Learn and serve week 6

Today in learn and serve there was a substitute for Mrs. Roeser, but I had an interesting day. Their first period class is a very busy one, meaning that the kids in it..are always busy...talking. Its a hard class to manage even for Mrs. Roeser, so when a sub is there...the kids can take advantage. There is one boy in this class named Bob. Now Bobis intelligent, just lazy. He always loses worksheets and never has a pencil and is always flirting with the girls and talking to other guys. He is the type of student that distracts everyone from doing something productive. Today however, it was my job to keep him on track. The sub simply assigned them a worksheet to do about angles. This is the same material they have been working with for 2weeks now, so they should have flown through the 6 problems they had to do. Bob however did not have his worksheet. I had to make extra copies and provide a writing utensil for him. He didn't work even after all I provided for him. He kept talking to other students and causing trouble. As a result I pulled him aside and worked on it with him. While the other students got to put their answers up on the board, Bob had to sit alone with me in the back of the room, not participating in the fun. What surprised me was how quickly and accurately he got the answers. I was mildly impressed. So I asked him, "if you know how to do this math, why dont you just do it and save yourself the aggravation?" He replied "Its annoying to do math." I laughed because I always loved doing my math homework, and math class was the one class I looked forward to during the day. Overall, I learned that even though Bob may be hyper in class, he does know the material, and even if I must sit down and do it with him, at least I know that he will be prepared for the next test because of it.

I also came to realize that Bob may have undiagnosed ADHD, his symptoms fit it, and he doesn't like sitting still and working, at all. so I'm curious if he may have this, in Chapter 4, it discusses how children with ADHD act in school and what to do about it. However, I dont believe that it is a learning disability in Bob's case, just a distraction. While I was working with him one-on-one he seemed perfect and very capable for doing the math on his own. I am thinking that this ADHD may just be a social conflict. He may feel that he needs to draw attention to himself by acting out to fit in and be "funny" to his peers. Even though this may be funny to others, Bob doesn't have to act this way, and I think he knows that he doesn't have to, but he chooses to because he needs a distraction while in school and an outlet to be able to fit it, because who doesn't want to fit in, right?


Directly outside room 300 there is this poster. I thought that I'd take a picture of it and relate it to the textbook. Throughout the entire textbook, it is always noted to be respectful of other people, even if they are different. This sign demonstrates the moral of our text, to be respectful, responsible and not bully others. I thought it was a neat way to put our textbook into perspective because really, all we're learning is to accept others for who they are and not judge them by a disability.

CAST visit for the class I missed

I found out that Cast is a great program that helps teachers learn new methods for teaching students who may have several various types of abilities. Casts solution is called Universal Design for learning, this technique provides a blue print for creating flexible goals, methods, materials and assessments that accommodate learner differences.
they also have various networks that accommodate different abilities such as:
-recognition network
-strategic network
-affective network
to learn more about UDL click here
CAST's professional development provides preK- college educators with knowledge, skills, strategies and tools that maximize learning opportunities for all students. Guided by Principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and researched based practices helps today's educators meet the requirements of today's diverse classrooms.

This website makes me recall chapter 9 in the text about children with gifts and talents. These students are exceptional and as teachers it is our responsibility to know how to work with them.

learn and serve week 5

Today in learn and serve it was a half day because the 8th grade math teachers had to attend a training session. this was kinda wierd for me to hear, I didnt think that after you get a career post-graduation that you still had to be "trained" as a teacher. all these realizations are making me re-think teaching. I knew that as a teacher, my responsibility rests in the states hands for the material that I need to cover throughout the school year. But what I wasnt aware of is all the interfering the state does in every school district multiple times a year. they pretty much monitor every move a teacher makes, and i'm not sure how to feel about that. good that they care about how the future congressman of the united states are being educated, or bad because they dont allow their teachers to use any diversity in their own classroom and actually teach their students....i guess i will have to find a happy medium.

anyway, today we worked on a packet and more vocabulary words. Congruent was the new word of the day and zero of the kids knew what it meant.(I guess they were suppossed to read before class and know the definition..) So as a result, while they were working on the packet I had to answer the question "what does this word mean?" about...13 and a half times. but I enjoyed it because I love helping students. something that made me laugh was when one of the students asked me "are you good at math?" before she allowed me to answer her question....I guess I made her believe that I am indeed good at math. lol

since it was a half day i got to sit through more than 2 classes, I was able to see her inclusion class and her honors class.(honors left, inclusion right) the honors class was working on solving equations with a variable while the inclusion class was 2 weeks behind her regular 8th graders, just beginning to learn complimentary and supplimentary. One of the kids in her inclusion class was an attention hog and was being very disruptive while the others were trying to work and she had to send him to detention, this was the first time I had ever seen mrs. roeser yell at a student. In our textbook in Chapter 2 it touches base on how students should be in a classroom with the least amount of resistance. This is important to reference because in the classroom I was just discussing (Roesser's inclusion) this is an example of how students with disabilities are being put through a classroom of least resistance. Shelley often tells us that she teachers to the "highest" level because it pushes those below that level to achieve greater things. This chapter discusses how this is possible through an inclusion classroom.

all in all it was an interesting day because Mrs. Roeser trusted me to manage the classroom alone for about 20minutes. which was nice because I got to feel like it was my classroom. I got to answer the student's questions and, as always, they were very accepting of me being in charge. It was great = ]

learn and serve week 4

Today was an interesting day at learn and serve. I was able to help the students with a worksheet they had to complete and present in class. Its nice because the students are starting to warm-up to me and ask me for help freely and actually have conversations with me. Today I was complimented on my shoes. =]

The kids are currently working on complementary angles and supplementary angles. we gave them a pop quiz, but unfortunately only 3 of the students got a passing grade. = [ but it was mostly for little mistakes such as confusing complimentary angles with suplimentary angles which is easily fixable!! There is light at the end of the tunnel! Hopefully by Tuesday(when their test it) they will have it down. They were all listening very intently to Mrs. Roeser when she was explaining what they had done wrong on the quiz and how they can improve it by the time the test comes.

Another cool thing was that during 2nd periond I got to sit in and listen to mr. clark's science class. His class is an inclusion class who has one child named Bob, he's blind and has a great sense of humor! One thing I liked about Mr. clarks class is that he made the students use the smart board A LOT through his lecture. the kids liked it and it made them interact with each other and have fun while learning. one thing I noticed was that Bob had an aid with him that spoke to him through images she would draw on his back and help him visualize what was going on, I thought this was very interesting a good way to keep Bob feeling like he is a part of the classroom.

Today was a good experience for me because I can see myself beginning to feel more comfortable in the classroom, instead of just standing in the corner while the students do a worksheet I will walk around and ask if they need any assistance or if they understand what they're doing. It's a great change to how I used to act in learn and serve and I think it has a lot to do with the teacher that I am working under. Mrs. Roeser has helped me feel comfortable in her classroom and I appreciate all the guidance she has given me thus far.

The textbook makes it a point to infer that females are less likely to pursue a career in math or science because society portrays females staying at home, cleaning, cooking and raising a family while the male figure goes out to earn the money. I strongly disagree with this because in the 21st century women are capable of just as much as males are, espically in the professional sense. Even though the textbook does not address this, studies have suggested that women are actually smarter than men in most cases. this is because women can multi-task and relate to others on a personal level which helps with their memorization of material and applying said material to a later instance.

In Class November 5th

During class today I got my very first experience with an adult who has a developmental disability and I must say that it was a great one. We were assigned two topics to do a presentation on. Rebecca was my partner and we chose from the Good Work HaBits (one B) "Respecting Others" and from Bad Work HaBits we chose "Complaining" I personally think we had a GREAT example for complaining...you will soon find out why!!!
After we returned to class we went into stations to play with playdoh, and build a fort!! I think we did this so that the O.U. students could interact with all of us and not be limited to just a small group, which I think was a lot of fun.

My Experience with Lisa was amazing. She is about 35 years old, she wouldn't tell me exactly how old she was because she was embarassed, even though she shouldn't be embarassed because she's beautiful. She is very talkative and fun to be around. I couldnt have asked for a better partner. I found out that she loves pottery, reading, baking and cooking, she also loves CAFE MOCHAS with 3 splenda, no whipped cream and skim milk!!! She has a younger sister who is married and has a son, who she claims, cannot get enough of her(and I can't blaim him!) She is a great individual and I consider myself lucky to have met her. I also met Ben and Melissa, they were amazing as well. These adults that came in today truly are exceptional!!!

The Class I missed...

Have you ever spent time with an adult with a cognitive or developmental disability? If yes, describe and explain.
No I have never spent time with an adult with a cognitive or developmental disability...Until today!! (November 5th) So we will see how it goes, I'm excited!! =]
Opportunitys Unlimited
CAST Universal Design for Learning
IRIS Modules
She Stoops To Conquer

This is Lisa, I spent the class with her, learning about her and getting to know what an amazing person she is. This is the first adult I interacted with that has an exceptionality. It changed the way I look at other adults just like her.

Learn and Serve week 3

This week at Gaskill Prep. I got to help the kids with a small in-class project using Algebra Tables. Algebra tables were very new to me, I have never seen them before in my life and I came to find out that they are REQUIRED by NYS to teach in the classroom and it will be testable material.

I honestly do not know why they introduced FOILing in this fashion because it is the most confusing method I have ever seen. To show this to a student who has never seen two bi-nomials being multiplied together before, and expect them to understand this is crazy. I am in Calc III and I had trouble the first time I saw it. Tuesday was actually one of the very first times I enjoyed myself at learn and serve. I had time to discuss topics with my teacher including the testing that every student beginning in 1st grade has to endure up to graduation, ONLY these "tests" don't count until you reach highschool(Regents Exams) their only use is to determine whether or not the teacher is teaching the required material, and whether or not theyre teaching it correctly. If the student fails, it does not matter, they continue onto the next grade level without consequence, these examinations are purely for comparison purposes. I personally find this outrageous. We should not be putting such elaborate tests down 7year olds throats. And to continue doing so until graduation is even worse. All this testing is leading to higher levels of drop outs in high school, and lower over-all GPA's because by the time the students reach high school they are burnt out from all the testing. Also, they figure because the tests they took at the end of the year didn't matter in previous years, the one they have to take called the Regents Exam, won't be worth anything either. WRONG. Students won't understand the difference between the tests, and all the ciriculum forced upon teachers does not allow much room for the teacher to actually TEACH her students. No room for creativitiy or variation. Its all about knowing the material for the end of the year state exam....ridiculous.

The textbook discusses in chapter 8 that students with autism will typically have a difficult time performing well on a state examination such as these because they compare his results to other student's results. Chapter 8 goes into detail about the symtoms of those students who have autism and how they over come it. A better way to help a student with autism feel successful about the progress he/she has made throughout the year wouldn't be an exam, but perhaps a hands-on activity with his/her teacher demonstrating some of the skills he/she has been taught throughout the school year.

Anyway! Learn and serve came to be a good experience because I loved helping the students understand their math better and actually getting to be involved and not just stand and observe!!!! =D

It was like a breath of fresh air...or a beautiful beam of sunlight through the trees!!