures of different habitats, learned about the anmials and plants that lived in them, and then created models of a habitat. Yes, they applied their knowledge of habitats to constuct their own models, but the way in which they acquired the knowledge was not through a hands-on experience.

This idea is definitely different for me. I had never really thought of science in this light before, but I will say that I agree with it. Science is much more valuable for studets, I think, if they can experience it in some authentic way for themselves. Otherwise, considering my habitats unit as an example, students are simply acquiring knowledge in a more "traditional" form.