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.