Guest Administrators Lecture

I thought that the lecture with the two administrators from the Decorah School District was a little taste of reality. I liked hearing their sides and views of NCLB. In class I feel like we discuss how NCLB has so many flaws and how it isn't good for education all the time. In Ed. Psychology I think it is okay to talk about or challenge NCLB and different laws, but the administrators gave the reality side of things, which I really enjoyed hearing. They talked about how you deal with NCLB and how it can be beneficial to students and teachers. Not knowing a lot about NCLB before I started my education classes, I was finally relieved to be able to hear a different perspective. I thought the comment by the middle school principal about comparing a surgery that is research based to a classroom that is research based made a lot of sense. As a teacher, I want to know that what I am teaching and how I am teaching it in the classroom is adequate and works. I would also feel much better and more confident about what I am doing if I have data to back it up. I also think the data will then help me to see where I can improve. Overall, I thought it was great lecture, and I learned a lot by attending.

Article in class about Multiple Intelligences

In class, I read the article titled, "It's No Fad: Fifteen Years of Implementing Multiple Intelligences" by Thomas R. Hoerr. I found this article to be really interesting because it kind of compares "old school" teaching with "modern" teaching, or that's the way I took it. It was the article that listed the intelligences and had famous people who were evidence of the intelligence listed.
The Multiple Intelligences schools (MI schools) have the theory that "the job of an educator...becomes identifying the ways in which children exhibit intelligence and using their particular strengths to help them learn." The article also talked about a school that included Intrapersonal Intelligence and Interpersonal Intelligence on the report card. These two intelligences "addressed areas such as motivation, confidence, problem solving, responsibility, effort, work habits...appreciation for diversity, and teamwork."

I think that MI seems to be a good thing to keep in your mind while teaching. I still think that children need to learn the reading, writing, math, etc. concepts, but there are many ways you can teach these ideas. All students are different in how they learning and this is where MI could come in, but I don't think it should show up on report cards. The two intelligences that I talked about above seem like they could possibly fit into personality categories and I don't think they should be graded on areas such as these. I think these areas are really important to work on but not be graded on. Talking about these areas with the student and parents is a good idea, but putting it on the report card seems too official.

High Stakes Lecture

Not being able to attend class on Friday, I was very confused about what was going to happen at the lecture. Talking to my group members they informed me that there was going to be role playing going on within a fictional school district meeting with a fictional school board. I really liked the idea behind this lecture. I thought it was a different way of learning about NCLB and its aspects. I liked how we had people from each side bringing different ideas to share with the group for each one of us to take into consideration and learn more about NCLB. I also thought the roles were designed well in the sense that many of them could be found in a real life setting.

What I found frustrating with the lecture was the debating itself. I think it was a great way to voice people's opinions about NCLB within their role but it seemed to get a little out of hand at times. Some people would say things which others contradicted. Right away they would blurt out their opinion and while that person was finishing another person would be screaming theirs without listening. Also, if someone would ask a question, some people seemed to get a little snotty about it. I know its a debate and the people were arguing their sides, but can't you argue respectively of other people and keep an open mind? I felt like we would have a good 10 minute discussion and then the next 10 minutes were out of control craziness, which then seemed like a waste of time. We needed a judge in the room keeping order. This part of the lecture was hard because we weren't able to hear everyone's ideas or even listen to all of the roles that should have been presented. In a real life situation, I don't think a lot would have been accomplished in this meeting.