what schools should be part 2 of final blog

I think that the model of how should be somewhat represent what schools are like today. With quite a few changes, such as the elimation of MCAS testing, and differnt ways of making learning more fun especially as the children start to get older. The reason why i think Mcas testing should be elimainted completely because the amount of information and the pace the teachers are going trying to teach. For my pre practicum i sat in on a third grade class who has to take the Mcas this year. The pace the teacher has to go to try and cover everything is ridiculous. The children are nine years old and they do not get to enjoy being nine years old. I dont mean that there should be constant fun all day. However when a nine year sits in a classroom staring at a blackboard all day that is not fun. Its not fun for the teachers or the students. The class that i sat in the teacher was using different teaching techniques to get the children up and moving around to try and keep them interested. Shes a great teacher but she doesn't have any time to enjoy her class and who the students are as children because she is constantly giving them MCAS prep papers and differnt MCAS activities to do.





I also believe that teachers should find fun ways of learning. I know when i was younger i struggled with reading. I had a great teacher who helpped me get threw it and succeed. However she found so mnay fun ways to keep me interested. Whether it was playin the match game or playin bingo with words. I stopped gettin fustrated and started learning. For the longest time i was gettting so fustrated and did not want to go to school. But the effort she made with me made the biggest difference with me. I want to do that my students, i want them to have fun with learning and never to get discouraged. Whether it be trying different techniques to get a child to understand i will be completely dedicated to that.





I also believe that schools should be a great place for learning. I believe that schools should emphasize the fun in learning, which would encourge children to want to learn. In my city i defintely noticed that my little sister loves to attend school. She loves her teacher and her classmates. I truely believe it's because the teacher make it a fun place for learning and having fun. She never complains about goin to school or even doing her homework. She is at that age where she would say "i hate school" or "i dont want to go to school" but i never hear that from her. She loves school because its the way the teacher conducts the class that allows the children to love it. If the teacher is constantly smiling and talking with the students it make the classroom an easy place for students to learn. I believe every teacher who is teaching should love the profession and love teaching children. If you have a teacher who is just teaching to teach, it is defintely not the right profession for that person.





World's Hardest Test
Preparing today for the standardized test
our teacher said there was a lot to digest.
We'd have to divide by the square root of three
and learn to spell zygote, façade and marquis.
We'd need to play xylophone, trumpet and flute,
accordion, banjo, piano and lute,
recite all the capital cities by heart
and learn to take rocketship engines apart.
We'd have to speak Latin, Swahili and Greek,
learn nuclear fusion and fencing technique,
remember the fables of Persia and Rome
and crack all the codes in the human genome.
Then just when we thought that our heads might explode
from learning Chinese or dissecting a toad
she told us the very best thing she could say:
that she was just kidding; it's April Fool's Day.
--Kenn Nesbitt
WEBSITE -http://www.poetry4kids.com/poem-51.html

FUN CLASSROOM QUOTES

• If you're sad, don't waste time. Life is too short. Turn over a new page, new start, new thoughts, new happiness." - Hannah M.
• "Thinking positively will only take you to positive places." - Unknown"Leave today with no regrets." - Unknown
• "When no one believed in me, I believed in myself and achieved more than anyone thought possible." - Stephanie Saffe

website- http://community.scholastic.com/scholastic/board/print?board.id=snapshot912&message.id=26&format=one

Social Justice part 1 of final blog

Social Justice plays a key part in schools everywhere all over the United States. In most schools around the world there are many children from all different backgrounds. This means that they were brought up different and their first language may not be English. However that is only one of the social justices that come to play in a classroom. There are many for example in an article titled What does it mean to teach for Social Justice?, it states that many areas of social Justice contains “race, class, gender, ability, or sexuality group”(Pat Russo) As a teacher it is very important to understand Social Justice and work to make your classroom a place where there is no inequalities. Which figuratively speaking sounds a lot easier that it is to do. There are numerous amounts of steps a teacher needs to take to help solve this problem.

As a teacher I feel it is are job to find different strategies to incorporate activities into the classroom which involve gender, race, and class. Whether it’s having children talk about their backgrounds to the class, or just doing a fun project regarding a family tree. Which as a teacher you make the student feel as comfortable as possible. Always let a child know that they are beautiful what ever skin color gender or language they speak. If you are one of those teachers who chose not to talk about any of these topics it hurts your class and the children who are touched by such issues. If as a teacher I do not let them know that being different is a wonderful and beautiful thing, then they might come to be ashamed about whom they are. As a teacher I will always correct a student who is saying negative things about skin color, gender, or a disability. No child deserves to be bullied by any child and I will never condone such behavior in my classroom. If as a teacher the student who is saying disrespectful does not get consequence for their actions nothing will ever change with that student. If anything the student might get other children to join in which is a harder thing to stop. So as a teacher the vicious circle must be stopped before it gets out of control.

Social Justice impacts most every educational choice that is made in a classroom. As a teacher the children look up to everything that I do therefore i must constantly be setting a good example for the students. I also need to let them no what is exceptable and what is unexceptable in my classroom. I will not except any student who talks negatively about another student, nor will i accept any kind of racism or fighting in my classroom. I will teach and do many activities to help get the students to get to know each other as well as brining out the beauty in the difference of who they are as people. Some activities may include have the children draw picture of their families and explain who each person is in the picture.

WEBSITE USED -http://www.oswego.edu/~prusso1/Russos_what_does_it_mean_to_teach_for_s.htm

Poem for social justice
http://davepoems.tripod.com/id4.html

Prayer for Justice
You came to set men free LordYet men are still bound by oppressionTo proclaim your justice LordBut still injustice is rife in your world.You came in love but men preferred hatredYou came in peace but men preferred war
How shall we show the world your care Lord?
The Lord says:Where man is oppressed - proclaim my freedom.Where injustice rules - let my justice be known.Where there is violence - I give you my peaceWhere there is hatred - I give you my love.
Lord show that you care through us your people that we might be:
For freedom and against oppressionFor justice and against injusticeFor love and against hatredFor love and against violenceThat we may follow the example of Jesus our Master. Amen
1984