Chapter 10

This chapter is exactly what the title says, “Going Beyond the Classroom.” All it says is that you need to get your students out and involved outside of the classroom. Take them on field trips and let them meet with experts. I haven’t done that yet because I am a practicum student, but I do agree with the concept. I believe that hands on stuff are the best way for anyone to learn no matter how old you are. I love going on field trips and meeting with people that what they are talking with. Also some students like it if you give them little summer projects to do so that they have something that they can do and further their learning. I love this chapter and it gives a good ending to the book!

Chapter 9

One of the biggest things that students face in a school that affects school work is the social life that goes with it. Once the social life goes to hell, so doesn’t the school work. I have a student in my class that just gave up because his parents just got divorced and they don’t want anything to do with him. I wish I could fix his social life, but unfortunately I can’t do that so I have been working with him one on one and trying to get him up with the rest of the class. He is steadily improving and I hope that since I am not there for the next three weeks he will do it on his own.

When the end of the quarter or period is coming to an end ask students to write down how they think that they are doing so that you know what they expect. Once you have that down you can go through them ands meet with students if necessary to try to get them to their goals. Don’t give it to them make them earn it. If they haven’t done it yet tell them that the grade might go up if they do it and hand it in. This will motivate the students as well. This is the kind of stuff that I have been doing in my classroom. I gave students a good amount of time to do my homework so that their grades can be boosted. I also have allowed students to make up quizzes and they are allowed to, but the make up quiz is harder than the original. Lastly, this chapter talks about students skipping school and to show students that teachers are human and that you can be wrong and should apologize. That is pretty much the only thing that I got from this chapter.

Chapter 8

This chapter confronts an important issue that teachers everywhere in America face at some point in their profession. They have to teach a student that is not fluent in English. This can cause a lot of problems for the teacher and for the student. The best way to help someone in this situation it to first learn cool stuff about them like where they are from, what they do for fun, what they like, and so on. This will give you an insight on how to teach the lesson so that the student can understand it. Chances are that if you can teach it to someone that doesn’t speak fluent English then your English speaking students will pick it up quickly and that is an assumption that I am willing to make. Give them homework that they can do and don’t just think that they can be held responsible for the same things that English speaking students can do. Give them something that is a little challenging for them even if your students already know how to do it. Since I don’t have any of those types of students in my class at Madison I can’t really give an example other than the information that I gather from the book. This chapter will save me someday because I know that I will have a student that doesn’t speak English and I will know how to teach them based on the content in this chapter. This chapter is awesome!

Chapter 7

When you start out every unit it is a good idea to give a pretest to see what students know and what you have to teach to them. Also make sure that the pretest is not a recorded grade because that will make students uneasy. Once you do this you can dive into your lessons as planned. As you get going you will encounter material that might be hard for students to do, so make it a fun way that they can learn it like in the form of a movie, a play, a comic, and so on. If this doesn’t work them think of other ways to present the material then just reading it from the text. When you read it from the text students get bored and loose interest. Break it down into a simpler form so that students can understand it. Make sure a person that has no knowledge of the field can solve it then you know that you have something good to work with. Also ask questions that push students to think, but be careful on how many you ask and how hard they are. If they are too hard them you might as well hang it up. The last thing that this chapter offers is the idea to incorporate as much technology into a classroom that you can. It will make it fun and students will learn a lot!

Chapter 6

Students tend to find that information that is presented to them in a way that interests them and sticks in their minds. I have incorporated many things into my classes such as my senior class. All of the students were singing rap and I told them that it wasn’t rap theory day of Lil’ Scrappy. He was the artist that sang the song. Then they started talking in Spanish. I had no choice to speak to the students, but I did so in a very fluent Spanish speaking voice. They were stunned that I was so similar to them. Once we had it established that we had things in common I used what I knew about them to help them understand and relate to the material. I also found it to be helpful to relate everything to the real world like the chapter says. Students can also stay motivated and active if the classroom is conducted in a formal matter so to speak.

When it comes down to giving homework don’t just give a worksheet or something of that nature. Give them something that they can engage in as well. When I say this I mean have them write down their thoughts about the class in a journal form that way you get to see their opinion as well. This will not only help the students, but will also help you when it comes time to check their knowledge. Remember worksheets plus opinion equals fun. When you give the homework make sure it can be done in a reasonable amount of time like half an hour to an hour. This will get the student engaged just enough to get excited and do a good job.

Chapter 5

This chapter is all about the different multiple intelligences inside of the classroom, but it isn’t worded just like that. It talks about the eye rollers, the talkers, and so on. It tells you some of the stuff that you can expect from those children. I have several kids like this in my classrooms so I apply all of the multiple intelligences into every activity that I do. This allows me to reach every student in a different way. I teach everything the same, but the message and means of delivery gets transformed to help each student. It makes the students happier and they learn more. Also this chapter deals with how to set up group work and assign roles so that every student has something to do. We learned this from Dr. Grace and it works just like the book mentioned. I give group work only when the situation calls for it. I assign roles and each group pairs by random chance with a program that I use on a calculator. It is equal, random, and fair. Sometimes I become nice and let them pick their own groups. Like I said before in the above sentences, this chapter is about knowing students and relating material to them and how to get them to work effectively in groups by assigning roles.

Chapter 4

It is the teacher’s job to push every single student to their fullest potential until they succeed. You also need to set a clear understanding of what is to be expected out of the student and you have to give them feedback in order to further their learning and increase their potential. From what I gather from this chapter is that most students want to be pushed by their teachers because their learning, productivity, and creativity increase. If a students does well then you should make little comments to them on their paper or one on one. When you make a big deal out of the work the student might feel embarrassed so they will not put as much effort into the next thing, but instead they will do average work so that they fit in. Public praise can be detrimental to a struggling student as well as an excelling student.

When it comes time for students to learn you can’t think that every student understands what is going on. You need to give students practice or a worksheet for in class that is not graded. This will let you know if students are having a hard time or not. I do this in many of the classes that I have been teaching with my smart board. The reason that I do this is to see who is having troubles and it gives me a way to find out without giving them a grade. If I see that they are having trouble I will review that material because like this chapter says, “Grades are a judgment of every teenager!” (pp. 78). This is true so I try to avoid giving students a bad grade as a grade. They get informal grade that shows knowledge and learning. Also to me the best way to get those students to excel is to push them and reward them for a job well done. This chapter is pretty cool too.

Chapter 3

This chapter has several things within it that I think are true for every beginning teacher and for every practicum student in regards to teaching for the first time. When I entered the classroom for the first time at Madison High School I used several things that we had learned from Dr. Grace and Dr. Theresa. Most of the things that they taught to us were covered in this chapter. For instance this chapter mentioned things like how to start a class off, what you do on the first day, how to prepare for your class based on what the school wants, etc. After reading this chapter and thinking about it, I have come to the conclusion that all of the material in it is worth the money that we paid for the book. This book is very insightful as to how to handle many situations that can arise.

The first day of school I made my presence well known by looking like this big bouncer guy outside of a club. Maybe I looked that way because I have been a bouncer before and I still have it in me. I made myself look professional so that the students would take me seriously and they have so far. I have given them guidelines that they have to follow when they are my students and I reward good behavior and punish bad behavior. I have been able to make everything interesting so that the students get into the material and this comes not only from the book, but all of my practicum teachers. This chapter can be compared to the lectures at my school in the sense all that it is is a paper version of my teachers and I love it. This chapter also contains some fun and new things that I haven’t learned yet from my teachers and I have learned some things from my teachers that aren’t in the book. Overall, this chapter is good and very informative when it comes time for setting the tone of the year and individual class periods. I like this chapter a lot!!