Multicultural and Gender Issues

The girls did an AWESOME job today on their presentation I thought. I really enjoyed how they hit all aspects of multi culture. When I think about multi- cultural students I pretty much think of ethnicity or their racial backgrounds. I never think about their religion or their sexual orientation. Stacey and Chelsea showed me a lot of different things about multi-culture that I would not ever think about. For example the video they showed us about those students who wanted to fast in the cafeteria but not around the other students I can see as understandable but why take the jello away? I mean yes it sounds funny and yes it probably isn’t the BEST of snacks for kids, but they love that stuff so why take it away from them because a couple of other kids.

Motivation

I thought the boys did a really good job presenting the information to us today. I think the activities were engaging but I was little unsure about how the types of teacher we were had to deal with how we motivate students. Now that I think about it though, if I’m an authoritative teacher then I’m not going to use a whole lot of positive extrinsic motivation. Another thing is depending on what kind of teacher I am I may not use the “right” kind of motivation. I may think that it is good motivation because the kids are actually showing some improvement in their work but I shouldn’t use things like “grades” or movies or “no class work time”. So, now I realize that what type of teacher you are plays a HUGE role on how you motivate your students.

Promising Futures School

While reading this it was a little dry but I liked how it showed some of the real life situations of how the different aspects of a Promising Futures school worked. I have a feeling something this rather works out really well or it could be just another thing that a school is trying to do that fails. The school that I’m tutoring at is trying to start becoming a Promising Futures school. Some things are working out well like freshman mentors, where the group of freshmen are suppose to meet up with the mentor once a month and they discuss their grades and what ways they can make their grades better. It seems to be working for some of the students, especially the ones who have mentors that are really involved, BUT for the other students its just another thing they have to go to. I think the idea behind Promising Futures is an awesome idea but I think that you need to have the teacher and student support behind it also.

TWYH Chapters 20-25

These chapters were probably my favorite because the story is starting to be more about the students than about just Erin. The most influential part for me in this section of the book was when they got off of the bus. Here they are coming back from doing something so spectacular in Washington to getting question about a racist act. I couldn't believe how Erin was able to handle the situation. As a teacher I wouldn't know what to say to the students. Some people say that silence is sometimes the best in situations like that because there really is no words for things sometimes.
This book is showing me that there are going to be so many situations where the kids are going to be looking to me for answers and I'm afraid that I won't have them. There's more to being a teacher than just answering math homework problems, that's just a small portion of the answers I'm going to be asked.

Cirriculum Integration

I have to be honest, this is how I want to teach. When I first started out in the Education program here at UMF I always had difficulties thinking of ways to integrate other subjects into mathematics. Since this has been a big discussion in a lot of our EDU classes I'm always thinking of different ways to integrate other subjects into mathematics. For example the other day we were talking about the history of Geometry in MAT 320: History of Mathematics, and I actually day dreamed about how I could use this as a teacher when I'm teaching a unit on proofs in Geometry.

I would really like to do an Integrated Classroom with someone else like we saw in the video that Eileen and Steve showed us during their presentation. I would like this because like I said earlier I do have difficulties trying to put other subjects into math but if I was working with another teacher I think that would be awesome and like they always say, "Two heads are better than one".

Another point I've thought about it how you don't need to integrate your entire curriculum but projects dealing with other classes are awesome ideas. But I agree with the point that Eileen and Steve made was don't make it over-whelming to your students. A good way to start it is by making them individual projects for each class with out the students knowing that there is a theme with the other teachers, then kind of guide them into the bigger project. Start off small for something that could be really big.

TWYH Pages 104-140

Erin's second year was just... WOW. She dealt with students who have dealt with death, students who live in poverty, and others who are with gangs. I've always thought about how would I be able to deal with the situations of the loss of a student, or students who have dealt with hardships that I never had to deal with. Like when Tommy told Erin what ended up happening with his cousin and his best friend. A situation I've thought about was what about deaths that are results of accidents. For example, in high school a well known girl died in a car accident and the person driving was a peer of ours. As a teacher it would obviously be hard dealing with the loss of a student and her friends but how do you treat the kid that was driving? If it was me I would want to help him/her in anyway that I could but what do you say to them??

Another part that hit me in these chapters was when Zlata and her family came and they had that huge ordeal of a celebration. The kids were like many of us were back in Elementary school when we had open house or some special event for school. We were always so excited to show our parents what we had made or learn and we wanted to introduce them to everyone. That's what these guys reminded me of, but I was thinking about the fact that they probably didn't have the feeling of being proud of themselves at that age like I did.

TWYH pgs 39-103

Before the discussion we had in class I really didn't think about the other causes of anxiety I would be dealing with while I was teaching. I've always thought about how am I going to get my students to be interested in me as a teacher while still learning. I always worried about if I would be able to teach the kids or if I would confuse them even more. After reading this semester of Erin's first year as a teacher I see that there are a lot more things going on then just whats happening in the classroom. I never thought about having to okay things in my lessons, or ask permission from the Department Head to do an activity with the kids. I never thought about what age level I was going to be put in to teaching. I have to admit if I was told that I had all freshman classes my first year as a teacher I would be a little... nervous. When I was teaching the Freshman classes during practicum I didn't mind it because I had a mentor teacher there helping me "control" the kids. From my experiences I have learned that some freshman like to walk all over the teacher as much as they can, almost like a four year old who knows that if he tells the babysitter, "well, mom and dad let me do it.." then they will get their way. I have a hard time with my classroom management skills so when I'm put into a situation like that I may have trouble. One other thing that I thought about while reading these chapters was about my support system. I need someone to "let it all out" to and that has always been my mom. Like Erin's dad my mom is the one I always go to advice for and if I'm having a bad day or what I think to be a bad day I always run to her. Sometimes she'll give me advice that I want to hear but sometimes she'll day "Steph, it's not that bad you'll live." I wonder as you get more and more into teaching if you still need that support system as much because when I'm 50 and still teaching my mom may not be there for me to "bitch" at and I'm sure my husband's not going to want to listen to it, so what am I going to do? (There's another anxiety I thought about).