February 2, 2009 Learning in the Classroom

Three of the characteristics that made my fourth grade teacher my favorite and most memorable, was she cared about each and every one of us students. She wanted to feel a connection with us. She is the only teacher that invited us as a class to her house where we just hung out. I don’t know if it was just our class that she was close to or all of them. That year we had a fellow classmate die of brain cancer. The class as a whole became very close. She also respected us as little minds growing. She knew how hard she could push us. She was interesting and brought in the outside world for us to learn from.

I can not say that I had a bad teacher. I had some bad experiences, but they were not necessarily bad teachers. My first grade teacher was really old fashioned. We had to do everything by the book and we never went off the schedule. She believed in spanking children and anything that set her off she would spank. One day during a test, a boy who sat next to me was coping off of my paper. I was not aware he was coping until she picked me up out of my seat and spanked me twice. She didn’t have patience, she reacted and then asked questions. I don’t feel she cared about us, she was just doing her job to get a paycheck.

Another experience I had was in third grade, I thought I had came up with a new way to write numbers, by writing in cursive and connecting them. I proudly went up to my teachers desk to inform her what I found. She stood up and announced to the entire class what I did, and made fun of me, while the rest of the class laughed at me. I never went up to her desk with any more questions or comments. To this day I hate walking up to a teacher’s desk. She was not open for conversation, she would shut you down if you had questions.

The last experience, was my freshman year, in math. The teacher was so monotone that I could not stay connected with what he was saying. I think if he could have been more lively and didn’t teach directly from the book, I could have stayed interested in math. I might have been able to understand what he was trying to explain. I think he was so extremely smart that it was hard for him to come back down to our level of understanding. He was not interesting

Teachers have the potential to become an important part of a child’s life. They need to respect the children and understand where the students are coming from. These teachers have influenced my thinking of what to do and what not to do. My goal as a teacher is to be caring, and compassionate. I want the students to know that I do care if they succeed and I am there to help them through at least one year of their education. I want the students to want to come to school because we are learning interesting things in a comfortable environment. I also want to be spontaneous and use the workbooks as a guide but not the whole day of instruction. I would love to have whole class conversations to get to know the students and their ways of thinking.

March, 1, 2009 Psyc #2 Stereotypes

Stereotypes are never a good thing. They can make people look down on others that they know nothing about. When a teacher stereotypes her students, either by race, how smart they are, or what they wear she puts the students at a disadvantage. The teacher will start treating the stereotype students a certain way and this attitude then rubs off on the other students. Soon the students in the class will stereotype others without even realizing that they are. Low self-esteem is also huge in the school years. When a teacher stereotypes students she can harm their self-esteem.

I don’t think that there is much of a problem anymore with boys and girls being stereotyped. I have never personally experienced it or witnessed it. It use to be said that boys were better doctors, lawyers, mathematicians, etc. Women were better teachers, nurses, readers, etc. This no longer is an issue. All fields are pretty diverse with men and women now days. I think that television has a lot to do with how people stereotype also. When watching what Hollywood thinks is in style you put in your mind a stereotype. That can go for clothes, cars, attitude, religious beliefs, etc.

I think with each generation we are becoming less likely to stereotype for the worse. There are so many different ethnic groups in America that race is really no longer an issue, we even have an African American President. I think that will help put in perspective that no matter your background you can be whatever you put your mind to. I think that now that most people know what stereotyping is and how it can effect people we will be less likely to do it.

February 17, 2009 Psych Observation 1

I choose to observe a 5^th grade social studies class. I walked into the class during the middle of the lesson, and was surprised when I didn’t really bother them. The children stayed on task and didn’t pay attention to me. The atmosphere was very positive. There were plants all over and interesting posters on the wall. She kept moving around the classroom, letting the children know that she was interested in what they were doing and it helped them stay focused. It was an actual discussion, the children were invited to state their opinion and keep the discussion going.

The children understood the rules of the classroom, and knew what they could do and what they couldn’t. They raised their hands to speak so they did not interrupt anyone. The teacher handled the two behavior problems I seen with ease. The one boy talked without raising his hand and then he argued about not raising his hands and raised his voice, she calmly said “don’t yell at me, and you can research that topic if you are interested in reporting back to the class.” I thought that was neat how she didn’t waste a lot of time on him, he is very out spoken and he believes that he knows everything. For her to suggest that he could research the information, gave him something he could then be in front of the class and tell them what he learned.

The teacher was very professional in the way she presented the lesson and kept the children on task. They were learning about the Declaration of Independence, and she had this interesting activity that they completed while keeping the discussion going. The teacher kept the conversation light where the students didn’t think they were being bombarded with facts and useless history.

I enjoyed being in this classroom and I felt the children did to. They were in a learning environment that was laid back and very positive. I could tell the students respected their teacher because she respected them.