Fires in the Bathroom chapter 10

To be an effective teacher you must go beyond the classroom. You need to make connections with the world outside of the class. Introducing students to internships and summer enrichment programs are great ways to get your students involved with something that they are interested in. The most important part of this chapter, which I will want to do in my classroom, is to support the students to learn on their own. Students will receive great satisfaction from learning and discovering things on their own. They will also get more of an understanding of the material if they learn it themselves rather than the teacher telling them about it.

Fires in the Bathroom chapter 9

When things seem to be going wrong for students the best thing to do with them is to communicate with them. The sooner you communicate with a student who is going through problems then the sooner you can find help for them. Things also can go wrong for teachers as well. This chapter talks about finding the right balance of maintaining classroom management and at the same time letting the student know that I am there for them. There are ways to keep your students involved and connected to the class. When a teacher comes prepared to class and confident then it will rub off on the students. When you know the material and care about the students will care as well. An important thing to understand is that you cannot judge how well you are doing teaching by how much the students like you. You are there to teach the students, not to become most popular.

Fires in the Bathroom chapter 8

I was shocked when I read that 1 in 6 students in America are going to schools where English isn’t their first language. I come from a high school where there wasn’t much diversity at all, and the only people that didn’t speak English as their first language were the exchange students. In this book the students are treated differently because English is their second language, but they are just looking to fit in and learn life everyone else. The most important thing to do is to check for understanding. If the students do not understand something and you move on then they are going to be lost. But if you check for understanding and repeat yourself things are more likely to move smoothly. Another thing this chapter mentions is to be patient. Patients will keep you from giving up on the students, which is the worst possible thing you can do. If you don’t have faith in your students, then they will not have faith in themselves.

Fires in the Bathroom chapter 7

When teaching difficult material you need to do more than just talk about it yourself. You need the students to talk about it, give them feedback and let them reflect on it so you know they understand it. Since I am going to be a history teacher I focused mostly on the section with advice for teaching history. What I found most important was to help the student visualize history and to focus on the most important question of history rather than just all of the names and dates. Having the students visualize history with guest speakers and real life artifacts will make them understand things better and connect with them rather than just reading about it in a textbook. The idea that I liked the most and that I know I will use is to seek out your student’s opinions and make them defend them. I know I will you use this because I love the idea of a class debate.

Fires in the Bathroom chapter 6

There are so many ways that you can motivate your students, but at the same time there are even more ways to put them in a state of boredom. To motivate your students you must show them that you are interested in what you are teaching. Most students have many reasons in which they go to school, and most students like being in school as long as they doing stuff that they find is useful. One of the main reasons for being in school, which I found most important, was to find a career path and receive a well paying job. To motivate students, you need a passionate teacher, talk about issues kids care about, and connect it to the real world. This chapter also mentions getting the students in the habit of free writing. One thing that I want to do is have my students keep a journal whether it is under a made up character that I ask them to take on, or just as themselves talking about whatever they would like. One part that I do not agree with, is that right before vacation is a bad time to give a test. Well to me, one day has to be the last day, so I am not going to waste a week because a vacation is coming up.

Fires in the Bathroom chapter 5

This chapter talks about teaching to the individual and working with the group. With the individual, the most important part is that students will develop strategies to fend off unwanted attention. If students do not want to answer a question, they will do whatever it takes to not answer. Students will do anything from going to the bathroom to writing in their notebooks with their heads down just praying that they will not get called upon. The most important part about working with groups is that you have to assess individual performance and final product separately and assess them by using a clear rubric. This way one person doesn’t carry the whole load and it makes everyone responsible for the work. Students who don’t do any of the work on and “A” project should not get that credit. Everyone should be responsible for something. The rubric will help them know exactly what the teacher is looking for.

Fires in the Bathroom chapter 4

When creating a culture for success in your classroom, you need to assign work that really matters, as well as provide a healthy support system for your class. The most important piece in a successful classroom is trust. If your students trust you and you trust your students then everything will run smoothly for the most part. If your students do not trust you they will think that the material that you are teaching isn’t as important as I really is. There are going to be times where your students are going to have issues at home, so there will be times when a student doesn’t get their work done on time. Students think that it is unfair to not allow them make up what they didn’t do. I believe that they need a sincere reason for them to be able to make up the homework that they didn’t do to receive full credit. If a student just doesn’t do their work, I will not allow them to receive full credit, because then it is unfair to the students who did do their work on time. Also if you are a student who doesn’t do the work on time, and you know you will receive full credit when you get it done, you will just do it on your own time when you feel like it.
A large piece of this chapter is showing belief in students. Examples that were given were remind us of that you expect our best, encourage efforts even if they are having trouble, and give helpful feedback and expect them to revise. The most important on to me is providing helpful feedback and expect them to revise. Revising and reflecting are great ways for students to see what they missed on a certain assignment, and what they can do to improve it. Allowing them to rework their assignments provides a deeper understanding so that they show what they know, rather than just taking a C and never looking at the assignment again. School is in place to teach kids and to see what they understand, not to see if they can make it through just going through the motions.
One thing I liked about this chapter is avoiding the impression that right answers matter more than others. People have different opinions on everything. In a history class, if you asked the question “What caused the Civil War” you are going to get many answers. You can’t call one of them right. You can let them know that their answer is good by how well they explained it, yes and no should not be involved.

Fires in the Bathroom chapter 3

This chapter talks about how to manage your classroom. It says that it all starts in the beginning. When you walk in on the first day, the students will want to know if the teacher is there as a supervisor, or someone who is genuinely interested in who the students are. Once this is established, it is important for students to know what is going to be happening in the class each day. Putting the agenda up on the board is a great way so the students know what they are going to be doing and what the teacher expects them to do. Students will also need to know what the teacher expects from them with behavior. Teachers who do not have any rules or punishments will lose their classroom because they won’t be able to enforce anything. Have rules/restrictions and consequences printed out or posted on a wall is a simple way to go through the requirements. If students disagree or want to add rules they should be able to bring them up, but if they want to get rid of a rule that you feel is important you must hold your ground. Some schools have rules that the teacher may not really agree with, such as eating/drinking in class and wearing hats. You may check with a principal to make sure it is okay to not follow these certain rules in your classroom.
To keep classroom behavior going well, the teacher must remember that the students are the top priority. Teaching them interesting and important material along with a way to hook them into the assignment or lesson will keep your students from becoming off task, which may lead to distracting the rest of the class.
One issue that I found in this chapter is where it talks about sleeping/putting your head down in class. The students say it’s okay to put your head down and doze off because at least you are in school. I do not agree with this because if they aren’t going to learn and pay attention, then why even be in school. Also, the excuse that girls go through a lot of stuff throughout a month is bogus. Great, they have to go through stuff that guys don’t but I’ve never heard of anyone dying from it if they don’t lay their heads down and not pay attention. It is one thing if there is family issues going on and I would cut them slack if they came to talk to me or I spoke with them after class, but other than that I want my students heads up and paying attention.
When students act out a lot, most of the time there is and underlying cause for this. Teachers should talk to the student about it rather than throwing them out of class or sending them to the Principals office. If you are going to discipline your students, it should be something that they don’t want to do but is actually relevant to what they are being punished for. One student says; you don’t want to lose the student’s interest or motivation in the punishment. Punishments should be relevant and make the students understand what they did was wrong so that they don’t do it again.
Some of the helpful tips that I liked or agreed with were to not ignore disruptive behavior, don’t let it go if a student doesn’t do their homework, remember to give students physical breaks from sitting and working, don’t just call on people just to make them pay attention, and finally, don’t let them work with their friends all the times.

How can I productively react when students misbehave or act up?

There are always going to be students who misbehave, I know this because at times I was that student. But I will need to develop proper ways to discipline my students. I remember back in middle school I would be put in the hallway, and I would miss the lesson. Dr. Grace talks about this a lot because when you throw a student out, it is like you are giving up on them. In chapter 12 of MI, it talks about how to discipline students. The best way I saw, and one that I will want to use, is instead of calling them out and embarrassing them, find a way to channel their energy using the MI that they connect with and have them deal with their issue on their own. If a student can work their problem out on their own it will make them feel better as well. I can also see how a teacher could get fed up with a problematic student because it takes away from the other students who want to learn. That is something that I am concerned with. If I am going to put all this time into designing a lesson plan which I think will intrigue my students, and then I can’t get to it all because I have deal with a problem student I am going to be upset. I will want to see how my mentor teacher deals with students who act out because I think it is easy to say how you will deal with it, but I think it will be different in real life.

Which strategies are most effective for maintaining order in the classroom?

To maintain classroom order I think that you need to develop clear classroom expectations. With clear expectations my students will understand what is expected of them when they enter my classroom. If you don’t introduce your classroom policies my students will run all over me. Even though the students really know what they should be doing when they enter the classroom, they will push the envelope if standards are not given. Chapter 2 of Classroom Assessment really helped me understand this. I know that I don’t want to be that teacher with so many rules, and I don’t want me classroom to be uptight, but I do know that there needs to be order. I want my classroom to be loose and I want my students to know that they can speak when they have something on their mind, but I am concerned that they will take advantage of it, that’s why I must have standards in my classroom.

How can you effectively integrate technology into your teaching and learning?

I will use technology in the classroom in many different ways. I really enjoy webquests and digital storytelling. Also podcasts will be great for me to use in history class to play speeches from Presidents and other important figures in history. Before this class I wouldn’t have known about how many podcasts there were out there. My concern is that I am afraid that I won’t know when using technology is too much. I want to use it as much as possible, but I don’t want to over use it.

Why might it be important for students to learn with technology?

It is important for students to learn with technology because in today’s world, technology is everywhere. Every student uses technology more than anything else. Using technology is a way to relate to relate to the students. Being on a computer is way more fun than taking notes. In my classroom I will want to use webquests because they go deeper than worksheets and other assessments. Webquests are great ways to get into a subject area and to get the students involved. A webquest uses more MI’s than a regular paper assignment. I remember doing a webquest in high school and I thought it was really fun, but I only did one. After finding many different resources of different webquests I will be able to use them more often. Also, when assigning a project it makes it so much more interesting to assign a digital story rather than a poster. Almost all students will have used some sort of digital storytelling program before they reach high school, so it won’t take long to explain them. Also, the programs are so easy to use that if I have to take some time to explain them they won’t take long at all. A concern that I have is that I feel that these class frown about tests on paper and assessments on paper. I don’t necessarily think that theses are bad ideas, as long as I find a way to make it appeal to all 8 MI’s.

How To Help Someone Use a Computer

"If it's not obvious to them, it's not obvious"

"Don't take the keyboard. Let them do all the typing, even if it's slower that way, and even if you have to point them to every key they need to type. That's the only way they're going to learn from the interaction."

I think that these statements can be used in the classroom to technology because not everyone know about technology and the best way for them to learn, is to learn hands on.