Career Meeting

I attended a lecture concerning the majors at Luther College and careers with these majors. This lecture applied to education majors because it showed all kinds of directions we can go. When we think of education majors, especially elementary education, we think that person is going to be a teacher for the rest of their lives. For some people, this is exactly what they want to do. For other people, the lecture encouraged that even though you are an education major, there are many different areas you can end up in. I think that this is important for education majors to know, especially myself, because I cannot see myself in a general classroom setting for the next how many years. I think I am going to need some variety!

Chalk

I thought this movie was alright. I think it was good for future teachers to see because although these situations were made up and exaggerated, we could come across a colleague like one of these teachers. In my education history, I had a teacher who was a mix between Mr. Lowrey because he acted like he had no idea what he was doing and Mr. Stoope because he still tried to make the students believe he was the best teacher. I didn't receive anything out of that class. A friend who I was watching the movie with commented that these teachers were making her frustrated and mad. I think it is beneficial for teachers and others to watch this movie because it makes them think about what they would want in the teachers for their own children. It may give them a new appreciation for good teaching and how much work goes into it.

Parent Lecture

The parent lecture was really surprising for me because of some responses the parents made. I went into this lecture a little naive about parent and teacher relationships. They say the biggest fear for young teachers is the parents. I had never thought about this being an issue until the lecture. I was brought up with parents like the father who was at the lecture. My parents were interested in my school work, my effort, and making sure I was learning, but if I had problems or issues, especially in middle school and high school, they wanted me to confront the teachers about them. This lecture was a good way to introduce me to parents with different thoughts and it brought me to understand these views and ideas.

A couple things that were mentioned that I found would be helpful to me as a teacher were the communication topics. I think that teachers will be able to develop a good relationship with the parents if they keep a solid communication line open at all times. I think giving parents hours and a phone number or e-mail address in order for them to contact you is a great idea. A teacher wants to keep that relationship open with each other and the hours give the teacher his or her personal time, as well. Although a teacher may be dedicated to their students, they should not be expected to be at the parents call 24/7. I think most parents would find this professional, as well.

Another thing I took from the lecture was to be personable with the parents by being aware and sensitive to parents' feelings at conferences and IEP meetings. I think many young teachers may be unsure of how to present themselves in an IEP meeting if they have not had much experience before. One of the parent's statements that was most helpful was to state the positives first at the meeting. I think this not only sets a good tone, I think the parents will have a better feeling that you are setting a goal that their child will be successful and you want to carry through with that goal. This also applies to conferences, if you state something positive about their child, they will want to hear more and in turn, be more willing to cooperate and help with the topics the student needs to work on in any ways they can. Because, like one parent said, teachers and parents are a team working together, not against each other.

Teaching with Students' Interests in Mind

In our last lecture, the teachers mentioned how they try to stay in tune with what is happening and what are the influences in their students' lives. I saw this video and thought this was a good way of incorporating the students' interests and learning into one project.


I liked how in the song, the students displayed that they learned about both parties, each party's platforms, and also the election in general.



Here is the song...
YouTube - You Can Vote However You Like

Here is a full interview and part of the song...

YouTube - Full Interview with Ron Clark Kids - You can Vote However You Like

New Teachers

I've really enjoyed hearing from guest speakers who come from "the outside" or "real world". This week was another addition to the informative lectures that I have attended. It was nice to hear from people that are in the spot we will be in a couple years down the road. I know that I am going to feel the same way most of them did their first year. I am going to be extremely excited and want to do all these great things with my new ideas, but I will have to remember that there will be teachers, probably on some teaching "team" that I'm on who will not want to hear about them. I thought the one teacher made a great point where when this happens you just need to be true to yourself and try things for yourself. I think new teachers need to make mistakes just as the experienced teachers had. This is how they learn, as well.

There were a couple of things that I was apprehensive about. I didn't like the idea of working two jobs. They mentioned that a lot of teachers work another job at a store or somewhere else. I really want to be a teacher, but only a teacher, not a cashier too. I understand that these are young teachers coming out of college which they need to pay for, but the comment turned me off from teaching a little bit. Another thing was that these teachers all knew they wanted to be teachers from the start. Since I am not completely positive about teaching yet, I wanted to hear that they tried all these different majors and came to see that they really loved to teach. If I'm not 100 percent sure I want to do this for the rest of my life, is that a sign?

School Board Members

I found this lecture to be informative in ways I wasn't expecting. I thought that they would talk more about the "good teaching" questions we had put forth, but I found the most informative part of the lecture to be realizing what the school board actually does. It was interesting to hear about how they deal with issues and compare them to how the administrators deal with the same issues. These issues were anything from NCLB to budgets. I was informed on the way Iowa has decided to budget or use funds. They seem to put money in categories and that money can only be used in those categories. At first I thought this makes sense so that a lot of money isn't spent in one area and other areas are neglected. However, I think that this system leaves areas where someone could find many loopholes to get around certain "rules" about the budget and funds. I don't know a lot about how other states budget their educational funds but it doesn't sound like the best way to handle educational money.

I also liked the ideas talked about regarding foreign language. I am starting my sixth year on a foreign language and I still don't feel fluent. I had an encounter in one of my classes where I was forced to use my Spanish with a three year old child. I could communicate certain commands and small talk with the child, but it made me think about how he is only 3 years old and has been talking for a little Spanish for a year and a half or so and I have been speaking for 6 years and he knows more than I do. I think it makes sense to start children in elementary school with a second language. We could at least expose them to another language so when they reach high school it isn't something that is entirely foreign.