Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 15

Chapter 15: This chapter seems to build off of the chapter that we read in TP2000. Communication with parents is very important as a teacher especially in the middle grades. It is important to communicate how their child is doing in school, not only the bad but also the good. It might even be helpful to just let parents know what the homework for the day is. By doing this and keeping parents in the loop you will be able to build better relationships with students parents. In the book, there are several techniques to keeping parents in the loop. Now-a-days, online is always an option and probably the most likely to be used. Other ways suggested were a newsletters, surveys, postcards, etc.

Turning Point: Chapter 9

Chpater 9: In this chapter, the involvement of parents and the community was the main focus. Involving the parents is a great way to strengthen your teacher to student relationship and is a great way to start a parent to teacher relationship. I think that it is very important to incorporate parents in a childs education as sometimes they are just as much the teacher as we are. I also think that it is important to gauge how much support a student recieves from their home and parents. This could be a good indicator of problems that may arise in school. It is important to involve the community as well as this is where students will end up. They can show their work and this will help students develop into good citizens.

Boys and Girls Learen Differently

The two activities that we did in the beginning of the presentation were really cool. I liked how each activity demonstrated to some degree the differences between the thought process and problem solving processes between boys and girls. The rest of the presentation went really well although I did not see the connection between some of the topics and the activities that we did at the beginning. It was also a little hard to get a good idea of what each station had to present as the noise level was a little high for some and others the time was cut short. Overall I think that they did a good job presenting and I enjoyed most of it.

Student Oriented Curriculum

From what I gather, this book fosuced on assessment and curriculum. There were some really neat ideas about having students create portfolios and have student lead conferences. I like this idea a lot and I think that it is important that students are able to take on more of this responsibility as they grow and mature into young adults. I know that in higher grade levels of my education students started to maek their own portfolios. It was cool as students would know as soon as they got a piece of work back whether they were going to use it in their portfolios or not. It was also a really good way for us to gauge our understanding and mastery of material.

A Whole New Mind

I really enjoyed this book presentation. I thought that all the presentors did an excellent job finding and presenting resources that were relevant to their sections. One of the things that I enjoyed was that even though we were learning about the book we were also learning about ourselves and what our strengths and weaknesses were. For example, I found it very interesting how I was extremely right brained. I mean it made a lot of sense and helped explain why I learn the way the I do. I also really liked the empathy test. I found it very interesting to see not omly my outcome but the outcome of others in my group.

Turning Point: Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Creating a healthy and safe learning environment for your students is one of the most important things a that a teacher can do to me. In the book, it talks about the importance and role of rules in the classroom. Not only do they help set guidelines for appropriate behavior but they are also a way to ensure student safety. The importance of health and physical education in schools is also brought up. I completely agree and think that every student should be able to have at least 30 minutes a day to get some sort of exercise. Not only to help them stay physically fit but to help them de-stress and to improve academically.

Turning Point: Chapter 4

Chapter 4: In this chapter the importance of differentiated instruction was talked about. Something that goes right along with differentiated instruction is teh idea of tracking, which is also mentioned in the chapter. In many of my other education classes we have been discussing the concept of tracking and whether or not it is still beneficial to the public school system anymore. This was also talked about in the film "Waiting For Superman." I feel that differentiated instruction is designed to teach speciffically to those who are not in a tracking system. Yes you could use the differentiated instruction in a tracked classroom but I think that it would be most effective in a non-tracked system. The use of differentiated instruction in a non-tracked classroom will help your students reach their full potential and will help you as a teacher reach your full potential.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Assessments in the classroom should promote learning rather than using assessments as a way of measuring learning. I agree with this statement. I think that it is important to check for student understanding but to do it in a variety of ways. Effective assessments should be motivating and have clear goals. By giving students the test to a unit or lesson before you even start is one way to help students know exactly what they need and are expected to know. The chapter also mentions that it is important to not only assess students via testing. I completely agree with this. I think that you can and should assess students through group activities, individual activities, projects, etc. I hope to incorporate these ideas into my classroom.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 7

Chapter 7: This chapter focuses on differentiated instruction and how it is useful in the classroom. Differentiated instruction can be viewed differently depending on the educator. I think that it is important to use differentiated instruction as best as you can to fit your lesson or unit. There is also a list of characteristices of successful teachers who use differentiated instruction. I am glad that I can use this list of characteristices on myself in my own classroom. I also think that this would be a good place to start if I need to review my teaching strategy and I can use this as a checklist to hold myself accountable.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 6

Chapter 6: This chapter focuses on three major parts; holding students accounatble, holding ourselves responsible and responding to the standards. There are many suggestions in the book of ways to have students be accountable for their work. One way to help students take pride and interest in their work is to display it in the school. Holding our selves accountable is probably the harder of the two. Usually when things go wrong teachers blame everything else when in reality we need to take a step back and examine our lessons, units, skills, activities, etc. It is also important that, even if you personally do not agree with the standards, we as teachers try our best to work positively with them. This will help us reach common goals nation wide and eventually world wide.

A Whole New Mind

I think that all of these senses are really impotrant to be aware of and to incorporate into your classroom. I really think that as a science teacher it is important to tink about the design of the room. Usually the word science prompts crisp, clean and white but I want my classroom to feel homey and relaxed. I think that it is important for students to feel safe in their learning environment. As a teacher I also think that it is important to develop a sense of empathy. It is important so that we can recognize students reactions. This will help indicate to us when to challenge students and when to support them. I really liked the book talk and the book sounds interesting. If i ever get the chance I would love to read it.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 13

Chapter 13: This chapter mainly focuses on the importance of outdoor adventures with a class. In the book, a camping trip is the main activity. There are tree major things that people learn baout themsleves when on a camping trip; physical, emotional and intellectual selves, gender equity and personal anatomy. All of these are important. Another thing that the book mentioned was that boys tend to become more nuturing when on camping trips. There are many ways to incorporate outdoor activities into a lesson in all subject areas. I plan to take my kids outside as much as possible as I believe that this is a good way to bring what we are learning to the real world.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 4

Chapter 4: I really liked this chapter on active learning. It is important for the brain and learning to be moving while learning. By getting students up and moving during a lesson, you are keeping them active, engaged and focused. I think that not only is it important to keep students engaged and interested, but by having students up and moving you are reaching out to students with different intelligences, those who may not be as successful in a traditional classroom. I want to have a lot of activities in my classroom and the list at the end of the chapter will be really helpful for ideas.

Waiting For Superman

I found this documentary very interesting. The film exposes the flaws and wrongs in the public school system, and there is more than a few. The film is biased against a couple of main things; unions, tenure and tracking. Unions in the schools is what allows for teachers to have tenure and in many cases this is not a good thing. When an ineffective teacher have tenure it is extremely hard to get them out of the school system. The other thing that really stood out was tracking in middle schools. The more and more we use tracking we realize that is is ineffective and not creating the results that were hoped for. Students should all be held to the same expectations no matter what level of learning they are at. I really liked the film and it touched me how many of the students wanted a better education for themselves. I only hope that students across the country share this passion for learning and want to succeed.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 3

Chapter 3: This chapter focuses on memory and how we can use this to get maximum memorization and retention. It focuses mostly on the brain aspect. A couple of techniques were mentioned in the chapter that are ways to help students remember various things in class. The use of a triad response in a class discussion would be a good way to keep students engaged and participating as well as helping them remember. Others that were mentioned was chunking, activities and bring emotion into a lesson. Students will remember things more easily if they can relate to them on a personal level.

This We Believe

pp. 43- 63
In this section, there is research given that supports the topics in the book. Middle school teachers should be aware of the research and techniques that are presented in this book. In order for a safe and supportive learning environment to exist, it is both the teachers and the students’ job to ensure this. One way that teachers can help to create this is through their curriculum, their instruction and their assessment. By building a curriculum that reaches out to the students had meets their needs and by building and maintaining relationships with student teachers will be able to do just that. Educators need to be aware that middle school students are changing and developing in physical ways, intellectual ways, moral and emotional ways, psychological ways, and in social ways.

This We Believe

pp. 33-42
In middle school, it is important for young adolescents to have a healthy social life. This aspect should not stop just outside of the classroom. In a middle school, it is important to have a balance of community and culture along with the curriculum. Integrating this will help students succeed. It is important for students also to build trust in their relationships, with adults and other students. It is important for students success and social developments to be watched to help students grow and learn.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 9

Chapter 9: In this chapter, the importance and beneficial use of block scheduling is discussed. Block scheduling allows for longer periods of class time versus the shorter 45 or 55 minute classes. Students alternate classes daily when following a block schedule. Block scheduling is also easier on teachers as it allows for more teaching time and less time trying to settle kids in and getting them focused. From personal experience, I prefer block scheduling, both as a students and as a future educator. While do practicum, I experienced the shorter classes (40 or 45 minutes) and it was difficult to get the students focused. By the time they were settled in and willing to learn there was only about 20 or so minutes of teaching time. This doesn’t seem very effective to me. Following the block schedule allows teachers to teach to their students and have them learn at their full potential.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 12

Chapter 12: In this chapter, teacher advisory programs, or hands on activities, are discussed. This way of teaching is different than the typical in classroom lecture. By incorporating these teacher-lead activities into your classroom and curriculum you will help build relationships with your students. This style of activity is becoming more and more popular. This is one of the many ways to get out of the traditional classroom and to help young middle school students learn more about themselves in healthy activities. I really would like to incorporate these kinds of activities into my classroom as to help my students learn more about themselves and build healthy relationships with my students.

Meet Me in the Middle: Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Similar to the chapter in Turning points 2000, this chapter emphasizes the importance of team teaching in the middle school. This chapter provides teachers with the help that they need and talks about subject integration. Through the use of team teaching, students are equipped with the ability to link important themes and topics from the different content areas as well as draw their own conclusions and make their own connections. This helps prepare students for the real world as content and interests are not always separate. In order to do this, teachers must communicate with each other and share core beliefs. This way, students will share these core beliefs not only with each other and their teachers but also in their education and learning.