A teacher's relationship with their students is in my opinion, is the key to a successful education.  While building bridges with your students you should consider the interest of the students, students prior knowledge of the subject, and the learning style of students.  While doing this, to keep the interest of the students a teacher should realize the age of their students and what they are able to tolerate.  Long power points will most likely lose the attention of many young students.  Involvement is the needed to keep the students active.  For your own betterment, I think that teachers should discuss lesson plans and class issues they are facing with collegues.  You can learn something from everyone because they have experiences and have lived through things that you never have.  If you have a good relationship with your students, their respect for you will rise and you will be able to understand them better. Teachers should be aware of their tone of voice, their dress and their attitude while teaching because if they are not enthusiastic, their students will not be. Bridges are the most important part of any student-teacher relationship.

Exploring the Field

The first class I experienced at Beechwood Middle School was Mr. Smith's language arts class.  The class itself was racially diverse and had many different types of students.  Mr. Smith was very enthusiastic about his job and the class listened and respected him.  The classroom had a good setup with a lot of posters and an organized board.  One thing I noticed was that Smith put all of the important upcoming dates on the board.  If they had an important assignment or a project due, it would be written on the board.  Another thing I liked about the class was that they all had access to computers.  All of the students had an equal opportunity to do research on the internet.  Some examples of work that they did was book reports, vocabulary, reading short stories and group quizzes.  Mr. Smith let me read one of the essays that a student wrote and I found that very interesting.  Mr. Smith had the ability to make the most boring things exciting which I found inspiring.  He never lost the attention of his students and somehow kept them involved all the time. He did this by changing the pitch of his voice and keeping the students active during class.  This resulted in good class participation and the students seemed to be comfortable in the classroom.  Overall, I believe that Mr. Smith was an outstanding teacher with great enthusiasm for his job.  He also cared about the students and their performance which is in my eyes the definition of a good teacher.  The second classroom I visited was Mr. Miller's math class.  He connected with his students by telling jokes and having fun with them.  Although it was nice, the classroom was not as comfortable as the first.  The class was again very racially diverse but it was not as under control at the beginning.  Mr. Miller got the students involved by letting them come to the board and work on examples.  They were learning how to graph equations and most of the students seemed to grasp the material well which reflects well on the teacher and their teaching style.  The class seemed to appreciate Mr. Miller and respect him while he was teaching.  In conclusion, both of the classes that I observed seemed to be very engaged and the teachers were nothing but helpful and respected by their students.

Blog Post 6

While reading Educational Foundations, I found many points I considered valuable.  I put a post-it note on the one I found most valid in the chapter.  "In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgable upon those whom they consider to know nothing.  Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a chararastic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as process of inquiry." This shows the ignorance that children are wrongly accused of having.  Judgements are not only unfair to the students but also to the teachers.

Blog Post 5

While looking at Rofus's ideas on homophobia and heterosexism in schools, it was easy for me to understand his point of view because of the school I grew up in.  Going to an all girls private school, openmindeness was not a priority.  A teacher got fired for coming out as a lesbian, a lesbian couple got yelled at for holding hands in the hallway, a chant broke out in the cafeteria because a lesbian couple was holding hands.  The views of people at my school were very narrow-minded  therefore I can see exactly where Rofus is coming from.  Judgements and stereotypes are powerful things and at my school they were wrong. Many students were hurt by these judgements and I think that is unbelievably wrong.

Blog Post 4

Linguistics is a contrary topic because it is not universal.  Language helps people to understand more of someone's life experiences and provides background information without having to ask one question.  In my past experiences with volunteering, it was very easy to differentiate the children that grew up in less fortunate neighborhoods from the ones that came from more fortunate ones.  Many people look down on children that don't talk as "properly" or use the best vocabulary but this does not make them any less knowledgable or capable.  I believe that language is inherited and learned while the child is growing up.  My four year old brother repeated everything I said while he was growing up.  Therefore, linguistics define a home in my opinion.

Blog Post 3

Why do I want to be a teacher? Not only do I love being around kids but I also feel that I was called to go into the field of education.  Working at a daycare this summer positively impacted my life so much that it made me rethink my entire career path.  Watching the children interact and smile brought me such joy that I could not help but to switch my major from psychology to elementary education.  I have been influenced by many of my teachers and strive to make a positive impact on the lives of my students.  I want my students to feel comfortable in my class and know that they are able to voice their opinions.  They should not feel small.  I want them to feel equal and content in their environment and with me. While working in the daycare, I hope I made as much of an impact on the kids as they made on me.  They affected my life in such a positive way and I am so grateful for my time spent there. The daycare is a comfortable place for the kids to play and interact with each other.  In my classroom, I want to make an inviting and comfortable place for my students to interact with their classmates.  I believe that the openness of the classroom creates the mood of the class.  I think that the set up of a classroom directly correlates to the success of the class and the students in it.