Chalk

Last Monday's class we just finished watching the movie "Chalk". I really enjoyed watching this movie because it showed different things that teachers can do wrong. First there was the first-year History teacher who lacked discipline, people skills, and any charisma. He had major issues connecting with the students and dealing with any unplanned situations. My favorite scene from him was when he freaked out on one of his students for having a cell phone out in class. I think that first of all this teacher was in the wrong profession, and secondly he needed training on how to keep appropriate discipline in the classroom. Then there was the P.E. teacher who was extremely pushy and demanding about unimportant things. Although she seemed to connect to the students well, she bothered the faculty often times about less important issues such as students being tardy to class. I think that this teacher would benefit from relaxing and making an effort to be civil with the faculty. The new vice principal in the movie seemed the most on track, but still had issues with her family and handeling certain teacher situations. I would suggest that she put her family first in her life instead of her job, because it seemed like her relationship was on the line. Lastly there was the casually-dressed teacher who was very self-indulgent and wanted to be the students' friend. One of the worst things I think he did was pulling two students out of class and telling them to stop using big words in class because it made him look dumb. I have personally had a teacher like this and nothing is more frustrating than an insecure teacher trying to look good. I found his attempt at winning the "Teacher of the Year" award humorous, but very unprofessional. I think this teacher needs to be put in place by his boss and told to dress professionally and act appropriately. Overall I found this movie to be very entertaining and at the same time educational for our Educational Psychology class because we were able to see some bad teaching techniques and create suggestions for better teaching.

Interview of Parents

The final group of people we interviewed as a class were some parents of students. The first question asked dealt with how parents knew when to get involved with teachers. Steve said that part of education is the kids learning how to deal with situations on their own. He said that the only time he's been involved as a parent was when bad grades were involved. I think that as a teacher I would want my students' parents to be aware and updated in their education, but not overly protective to the point where the kids can't handle any teacher conflict themselves. Rebecca stated that creative, dynamic, informed, and active teachers help out a lot in motivating the kids. Mary Kay stated that she really appriciates teachers who would really try to help kids learn and suceed no matter what. As usual the No Child Left Behind Act was mentioned, but this time I found the responses to be more negative. Rebecca spoke first of how frustrating student teacher conferences have become since teachers have begun using graphs and data to explain how their children are doing. She said that assessment is good for schools, but if it was more individually focused it would be of more value. Steve went on so much as to say that the conferences are useless and he does not attend them any longer. He agrees that the data is just too much and confusing and it's just not working. Mary Kay thinks that the NCLB Act has good intentions, but it's just not working. I think that this is a problem that I never even realized before we interviewed these parents. Since we can not change the act, we need to educate the parents about what the data and graphs mean and make sure that during conferences the teacher still discusses the individual student, not just statistics. Many other topics were discussed during the interview, but the part that stuck with me towards the end was that although teacher salaries aren't ideal, the retirement is excellent for teachers. Overall I found that hearing the parents perspective on some of these issues helped me realize some other sides to the issues we have been discussing in these class interviews.

Decorah Teacher Class Inteview

This Monday evening our Educational Psychology class interviewed three teachers from Decorah from different fields. One was the high school voice teacher, the other was a 5th grade Math teacher, and the last was a special education teacher. As usual, different questions were asked concerning their teaching experiences. The first question was "what surprised you about teaching?" Some points made by all three of them were that it takes a lot of energy, it requires patience and willingness to change, and at times your great "ideas" can get squashed. I imagined that that would be true for a beginning teacher that they would have so much energy and a bunch of ideas that sometimes may be turned down. Working with colleagues was also mentioned and they all agreed that it is important for teachers to have good relationships with them not only to have a social life at school, but because if you don't like a particular faculty member, the kids pick up on it. I definitely agree, because I know that I had some teachers that didn't get along with other faculty members and let the class know, and I find that being very unprofessional, not to mention something that could get a teacher into trouble. As with the other class interviews the No Child Left Behind Act was brought up. Many similar things were mentioned, but I found it interesting that Jason (the choir teacher) had to incorporate sight-singing into his curriculum to help kids on standardized tests. I think it's nice to know that as a choir teacher I will be able to help in some part of helping students achieve high standardized test scores. Some other points that they made that stuck with me was that it is very important to be willing to contact or communicate with parents. Also Jason mentioned a saying that Weston Noble had said, "You have to be a life long learner." I agree that teachers need to keep updated and not be afraid to change or be wrong in some situations. Nothing is worse than a teacher who isn't updated, hasn't ever changed his/her curriculum, and will never admit that anything they do is wrong. Overall I thought this class interview gave me a lot of insight of what the first few years of teaching is like, how you develop as a teacher, and how to deal with all of the situations that are thrown at you as a teacher.

Decorah Board Members

This Monday's lecture the class heard two members of the Decorah Board of Education speak about some important education issues. One member had been on the board for many years and the other was fairly new. The first topic which we talked about for a while was how budget in school districts is controlled, issued, spent, etc. They explained that the school board actually doesn't decide where the majority of the money goes, in fact they only deal with around 10% of the money. I also found it interesting when they described how the budget worked. They said that there were certain cylinders that money went to, and only went to. In other words, certain money can only be spent for certain things. Now knowing that I can understand better why some things in my high school were lacking while others were progressing. The next topic brought up was, yet again, the No Child Left Behind Act. They said that they thought that the act was overall a positive change because it set a standard for schools to hold them accountable. The data they now have helped them to see where they were and where they needed to go. After some questions from the class, the board members made the point that as future teachers, it's important to have a good attitude about it because it is the law. I agree with their stance on having a positive attitude about it, but I still have some issues with the act itself. The third question and topic brought up dealt with increased national competitiveness. The male board member came up with the good point through telling a story that many times for some of those high-achieving foreign schools, they don't have as good of social or emotional skills, or, in other words, they have high IQ's but low EQ's. I definitely agree with his point, because not matter if someone can do calculus like no other or name all the elements alphabetically, if they can't carry a normal conversation with someone or speak properly in public, they have not developed correctly. The board members then brought up the Iowa Core Curriculum which, apparently, will go into effect by the time we are teaching. They didn't give too much information about this act, but they did say that it will be highering the expectations of Iowa's education. Finally we touched on the topic of second languages. The male board member was very in favor of second languages because he said that other countries learn English to accommodate us, but when foreigners come to the United states, they are expected to learn English. I thought he made a very good point with that statement, and I agree with incorporating second languages into elementary schools. The only issue, of course, as with many of these ideas, is that we don't have the funding. Overall I thought that this group interview was very informative and interesting, and I thought that the board members did a great job of answering questions and giving their opinions.

Class Interview

This Monday the entire group of Educational Psychology students plus Jim interviewed the Principal from the Decorah Middle School and the Activities Director/Assistant Principal from the Decorah High School. (I forgot their names, so I'll refer to them as "the principal" and "the activities director") Jim began with a very general, but always an interesting question: what is a good teacher? Both gave great definitions for what good teaching entails. The Middle School Principal mentioned that good teachers let kids know what it is they're supposed to be learning. As obvious as this may sound, I do agree with her that as a teacher it is important for the students to know what goal or objective they're trying to reach. The activities director summed up good teaching, at one point, into one word: differentiation. He explained that this had to do with the fact that students learn in different ways, and being able to teach something by using many techniques is important for teachers. I entirely agree on this, yet it is one of the biggest challenges for teachers because it isn't always possible with teaching certain things. Both of them also agreed that good teachers have connections with the kids and care about them. Then we got going on the No Child Left Behind Act again. The class questioned them especially on this question, perhaps because it has been a popular theme of discussion for this class. As much as the class was challenging them on this issue, I thought both of them answered the questions fairly well. They both explained that standardized testing is "only one piece of the pie." They claimed that the NCLB Act also doesn't necessarily restrain teachers, it just takes the expectations up another level. They made a very good point about how in this day in age teachers can't afford to just do something because it's fun for them or because they feel like it. What they teach now has to be research-based. I will only agree with that to a certain extent. Research doesn't always necessarily portray truth or reality, therefore entirely relying on research to guide teaching, I believe, can't decide every single thing a teacher does in the classroom. There has to be a certain amount of free will for teachers, otherwise they'd go crazy! Finally, the last question asked was "Do you feel that our schools and our teachers are preparing our students for the world they will become a part of?" (Jim obviously asked this question) The Activities Director made a good point that although our math a science scores are much lower that countries such as Japan or China, they have a significant amount of more students than the United States does, therefore they would have better scores. It also has to do with where the priorities are of the country. Obviously the United States puts entertainment on a much higher level than other countries, so the students may tend to lean towards focusing on activities more so than academics. I will admit that I was guilty of that throughout high school. In my opinion, comparing our students to countries such as China is not on the top of our concerns in education right now. I think we have to make the cake before we can frost it, so to speak. Overall, I thought the guest speakers did an excellent job of handling these intense interview questions and although I didn't completely agree with everything they said, they presented their information very well.

High Stakes Community Schools

This Monday's lecture was a sort of mock town hall meeting where Dr. Langholz and Dr. Knick presented their plan for increasing student achievement in High Stakes Community Schools. It began with Dr. Langholz, the superintendent, giving a speech about how this plan will be implemented in the district, then followed with Dr. Knick giving a speech on specifics with the curriculum and how this plan will improve student achievement. After this, certain groups of people presented opposing sides to the plan. First was the local teachers' union who believed that teachers would be unfairly judged by their students' standardized test scores and that this plan would just bring on unecessary work for the teachers. They also felt that the $1,000 incentive for teachers was completely out of line because teachers should not have to be bribed to teach well. Next to present was a group of parents of low achieving students who felt that this plan would penalize their children in many ways. They stressed that self-esteem is crucial for these kids, and being held back could be detrimental to their development not only as a student, but as a person. They also argued that the proposal of making these students go to summer school would only make them resent school more because it would feel like a punishment for not being smart enough. The next group of presenters were representatives of the schools fine arts programs and the local art community. They argued that the proposal completely left them out, therefore communicating to the students that the fine arts are not important and should not be taken seriously. Leaving them out of the proposal shows that having intelligence in the fine arts is not valued at all in the education system. Finally, the last group to present was in support of the proposal. They were college students coming back to tell the school board how unprepared they were for college because they were not challenged or pushed in school and were not expected to achieve at a certain level.

I thought that this activity was a great way for us to see all of the issues that come up when trying to enforce an act such as the No Child Left Behind Act. For the most part, I did not support the proposition that Dr. Langholz and Dr. Knick had. Their proposition is strictly based on research which leaves no room for exceptions, but places the students in a category that almost labels them as statistics rather than individuals. I understand that schools need to keep their students learning, but students often develop at different stages. I have personally experienced a situation where I was not progessing with my age group in fourth grade Math class. That is not to say that I was damaged for life by this, in fact I ended up years later doing exceptionally well in Math. I also think that the proposition limits teachers' creativity. If the only goal in the class is to make the students ready for a standardized test, that they will mostly forget later anyway, that is absurd. The classroom is a place for students to grow socially and possibly spiritually, not just mentally, and this proposition does not encompass those other important developmental categories for students. There was actually only one proposition that I felt may work: the two week inservice for teachers, because I think that it can never hurt for teachers to get new ideas and refresh their curriculum. Like I said, I do think that schools should be producing adequate students for society, but I think that there is a different way to do so. Overall, I thought the "lecture" was a great way for us to really understand what issues we may face as teachers in the future.

Chalk and Wire

This Monday's lecture contained information on how to use our chalk and wire accounts to post our compentencies. From what I understand we have to come up with different artifacts throughout college in our education courses that somehow represent that competency. This system is apparently relatively new to Luther. I'm guessing that they are trying to keep up with the technology or save paper by doing this electronically. Personally, I don't like doing projects that require using complicated technology (It's complicated for me ok!), but I do recognize how important it could be in my future to show my strengths in my education courses. I just get really frustrated when I can't figure out all of the steps it takes to upload something or having to deal with slow internet or bad computers. Sometimes I think I should have been born decades ago because I'm so bad with computers! Believe me, even being able to produce this was a challenge. I guess I'll just have to live in the present and get used to it! I will try to make this negative a positive and think of using chalk and wire as another challenge in college that will help my computer skills. Anyway, I think that Erin did a great job of giving us and introduction to chalk and wire, and hopefully I will learn to like it!

Lecture #2- How to Get Better Grades in Less Time

On September 16 a lecture was given on how to get better grades in less time. I went not only to fulfill this lecture attendance requirement, but also out of curiosity to see if it really would help. He began by showing a short cute film of college students' studying habits and stereotypes about college students. Then he proceeded with having a girl come up and jump as high as she could to mark a paper on the wall. When bribed with money, however, she pushed herself to go that much higher. This was apparently supposed to show how students can exceed with a little incentive. We then tested our current reading speed with a provided text. Mine happened to be around 90 words per minute. He then took us through a process of pushing ourselves to read faster, and by the end of the exercise I was reading over 130 words per minute. The question I had to keep asking myself though was whether I was retaining as much information as I was reading 90 words per minute. Then he made a shocking statement that he could guarantee that we could all get a 3.75-4.00 G.P.A. if we did the following: 1. Practice speed reading for 20 minutes every day 2. Get 8 hours of sleep every night, and finally 3. Review your notes 5 hours after you wrote them. I don't doubt that my G.P.A. would be that high! The reason he can guarantee that is because it's almost impossible for college students to do those three things consistently. I thought he gave great advice, but it just wasn't quite practical, for me anyway. Other parts of the lecture included good foods to eat, advice on exercising, and other tips that would help a student achieve better grades. I thought he did a great job keeping his audience's attention, and he had a great sense of humor. I could also tell that this man enjoyed teaching us about these tips. He presented himself in a very confident, yet humble way which seems to work best for me. The lecture contained a lot of great information, but I'm not so sure, however, if I got much out of the lecture, simply because I knew most of what he talked about, and because not all of the advice is practical for my life.

"Write and Wrong" Article

Today in class we read an article about a teacher named Mrs. Heermann who was fired for handing out "The Freedom Writer's Diary" in class. Although she did this before waiting for the school board to get back to her, she did get the parent's permission. In my opinion she should have never been fired from the school district, let alone forbidden from contacting those students. Yes, she should have waited for the board's approval before continuing, but the book was a piece of literature that her students could relate to. Her students were similar to Erin Gruwell's students in the book, and Heermann herself seemed to want to take on the same approach to teaching her at-risk students as Gruwell did. Having her students read the book could have produced the same outcome that Gruwell's students did by writing them. The controversy over the text seems to be in the racial slurs in the book. But these racial slurs begin to diminish as the student's diaries progress, showing that Gruwell's students began to have more respect for themselves and others, therefore those racial slurs could have been used as a learning tool. I am just personally shocked that a school district was allowed to fire a teacher of 27 years just for handing out a book. I think that it is ridiculous that a teacher was fired for trying to be like Erin Gruwell because she was an inspiration for teachers. I guess I can only hope that the publication of this article makes people question that school board about their harsh decision.

"Lions For Lambs"

Our class spent two Monday evening Educational Psychology meetings watching the movie "Lions For Lambs". This movie included many different valid points and arguments in repect to politics, teaching, the media, and many more areas. It showed challenges faced by different job positions and how the individual decided to deal with these challenges. There were a few scenarios in the movie that inter-linked.

First there were the scenes with the Political Science professor talking to the "under-achieving" student who slowly decided not to show up to class. The two characters talked about many different issues reguarding how the student's potential was there, but the will was being lost. I found it interesting how the professor laid out a proposition to him: he could leave the office and never return to class and receive a B in the class, or show up. The professor was not stupid in doing this, because he knew of the student's unique potential in the subject and that it was just up to him whether he would waste that potential, or use it. I also thought the professor was a great example of a "great" teacher, because he noticed the change in the student and was passionate enough about the student's potential to have a meeting with him and drill him about his intentions in life. He did not want to tell the student what to do, he just wanted him to be aware of his options and the consequences of "living the good life".

That same professor links to another part of the story which involves two former students of his who were also exceptional in his class years before. Not knowing what would come of it, the professor encouraged the two students in their debate reguarding going in to the U.S. Army. The two students shocked the class by showing them their acceptance letters into the army. At this the professor felt like he accidently pushed the students into it, but they reassured him that it was their own decision to join. I remember a part where the professor said, "How could you do this to yourselves?" and they replied, "How could we not?" That stuck with me because it shows just how strong patriotism means to them, and how much it should mean to other Americans.

Finally, the last link is from these army soldiers to a senator who is being interviewed by a top news reporter. This senator is explaining how they had sent a helicopter of soldiers to claim a spot crucial for attaining a victory to boost America's spirit in the war. This news reporter and senator clearly disagree with most being discussed, but the senator manages to reach the reporter, making her re-think her position for reporting it. I found it interesting that the reporter changed just throughout that period. The movie ended with the two army soldiers getting shot just before help came and the underachieving student making the right choice about his future.

This movie reflects many great points for how to teach, why we teach, what makes good teachers, and the mission of education. When asked during the lecture what makes a good teacher, I responded, "A good teacher helps or guides their students to be the best version of themselves" and that's exactly what I felt like the professor was doing in this movie.

Lecture: "Frybread and Fiction" - David Treuer

This lecture was given on September 4th by David Treuer during the Opening Convocation for the freshman class. As a general overview, I thought that his lecture was very witty, informational, and interesting. The topic of the lecture seemed to be how to read interpretively, which sounds like the most boring thing in the world to have a speech on, but he managed to make it work. Treuer had some great points throughout his speech relating to teaching. He stated that "if there is a problem with how this generation is, it's because how we are taught." He thought that the process by which this generation learns is concerning. I have heard this line from my parents, who are both teachers, yet him saying it really made me understand how big of an issue it is. I was also surprised when he said that literature is about lying in a very convincing way. That certainly got me thinking! He said that if you're reading literature for the "big picutre" you're losing the meaning of reading. Treuer's main point seemed to be that reading is building understanding, not just reading facts through our own interpretation. The second half of his speech was centered a lot towards ethic reading which he considered to be quite different from other literature. Overall, I thought the speaker did a great job of presenting and speaking with quick humor and the ability to relate the topic to freshman in college.