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.

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.

Turning Point: Chapter 6

Chapter 6: This chapter talks about middle school team teachers and how important they are to the dynamic middle school. The book emphasizes how important student-teacher relationships are. There were several things that are essential to creating a good team. Size is very important and looping can be a good idea. Size of a team matters as you want to be able to create strong student-teacher relationships with all students. Looping is a good idea to consider as you will be able to continue to use, build and pull on those relationships for more than one year. By referring back to this chapter you will be able to build strong and effective teachers.

Turning Point: Chapter 2

Chapter 2: In order for this new middle school education system to work, the educators are a key for success. Educators should have or try to live up to certain characteristics that help maintain this new system. It is important as an educator to teach a grounded curriculum, one that maintains students’ interests and compliments to students learning style. Curriculum assessment and instruction should be connected. This new middle school education also tries to reincorporate the engagement of students and their families. School systems succeed with the support of families and without that support the school and community would degrade. It is a two way street.

Turning Point: Chapter 1

Chapter 1: This chapter introduces the idea and integration of middle school studies. Research shows that the specific middle school teaching methods have improved students performances in just about all areas of study. Also it has been reported that the relationships between colleagues, peers and students and teacher have improved. Students are experiencing a greater sense of happiness, peacefulness, and well being. There have been other problems that have come up in schools that have inadequate academic preparation. The trend seems to follow racial and ethical minorities as well as students with lower SES standings. The hope and outcome of this fairly new modified middle school education system is that all students have the same outcome.