Teaching Self Study Video Reflection

I decided to have my co pre student teacher record me during Number Talks. Number Talks is how the class starts math every day. They come to the carpet and using the ELMO the teacher writes a problem and the students are supposed to solve it using whatever math strategy they are working on that week. Every session two problems are done and two students get to do each problem to provide multiple examples of how they are learning and comprehending and to provide examples of how to perform the strategies for their peers. When the students are on the carpet there are certain rules like when they think they know the answer and how to solve it they put their thumbs on their hearts to show the teacher they are ready. I enjoy doing number talks with them because this type of math is fun for me and I love seeing how focus and willing to participate they become.

After watching the video I think some effective parts of my teaching were 1) being able to address student who were being disruptive without stopping the lesson or knocking the other students off track, 2) being prepared and having the materials ready to get them started, and 3) having a clear loud voice. When I first started leading the students in Number Talks I did not know how to work the ELMO or I would be nervous about them participating and behaving on the carpet but now as time has went on I’ve learned to be more confident each time I do this and I now to have everything ready and set up before they even get to the carpet so that we are able to get started.

There were also areas where I did need improvement. For example, checking for understanding frequently. I would ask them from time to time did they understand but now I realize that is not enough. I should ask more open ended questions for them to better give me answers that show they truly get the information be provided. The last time I did Number Talks compared to the video where I was recorded I notice a big change in this area. Another thing I need to improve on is referring to the students as “you guys” I know “boys and girls” is more appropriate and I catch it right after I say it every time but saying “you guys” just comes out more natural and the students still respond well to it but I know I should put more effort into changing that.

I’ve had to record and reflect on my teaching and interactions with students before for previous classes and I dread it every time. I hate how I sound and look on camera and when I know I’m being recorded the nervousness sets in heavy and sometimes my lip even twitches so I really need to get over that anxiety of being recorded or watched because I would hate for a student to notice that as I am trying to teach them something.

Effective Urban Educator: Reflective, Innovative and Committed to Diversity

My philosophy will be based on cognitivism. Cognitivism is basically saying that if we can recall, understand, evaluate, etc. a concept then we have learned it. It sees the mind as a computer. With a computer we input information and later we can pull up that information for other uses. The same applies to the mind. We are given information from various sources and later when we need to apply that information to a situation occurring in our lives we recall it and do so appropriately; therefore we have learned it.

This philosophy would be demonstrated in my teachings by using different aids to give my lessons. The aids I choose will be designed to assist visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. Everyone does not interpret information the same so I would need a variety to make sure I am able to get through to almost every (if not all) student. For instance, if I were teaching a math lesson on addition and subtraction to a group of first graders I would begin with telling them orally, then showing them visually, and then finishing off my lesson by showing them how to do addition and subtraction with helpful tools. They will store that information and when it is time for them to apply it to new problems they will be able to reach into their minds and recall the information that I previously relayed to them.

The students will lean under this philosophy by first be telling them what it means to add and subtract. My auditory learners would most likely pick up on everything I am telling them and being to store that information in their brains. After I finish my lecture on addition and subtraction I would show them on the board in the classroom how it is done. My visual learners would be able to see what I am doing and store that information in their brains. Lastly, I would give the students something to touch like counting blocks, straws, etc. and show them that they could use these to actually see what it is to add and subtract. The kinesthetic learners in my class would enjoy this very much because they would be able to interact which in turn leads them to storing that information. After my lesson on addition and subtraction I would give them a few problems to work through. Each of my students should then be able to recall what they learned and apply it to these new problems they have before them and if they have then my cognitivism approach has worked.

I would be an effective urban educator because I would start by getting to know the different types of students I am teaching. No two students are the same and it is important for me to realize that before I step into the classroom. I have to expect that my students are going to come from all different types of backgrounds. They will diff in gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, economic backgrounds, and disabilities and capabilities. My teaching style will have to be able to adjust to the many different types of students that I come into contact with. All of these difference will have an effect on each students learning abilities and it’s safe to say the only thing that every student will have in common is the fact they will be in my class and I will be trying my best to meet all of their needs. I know it’s possible for me not too but that doesn’t mean I will not try because once we are in that classroom it is my job to make sure they all have the same opportunity at receiving and equal education. 

America’s Mood Map: An Interactive Guide to the United States of Attitude

Which State do you belong in? I was born in California, raised in Michigan, but apparently I belong in South Carolina lol

Reflection #2: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

1. As a private good, education is seen as designed to prepare individuals for successful social competition for the more desirable market roles. As a public good, education is seen as designed to prepare people for political roles.
2. Freire means that society has created a culture that implants a negative, suppressed self-perception. It is preserved by society because they are kept ignorant in the educational system.
3. The quote relates to the Moral and Sociopolitical debt because it is referring to the fact that even all this time after the Brown decision has been made, we are finding ourselves still or reverting back to segregation. Black, Latinos, and native communities are still more a part of schools that tend to be non-White. They are separate and receiving the lesser hand compared to those schools that are considered to be white. After a 50^th anniversary we would have expected to see more predominant changes in the educational system.
4.  The funding disparities that currently exist are leading to an economic debt in our nation’s public schools because separate schooling allows for differential funding. Disparities between urban and suburban present a telling story about the value place on education among different groups of students. 
5. This quote, even when said with good intentions, spark the “silenced dialogue” because in order for everyone else children and your own to have the same thing they have to start and finish with the same circumstances. They have to come from similar backgrounds and be given the same opportunities. Even though one might say this is what they want they have to consider the fact that yes it would be possible for every child to have the same thing but only if they all are a part of the culture of power. People who do not function with this culture may want for something else because they have a different view on the matter so it isn’t possible for someone to want the same thing for everyone else’s children as they want for their own.

Service Learning Reflection #2

1. At my placement I have been assisting the teacher in her first grade classroom. I originally was assigned two students to tutor through the Taylor Reading Corps but because of scheduling these service hours with my classes and work she allowed me to stay in the classroom to get more hours. In the classroom I still assist with the two children I was assigned but I also help others when they are separated into groups with reading, writing, and math. I help them put sentences together and revisit odd and even numbers. It is more than I had expected to be doing but I wouldn’t have it any differently.
2. Work has changed only with the adding of responsibility as I mentioned above. I have to do more and get to know more children but it is well worth it. Just today I was also assigned two new students who are in a kindergarten class. With that class I will doing only what I was supposed to in the beginning and that is tutoring them in reading.
3. The work I do benefits the community because the Taylor Reading Corps purpose is to help young children reach the appropriate reading level. They want to make sure students are at the correct level because it will better them in the future so that when they are in high school they stand a better chance of going to college.
4. What I have learned about diversity in my experience so far is that people should not judge a book by its cover. I know that’s a cliché line that everyone has heard but so far I have seen it every time I work with these students. Because I went from Detroit Public Schools all my life to transferring to Farmington Hills Public schools half way through high school I heard a lot of negative things about “those black kids in Detroit” and where others thought they stood academically and none of it was true for that matter. But tutoring in Taylor I see it’s not just “us black kids” that people should be concerned about but it’s all types of children from all areas.
5. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4iVo57ou-7eR0VrR3Z5RGFEMTg/edit?usp=sharing

Service Learning Site Observation.

I am working with the Taylor Reading Corps as a volunteer to tutor children with reading. They placed me in Bernice McDowell Elementary School in a firs grade classroom. The school houses K-5 students. Its a long, one floor building with many classrooms, a gym, a lunchroom and a play ground. As I walked around the premises I found that the school is located in a, for the most part, quiet area during the day. The neighborhood is full of single residence homes. In the morning groups of children either walked from the near by homes or were bused in so I don’t know what kind of area all the students come from. The children are very diverse in reference to ethnicity and cultures. Unfortunately all of them are not excelling at the expected reading level which is why the Taylor Reading Corps is volunteering with them and many other schools in Taylor, Michigan. PCBE is already going on with the partnership between TRC and Taylor Public Schools. They students get more resources to help with their literacy and TRC and the Taylor Public School sysytem learn more about how to help the students improve and learn different factors in what are affecting these students and the ability to meet their potential. In addition to what they are already doing they could possibly added on other subject area tutoring sessions to help improve a students success all around. Based on what I am learning I could build relationships with the students and their families by getting to know them and discovering what all affects their learning. This will allow me to help them further their education.

 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4iVo57ou-7ebUtFY2tON3JRNE0/edit?usp=docslist_api

 

 

Reflection #1 Smith & Sobel

Question #1

The difference between Service Learning and Community Service is not only are you doing something to help the community but you are also helping yourself. You learn from yourself and others whom you work with and this helps uplift both you and them. And everyone ends up more knowledgeable in the end. This meets Wayne State University’s standard by helping us learn how to teach in an urban area and developing curriculum. The course is Becoming and Urban Educator. Seeing how I attended DPS schools majority of my life, it is important to know that school settings do affect the learning going on in that establishment. Not all good and not all bad, a course such as this one can help lean future educators toward the good parts of know how to teach in an urban setting. It helps develop curriculum because we are working hands on with students so we of course need a plan to be set in motion throughout our time with the children we encounter.

Question #2

PCBE is not a one size fits all approach because “all” is the not the same. They do not learn the same or act the same. they do not interpret the same, so it can never be one size fits all. We start of with a local method for a general population but we must break it down and start to mold a different strategy for different types of students just as when they give back what they have learned it will come in various ways, each way customized to that student.

PCBE allows for transformation in students becoming creators of knowledge rather than just consumers of knowledge because it allows for them to adopt the “each one teach one” theory. In a typical classroom knowledge is drilled in students and they are measured my what they remember and can spit back out at the teacher but with PCBE they are not just receiving information, but giving some as well,whether it be a way to do things or a different method learning, they share it and others learn from them as they learn from others. 

Question #3

 Social meliorism is the belief that society and learning improves based on human effort. People like Lester Frank Ward believed that universal and comprehensive public schooling should provide the public with the knowledge a democracy needed to successfully conduct itself. I agree with this, but I believe it would take a lot of effort and educators must be willing to put in the effort for it to work to its best advantage. PCBE is a good example of this theory being put into play.

Service Learning Reflection Prompt #1

 

My first experience with my service learning site was… informational. The partner I chose was the Taylor Reading Corps (TRC). When I first heard them describe their mission I knew this was the group I wanted to be apart of. They are a volunteer group in Taylor, MI that is dedicated to making sure that by the time a child reaches the 3rd grade each child is at or above the appropriate reading level for their grade. While working with this group I will be assigned a school to attend and tutor two children who are below the expected reading level.

 

My very first meeting with the organization was training. Everyone who volunteers has to attend a mandatory training where we learn what is expected of us as volunteers. We were given these green bag with all sorts of supplies to help us in tutoring. We are not required to use the bag or its content but its there to aid us if need be.  Things in this bag include items such as: book lists, pencils, stickers, dry erase board, markers, work sheets, etc.  They also have a personal library where volunteers can choose books from in the office. At the training they explained in great detailed all the contents of the bag and talked about their own experiences with TRC.

 

After training I had to wait two long weeks until finally this past Friday they gave me my school placement. This morning I was able to go to the school that I will be spending my 40 hours (if not more). I had planned on meeting the principle, teachers and students today but unfortunately all but one of the students I was assigned were absent today. I left the principle a message and she called me back and we arranged to meet this upcoming Friday when I will hopefully meet her, the teacher and the other student.

 

I’m really excited about getting into this because to be able to help children learn to read is all I’ve ever wanted to do. It poses a challenge to know that they are below their reading level and may not even like to read but I accept that challenge because I want to show them that reading can be fun. I’ve always thought as long as you can find the right book you will be able to lose yourself in it and enjoy it very much.

 

SLICE

I might be interested in the Fluff and Fold service learning project  🙂