Teaching so Far this Semester

Getting to know my students on a daily basis as opposed to only a few days per week has been an interesting experience. I believe being there everyday has helped to establish my presence as one of authority, but I still fear classroom management issues; though, I suppose, most new teachers fear management as I do.

I have realized that I do like teaching and it is a good fit for me. I know it will be years before I am a good teacher but I know that I can be. I am looking forward to starting my lessons and unit plans with the students. I think that is when I will truly feel like a teacher.

The Three Doctors and Their Pact

Tuesday was a professional development day at Forsythe Middle School, where I am placed as a student teacher. The professional development was centered around equity in the classroom and stressed the importance of clearly making sure to include minority students in the classroom without making it known to the students what we as educators are doing. Within this development day there was a movie presentation which introduced me to "The Three Docrtors." These men have been added to my list of heroes. They are brilliant amazing success stories from Newark. They also emphasize the theory that people from these areas should not strive to "get out" but should become educated and stay "within" their communitites to make better the society there. I encourage all educators to watch their documentary and read their books and I encourage all educators to share their story with their students.

http://www.threedoctors.com/

I do not understand people

If this does not anger you as a human being then I am sorry for you; if this does not inspire you to change the system as future educators then perhaps you should think of a different path. This is the stuff "they" do not teach you in class. This is the real world, a reality many of us will have to and will chose to face when we are done with our program. I do not understand how the government and the education system can sit and watch as the good children in America are thrown away. In no way is this fair and in no way are the people who can do something to change it doing anything. Why isn't there more of an outcry after this? And why aren't we, as future educators, discussing these issues. Just because we chose to not recognize reality does not mean reality is not there. These instances disgust me, but what disgusts me more is that in America an honor roll student can be beaten to death on his way home from school and no one is doing anything to change it. It is our turn to change things and I only hope half of us have the conviction to do so.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7032313
http://news.google.com/news?q=Derrion%20Albert&hl=en&ned=us&sa=N&tab=vn
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/29/crimesider/entry5349007.shtml

A Realization

Incorporating technology into my classroom is something I find seriously important and integral to my ability to successfully and competently teach my students; however, I have come to realize incorporating technology will be more difficult than I originally assessed.

Computers break and technology fails more times than I thought it would. Sometimes hooking up the power point for a class can take more time than planned and other times the computer projector just doesn't work.

Videos are also difficult to incorporate into that classroom. I often wonder how much time I should devote to showing clips and videos in my classroom and how much is too much. Also, deciding what is really appropriate as far as rating if you get a video off youtube may be difficult to assess as well.

I am learning more and more why incorporating technology can be an arduous task, but it is one I am willing to take on. I am going to try and figure out how to incorporate technology when the technology is not necessarily available, and I am understanding more and more if I incorporate technology I must always have a back up plan.

I am extremely interested in using cell phones in my class lessons. Unfortunately I do not think I am going to try this year. I feel middle school may be too young to incorporate cell phones into instruction.

Just a Thought

A correspondence with Liz has made me think about teaching in a way I had not before. All of us are either career changers or have decided we would like teaching to be our career. None of us took the traditional route to teaching so we have all had lives before this and we all have different work and educational experiences to bring to the table.

Before I began this program my ambition was becoming a journalist. My focus was on doing sports journalism via the Internet. The Internet has so many fascists of alternative and traditional media. It is an interesting place to be.

So, I have decided instead of leaving my experiences in the past I want to bring what I learned from journalism into my social studies classrooms. What better way to learn about current events than to search the Internet for different types of news and leaving comments or editorials directly on the website?

I am also throwing around the idea in my head of setting up a class Internet media outlet where the students are the reporters, editors, designer etc. Anyone else, especially you journalists out there, have any ideas about how to incorporate journalism into the classroom? Does anyone else plan on incorporating past career skill in the classroom? How are you going to do it? I would love some more ideas!