FieldBlogPost4-GESU

My fourth day at Gesu was filled with activity. Right when I walked in I helped a boy find his AR test and I read it to him. Also when I walked in, four girls were working on a short commercial they were doing as a project for the pumpkin contest. One big thing that Mrs. Nemeth showed me today is that she recently got more boxes from the Natural History Museum, but this time they were filled with animal fur and animal skulls. This is something interesting for the kids to look at while it also goes along with their bone lesson. I was on the Gesu website today and I noticed that each grade has its own page and dates to remember along with other cool short cuts and helpful links. I thought that was a very good resource for kids. During science class, we watched a cool video. It was a video on Discovery Edu. about Mr. Goodbody and it was called "The Team That Hustles," referring to the bones and muscles in your body. The class participated well with the video, doing everything instructed while responding to the video. After the video, Mrs. Nemeth discussed terms to know and put them on the board. She also had the kids fill in blanks on the board. After science class, she gave me the study guide for the upcoming test. It constructed of a summary of the unit, words to remember, short answers, and scenarios which were followed by short answers. Like my second day, I got to actually get up in front of the class and kind of teach a lesson. Mrs. Nemeth let me read an article on pirates and then discuss it with the class. We then did an activity afterwards. The classroom setting was basically the same. She had "good morning" written on the board and had the instructions to unpack, correct a test, and complete the new worksheet. the kids seemed very creative today! The four girls I mentioned were very creative with their commercial and all through out the day in general I noticed a lot of enthusiasm! Mrs. Nemeth had me try and log on to Learning A-Z, but unfortunately the Internet was a mess, so she had a back up story about pirates and we read that. From there, I interacted with the class often and well. In the last 15 minutes of my time there, she had a conference with every kid in the class about their AR reading. The kids need 10 points per quarter. My fourth day was a great day like all the others and I am still excited to go back!

FieldBlogPost3-GESU

When I walked into the room on my third day, Mrs. Nemeth was teaching a lesson. She was describing a new project they were going to do. They were going to create their own candy bar. So right off the bat when I came in, she was allowing the kids to be very creative and super open-minded. The kids also had to create their own ad for the candy bar. For the classroom setting on my third day, the same thing was pretty much going on. We were changing the bulletin for their new lesson. In the morning, Mrs. Nemeth has tasks written on the board. On the third day, she had written on the board to set up their spelling test, turn in folders, if they need a conference, and field trip forms. During science, 6 kids in each class got to go to the front of the room and share their rock reports. After that, I went to the front of the classroom and did a review of the bones. I would point to a bone and the kids would give the scientific name (I was super surprised by the intelligence of these fourth graders!). After that, the kids got out their skeleton and labeled them. They then cut the pieces out and put them together with the pins that kind of fold back. That way they could make their skeleton move and dance. This is also a great example of how the kids can be creative. Friday's seem to be more of an activity filled and creative day. Also, the kids are really, really hyper. Mrs. Nemeth even came over to me and said the kids love to chat and get hyper on Friday's. I am just assuming they are excited for the weekend, I know I was as a fourth grader!

BlogPostIt

For this assignment, we were instructed to read Ch. 8 of "Educational Foundations" and put post it notes in the text. We were supposed to mark places where we became conscious of our own thinking process. For example, we should mark questions we have, things we wonder about, things that remind us of past experiences, etc. Chapter 8 of the book talked about the banking concept of education. Much like depositing checks into one's bank account, teachers attempt to deposit checks filled with knowledge into the minds of their students.  The problem with this is that students are not being communicated with, but are instead being lectured and being told the difference between right and wrong. They are also just memorizing information and not using it. This concept of teaching can often be called narrative education also. One place that I marked in the text was the part at the beginning of the chapter where they described it as narrative education. One thing really came to mind when I read that. Narrative education can be a big problem for kids because it can harm their comprehension skills. If they grow up learning to just memorize things and not actually obtain information, what good will that do? The next thing that I became conscious of while I was reading was that this banking theory is very immobilizing. What I mean by this is that students are not able to move forward in their learning if they are just taught to take in information and then spit it out on an assessment and forget about it. Students often have to use material they used in the past for the future. Students will struggle immensely if they learn this way. The banking theory describes teachers as people who know all and students who know nothing and the teachers should be able to learn from their students too so they can keep an open mind.

FieldBlogPost2-GESU

My second day at GESU Middle School went very well! When I write about my field experiences, I am going to stick to the same format. I will talk about three main things: the classroom setting, what I got to do in the classroom, and how the teacher was. First, the classroom setting. I mentioned in my last field blog post that the class was starting a new lesson on anatomy. Mrs. Nemeth has a bulletin board and every time they start a new lesson she decorates it according to the lesson. So, she decorated the board with skeletons, muscles, and bones. I thought this was really cool and important because the kids will be able to stay on topic and maybe be more intrigued. Mrs. Nemeth hangs up "I CAN" statement on the board according to the lesson they are learning. For example, they read a story about pueblo Indians in reading and she put up a piece of paper that said something along the lines of, "I CAN ... learn ... pueblo Indians." I got to hang up graded assignments on the walls in the hallway. This can give the kids confidence in their work. Second, what I did. I got to do a lot more on my second day than my first day. One of the biggest things was that I actually got to assist her in teaching a reading lesson. I read them a short story and we went over it after by doing activities. On thing we did after was we made a chart in the shape of a lowercase t and in one corner we put a "C" representing characters. In another we put a "P" standing for plot. The other two we put an "S" and those represented setting and solution. I got to call on kids and they came up to the chalk board and filled in what they had. The next thing we did after reading the story was talked about the characters behaviors. We made a chart and labeled one side "good" and one side "bad" and like before, I called on kids and they came up and filled one thing they had in either the good or the bad column. One thing I learned from reading and teaching the class is that you have to have a resonant voice and just put yourself out there. On the second day, I also made copies and I helped the same girl on her accelerated reading test. She got a 10/10 this time! Lastly, I will talk about how Mrs. Nemeth was. Once again, she was outstanding with interacting with her students and making them feel comfortable. She lets them talk about their own experiences and keeps them focused at the same time. She does a really good job of reviewing material after they read or talk about something. She also is really good with giving physical examples. For example, she was teaching about muscles and had the kids grip their biceps and move their arms to feel it. Overall, I had a very productive day at GESU and I cant wait to see what is in store for my next day.

BlogPost5

Rofes makes clear distinctions between liberal and radical conceptualizations of addressing homophobia and heterosexism in k-12 schools. On the liberal side, he talked about a handful of things that had to do with others teaching and trying to help us how to deal with LGBT students. Educators are teaching us to move forwards and embrace change. First, Rofes says that social services should be advised to address the issue. They should do this to protect the students. Teachers should teach morality to students to help influence them to treat everyone equal. When I was in high school, I took a morality class and it talked a lot about equality with LGBT students. Adults must realize they should address how students are victimized and how big of an issue it is. On the radical side, Rofes talks more about making immediate changes for the good of LGBT students. He talks about how much students are victimized and how we should step forward and protect the students. We are taught to make a difference if children can actively participate in their childhood.

FieldBlogPost1-GESU

For my first day field experience, I sat in on Mrs. Nemeth's fourth grade class at Gesu Middle School. Gesu is right across the street from JCU, so it is very convenient. The classroom reminded me a lot of Mayfield Middle School. It was a very decorative classroom with a lot of visual aids. She had an assignment board, a big projector, and a lot of motivation posters. One thing that Mrs. Nemeth brought into the classroom that day that was very intriguing was fake animals from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The animals were a good visual aid for the kids to look at. One of the first things that happened was that she gave a couple kids candy for holding doors for her. This is good because it can help the kids understand to be more helpful and maybe they will get a reward. In the classroom, they had just finished a lesson on geology. The kids are currently finishing up their "rock" reports. They have to pick a rock and write about it and say what it is used for. They also have to include a bibliography. Today, they started their lesson on anatomy. Mrs. Nemeth showed them a video about the human body and then after it she asked what the kids learned from it. This is good because it can help with their comprehension. In Science, she had the kids read the text about the lesson they were starting. It was about all the bones in the human body. After the kids were reading, she would have a group of kids stand up and do something to test their comprehension. For example, she had a row of boys stand up and tell the class one thing they learned. They then read the pages aloud. I really liked one specific thing the teacher said. Some people may not have noticed it, but I did. She was talking about the human body and she mentioned that that's how God made us. It is very important to incorporate God in the lessons too if they can. Mrs. Nemeth also does a great job of incorporating other subjects into reading. The class has accelerated reading and then they take tests after. I actually got the opportunity to help a little girl with her test. I read her the test and the answer options. The kids kept a log of their AR, and then the parents signed off on it to show they read. The thing that I thought was the most interesting was the Learning A-Z website. It allowed you to go on and search a topic and book options would come up. You could adjust the reading level and everything. Overall, my first day was good because I got to get my feet wet. I learned you have to be flexible and be able to interact with students well. I am super excited for my next day!

FieldBlogPost-Mayfield Middle School

My experience at Mayfield Middle School was a good one and I surprisingly got a lot out of it with the little time we had. Before we went into a classroom, we were supposed to think of a question about a concept we have been learning and apply it in the classroom(s) we went in. The question I wanted to answer was, "how does the teacher make the students feel comfortable and make it easy for them to learn?" I touched on this question in one of my previous blogs, and I was excited to actually observe it in a real classroom first hand.
First, I am just going to talk about some of the things that went on in the classroom while I was there. The teacher I observed was a math teacher named Mrs. Bond. I really liked her and thought she was a great teacher. She always made sure the kids maintained focus and made sure all the kids were listening when someone else had a question. She had a very loud and resonant voice, which makes it easy for her to give good directions. She incorporated ideas into the learning that interests the students. For example, I noticed that she was helping a boy with subtraction and she made a reference to losing yards in football. This was very useful because it intrigued the student and encouraged him to learn.
In the classroom, there were a lot of good visual aids such as number lines, encouraging posters, and an assignment board. This can help the students feel like they are in a good and comfortable learning environment. Mrs. Bond said that the class always starts with a warm up. This helps the teacher become flexible and adjust their lesson plan. One big thing that the class did on the day I was there was a "checkpoint." They do these in silence. A checkpoint is basically a non-graded assignment that helps the teacher recognize which students are struggling and which students are making progress. This also helps the teacher adjust their lesson plan. The kids either get a proficient grade or a non-proficient grade. The last thing that I noticed and that was important was the weekly learning target self-assessment paper that every students gets every week. It has the student write down the homework assignment, the learning target, their confidence level, and the previous nights homework. If they do not understand something or are struggling with the lesson, then on the back she has a part where you can set up a meeting with her and she will help you.
Overall, the classroom environment I went to was very comfortable for students. Mrs. Bond was very good with the kids. She made sure the kids took their time with their work and she was very patient. Most of the work they do is assessments. 10% of their grade is homework, and homework is graded on completion. 90% of their grade is tests. My experience at Mayfield Middle School helped me a lot and now I know what to look for in a classroom in my upcoming field experiences.