Field blog Hathaway Brown 3

Today I observed a 9th Grade Biology Lab. It was taught by a teacher I hadn't met yet called Mrs. Spano, who I discovered is loved by her students. They were doing a lab on mitosis, to do this they were looking at some slides and working their way through a handout in pairs or threes. She then walked around the class helping students individually. Before this, however, she began the class by doing a short explanation of mitosis and of what they were going to do.

What I wanted to focus on in this blog was a conversation I had with one of the students at the end of class. One of girls whose mother works at John Carroll came up to me to ask if I liked John Carroll and to thank me for coming to class. She seemed genuinely thankful for me being there, which was odd but nice. She then told me how much she liked these biology lessons, what the classes were normally like and how often they had class. She explained that Mrs.Spano gave "the best presentations ever" and when I asked her why she replied that they were fun and interactive. She explained that the presentations always had fun anecdotes and pop culture in them and that she included the class in them rather than just lecturing. This seemed to get her very enthusiastic and really engage her in the topics she was learning. She then told me about the classes that were labs in ratio to the lecture classes and said that they tended to have lab every 6 classes. These labs, she said, tended to be more exciting and more in depth with a lot of joking. In essence this girl had a great classroom experience and loved her teacher.

Whilst I was talking to Mrs. Spano before class she told me about her feelings towards her class. She explained to me that this was her favourite class because they were fun and wild, but in a good way. She explained that she connected best with this class because they were freshmen and therefore close to middle school age. Mrs. Spano then told me about her teaching background, she started teaching in the middle school for a long time and then changed to high school teaching. She loves teaching the high school just as much as middle school but freshmen, she said, was a good mix.

I also spent some time in a senior class, but they were extremely preoccupied because today they had a pep-rally and carnival weekend going on. This is something the seniors planned and seemed to be an extremely exciting thing which all, students and teachers, participated in. This meant that most of the classes were extremely hyperactive and excitable. Something which I picked up on but also something the teachers worked around. They knew their students would be excitable and so did activities that made sure they were moving around a lot, they also didn't lecture very much and encouraged discussion. This made it a more friendly work environment and meant that the students didn't start to become agitated.

Field blog Hathaway Brown 2

Today I observed two classes, one of a junior anatomy class and the other of a freshman general biology class.

First I observed the anatomy class, this was mainly lecture using a PowerPoint and finished with half an hour reading from a book on anatomy. I have never seen reading a book used as a biology tool before so this was particularly interesting, because it was different. However, this was not the most interesting point that I saw whilst observing. As the PowerPoint was being shown many of the students had their laptops out, presumably to take notes. However, instead of taking notes a couple of them were looking at their social media, two were on their phone and one was somehow using her phone and on social media. This was amazing to me because when I was at school I wasn't allowed my laptops in class and if it even looked like you may be on your phone then you would be severely punished. This made me wonder, how useful is it for students to have their laptops in class? In reality very little I believe, they are less likely to concentrate and it provides a great way to be distracted from learning.

The second class, biology, in contrast didn't have their laptops or any other technology and were much more engaged with the class, not only were they engaged but their notes were more thorough. This suggests to me that, because there wasnt a distraction of the technology then they concentrated better and were more likely to learn more. The second thing I preferred about the biology class was that the teacher was perfectly happy to go off topic. They were talking about Blood Types and one child asked about why some people are sick at the sight of blood and others aren't, so the teacher went on a tangent to explain that. This engaged the students better and kept them focused on what she was saying, it also gave them deeper understanding about bodily reaction to external environments which is very important in biology.

Another thing that I have started to notice is that the teacher tries to encourage the girls to do their own work and praise them when they have done well by calling them "Clever girls". This is obviously to make them feel empowered and know that they are capable. However, for some reason, I found this particularly patronizing, but I am unclear as to why this is. However, the others in the classroom didn't seem to feel the same way, and therefore I think that it is fine.

Post 10

Throughout my blogs I have focused on teacher-student relationships a lot. Looking back at my previous blogs I seem to have put significant emphasis on teaching styles and the way teachers interact with their students. I think that this is because I believe that being connected to your students is really important for a students learning. The teachers that have been best for me, and the peers I have talked to, have always seemed to be those that connect to the students on a personal level.

This is particularly obvious in my blogs from my field observations, the teachers I focused on most and praised most were those that engaged personally with the students. This is especially the case for teachers who employed several different learning methods, such as by writing, hands on practical work, etc, as this engaged the students better than just using one style. The other thing I discovered through my observations was that I preferred laboratory lessons than lecture lessons, I thought they were more interesting and there were more opportunities to interact and connect to the students. Also the students seemed most engaged in these because they were actually discovering and seeing things for themselves. This engaged them in the topic better and therefore aided their understanding and learning.

My favourite blog was the one I wrote about what makes a good school because it shows me a core value I believe when teaching: every student is unique and must be taught as such. We cannot expect all our students to act and think and learn the same, therefore we cannot teach them the same. And I maintain the good school is the one that fits the student. It's a very subjective process.

I am not very good at reflective writing, because I don't really enjoy doing it. But I was impressed with myself because in most of my blogs I wrote a lot more than I thought I would. Having said this, I don't think I will continue this or use it in my own classroom. However, I know that some people do find it useful and as such if a student is struggling at all or I believe that they may benefit from this process I know I will have something that they can use.

Throughout writing these blogs I have discovered that although I love teaching I don't like worrying about the issues in teaching. I do like knowing the different options available but I am very person based, therefore I want my teaching to be solely student based. As such I find it important to know the different ways I could help my students but I do not find it important to worry about a lot of the issues because they are more institutional worries and I care more about the students I will teach.

Post 9

Good schools have happy, excited, learning children in them. That, in my eyes, is indisputable. However, the “good school” is the one that suits the particular child/group of children it is teaching. All children learn differently, all children thrive best in different environments. Therefore, it is my belief that a good school will look different depending on the child being taught there.

This belief primarily comes from my lived experiences and my knowledge of others’ experiences. In my education I have been to both Public and Private schools, I have been a day student, flexi-boarder, week day boarder and full time boarder, I have been to a co-educational and all-girls school, and I have seen students thriving and getting lost in all of them.

I know from experience that I do best in a small classroom, with more teacher interaction, which is why I got behind during Public school as there were huge classes. However, there were students there that did amazingly well and learnt well in a large classroom, where competition was higher for recognition and there were opportunities to teach material to those that didn’t understand.

I also know from experience that I do best as a full time or weekly boarder, this is because I can immerse myself better in my learning and I find it easier to do work at school than at home. I like the independence boarding gives you and the sense of family and community that come from it. At a boarding school teachers and pupils become more like a family, which aids the teachers understanding of the students and aids the students understanding of those teaching them. It also builds trust. Equally though, I have met many people who struggle under these conditions, these are the children who are homesick most and during their time at school, especially until the age of about 16, struggle being away from their family support network. This is perfectly fine, and normal, but for these people a boarding school provides an intimidating and counterproductive learning environment. A day school would allow them to learn with a school community but at the end of the day feel safe in the knowledge that their family support network would be in their home with them and they would be able to concentrate on their learning.

Finally, I know from experience that I need a co-educational school system to learn, my time at the All-girls school was terrible. I felt very enclosed, separated and lonely, because I felt like I was missing out on an aspect of life. To some degree I was, the knowledge of how to interact with the opposite gender comes from two places, home and school, without boys at school I found myself more scared of boys, almost intimidated. I also felt like the girls were at each other’s’ throats all the time and I knew that boys didn’t act the same. However, there were girls, and are many, that did fantastically. They weren’t distracted by boys, felt a security in having a group of girls around them and could concentrate and be free from worry.

The same can be applied to learning styles, teaching styles, space, location, and so on. In essence, education is subjective; I cannot describe a good school any more than saying it has happy, excited, learning children, because that is the only commonality. A good school is the one that suits the children learning in it.

Field Blog Hathaway Brown 1

I am spending my 10 hours observing at Hathaway Brown School. Hathaway Brown is an all girls school in Shaker Heights, well known for their science and maths programs. They are the oldest school in Ohio and it is a beautiful building. The school itself has a day care facility, early childhood education, middle school and high school all on the same campus.
Today at Hathaway Brown I observed two classes, the first was a Genetics High School Freshman class, the second was a Flower Dissection lab for the same age group. The first thing I noticed in the classroom was how small the classes were. The genetics class had 11 girls in it, which is considerably smaller than any public school classroom, but is similar to the class sizes I had at my school. The girls were asked to turn in their lab reports first in the genetics class but one girl said that she had completely forgotten to even do it, she was particularly distressed because it was the first assignment that she had ever forgotten about. The teacher, Mrs. McBeath, told her not to worry about it, but instead just email it to her as soon as possible. The rest of the class also comforted her and tried to make them feel better. This was good and it helped her calm down.
The comradary of the girls in both classes was an especially amazing thing to see, they all helped each other out a lot and were really into doing things as a group and helping each other as much as they could. This is good because it shows that they have been taught to work well together and these kinds of actions will help them in later life. They were very talkative but were well-behaved and participated in everything the teacher asked them to. They were also aware of Ohio Laws on education and teaching, especially comparing their school setting and a public schools', which is interesting because it shows that they are aware of the world around them, which many students are not.
In both classes the teachers used PowerPoint to explain their points and go through material. Some of the girls had laptops and used these to have the notes up on them too so that they could also make their own notes.
The genetics class started with Mrs. McBeath going through terms they had done last class and the students had to call back the definitions. This acted as a good review for them so they all remembered what they were doing before moving onto the Punnett Square. Mrs. McBeath went through the Punnett Square using a real life example of Mendel's laws and his pea experiment, which gave what they were doing practical meaning. They then repeatedly practiced this technique on worksheets that were given out. After each worksheet the class went through the answers and the Punnett Squares were done on the board.
Ms. Homany took the lab class on the flower dissection. Tables in the classroom had name tags on them, which I found interesting and I'm not entirely sure why they were there. The lab started by going through notes on plants that were made beforehand, the class followed using their lab notebooks. Each person dissected a flower of their own and worked through questions that were already in their lab books. I helped out one group who were doing a dissection and was amazed by the general knowledge they had and their proactive working. They all enjoyed what they were doing and were very diligent.

Post 8

This week we have been discussing many topics in class about the art of teaching. On Thursday we were discussing tests and their usefulness, especially regarding their reliability. It is my belief that the current climate in education is causing us to over test students, and to do this on trivial things which will be little use to them in the future. Therefore, I thought I would explain why I think this in this blog and what I think this means for society.

In essence, testing is good in moderation and when testing useful aspects. For example, testing peoples knowledge on things which they will use in their day to day life is seriously important. These are tests which are used to make sure people know basic Maths and language skills, sounds mundane and obvious but it is necessary. After this point testing becomes vague, and the knowledge subject to a persons future needs. For example, in a Maths class I learnt how to work out geometric sequences, which has no use to anyone except a theoretical mathematician. I was tested on this and although I could do it I will never use it in my life. Therefore the knowledge is useless to me, and the fact that I know how to do it, or not, is pointless. On the other hand, I learnt how to speak a little Spanish whilst at school as well, and was tested on this. I have many Spanish friends and family in Spain therefore I will use this knowledge a lot throughout my life. Therefore this knowledge and the fact that's I know it is useful to me.

It is impossible to tell what information is important to each person when they grow up and therefore we shouldn't expect everyone to know everything they are tested on. It isn't necessary. Therefore, we need to reduce the amount of testing to useful and necessary knowledge. If a person intends to go into a particular career they should be tested on their knowledge before entering the profession because this is useful and important to know if they have the correct knowledge.

At the moment society is stuck in a continuous test as we constantly assess each other's knowledge and fight for the title of the smartest. Eventually we will not be testing knowledge we will be testing peoples luck and ability to guess or regurgitate. This is not important in day to day life. We have to get out of the testing culture.

Post 7

"But the path to simplicity is littered with complexities. And I suspect that it is hard to figure out how to simplify our lives if we haven't cluttered them in the first place. Sure, we teachers clutter up our classrooms with too much claptrap. The fribble is often alluring at first, and it is hard to recognize that the more gadgets we rely on, the poorer we are - at home as well as at school." (119)

This passage is really good for two reasons, the first is the point Ohanion states that, "it is hard to figure out how to simplify our lives if we haven't cluttered them in the first place." This is an important point because it explains that we have to have cluttered lives to be able to simplify them. As a teacher, you have to try many methods, work out which works best in each situation and then simplify to just the techniques that work. But the important part is to try many ways and clutter to begin with, then to simplify once you know what works for each person.

The second reason it is a good passage is when she states, "it is hard to recognize that the more gadgets we rely on, the poorer we are." This is especially important in this day and age of science and technology, where everyone strives for more technological advances and uses technology for everything. At most schools the goal is to integrate technology into the classroom and use it as much as possible. In fact it seems that many believe that technology in the classroom is the key to successful learning. Subsequently, people are relying more and more on gadgets, which is reducing the amount of human interaction in the classroom. This is making our education more poor, although we think otherwise. Whilst some technology can be good it is important to have mainly human interaction whilst in the classroom, or else we lose a huge aspect of our learning. In school we learn subjects and discover many academic things, but we also learn how to interact with others, how to be polite and courteous and many others. In is this second aspect of learning that we lose when we over use technology, and this is a huge problem in a child's future. Without the ability to communicate successfully and be sociable a person loses many opportunities and it can create many problems in all aspects of their lives: relationships, work, family, etc.

Field Post 3 - orange high school

On Thursday 27th February we went to Orange High School, which is special because it serves many districts around Pepper Pike, where it is situated. Having said this, it isn't a particularly large school, housing around 700 pupils.

I went to an AP Biology class which largely consisted of Juniors, but also contained some Seniors and a Sophomore. The particular class I observed was a Lab on Hardy-Weinberg equation. This equation is to do with genetic diversity of a population with regards to gametes. The lab started with a fifteen minute video on sickle cell anemia, then they started actually gathering data. Their first set of data was on a taste test in which the whole class participated. Each student tasted a food which only some could taste, the data was collected in front of the class and then the class went through how to use the equation together. For the rest of the class they conducted their own lab, to be written up as homework, about gamete variations after series of five generations, each with a different set of circumstances.

The teacher engaged the students in the equation by making it real to them, as they looked at the gametes they had and the variation between them. They also were able to do their own testing throughout the class and therefore it was very hands-on. This is good because it allows the children to discover rather than be spoon fed the material. Therefore, in this way it is not like the Banking Method of Freire's essay.

However, I was acutely aware that they were being taught for a specific exam and as such the teaching was very much for the test. This meant that the material felt rigid, and even during the class the teacher said a couple times that something was going to be on the exam but something else didn't matter as much because it wasn't going to be on the exam. This is not good because it suggests that the only material that is good is that which is examined on, and the only reason to learn it is to pass the exam.

I spoke to the teacher and asked him what he thought of his job, to which he replied that he liked teaching, he still enjoyed it now he does AP classes which are more rigid, but he misses being able to cover material he likes. However, he mentioned that he thought that teaching to the test was good because, "if you find a good system you should stick with it." He also mentioned that the extra long holidays of a teacher was a particular perk!

Post 6

The Banking Concept by Paulo Freire is an essay on the way things are taught in today's society and the problem with that.

On page 111 of Educational Foundations Freire talks about a conversation with a peasant that went as follows: ""Now I see that without man there is no world." When the educator responded: "let's say, for the sake of argument, that all the men on earth were to die, but that the earth remained, together with trees, birds, animals, rivers, seas, the stars...wouldn't all this be a world." "oh no," the peasant replied. "There would be no one to say. 'This is a world.'""

This reminded me of a quote from the philosopher Descartes, "I think therefore I am." This is important because it tells us that the only thing we can truly know is that we exist because we are thinking. We perceive the world, call it a world, and all the things in the world by name too. Without us thinking this they would not exist in the capacity that we think of them. They would not have the name we gave them. If we were to discover a new creature, and call it a gobbler, it is only a gobbler from that moment on. Before that it wasn't a gobbler because it didn't exist in our minds before then and therefore there was not such a thing as a gobbler. In this way, without us identifying the world to be the world, it wouldn't be a world.

Throughout the whole essay the words 'oppressed' and 'oppressors' are used frequently. This is extremely harsh language, but makes a huge impact on the reader of the essay. He makes a specifically harsh distinction because it allows us to see how bad the Banking method actually is. However, I got slightly confused about who in particular were the oppressors. This is because the oppressed were obviously those being taught, but sometimes it was also the teachers themselves. Which makes me wonder when we know who is the oppressed teacher and who is an oppressing teacher. My thoughts are that it's probably the oppressed teacher is unaware of the way in which they are teaching and is not aware of another style, the oppressive teacher is the one that recognizes another way but makes a conscious decision to use the Banking Method instead.

Field Post 2 - Beachwood Middle School

On the 13th February 2014 we went to Beachwood Middle School, it is a particularly small middle school with a lot of diversity, it is also very wealthy. I went to do different classes, the first was Chinese, the second, English.
In Chinese they started by having 5 minutes to study before doing a short test on vocabulary. Just before giving the test, the teacher went through spellings, calling on students for the answers. After the test they learnt to count from 1 to 10, and their homework was explained to them. This is what I observed and interpreted during the lesson:

Observation	Interpretation
Each child has Apple laptop given by school	Rich school, many resources, so good environment
Chinese themed room	Immersive environment
Personal teacher pupil relationship	Allows teaching to be personal and more adventurous
A-not good for one, amazing for another	Individual teaching, more personal
Need “Good penmanship”	Accuracy is important, teaching an art as well as a language
Use workbooks	Organized, pre-planned lesson
Matching pictures, reciting and writing out to learn new material	Many different ways to make it more interesting

Before the class started I spoke to the teacher about what she thought about teaching and she said, "I love my job, but only in this district, nowhere else." This is interesting, because it shows that where you work as a teacher affects your experience as a teacher, but also how well you can teach.

The students started by looking up their own word of the day from reading that they were doing in English. They then worked through grammar rules with the teacher, finally moving on to a conflicts paper. This is my T table for this class:

Observation	Interpretation
Teachers desk at the back	Not important
Colourful boards around the room and Word of the day board (“Absurd to Pedagogy”)	Interesting and challenging, some words on the board I didn’t know, worrying for me…
New student asked to read and teacher questioned to work out where she was in the syllabus	Trying to integrate new people
Do work then go through in class	Methodological
Some desperately want to answer, some just don’t talk (then get called on)	Genuinely interested, or teacher wants them to be engaged

I preferred to watch the Chinese lesson because I felt it was more engaging than the English lesson that seemed to mainly work through a blue packet and wasn't as individualistic.

Post 5

The difference between my high school British experience and my American University experience with LGBT people and it's Implications on my thinking.

This week we have been talking about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender individuals in the educational arena. The conversations we have been having made me wonder how different my experience in the UK is to my experience in the USA. It is more similar in some ways but different in many others.

My high school was a private boarding school in a small rural town in Somerset. There were only two gay people in my school, that I knew of, and both were students. It was a very ignored subject in school around those two people, but many jokes were made. Being gay or lesbian was definitely made fun of, and the idea that someone might be homosexual was highlighted, anyone who had this was picked on a little for it. People also gave a wide birth to those which our school society deemed possibly homosexual. The idea of bisexuals and transgender people baffled most in the community, no jokes were made or comments because nobody really knew about it. We didn't have any information on them and nobody seemed sure about how to deal with anyone like this.

In the UK as a whole being homosexual is fairly accepted, not completely, but most people are fine with it. But, like at my school, many people in the UK don't really know how to approach Bisexuals and Transgender, because it is not commonly known. I do not know why this is but it does seem to be the case.

Here at John Carroll University, it seems that homosexuals have less jokes made of them than at my high school, I'm aware that there are still some, but fewer. The biggest contrast to here and the UK is the reaction to bisexual and transgender individuals, it is mainly accepted here and people seem to be more informed about them. I believe this is a good thing, because it is important to be informed to know how to react to different people's situations. I find this is the case throughout the USA, or at least in this area of the USA.

This leads me to an important advancement that I believe should be done throughout all educational institutions in all countries: to educate about being LGBT, what it means and how you should react to it. If it is made to be a perfectly normal thing then no one will tease or react to it. It is different but the difference should eventually be as accepted as women wearing trousers (pants or jeans) in today's society. It was socially unacceptable, but now, nobody looks twice, and that's what we should be working towards for LGBT people. I think this now after learning and working out more things about these individuals, without this I didn't care, I believed it normal to joke about it, and that was fine. I do understand that some may find it wrong to be LGBT, and that is an ok belief to have, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be accepting of those who are LGBT or that you should tease them. It is easy just to not bring the issue up.

Post 4

What is institutional racism? It is a type of racism that is derived from a group and not an individual, institutional racism is racism that comes from an organisation or institution. It makes the racism normal and creates rules in which racism is unavoidable for the individuals in the population. The effect of institutional racism is negative because it allows individuals to learn racist behaviours and causes the victims problems with functioning within the institution.

Institutional racism tends to go unnoticed by most people but if you look at the victims and their stories it becomes clearer. An American young man at my high school wrote and spoke like an American, he was proud of his heritage and enjoyed being able to be American when he came at 14. However, throughout his schooling the teachers would tell him that he spelt and said things wrong, because it wasn't the Queen's English; when he used particularly American phrases he was shunned. By the end of the first year he didn't feel comfortable in his lessons or around school, he spoke rarely and was very synnical of everyone around him. He resented anyone who said anything about what he had said wrong and didn't want to go to lessons that particularly picked up on this. Classmates had learnt that you should correct people if they pronounce or spell things wrong, and picked him up on all his mistakes too. By 16 he hated where he was and everyone around him, all he wanted to do was leave and go back to the USA. He felt lost and alone because everything he identified to had been damaged and had holes picked into them, in essence he couldn't work out how to identify himself in the place where he was without completely rejecting it. So that's what he did, he rejected the institution and set himself on a way of returning to the USA.

This persons story shows how much of an effect institutional racism can have on someone, how just constantly correcting someone can lead to resentment and hatred.

In one class from school I can remember the boys being sat at the front of the class and the girls at the back. The teacher explained the reasoning was that the school wanted him to keep a close eye on the boys as they were most likely to mess around, which is an institutional stereotype; that girls are passive and listen and boys are loud and do not. However, as a result the boys had more attention during lessons because they were closer to the teacher and had to focus because they were at the front which agitated them because they felt less trusted. Girls on the other hand has less attention and listened less, they distracted themselves during classes, talking or texting, because the teacher was more focused on the boys. Therefore they did worse than the boys because they didn't have the attention required to stop them misbehaving. So the negative effect for boys was the resentment for not being trusted, but the negative effect for girls was bad grades because they didn't listen. A seemingly useful stereotype, therefore, caused problems for both parties in the situation and it was because of a rule that the institution made.

Field Post 1 (Mercer Elementary)

On the 30th January we went to Mercer Elementary to have a look around and observe a lesson for half an hour. Mercer is an IB school which is different to many others throughout America and, as such, has different values and ideals. It looks to educate students in critical thinking and not just 'learning for the test', therefore it highlights the importance of learning for learnings sake. This is a picture of what the IB schools Primary Years try to teach/achieve:

When we were walking around the school the walls were very colourful and had much of the childrens work on them. There was also a hallway which was designated as an Art Gallery with pictures done by the children. On some of the walls were core things that the children were taught to think, like learning to be inquisitive. As we were walking around the PA system came on and the morning started with a short burst of announcments and then everyone recited together what the IB schools stood for and what they were trying to achieve today.
I then went into a Kindergarten class where they were learning how to write. This is a table showing my observations and interpretations about the classroom itself:

Observation	Interpretation
Colourful decorations (Letters and numbers, calendar, name board)	Help learning and keep the children interested
Tennis balls on chair and table legs	Protection
Open center space	Room to move and actively learn
Useful materials, art stuff, etc. on shelves and smart board
Toys to one side (blocks, kitchen things, etc)	Somewhere to play but that is not the primary purpose of the room
Group tables of about 6	Teamwork is good
Magazines and books for many reading levels	Encourage to learn through doing
TV set and water fountain

This is a table of my observations and interpretations of the children in the classroom:

Observation	Interpretation
Talkative but not too loud, liked to move	Involved/Engaged with class
Put hands up	Respect teacher
Happy and excitable	Wanted to be there
Write on white boards	Interactive and easily corrected
Excited when right and ask if they are unsure	Want to do well
Disabled child has special help from  personal helper and equipment	All included and extra effort made for those who need it

This is a table of my observations and interpretations of the teacher and helpers:

Observation	Interpretation
Uses a smart board, writes the correct form	Everyone can see and everyone will know
Makes jokes about things	Learning is fun and creates a happy environment
Checks boards after letter/word/sentence is written	No-one is not corrected/allowed to fall behind
Hugs and messes around with children	Personal relationship – like a parent in the classroom
Tells the children they are smart, they have beautiful handwriting and pretends to try to trick them	Positivity allows them to believe they are good at what they are doing (confidence)
If wrong tells the children softly and works with them individually to get it write	Cares for each individual child and wants them to succeed
Uses signs and sounds for each letter	Helps the children to remember them by association
Uses a points system for correct answers	Make it a competition so the children want to win
Letters then words then sentences	Working up to challenge them
Extra helpers for reading	Helps children one to one

This teacher had made the classroom look and feel like somewhere where the children wanted to learn, as described from the book, to teach:in comics. His relationships with the children was also very similar to those described in the book, he was on a journey of discovery with the children and they were very happy to be there with him. This reminded me about the Ray teacher in finding Nemo and the fact that they genuinely did go on a constant field trip and discover things together. His humour helped to engage the children and made them feel excited about learning.

Post 3

Throughout the past class periods and the readings that we have done I have been thinking about one question consistently, so I thought I would answer that in this post. My question to myself is simple, in my life who has been my favourite teacher and what made them the best?

This is quite a hard question to find an answer to, I have been lucky enough to have a wonderful education with many great teachers who were good for many different reasons. They have, almost entirely, all taken great interest in my learning, me as an individual and been interesting and excited to teach me. All had a keen interest in what they were teaching me and loved what they did. All would do anything to help ensure that I, and my classmates, would succeed to the best of our ability. All attempted to engage me and relate to me as best they could to make sure I reached my full potential. And all of the above things make great teachers, they are all qualities which create environments in which students can excel and be the best they can be.

My favourite teacher has all of these qualities and everyone in his class loved his lessons, even though some of them didn't like the subject, but he made the work easy. His name was Mr. Atkinson and he taught me Biology through my GCSE level, so ages 14 to 16. The Biology GCSE was one of the most dreaded exams, two two hour exams at the end of two years of school, they were the most stressful exams of the time. And yet, after a year and a half the whole class was ready to take the exams and felt confident that they would pass. All of us achieved A or A* grades in the end.

His lessons were so engaging that one hour felt like five minutes and a lifetime of discovery all at the same time. He would always bring in something to show us, something we could see, touch, dissect, anything to allow us to actively learn. I distinctly remember one time that we were doing gas exchange in humans and he had a sheep lungs brought in, and every one of us blew up the lungs.

We had to write notes and the only annoying part of that was that the way he taught was so interesting you just wanted to listen. That sounds cheesy, but it's true, everything he said just sounded so exciting and interesting because he was so interested and excited by it. When we finished the syllabus early he asked if we wanted to do a bit of the next level stuff, and we were all enthrall end to know, just to soak up every bit of knowledge he had for us. So he went through some genetic principles and we understood them better than many of the students actually taking that class did. Not because we were more clever than them, but because we all were so interested in what he was saying.

Many from my class were very shy students, me among them, we didn't like asking questions, didn't want to speak up or get in front of everyone. He noticed this and spoke to each of us individually instead to find out where our interests were, in relation to Biology or anything, then he made sure his lessons were centered on them. After a bit of time asking questions on a one to one basis we built up trust with him and suddenly found ourselves perfectly happy asking questions out loud. Within a few weeks we were all active participants in the classroom and were asking questions more than he was teaching. The best part of this was that he was happy to digress to answer the questions that really puzzled us. For example, although we were doing gas exchange he was happy to go into the nervous system when we asked what made us keep breathing.

I think this was the key thing as to why he was the best teacher, because he let us run the pace of the course with our questions and would be happy to switch between topics, rather than say, "we will get to that later" he just would talk about it now instead, equally if it was a totally different subject he would still happily talk about it. This taught us that everything was interconnected and that you can't just categories things because topics do overlap, and I notice that that is forgotten in many school systems.

Post 2

My friend Sam and I went to the mall to observe people and this is the chart we came up with:

Observation	Interpretation
Man in a coat	He’s cold and hasn’t removed it yet from being outside
Young man sat outside a shop on his phone	Stuck waiting for his girlfriend to finish shopping and bored
Teenage girl with parents and an ice cream	She got ice cream because she wants to be with her friends and its how her parents enticed her into going
Dad and two young children throwing coins into the fountain	Kids are excited but dad is cautious because he doesn’t want them to fall in
Mum and daughter look very similar shopping together	Mum wants to be daughter and daughter hates it
Three male friends walking around aimlessly	Hanging out with nowhere to go and nothing to do
Couple buying a suit in a taylor shop, woman does most of the talking	Its her choice and hes just their for sizing purposes
Woman carrying a young girls dress	Mum out to buy daughters dress for an occasion
Security officer walking around playing with his walkitalky	He’s bored and has been there for a while
Mum and Kids throwing coins in a fountain	Kids very excited, Mum is cautious but glad to have them entertained so she can sit down
Dad and son with a sports shop shopping bag	Went out to get sports clothing and cant wait to leave the mall

Our Parking Lot contained the following beliefs:

All men hate the Mall,

All girls are spending either their Dad's, Boyfriends or Husbands money,

Mums enjoy going shopping with their daughters more than they do.

I tended to notice the people's stances and what they were doing, whereas Sam noticed facial features and focused a lot on their emotions. However, our interpretations were fairly similar from different observations, which was interesting because it shows that everything can be interpreted in certain ways. We are both people who don't really like shopping, or the Mall, so a lot of our interpretations were saying that other people disliked being there too. I also think we focused a lot more on the individuals who looked like they were having less fun there. We were both more inclined to interpret things about individuals rather than explain what we see thoroughly, and that was surprising to both of us. We thought it would have been easier just to describe people and what they were doing, but instead that was the hardest part. Our parking lot contained stereotypes that we always thought about when we thought about shopping, and I think they are things that everyone else thinks too.

Post 1

My name is Jennifer Grant, but I prefer Jenny. I'm from Wales in the UK, from a farm in the middle of nowhere, but I love it, it's peaceful. I live there with my parents and my younger brother, who is pretty much my best friend. I have no idea what grades I would want to teach, all I really know is that I want to help people. I love working with young children, but I also enjoy high school ages. If I were to teach in high school I would probably teach Maths or Biology. I like cooking, I love baking cakes and things like that.

For me to feel comfortable enough to take intellectual and creative in the classroom I need to feel comfortable about the other people in the classroom, and know them well. I am a hard working and determined student, I always have been. I have good preparation for class, however, I'm not very good at speaking up in class. I work best when I write things down and use lists with colour. For example, when I revise I use index cards with colours and constantly refine my notes. The only problem with this is that it's very time consuming. When I don't understand things i talk to people in class and my teacher, but I'm shy so I tend to do that in one to one settings only.

When I was in school I had teachers who were very proactive, and would do everything and anything for us as pupils. However, my history teacher in middle school was not like this at all. He would sit at the front of class with a book and lecture from it, and we were expected to take notes from this without ever seeing any texts ourselves. After this long lesson our homework was to write a three or four page essay on the information we had about whatever we had done that day. It was the single most boring lesson I have ever been in and it killed any liking for history I have, now I will do anything not to do history. Which is sad because sometimes I wish I knew more, especially about more recent history.

A problem facing schools right now is how test orientated learning has become, it is very obvious to both teachers and students, that learning is done to pass the exam, not for sake of learning itself. What's more it seems that more and more tests are being added into the school system, thus exaggerating the problem. Teachers stop feeling like they can have fun teaching because the syllabus is so rigid and there is pressure put on them for their students to pass. The students themselves struggle because they feel like what they are learning has no real world impact. This is especially big in the UK where in my exams at the age of 16 I was taught one thing in Biology on a topic, then for my exams at 18 I was told that what I had learnt was wrong and had only learnt for the exams sake. If I hadn't continued Biology I would never have known, so I know many people now believe a lie taught by schools in Biology!

Dr. Shutkin, why did you choose teaching? And on the next level, why did you choose to teach college students teaching?