Afterword: How We Wrote This Book-- And Why It Matters

The point of this book was to give new teachers the perspective of the students when it comes to learning and a school environment. The writers of the book asked new teachers what they were worried about when starting to teach and they then asked students to answer the questions.
The reason this book is good is because it gives us a chance to think about how students feel about school. I think it is good because we tend to either think as just teachers, or just students. However, to become good teachers we need to consider both parties.

Chapter 9: When Things Go Wrong

I completely agree that if a teacher does not come in confident, then the students are going to torture him/her. Students are supposed to respect a teacher and take orders from them. I think it is just natural when someone is new to test their strength.
We tested teachers in my middle school and high school, especially student teachers. Now that i think about it, we were horrible and it is going to be something I will feel in the future. However, if a teacher show confidence when they walk into the classroom then the teacher should not have any fears for the majority of their year. Students are going to misbehave at first but it should quiet down as the year goes on.

Chapter 8: Teaching Teenagers Who Are Still Learning English

One thing that I really did not like in this chapter was on page 151 when a student explained that a teacher assumed the student could not do the test because it was too difficult and would give her a B in the class as long as she showed up. That is not only fair to that student, but it is also not fair to the rest of the students.
This part actually made me ngry because I can not imagine a person who is supposed to teach, just assuming it is impossible and giving up. The point of being a teacher is to teach and not give up when a student is having a difficult time. The teacher in this instense did not even give the student a chance. I would probably cry too if a teacher just assumed I was not smart enough to do someting.

Chapter 7: Teaching Difficult Acacdemic Material

One thing I really liked about this chapter is that it said that teachers should challenge our students assumptions. I agree this so much because sometimes teenagers just assume that what their parents, peers, and others say is going to be true.
There are so many things that teenagers assume that we can make a "teachable moment". In the book, teachers had students define "ghetto" and then gave them the real definition. This will allow the students to be interested and relate the lesson back to the real world. I think it is a great idea to build lesson around assumptions students make.

Chapter 6: Motivation and Boredom

One thing that stuck out to me in this chapter was that it was very negative towards homework. I understand why students would not like homework but I think it is unrealistic to have a class without ever giving homework.
One of the reasons I noticed this part of the chapter was because my mentor teacher and I discussed the homework policy at Mt. Blue Middle. They are not allowed to grade homework, but my teacher was very against this. She thinks that it does not prepare students for the real world I agreed that a teacher is going to have to give homework sometimes.

Chapter 5:Teaching the Individual, Working with the Group

This chapter talked about know the different types of students that are in your classroom. There are a variety of them and there are deep reasons into why they act the way they do. One thing I can relate to in this chapter is trying to avoid being called on when I felt I did not know the answer.
In this chapter, students said they would look distracted or like they were taking notes when teachers were calling on people. They also said that they were so scared to get ridiculed from their peers and teachers because of the way they talked or if they go the answer wrong. In math and science classes I am one of those students. I feel that I will get the answer wrong so I will look distracted so I will not get called on. I even do this if I think I know the answer because I really do not want to look like a fool.

Chapter #4: Creating a Culture of Success

This chapter focused on giving students the chance to do well on assignments. I definitely believe that teachers should not assume that a student is not going to well on an assignment. If a teacher does this, then the teacher is just asking for the student to fail.
We should not punish students for not understanding something or for failing something. When a student fails something, it means that the student did not understand the topic or maybe there are factors at home stopping them from doing well in school. We can not just assume that a student was lazy and did not study. We also should allow make up work because we want to encourage learning instead of enforcing due dates strictly.

Chapter #3: Classroom Behavior

One thing that popped out to me in this chapter was on the first page when a girl Montoya says that she gets annoyed when students are disrupting the class because she wants to learn. This popped out to me because I was the same way in high school. I would get really annoyed when people would disrupt the class and I would also feel bad for the teachers because I felt people were being really rude to them.
It does ot shock me too much that a lot of students want to learn in the classroom because previous chapters already said that students want us to be excited and know the subjects we are teaching. We can also see the wanting to learn from students when they get frustrated with substitutes. Students want substitutes who know the content being covered in the classroom. They do not want a babysitter to watch over them. I remember teachers telling me in high school and middle school that substitutes were not baby sitters, but I always felt that they were because all they did was deal with behavioral problems.

Copyright and Fair Use LR

Question number four says that states mandate that their students be proficient in technology. However, how can this happen if the schools do not have money in their budgets for the tecnology and software needed to become proficient in that subject area? I strongly believe that schools should be given grants for software. Software is extremely expensive and schools have a variety of things they need to spend the money on other than technology. I do believe that technology should be a requirement for students to learn, but because it is so expensive it makes it very hard for schools to fill this requirement. If the states do not give money for this requirement, I think a teacher should be able to make multiple copies of the software. The copies would be used in the classroom and not for personal use. Allowing the students to use the copied software would allow them excel with tecnology.

Copyright and Fair Use SR

One question that had me disagree with the answer was question number three. The question was if a school has a slower running program in most computers and a faster and better version in a few of their computers that will not convert backwards, should the school update all of the computers. I think the school should convert all of their computers to the 4.0 version because it is a better running version and is more up to date. However, I can see where the problems can occur with this philosophy; the schools would constantly need to update their software which would be extremely expensive.

Another question that caught my eye was question number ten. This question asks whether a teacher who aquired material over the internet can share the lesson plan they cam e u with these materials share the lesson plan with other teachers. I disagree with this answer because other teachers cn still use these materials as long as they find it on their own. I think teachers should be able to share their ideas and their materials. I also would like to know whther a teacher can share the plan with a techer via a conversation and not the internet.

I really liked question number eleven just because I think editing yourself into a video is a great idea. It would be hilarious! This question definitely gave me an idea to use in my classroom.

Regarding question number twelve, if it is a educators constitutional right to be able to use media on videos and DVDs we shoudl be able to do that. I think a teacher should be able to videotape something and copy it to his computer if it is going to be used in the classroom.

I think the answer to number thirteen is extremely fair. I think the whole point of putting projects and assignments is to share your ideas with others. I also think that if a school uses a project found online created by another school, those students who created that project should be very happy because that is a compliment.

I do not like the answer to number fifteen because it makes our lives a lot more complicated when it comes to showing clips of videos. If we are to fallow this law, this means we would have to keeping changing tapes in and out of a VCR and that just seems like a pain to me.

I agree with the answer on number sixteen to an extent. I beleive that if the students are renting the movies then they should not be able to copy clips from te DVDs. However, I feel that if the students or I owned the DVDs that copying parts of the DVDs for classroom use, not personal, would be fine.

I do not necesarily agree with the answer to number nineteen but I did expect that answer. I knew that if very popular songs were being used in the yearbook, or ay project, the copyright laws would prohibit it.

The answer to question number twenty definitely make ssense to me the school would be selling a product where they did not create a good portion of it. I think that selling this product would be unfair to the people who had origanaly made the media used in the CD.

Web 2.0 Educator

I picked Wesley Fryer who seems very interested and enlightened on the use of technology in the classroom. In one of his blog entries he talked about the maintainers, obtainers and sustainers in the classroom. I like that he uses visuals in his blog entries because it allows them to be more interesting. Fryer also uses links in his blog entries to allow people to see various sites that are helpful with the topics he talks about. He is always talking about the different medias he uses and how they can be affective in the classroom. He also talks about trips he has taken and describes them with both text and pictures. He obviously knows a great deal about technology.

My MEL Experiences

Teacher/Student Relationship: My first-year teacher always cared about her students goals and remembered them even after she had left our school. She had come up to me my junior year when she was visiting my school and asked me about my college lists and how I was doing. She had remembered me and it had made me feel really special.

Hands-On: In my high school we had senior projects that took most of our second semester in our senior. Students could pick their own project as long as it fit certain guide lines. I felt this was great because it was very hands on and everyone was able to experience whatever they picked.

Learning Styles: Some teachers in both my middle school and high school tested what kind of learners their students were. This was a great idea because they would base their lessons on the different times of learners in the classroom. We also had a variety of activities in the classroom because our teachers did this.

Interests: It would be good if teachers asked what their students were interested in so they could use those facts to have the students more excited for class. If the students know they are interested in the topic they are more likely to become involved in  the classroom.

Connections: If a teacher connects their subject to the real world students are much more likely to become involved because they will feel it is important. A lot of what students are taught they feel is pointless, so if we take away that thought they are much more likely to pay attention. 

Type I and Type II Technology

Type I: The use of technology in the classroom that does not change the class very much. 

1. Writing out rough drafts of papers by hand and typing the final draft.

2. Using CD or MP3 player in class to listen to a song only only once.

3. Not allowing students to work with different computer programs.

Type II: The use of technology in the classroom that helps expand the class and allows students to learn in different ways. 

1. Allowing students to use blogs and update their drafts on a regular basis so the teachers can edit the drafts whenever needed.

2. If a teacher burns a CD with a song/s needed for the class on it, the students can listen to the song/s as much as they need to.

3. Students should be allowed to use different computer programs so they can be creative and choose one they like. 

Learning Styles Inventory Results

I felt that the results were very accurate because I love to learn in a variety of different ways and most of the style scores are about the same. My top two styles were Social and Visual, which is very accurate because I love to learn visually and if I can work in a good group I am very happy. My lowest score is Logical; this makes sense because I am very bad at Science and Math, which are very logical studies. 

This learning styles survey can be found at learning-style-online.com

Fires In the Bathroom Chapter Two

I felt the rules for respect found on page 19 are extremely important in the classroom.

It is impossible to get respect from your students without following all of these rules. Respect is so important in the classroom because without it the students may dismiss everything you have to say. If a teacher comes into class late, even once, it is almost giving permission for her students to come in late. Without respect there is no way a class can stay on task and complete what they are supposed to do.

Fires In the Bathroom Chapter One

One of the ideas I completely agreed with in chapter one was on page 7; the idea was to allow students to keep a journal. Another idea I really agreed with was to use a questionaire to get to know you students. I have had teachers in the past use questionaires; the questionaires made me feel special because I felt like the teacher wanted to get to know me outside of my school work.

I think this a great idea because in my first- year English class in high school we were allowed to do that. I felt the journals allowed my teacher to get to know all of her students. My teacher would also give us topics to write about that would reflect upon reading or current events. I felt that the journals not only let us think and express our feelings about ourselves, but also the world around us.