Chapter Four

One thing that I really liked about this cahpter is the scenreios that it had as examples of how to deal with situations. I liked this because it not only did they provide good examples of possible things that may happen in the classroom, but it helped me understand what I was reading and actually put it into the classroom situations. The classroom environment is a very important key to as students learning and success. The tone adn atmosphere of the class can help students learn better, be more trusting, form good relationships and help with classroom management. Something I think is important in the classroom environment is to help each child feel accepted and a good way to do that is to know about their background like their culture and provide things like decorations of their background in your classroom so that they feel like they are a part of the class even if they are different from the other students. The classroom environment also includes the way students react to one another and the teacher. Classrooms should have a good feeling and atmosphere so that all of the students and the teacher feels happy and safe so that learning can take place. I really like the list that the chapter provides on ways to make the classroom environment better.
-Study students culture:So you are able to make them feel welcome and understand them.
-Convey Status:Students must feel like the teacher is real and honest in their comments.
-Commend Creativity: This will bring up the atmosphere of the classroom.
-Make Room for all Kinds of Learners: It is important that everyone feels comfortable and every learning style has a place in the classroom.
-Help Students Know About One Another: Students should be friends and feel accepted by all of their peers and know that they are accepted by everyone. A great way to do this is Morning Meetings.
-Celebrate Success: each student should be happy when they succeed and be able to celbrate their success.
Commuincation in the classroom is another thing that is very important and this chapter had a list of great ways to improve the communication in the class. Making sure that the classroom runs smoothly and is set up in a way that students know the rules and what is expected of them so that less time is spent on managing the students and more time is spent teaching the students. Everyone in the classroom should be held responsible, even though it is the teacher who is held accountable each child should be too so that they feel like it is not just the teachers classroom but is theirs as well. This chapter had great ideas on how to make the classroom environment the best learning environmet for students. I really think that the classroom environment plays a huge roel in students success in shcool as well as their love for learning and the classroom atmosphere.

Chapter 3

Chapter three was a little difficult for me to really understand compaired to the previous chapters. I had to read it a few times so that I could really understand the point that the author was trying to get to. Teachers need to not make excuses and get to know each student in order to really understand how to help each student learn to the best of their ability. Teachers have a very busy and demanding job. There are so many things a teacher is required to do that it makes it easy for the teacher to say that they just simply don't have time to become close to their students and really understand them. If teachers do this then their students will be the ones who suffer. No student learns the same as another and if teachers do not take their relationship with their students to a deeper level than the teacher will never truly understand how to teach that student and they will never know what that particular student needs help with or is behind other students in.
The classroom is a place where students should feel comfortable and not only gain knowledge in school subjects, but also gain self esteem and become self efficiant. Teachers must provide students with the opportunity to become the best that they can in their lives, but without really knowing your students individually the teacher can not provide that for their students because they do not really know what that student needs. Teachers need to believe in their students and the child needs to know that their teacher believes in them, trusts them and wants nothing but the best for them. This means that teachers must have high expectations for their students, but not expectations that the student is not going to be able to reach and if teachers do not know their students then they will miscomunicate their expectations for the child and will most likely put the child down and hurt their learning and self esteem. Teaching is an investment, it takes time, but it is worth the time to get to know each individual in your class so that the teacher can make sure each child is learning in the way that suits them best and also knows what the child is going through in their lives so that they can alter lessons and classroom activities to suit the students needs. I love the list that the chapter gives on what invested teacher are.
-Personally engaged in what they ask students to do.
-work hard at learning and get excited about ideas.
-exeplify the pursuit of excellence.
-believes in the possibility of each individual and is not easily discouraged.
-does not assume that the student can not learn, but assumes the student is not learing in the way they are being taught.
-when the student fails the teacher fails.
-acknowledges the distance a student has come academically but makes it clear the distance they have yet to go.
-points our learning has no finsih line.
-failure is not an option.
I learned a lot from this chapter and it really helped me see what a teacher should really be like and focus on the students needs and not on just teaching the curriculum. Although that is important it is not the only thing that is important in a students education.

Surveys

I feel like this reading there was not a lot to read about, but had a lot to learn. Finding out about your studetns is so important!!!! I am always scared that I will miss something in one of my students lives or I will not know something about them that I need to know. There are so many things about being a teacher that absolutely terrify me and one of them is not knowing how to best teach each child and in the end being a bad teacher because I didn't know what to do. So I really liked all of the ideas and surveys that were given. What a perfect way to, not only get to know each and every one of your students, but also to learn about their learning interests and they way they feel that they best learn. By giving students surveys to feel out, the teacher will be able to tweek lessons so that the lesson is better fit for their particular class and for each particular student. I also think that students feel like their teacher really wants to get to know them and is interested in their lives which starts out the school year with the students already beginning to trust their teacher.
The book gave some great ideas on what to ask students and different ways to do it. I liked the chart on page 101 because its not just asking the students questions and having them answer them. It has the student make a chart and also practice their cutting and glueing skills (for younger grades). All of the survey information on Blackboard was very useful and each one had good ideas. I really liked the multiple intelligences survey with the smiley faces. I want to teach younger grades so i think that this is such a great way for students to tell you have they feel about something in a fun and easy way for them. It is also simple for the teacher to score and with around thirty students in your classroom simple is best in my eyes. I liked all of the surveys with pictures because I think it makes the students more interested in answering them and it is simple so even really young students can do it. For older grades the Thinking about reading and Writing Surveys were great. It gets students to think about themselves and judge their own work so that the teacher is able to see how the students feel about their work and about reading and writing. It is important to know how your students feel about things so that you as a teacher can help them learn and grow. I love all of the chart surveys because they are fun for students to do and easy for the teacher to look at and understand. I got some great ideas from the readings on how to better understand my students learning. I printed everything off and definately plan on using surveys in my classroom to learn how to teach each student in a way they will understand and learn.

Redo of ch. 2

I did the readings of chapter one and two over the weekend. I SHOULD have written my blog after I was finished, but being the procrastinator I am I waited till monday evening to do it and.......of course EVERYTHING goes wrong, i worked on trying to get the internet to work for two hours AHHHHH and then when it did work it kept stopping and shutting off. Needless to say I was frustrated and cut my blog short because after trying for three hours to post a short blog I gave up and apperantly it was pretty obviouse, so I want to go over a little bit about chapter two that I really liked.
I love how ch 2 started out with student's needs, because after all, that is why we are all here. Step one: Affirmation, students need to feel comfortable in the classroom and safe to be able to learn and once they feel accepted and know they are safe in the class they can move forward. Step two: Contribution, every child has something they can bring to the classroom that another student may not. I think that everyone in the classroom including the teacher learns from the other people in the class and the more a student includes themselves the more will be learned. Step three: Power, I really think that students need to feel like they have control over their lives. School may be the only place they feel like they have control over themselves and it can really help them learn and grow as a person and learn how to act in real life situations. Step four: Purpose, I know throughout my schooling there are so many things I learned that I wondered why, why do i need this? But if a student has a purpose for learning and understands how to apply it to life situations they will not only understand why they are learning what they are, they will take it in and remember it because they have a reason to. Step five: Challenge, Everyone needs a challenge and without challenge in life there will never be any growth. I love these steps and could really go on and on about why I like them and why they are important.
My favorite part of this chapter was similar to my favorite part in ch 1. I really like the tables and charts they put into the chapters. They are intersting, straight to the point and easy to understand. Figure 2.4 (the classroom scenerios and students needs) was by far the thing I learned the most from and enjoyed reading the most. It is so amazing how differently a teacher can think one way and a child can think another. These expamples really go to show you that teachers need to have a relationship with their students and understand them. No one ever knows what another person is thinking unless they tell them and if a child does not feel accepted by their teacher and doesn't trust them then the teacher will never know how the student is really feeling. Even if teachers try to do everything they can, they do not know how the child is interpreting the situation. Each classroom needs to be a safe and comfortable learning atmosphere. I really hope that I can do everything to make my future classroom a safe place for all of my students.

chapters one and two

Suprisingly I absolutely loved reading the first two chapters of Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentaiated Classroom. Not that I don't enjoy the readings usually, but this time I really couldn't seem to want to stop reading. I look forward to reading the rest of the chapters in this book becuase just in the first two chapters I learned so much and found myself really thinking about what steps i am going to take to make my classroom a learning enironment for all types of students and all types of learners. I love in chapter one how it talkes about the classroom being a type of support system for students. I agree with this so much. No matter what type of life the student has, they should always feel safe in the classroom and feel like they are all equal no matter what kind of disability or learnig difficulty they might have. I want every student to feel safe and welcome in my classroom and know that they can come to me no matter what they are having problems with. On top of that, I want to be the teacher that really explores types of teaching so that my students remember what they have learned and really know how to apply what they learned. I know that no student learns the same way so I am prepared to explore different methods of teaching. I think it is so important how teachers set up their classroom and it really sets the mood for learning and the students behavior throughout the whole year. ONe of my favotite parts of chapter one was the students needs and modifications that are in the table. What a great thing to turn to to get different ideas for situations that may be happening in your classroom. I will definately take note of the pages so i can refer to them in the future. There are so many needs and it wiil be hard to meet the needs of every student. Like it says in chapter two, they need to be chalenged, but also feel comfortable and accepted. Being a teacher is so much more than actually just teaching. Being an elementary teacher is taking responsability for each students lives. There are so many different methods of teaching that I want to learn from this book. I really want to learn eerything i can so I can be the best teacher for every type of student that i will encounter in my classroom and i look forward to reading the rest of the chapters in this book and learning what ways i can make my future classroom a great learning environment.

Morning Meetings

I decided to write about morning meetings because I have thought about if I want to do morning meetings in my classroom quite a bit. After reading the morning meetings packet I really can't think of any reason not to have morning meetings be a part of my classroom. I think that there are so many benefits that come from having morning that it would only make my classroom better. There are a few changes that I would make so that my meetings are personalized to fit my classroom needs and make them my own. I think to start out I would just have my morning meetings once a week on mondays, but have them go a little bit longer than 15-30 min. I'm not sure though because I will just have to see how they work in my future classroom. I am not apposed to having them every day, but I will just have to see how they work in my class. I love the idea of morning meetings making my students feel closer and more involved with one another. I really want my students to feel comfortable in my classroom and not feel shy. I have a niece that is so shy and will not talk at school. It makes me feel so bad and I know that I will have students like that im my future classroom so I want to have my classroom be a place where each student feels safe and feels like they can be friends with everyone and not be emberassed. I also want my students to be able to share things that are important to them to the class and morning meetings are a perfect way for them to tell what they want and have other students get involved in their lives and come closer as a class. I think that having morning meetings are a great way to teach everyday things like interacting with one another and learning everyday things without my students feeling like they are bored with a lecture or a regular lesson. It is also a great way to start out the week or day, depending on how often you choose, with new things that will be happening and different activities the class will be doing so that each and every student feels involved and on top of things. I never had a class where we did morning meetings, but I really think that I would have liked them. I am excited to go and see some classrooms that have morning meetings so I can get a better idea of different things I would like to do. I got a lot of ideas from the reading and the reading also helped me to decide on having morning meetings. I liked the ideas about how to involve parents and let them know how important morning meetings are. I think the best thing for me is to talk one on one to parents about them, invite them to the class to see the morning meetings and also give them a few studies and articles to read if they would like about how much of a good influence morning meetings can and have been in classrooms. I am so excited to learn more about different activities I can do and other ways I can help my students become close and involved with each other and the class. I really think morning meetings will be a great activity that both my students and I will love.