Parent Involvment

How do you feel about Parents in the classroom?
I think that parents in the classroom are a great concept and in theory would be a great non monetary contribution. I do however feel that sometimes allowing parents to be too involved in the classroomcan distract the student from their learning environment.
How were my parents involved?
My parents were the working parents. My mom would come on my birthday and both my parents would come to sporting events, but I can not think of a single time that my parents volunteered within the classroom or school district.
How would I be involved as a parent?
I am the parent of a 2nd grader at Anne K Hieman and twin preschoolers at Scott Elementary. I have volunteered with my oldest daughters classes sense K, but only recently (last 2 months) have I taught in her classroom through Junior Achievement. I have done many other classes at all the local elementary schools but am just now starting to do her classroom. I am not as comfortable as I normally would be as I feel that I am either letting her down by not being able to make her my favorite or if I am repremanding another student, they will take that out on her. I don't think that I will be so closely nit with her classroom agian in the future.
How do I want parents involved in my classroom?
I would prefer that parents be more involved in the learning at home rather than in the classroom. I do however want parent involvement for field trips and holiday/birthday parties, but not as much in grading papers or teaching lessons.

Education Alternatives

What alternatives do you believe would be most effective in closing the achievement gap? Why? What has been your experience with any of these alternatives, and how did that experience impact your learning?

I think that all of the alternatives would be effective in one way or another. I do however feel that to be effective in closing the achievement gap parent participation is a must. I do not think that Charter schools or private schools are going to help us close that gap rather than make it larger. Although this isn't the school districts fault, this is a big aspect of the gap between successful students and students that lack the knowledge and skills to keep up with the class.
My daughter attended a charter school for her first two years of chool. While I was impressed with the amount of parent participation and volunteering, I was not too impressed with the amount of take home learning that was given. Amara, my daughter had homework only one night every two weeks. If a school is trying so hard to have parent involvement, the school should rely on the parents more for at home learning as well and pulling weeds from the play ground. Amara now attends a public school in which she has assigned homework four of five nights a week.

Great Classroom Management

Part of what makes a great teacher great is the fact that some character trait or interest-coupled with PASSION for the topic-sets that teacher apart. What sets (or will set) you apart?
I think that what will set me apart is that my passion is not for a specific topic but for the childrens thirst for knowledge. I want each child to feel that they are getting something from the class/lesson and want them to want to be there. My ultimate goal in teaching is to encorage the students to want to better themselves and their knowledge. I want the student to be able to express themselves and their ideas as well as have a lot of hands on experiences. I think being able to reach out to each students learning style and interests is the biggest part of promoting good classroom management along with student success. I want the students to respect me and I will respect them fully. I also want the student to be able to talk to me about things that are bothering them within their education. If they need assistance I will be sure to help, but students need to know then they are doing well also. There will be rewards that the student will want to earn by trying their hardest in their learning.

Responsibility

What responsibility do teachers have to understand and become comfortable in a culture other than their own?
I think that as a teacher you have to have an understanding and feel comfortable with other peoples cultures. This is necessary when celebrating or explaining holidays and birthdays and also in the everyday classroom activities. I do not believe that as a teacher you should have to know all the ideas and principles of each culture or religion, but a general idea of each in order to be able to cater to the needs of specific children. I do not believe that there should be any special treatment based on culture, but equality across the board. There should be no bias or prejudice against any particular culture.

Reaching Out

I feel the single most important thing in making a student who is high risk, lives in poverty or ESL is to make them feel 100% equal to the other students in the classroom. I would not give these students more attention but make them feel that they are no different from the rest, allowing them the same oppurtunities as the more fortunate children and possibly put more effort in giving them those oppurtunities. I will have the same expectations of them as well.

Student Voice

I think that giving students a say in their education is a great idea once they reach a certain level of academics. I think that it should be a privledge that is earned by an idividual who exceeds expectaions in academic level and extra curricular activities. I also think that these individuals should be trained or take a special class that gives them experience in how to assist with the functions they are able to assist with, such as parent-teacher conferences, hiring of new staff, developing curriculum and sitting on the school board.

Culturally Responsive Teaching

In the video case, it represents Multicultural Education and Thematic Teaching. The teacher wants to make the kids feel safe and honored and wants them to understand that she is interested in learning about who they are and where they are from. She wants to hear and have them hear each others points of view and recognize the similarities, and find common feelings.
Teachers can arrange many different activities for older students. Each student can be assigned a different area of the world to research and learn the culture and become familiar with their customs and or traditions. A presentation can be put together to show and compare the different cultures to their own to the class. Another option would be for each student to trace their own ancestry and research traditions and culture on their own family.

"So Much"

I think that reading "So Much" to the students would give them a sense of family. It would also allow them to be exposed to the different names used by different cultures such as grandma vs nana or mama vs mommy etc...
I think that I would use this book to help the children understand the importance of family and showing love to one another. I would also use it to help children that don't have the typical home (mother and father) that having a grandmother or aunt take care of you and love you is just as important as a mother or father and they can love you just as much.

Teaching as a profession: Collaboration with colleagues

The collaborative process shown in this case study allows the teachers involved to reflect not only on themselves and how they are handling the particular evaluations of students math abilities but allows them to give insight to each other on how they could possibly do things differently in order to meet the kids and parents changing needs and become consistent throughout the school rather than in each individual classroom. These teachers are setting aside time to reflect or re-evaluate how things were handled in the past and allowing themselves to make improvements to meet the schools common goals.
I would enjoy collaborating with colleagues for many different reasons. I feel that schools should be consistent throughout and in order to accomplish this, all teachers must be on the same page and following the same rubric in grading and curriculum. This also would form a greater bond between colleagues and allow for a stronger, more cohesive team of educators to benefit the students. Schools and education are changing on a daily basis along with the needs of the students and the amount of involvement of the parents. In order to maintain the highest level of student interest, the school must be able to work together in order to work alone in the classroom. If you are unable to bond and for alliances with your colleagues you will be unable to form the same bonds with the students.

Unperfect

I am not a perfect girl.

My hair doesn't always stay in place &

I spill things a lot. Im pretty clumsy &

sometimes I have a broken heart.

My friends & I sometimes fight &

maybe somedays nothing goes right.

But when i think about it & take a step back

I remember how amazing life truly is

& maybe, just maybe, I like being

Unperfect.