Chapter 6 motivation and boredom

"Passionate teachers. A teacher who cares about both the material and the students has an enormous effect on how much students care about learning"(103). This quote is very accurate, teachers who show a true passion for what they are teaching will gain better respect and students who are more eager to learn. When teachers know the material and have different ways in explaining it students can gain from and succeed better, instead of just one way. Students are willing to learning teachers just need to find a way to present the material in an appealing manner.



As a high school graduate I believe that many teachers can have a successful classroom if they are passionate about their materials. When teachers know the material the best they possibly can it encourages students to want to learn it also. Teachers have full power to determine if the subject is interesting or boring and relating the material to every day life helps to get students engaged and focused on the material.

Chapter 5 Teaching to the individual, working with the group

This chapter had several valid points, however what stood out to me most was "Getting all kinds of students to open up in class creates an atmosphere where they can learn together even through they may have different academic backgrounds"(89). It is very important for teachers to reach children at all different levels. When the teacher is able to reach everyone is when the class starts to expand, grow, and develop together. Learning together is a part of life and people will have to work with other people throughout their entire lives so it is important to understand different learning styles and different points of view.

I believe that the classrooms which were most successful in my high school career
were the classes which included everyone and got every ones attention. The more my classmates put their input into conversation the more other students could feed off of and add to. Someones ideas can turn into goals and reality when everyone is contributing. When students open ideas to other students it helps for the classroom to gain knowledge and see others point.

Chapter 4 Creating a Culture of Success

"Teachers can help by encouraging students' to contribute to building on each other, so that learning becomes the whole group's task."(70). I enjoyed this quote and thought that it is very important to have the students give their feedback. This helps to get students thinking about the subject and also allows them to hear different view points on the idea. When students are talking out loud in class it helps to keep everyone engaged and interested in the material.


This quote made me think back to high school and the classes which I enjoyed the most. The classes which everyone was involved with projects and group conversations seemed to go by the fastest and also were more enjoyable at the time. Learning the material seemed simple and easy because conversation just flowed between the students and the teacher. These contributions help to get people thinking of different perspectivies and allows insight to different thoughts on the matter. Talking and contributing in class is crucial and helps for a better understanding of the material.

Chapter 3 Classroom Behavior

In chapter three there were two questions which grabbed my attention. These two questions included "Are you genuinely interested in who we are and what we already know?" and " Do you treat us with respect, in both personal and academic matters?" (37). These two questions show a teachers general concern for students and it shows that they really want students to succeed in the classroom. When teachers show respect and show the students they believe in them and want them to be successful students will be more willing to push themselves.

This part of the reading jumped out at me because I don't believe that all teachers think these questions over. I believe that some teachers are not interested in what we already know and what happens in our personal lives. When I look back at high school teachers who knew the students and cared about where they came from tended to have a higher success rate in their classrooms. It is important to have a balance between what the some students already know, and other students who have not been exposed to the information.

Web 2.0 Educator

I picked Wesley Fryer to read and write about. He is an expert in digital learning. The first blog I read about explained about virtually guest speaking in the college classroom. There is a bureau of virtual speakers called MERLOT which stands for Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching. He explained that this is where people can go to register to be virtual speakers and can tag their speach here for teachers to use in the classroom. Wesley supports MERLOT and is excited to learn more about it in the future. Wesley Fryer talked about emails are not private. He explained that emails can be forwarded to many people and posted. Emails can also be used against school systems by law and can cause many problems. It is important that if there is a touch issue meet face to face and discuss it. I support and agree with this and I believe that many people forget they are on the internet and almost anyone has access to what is out there. It is essential to keep things positive and only say what you mean especially in emails or online. A no screens afternoon is taking away technology and just enjoying the things around you. Wesley did this one sunday afternoon and he realized that it was a very positive experience. I believe that it is very important to take time away from computer, tv, games, and work to just enjoy the people around you and do activities together. I believe that overall he was very informed about technology and I enjoyed reading about what he had to say.

Type I and Type II Technology

Type I technology is applications of technology that teach traditional ways which you can’t expand your horizons of teaching different methods. Some forms of Type I technology would be a simply device such as a calculator. This helps students do both simple and complex forms of math. The calculator assists in many different areas in math, but also allows the teacher to teach the same way they would without using a calculator. I remember always using a calculator, but also knowing the steps to do the work out on paper. This is important because when calculators aren’t available it is import to be able to continue doing the work. Another kind of type I technology would be television. Television can help to explain a lesson in different words and it can help with visual learners, but it doesn’t help expand the horizons of teaching. The last example of type I technology is a CD player. This helps for the musical people in the classroom, but it doesn’t further the children’s knowledge of learning.
Type II technology would be computer programs or computers when used in the proper way. Computers can really help to enhance and bring a lesson to life. Computers have unlimited possibilities it is just important for teachers to get the proper training. Another type II would be certain computer programs such as excel. This can be helpful and has multiple ways of helping in the classroom. The last type II technology would be the internet. The internet has millions of web pages which are filled with useful information and when used properly can open doors to new learning strategies and information.

My MEL experiences

Environment- Helping students succeed. Back in high school my stats teacher was extremely hard on students. She expected nothing but the best from everyone. Although this class was extremely challenging and she made you do work over and over again she provided almost all of her time day in and day out for students to come get extra help. If someone missed a class she would devote 45 minutes of her time to go over what happened in class and she would make sure that the student understood everything prior to leaving the class. The environment which she provided for us was steady across the board and everyone felt that she pushed us equally as hard.

Experience- Hands on Experience. In my Chemistry class the teacher would always try to follow her lesson up with an experiment or hands on activities. The activities and experiments which we did in the class further explained the lessons and were easier to remember when taking tests and quizzes that activities always jumped back into my head.

Experience- Learning Styles experience- The best history class which I have ever been in was back in 8th grade. My teacher came up with an idea to dissect the song We Didn’t Start The Fire by Billy Joel. The classes which followed not only taught us a lot about history, but also the writing incorporated English too. This class was not only fun, but a great learning experience and I will always remember singing and dancing around the classroom with all of my peers.

Interests- motivation interests- Teachers have all different ways to motivate their students, but sometimes the best way is grabbing the student’s interest. When students are forced to take classes which don’t appeal to them it is already challenging. The teacher can help make it easier by making the class interesting and tying in life experiences to gain interest. One of my science teachers did this in high school and it made the class that much more enjoyable.

Meaning- Connections- When students can connect the learning to real life or can connect it with past classes it is more enjoyable to learn. In high school as the classes in math continued to get more and more difficult it was always reassuring to look back and see how past classes are helping you understand the material in the more difficult math classes. In math everything builds on top of each other and it gives significant value to even the most simple math problems.

Chapter 2 Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

In Chapter two I found this quote stick out the most “Students say that if a teacher sets a steady example of fairness and respect, they respond positively whether or not they like a teacher personally” (17). Students need a positive role model to look up to. When teachers have respect and show it in the classroom students are more likely to respond in a positive manner.


This part of the reading stood out because thinking back to high school I always looked up to authoritative figures. Regardless of whether the teachers were fun or whatever I appreciated and respected the teachers who were the most fair and respectful but also demanded respect for themselves. It is important to set a balance between being a fun teacher but also having the respect from the students and the only way you can only get respect from the students is to give them respect.

Chapter 1 Knowing Students Well

After reading the first chapter in Fires in The Bathroom the main thing which I agreed with was “They want teachers to understand the obstacles they face in their everyday lives.” (1). I believe that this is very crucial especially when sometimes teachers don’t know where certain students are coming from. Although it is very difficult to understand where every student is coming from, it is an essential aspect of the teaching profession.


I felt that I could really relate to this statement; knowing where each and every student comes from is a crucial aspect of teaching. Each and every student faces different obstacles day in and day out. An obstacle to one child may seem like nothing to another child. Every person reacts differently to life’s challenges.

Learning Style Inventory Results

After receiving the results of this personality test I came to the conclusion that it was very close to accurate. My top two results were social and physical. These two styles describe my personality extremely well. The results which followed the top two weren’t as accurate as the first two were. I believe that my top style is physical because I have always been an extremely active person and I have always been involved in sports teams. (not proper graph).

Style Scores
Visual
6
Social
16
Physical
12
Aural
4
Verbal
9
Solitary
10
Logical
2


These results were given from learning-styles-online.com