April readings

I really enjoyed the article on culturally responsive classroom article. it reminded me of the staff development training we had. we talked about closing the gaps between the white children and everyone else. i think it is so important for teachers to beware of people background and culture.  its too often that children’s cultures are misunderstood. i have seen it so much as a grew up. i think that with all the strive we have made in this world as far as technology, we still have to make so much more strive to making our school system culturally responsive and not just center around white middle class. even with math questions the authors assume that students know what certain things are. At this point its not long a a math lesson it turns into more of a culture lessons.

2 comments April 13, 2010 vanneisha

Case Study Post

Kate has just founded out that her mother has now lost all the parental rights. She has been in foster care now for two years. she sometimes has days where she gets really sad. She refuses to do work and always asks to go talk the the guidance counselor. We have talked to Kate and we allow her to use her math tutor as a  clutch. her math tutor comes in on Tuesday and Thursday.

Kate does have a “fit” at least once a week. i never really get to see them from the beginning because im always teaching at the time. then i have to her about it through  the TA or through my CT. i think  i would benefit from seeing the “fits” from the beginning. my Ct has decided to leave the room more often so that the students will think of me as their teacher and not the student teacher.

1 comment April 13, 2010 vanneisha

March Readings

While reading this article it really made me think about my case study student. First of all the think that she is a non compliment student. Many times when Kate gets in on of her moods she refuses to do anything that anyone says.   my CT and  TA become very frustrated with her.  I try to ignore her because i feel like if you show her that your upset she will continue to behave in this way. When she gets in one of her moods she is really uncooperative to any of the requests the teachers gives her. She only this her”mood” when she feels like it.

I think that my Ct does the best she can with Kate, because you can never tell what will cause her fits.  one thing that I have noticed is that she hates to be wrong, so anytime she is wrong and she thinks she is right she will go into her fits in she is asked to apologize.   i really like the idea of Kate having her own special spot. its not a  punishment. its more like a a spot where she can go and cool off and then join the class when she has cool down.

1 comment April 13, 2010 vanneisha

case study student

Well mu case study student student has a lot going on in her personnel life that’s contributing to her  melt downs. First, Kate is now in a foster home. she and her sister go to the same school but they are no longer in the foster home. her sister is in forth grade. she has violent melt downs! they only time she and her sister get to see each other is at lunch. however, they both have to be having “good” days.  Kate is a good student. she just seem to want attention, so she will go into these melt downs where she doesn’t want to anything. she refuses to apologize to other students and she refuses to do anything work for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes go by she is back to normal. now we just founded out that her mother has lost all rights to both the children. Kate does not know yet. And she has just been taking off her anxiety medication.

3 comments February 28, 2010 vanneisha

Chapter 7

i really think it is important for teacher to examine the relationship between the child’s behavior and the cultural an background of a students. it is far too often the African American males students are labeled as bad when in reality its just a matter of different cultures. Speaking from my own experiences growing up. i have witness many African American males punished because of the cultural differences. i can remember my teachers saying things like “are you all ready is begin” and when the student responded honestly he was disciplined for being disruptive. or a teacher would say ” so and so do you wanna take your seat” When he said no he was also disciplined.

i also liked the part that talked about using humor to defuse situations. i never thought about that before reading this. i think i will try it sometime.

My ct uses a daily routine i thinks it works really well with younger students because they learn what is expected of them.

3 comments February 8, 2010 vanneisha

Classroom management in my class

In my class, the classroom management consist of positive reinforcement. First, school wide they have this fuzzy system. When a kid is caught doing the “right” thing they get fuzzies. As a class their goal is to get a certain amount of fuzzies to earn a prizes. Prizes include:  pencil frm the principal, popcorn frm the principal, popsicle frm the principal and so on…

then in our class we do this stop light system. When the majority of the class is doing the “right” thing the class is on green. when we are getting out of control we go to yellow and if its really out of control we go to orange. As a class it makes the class hold each other accountable. if as a class, we get on yellow we walk laps for a certain amount of minutes during recess instead of playing.

individually if students are unruly then they have a three system warning. that particular student will walk laps for a certain amount of time during recess instead of playing. if the students get to three warnings the student gets a letter sent home to their parents. it rarely gets to that.

Add comment January 31, 2010 vanneisha

Classroom Management Reflection

I think that much of the things talked about in the article as far as classroom management in inclusive classrooms should be seen in all classrooms! Some student may not have been diagnosed with a disability but as a teacher you can tell if modifications need to be made to your day so that that child can learn best. I think that all classrooms should be set up to aim for membership, friendship, and collaboration.  Students spend so much time in school that they should feel a since or community and family with their peers and the teacher.

Although I agree that classroom should support positive behaviors I also believe that children should be held accountable by their action good or bad. So while positive behavior is supported and praised negative behavior is frown upon. Teachers should try their best to come up with interventions however; children must know the way that they are behaving is unacceptable. I don’t totally agree with the no punishment suggested in the readings.

1 comment January 24, 2010 vanneisha

Cameron Park (4th grade)

The cameron park experience was really great for me and Melanie. On tuesday, When we dropped the balls the children were really intriged as of why the balls hit at the same time. they had many different ideas as of why they thought a certain ball would hit the ground first. they were shocked when all their predictions were wrong. they had some of the same misconceptions that we thought of in class when we were first introduced to the lesson.  then we opened up the floor for ideas.  nobody really responded. then we went ahead and did  the balled up paper vs. flat paper and the helped them come to the shape was the reason they hit at the same time. then we let the children investigate themselves and took a few minutes to let the children drop the balls. aLso on  tuesday, we made the parachutes. we let the children do three time trials. them on the smart board we thought of how to make it go slower.

On thursday we returned to the list. thursday went a little more smoother al around the board just because we knew the children we were working with a little better. we knew who we needed to pulling answer out of.  the students really enjoyed making their modifications! they choose what they wanted to modified.  the part i enjoyed the most was our whole class discussion after the lesson! We only worked with 6 students but at that time we got to hear what the other groups ideas were. some were the same as ours and some were different.

1 comment November 19, 2009 vanneisha

flint ch.11

this chapter chapter talks a lot about the use of non fiction text.  Being in first grade i was surprised at how much non fiction text my ct uses in class. the children really seem to benefits from this experience. she doesnt completely eliminate fiction stories but since she encourages them to write non fiction stories that they have actually have experienced in writer’s workshop, its a good idea to show models of what good nonfiction stories sound like.

we have already learned about inquiry based curriculum in science. its neat to see how two different subjects can have this question based curriculum  really challenges the students to think deep about something, rather then the teacher just talking for hours. this discussion that occur because of this style of teaching would not be possible with the teacher just teaching. Children need to learn from their own trail and error.

1 comment November 17, 2009 vanneisha

flint ch.8

I really liked this chapter. Since last week I fell in love with fourth grade! this chapter was geared towards the older grades.  i  never knew what grade i wanted to teach and after this semester i wasnt even sure i wanted to teach at all after i graduated. but thanks to this chapter combined with the Cameron park 4th grade experience i think i changed my mind. one of my favorite idea was that children should read books that are easy to help them gain confidence in themselves. I think we as teachers, think that the older grades should have reading down pact  however, sometimes children just need a confidence builder!

Add comment November 17, 2009 vanneisha