TE 150 post 20

Blog topic. Why should teachers look at schools in other countries? The preschool in three cultures study focused on children from the US, Japan, and China. Of what value, if any, do you think this study is to those prospective US teachers who will almost certainly not be teaching students from China or Japan?

I don’t believe that any country knows the correct way to teach. Each country has different ways to teach preschoolers. Teachers from each of these countries have grown up in all sorts of different cultures so they have been taught to act a certain way. They have been taught to teach kids in a certain way. Usually I can see one country believing they are right over others but I think each country has great ideas and maybe some actually are more effective. I believe that no one way is right. I think that this study is a very great value to those who don’t plan on teaching in China and Japan. Even though they are in entirely different places and cultures I feel that we can learn a great lot by the way they teach. They may have tactics that work on their students where as we can’t get something to work with our students. I think it is a great idea to have other viewpoints on how to work with students or which ways work in situations in the classroom. I think everyone should try to be able to have an experience where they can go to another culture and explore their schooling systems.

TE 150 post 19

Blog entry: Your race, your teaching. Imagine yourself teaching in an urban school in Chicago in a class that has nearly 100% African American students. Of the challenges you’ll face, some will be related to your race. Can you describe a couple race-related challenges you are particularly concerned about at this time? Illustrate your concern by sketching some hypothetical situations you might imagine for yourself.

I really enjoyed all of the articles that were assigned for today. In the first article, Still Crazy After All These Years, By Charles Payne, Payne discussed the baggage that each teacher brings with them to the table that usually has to do with race. The baggage that most white bring with them to the classroom I believe is the fear that they are going to be called a racist. They fear that they are going to be judged by the school. Nobody wants to bring baggage with them when they walk into the classroom but it happens. So being a white female teacher I need to be able to leave my baggage behind me when I walk into the classroom. Obviously this is something that I believe is going to be hard to do because everyone has fears and they don’t just disappear but you need to try to leave them outside of the classroom. I am excited to have the privilege to learn how to be able to properly teach in an urban area. I want to be able to do it and I am excited for the opportunity. In one of the articles we read it talks about how there were two black boys fighting and a white teacher breaks them up. One of the boys says something to the teacher about getting his white hands away. The boy says this because he has learned from experience that saying something like this he will get a reaction. The teacher didn’t react in the way the student expected him to which was rather surprising. I think if I was actually in the situation I wouldn’t have known what to do. You want to show your kids that you have authority but also it does offend you when you know that they are specifically trying to make you mad. I want to be able to show my students that I am not against them in any way. Another thing that I read about was how students can think different things if they see a teacher being shy. I feel that I may be shy when I first start teaching not because I am intimidated by them but just because it is scary to do something new. I am going to have to over come that. Another thing that I think may be difficult is some of the cultural differences. It says in one of the articles that the Black teachers were mad when the students wore their hats in school because they are use to back when they were kids and that was completely unacceptable. Versus white teachers who don’t see anything wrong with wearing a hat. I want my students to know I respect them and I want other people in authority to know I respect them too. I may have different ways of showing affection and other things but that is because I grew up in a different culture. I am going to have to adapt to understand how they accept affection and other things.

TE 150 post 18

Consider specific school or teaching practices associated with any of these schools. How might these practices be understood in relationship to other systems in the ecology of these schools. This is Bronfenbrenner’s ecological lens and I’d like you to try to use it. How do these practices relate to other systems in this schools ecology? For example, how is the all-boys Urban Prep Academy a response to something in Chicago environment? What are your opinions of the way these schools have responded?

Chicago Public Schools really makes a difference in how we look at the schools in urban areas. The students at these schools really valued their education. I know that some kids at the schools I went to would of rather been at home. The kids in these areas are sometimes even scared of their homes and they would rather be at school. To see so many young kids happy and enjoying their learning experience is wonderful. Even though all the schools we saw were in urban areas the teachers and faculty held their students to pretty high standards. They weren’t lenient because their school wasn’t in the best area. They expected their students to work hard and do above and beyond because they are given this opportunity. Each school we visited in Chicago each had goals for their school. The main focus was mostly students doing well academically.  A lot of the schools were lacking a lot of resources and that is something important in making a school run. Some of the schools had history books from the 1990’s which is not up to date information. That means the teachers have to be more creative and find different resources. Even though there is a lack of resources the students still need to learn with what they have in the classroom. From listening to the radio talks and reading information online I found out that each of the schools had practices that relate to the environment that their school is in. At Urban Prep Academy, one of the practices that relates to the ecology of the system of the schools is by having uniforms. Uniforms helps them get out of how they act outside of school. A lot of the students don’t have good home lives so coming to school and putting on this uniform is helping them stay focused. We also learned while at the schools that uniforms are for success. They are now ready and dressed for the work world. They are presentable males when they wear their school uniform. Another ecology practice I asked about when viewing the school is that of all the teachers, they were predominantly male. I was kind of surprised about this. I asked our student who was touring us why this was and he told me because then they have a man to look up to. This is relating to home life because for some of the students, they don’t have a man to look up to in their household. This helps give the boys at Urban Prep a male role model since they are boys they need a boy to look up to. I did see one woman teacher there which surprised me but I was glad because they need to still be accepting of woman teachers.

TE 150 post 17

Blog entry. Promoting and inhibiting environments. Think of home, school, social life, and media. Give examples of how each context can be promoting or inhibiting for urban students.

The environment can promote and inhibit urban students. Home, school, social life  and media have different ways of affecting urban students lives. First lets start with a child’s home life. Home is where children grow up and become the individual that they are. If a child grows up with a dysfunctional family like having divorced parents, being abused, or being neglected it will affect them majorly. It will affect their motivation in school if they don’t have parents pushing them along the way. At the same time home life could be a good thing because the parents who didn’t get a good education could try to push their child to do better than they did and achieve much more. Another thing that affects urban school children is the schools they go to. A lot of teachers are scared to work in a urban area because they think that they will get picked on by the students and other things that aren’t true. Teachers don’t want to work in urban areas because they wont get paid well. This sucks for the students going to these schools because they are missing out on the best education they could have because the good teachers don’t want to work there. At the same time the students going to these school may work their hardest to prove to people that they can still do well. Social life is something that can go either way. If a student lets their friends affect them negatively by joining gangs or doing things illegally then yes, their education is going to be affected in a bad way. if they allow themselves to be around friends who work hard and are ambitious with their school work then they will do well and it will impact them in a good way. The media is also another thing that could affect these students. If they see on the TV how students in Urban areas don’t do as well as other students that may make them mad but then at the same time they could prove the media wrong by doing excellent on their test scores.

 

TE 150 post 16

Describe how your own middle school development might relate to Coll & Szalacha’s ecological model.

“One study found that children in such dissonant classrooms often experienced a lower sense of self-esteem.” I know that in my math classes throughout middle school I always dealt with lower self esteem. I didnt want to tell my friends how I did on a quiz because I didnt want them to think that they were better than me and so on. I grew up in a neighborhood that always had activities going on and things to get involved with so like they said I had a very social behavior. It also talks about how the media plays a big roll in development when you are in middle school. I could agree with this because I definitely remember wanting whatever cool things were on tv because it would make me look cooler to my friends. I believe that where you grow up plays a big way in how you interact with others. If you grow up in a unsafe area where your parents make you stay in the house all the time you are bound to be anti social. If you grow up in a community of activities you are going to be more outgoing. I also believe that what students see in the media also influences how they interact and grow. You may learn from things you see so you need to be careful.

 

TE 150 post 15

Blog entry: Consider the data you collected for your Inquiry project. Pick two different things to compare. Give some detail about the data and the construct you were using as a lens. Discuss what makes this comparison interesting to you. Be interesting and sincere.

For our Inquiry project were looking at the effect that stereotypes have on students motivation to learn. We want to see how when students stereotype other students could it affect their learning? Some may use it to their advantage to be a better students and others may use the criticism and not want to work as hard.  The two different pieces of data I am going to compare is one, a student who is made fun of for wearing glasses so they don’t wear glasses and the other is a student who wears their glasses anyway.  These two pieces of data are using the extrinsic and intrinsic motivation lens.  This is a constructive lens to view our project through because our project is about finding out if stereotypes will change a students motivation to learn. The students I am comparing have physical stereotypes and it affects them in different ways.  The student who decides to wear their glasses anyway is intrinsically motivated because the other students are making them want to feel better about themselves and prove them wrong. She wants to show them that their constant making fun of the student isn’t going to affect what she does.  The other student is extrinsically motivated because when the students make fun of her for wearing classes she wont do it anymore even though it will affect her learning. She wont be able to read the board if she doesn’t have her glasses. I think it is interesting how different situations affect students in different ways.

TE 150 post 14

Blog entry: Look at the data you collected about motivation. Describe one small thing about the student’s motivation you were able to see better as a result of collecting this data. Then, answer the question, “So what?” In other words, explain why it is significant that you are now able to see this particular thing a little better.

My group has not yet collected our data. We plan on collecting our data on Saturday. I suppose I will tell about the information we collected from the Food Court before spring break. We talked to different groups of people. The most interesting group I think we talked to was the group of African American boys. They were the most interesting to me. We asked them about the impact of stereotypes on their education. They told us about how stereotypes really can impact their education. He told us that because of these stereotypes he wanted to get over them and become a better student and person and he achieved that. He did tell us about how stereotypes did negatively affect some of his friends. He was telling us that when teachers or other students make them feel as if they aren’t smart, when they hear it enough time it eventually starts to affect their education. This really surprised me because this is something we talked a lot about last semester and I never knew this actually affected some students in this way. Since we haven’t been able to collect our data yet I don’t have other information to compare to this to but I feel that some other students may agree with what this one student said. I am glad that I was able to get this information because it is nice to be able to see the impact of stereotypes on different students. I hope that we will get clear data to figure out how stereotypes affect the rest of the students. This will be a very interesting discussion.

TE 150 post 13

Blog topic: After reading these articles, describe some specific things YOU would do in your classroom in response to one or more of the groups of students discussed.

These articles were very interesting and it was kind of cool to see how different students learn in and interact in the classroom. In a classroom there will always be a diverse range of students and you need to know how to teach each one of them and understand their different learning styles. It is very likely that when I become a teacher I will have Asian children in my classroom. Diversity is something that is welcomed in all classrooms. As a teacher I need to make sure to recognize the students individual personalities and cultural differences. Asian students grow up learning to be quiet in class and they don’t ask questions. When talking to a teacher they may bow their head or not make eye contact. This communication is a way that Americans don’t usually communicate. As a teacher I will have to know that the students aren’t being unresponsive that is just how they were taught to talk to adults. As a teacher I will work on opening them up and getting them to participate within the classroom. I would have them get into groups and have each group member share something they talked about in their group so that way everyone gets to participate. That way it gives them to work in groups and then be able to talk to the whole class without having to raise their hand they are required to do it. When Asian students don’t ask for help it doesn’t mean they don’t need the help sometimes it just means they are too timid to ask for help. I am going to make sure to go out of my way to give my students individual attention even if they don’t ask for it. It says in the reading that Asians like when teachers help them one on one so I am going to make sure to do that. During time when I have them work on assignments I am going to make sure to walk around to each student and ask them to explain to me what they are doing so I know they understand the assignment. I also feel like another way to understand if the students are learning the material would be to have mini quizzes over the material, not for points, but just to see their comprehension of what I am teaching them. I also feel like having conferences with students one on one could really help me learn where the student is at and how well they are doing and how much more help they need. Also maybe having parent conferences could help because then the parents can be involved and help them work on assignments at home.

 

TE 150 post 12

Blog topic: Stipek’s profiles. Which of Stipek’s profiles fits you best for a given situation? Give at least 3 pieces of evidence that you fit this profile.

I could definitely relate to defensive dick, hopeless hannah, safe sally, satisfied sam and anxious amy at different times throughout my schooling. The one that I could think of that I could relate to most recently would be anxious amy. I am not completely like her but there are a few characteristics that are similar. Amy is an average student but does poorly in math. This is something that I relate a lot of my blogs to but it is something that is very true. I do pretty average in most subjects except for math. I don’t do horrible but it would be nice to have better grades in math. Like amy, when I take the state tests for math, I always pass but I don’t do the best. When I take exams in math class they aren’t always passing grades. Unlike amy, I don’t usually turn in exams  with answers not attempted. I always try to answer all of the questions even if I am not sure how to do them. Amy tried to go to the nurse and say she had a stomachache conveniently during the time of math class. I definitely did that a few times throughout high school. During college I haven’t missed a single math class yet and I don’t plan on it. Amy had bad performance in class because she was uncomfortable answering questions in front of the class. In high school I didn’t really experience this but I do remember a few times I had one teacher who made me get embarrassed by my answers to math questions. When I was asked a math question that I didn’t know I would either say I don’t know or I would give the question my best effort. If I gave my best effort and the answer was wrong I remember my teacher saying something like “not the right answer” or something like that. It was never a bad response but it still made me not want to answer all of his questions. In college I have not experienced this because math classes are a whole different thing. In my math recitation I always asked so many questions so I could understand the material to my best ability. Not a lot of the other students asked questions so in a way I was helping everyone out. In the reading it said that amy may be so prepared for a test but as soon as she sits in her desk to take her math test she can’t remember how to do the equation. This has happened to me numerous times on my math exams last semester. I would study so hard for the exam and then the night before I would review the material again but somehow when I took the test I couldn’t remember how to do some of the problems. Math is definitely not one of my favorite subjects.

TE 150 post 11

Attribution theory trys to explain cause of an event or behavior. It is how people interpret activities and events that they do and how these things relates to their thinking and behavior. It uses the cognitive theory and the self-efficacy theory because it stresses that learners’ current self-perceptions are going to strongly influence the ways in which people are going to interpret the success or failure of their current efforts and then their future tendency to perform these same behaviors. The main point of this theory is achievement and our motivation towards things. I have experienced the attribution theory many times throughout my own life. One example that can relate to my life is my Math class. Math has never been one of my best subjects and I have always had a hard time with it. Last semester I took my first college math class. It was my hardest class at Michigan State University so far. The first few quizzes we took I ended up not getting the best grades. I am attributing my bad performance on my math quizzes to my the ability I think I have in math. The rest of the semester I worked as a hard as I possibly could so I could do well. I even had a tutor and I went to the Math Learning Center. I don’t believe I have a high level of math ability but I still put in my best effort. Last semester I also took an ISS class. I thought it was one of the longest classes ever. The professor talked and talked and you literally just had to takes notes from what he was saying. I attributed poor performance to the amount of effort that I put into the activity. During class I always took really good notes. I even recorded some of his lectures. I made sure to make flashcards and go over everything. Me and the girl next to me always worked really hard on our notes because we were told that the exams were going to be really hard. When I took the first exam I did really well. Then when I took the next exam I felt like I studied too much on the first one so I didn’t need to study as much on this one. I took all the notes again but I didn’t really study them. I still felt like I knew the information but not as much as I did for the first exam. When I got the second exam back I didn’t do as well and I that was attributed to my lack of effort. After I saw how much it affected my grade I made sure to study a lot harder for the exams after that one.

http://tip.psychology.org/weiner.html

http://education.calumet.purdue.edu/vockell/edPsybook/Edpsy5/edpsy5_attribution.html

Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S. (2000). Expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation. Contemporary educational psychology, 25, 68-81.