Sunday, February 14, 2010
Post 3
As teachers, we are held accountable for reaching and teaching all children, regardless of the myriad of factors that influence their academic success or failure. We, and no one else, are held accountable for raising test scores in classes whose sizes we can’t control, in schools that are falling apart, without enough books or computers and too often without the support of families.
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I agree with what the statement says, but I also believe that this seems like the view from the general public about the job of a teacher. I have heard many people who are not in the teaching profession verbally smash the reputation of teachers. The general public has this idea that if you are a teacher you should be able to teach all students no matter of their problems. I know from personal experience within a classroom if you have a Kindergartener who’s dog had gotten ran over before the child got to school the child is normally unreachable until later in the day maybe even the next day. As a teacher we need to be able to work around the problems which arise in our rooms and still teach the students to the best of our abilites within the settings we are given.
ReplyDeleteThe reading stated that as teachers we need to make learning exciting and make our students confident within the learning environment. If a student is comfortable then they will be more likely to perform well. As the reading stated we should be teaching students three main things. One is communication. As teachers we are supposed to prepare our students for their next level. If students know how to communicate well others are likely to listen and absorb what is being said. One way for us to do this is to lead by example to our students and have a clear way of communication.
The article also stated that students should be learning reasoning and human relations. One way that teachers can use human relations within their classroom to help their students become well rounded is to allow them the human interact that all students need. Teachers can initiate interaction with not only students but with administration and support staff. Also, teachers can also encourage students to have relations with other people in the community. Reasoning is a hard one that needs to be taught. Teachers have to deal with the backgrounds and cultures of students and how they teach reasoning.
As teachers we are held accountable like the reading says but we also have to deal with the everyday problems which arise in our classrooms. We need to be prepared for whatever comes our way. The general public should also understand this. Many teachers do everything they can for their students in the ways of personal and academic ways.
I agree with the statement above. The statement has several good points. Some of our schools are falling apart in this area and that does distract students from learning and it can also affect their health. We have a shortage of new books and computers. Schools in this aread cannot afford new text books and are still using their old ones with outdated information and this affects how well our students will be prepared for the world. Also with recent budget cuts in the state classrooms have grown with size. Teachers are expected to handle all of the students and be able to make them perform at their best even though there is 25-30 students to one teacher. The article states that many schools do not have the support of parents this is true in some cases. The thing teachers need to ask themselves is why we dont have the support of families? are the families to busy? do they not have transportation? does the school not make them comfortable? There are several questions a teacher should ask him/her self when it comes to families do not just assume. I also agree with whitneys statement on the kindergarden student whos dog got ran over and not being able to reach the student until later if at all. Teachers can try and comfort their students but some things just stick in a persons mind such as a loss, divorce, and arguments. All of these issues can be comforted by a teacher but at the end of the day it is still going to affect the student and I dont believe a teacher should be held realiable for such. The teacher can influence a student with motivation. The article states that if a student cannot connect what is being taught with some imporance in life then they are going to tune it out. As teachers we need to connect our lessons with real life situations and this can help our students learn. Our learning needs to be exciting. Whitney touched base on how the public should know that we try and reach our students academically personally and that we as teachers try our best to help the students in our classes.
ReplyDeletePart 1
ReplyDeleteI wish, once and for all, we could finally lay to rest this never-ending and completely unnecessary debate over intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. If we were to break things down, I would guess that better than 95% of everything we do is “extrinsically” motivated. We work for food, we work for money, we work for pleasure. Even the fact that we brush our teeth is motivated by not suffering the aversive consequence of having someone tell us we have bad breath. Why then is it so surprising when we hear of external rewards and punishments being used in a classroom? Granted nearly every classroom I’ve ever been in uses them incorrectly, but still the classroom is no different than any place else. When my oldest daughter started bringing home failing science grades, I tried to set up a fairly simple token system in which every percentage point she brought up her grade she could trade in as many token points for access to an activity. It worked. My wife was mortified. Her argument was that Katie was only doing better because she was getting rewards, not because she was learning science. She thought that Katie should do well in science for the sake of doing well (i.e. getting good grades). The fact that my wife claims she would not do her job if she didn’t get a weekly paycheck seems to her to be a different matter all together.
In the classroom we have 2 competing agendas: what the kids want to do and what the teachers, district, feds say is important for the kids to know/ do. Within the competition we find a continuum of solutions. On one end we have those that say to students “You are going to learn what I say, how I say it because I said so”. At the other end you have those that say to students “Learn whatever you want in whatever way works best for you because I can’t teach you to make your own meaning”. Naturally both have their positives and negatives. In the former, we expect to see lots of content being presented but not a lot of uses for that content. How many of us find a daily use for learning States and Capitals, or the story of Paul Revere, or underlining nouns and adjectives in a sentence? In the latter we might see students who take a strong interest in one particular area or subject and could tell you all about its many practical uses. But how well would anyone function if they only knew one subject area very well at the expense of all others?
Part 2
ReplyDeleteIf there is to be a compromise between these two camps, I think it will have to come from that remaining 5% of what can only truly be called intrinsic motivation. Learning itself is the only thing think might be considered intrinsic. Humans love to see progress, whether it be a construction job nearly completed, a business plan coming together, or a damned homework assignment almost done. Knowing that what they are doing makes a change they can see is often more motivating than either the process or the product. When I was working with my daughter we kept a weekly graph of her progress. I told her to forget about her grades now and at the end of the quarter and how she was going to get there. When she stopped worrying about them something interesting happened. Her graph showed improvement. After a while she wasn’t doing her science lessons to get an A; she wasn’t doing them because they had great social importance; rather she was doing her science lessons for the sole purpose of making her trend line go up. Progress. Learning. Change she could see. Even those trinkets she got for doing well seemed secondary after a while.
So let’s take stock. Did she bring her science grade up because I stood over her with candy and threats? No. Did I let her fumble her way through her lessons, picking out only the things she liked and discounting the rest? No. Did I indicate to her that her worth was somehow tied to her final grade in science? No. Did I indicate to her that learning about weather patterns and the water cycle were a waste of time? No. So how did she bring her science grade up? By making learning itself more important than anything else. If we as teachers are ever going to reach a compromise whereby students’ learning is personally meaningful, practical and free from externally motivating rewards, and at the same time provide some kind of incentive for students to sample and learn material outside of that with which they are most comfortable, teaching them to graph, monitor and value their own progress, their own learning is the key. When we take the value or emphasis off the process (i.e. theoretical methods of instruction) and the product (i.e. grades versus personal construction of meaning) we see that the most important way to teach children to learn is to show them they are learning.
This statement is a statement that many people feel. I think that too much pressure is placed on teachers in this aspect. I do think that teachers should be accountable for what they do in their classroom and with their students but there are so many other factors that contribute as well. Students need constant support from many people, not just their teachers. Parents need to take some responsibility in their children’s learning instead of blaming their teachers. When problems arise in a classroom the teacher is always the one to blame. I am not saying that the teacher isn’t the problem, but people use them to place blame all the time. I think that this is a problem. Most all of these people are people who are not in the teaching profession. They have no idea what it is like to be a teacher. Like Whitney talked about in her blog, I can remember when I was in forth grade my dog died one morning before school. I was out of it that whole day and most of the next. Kids have things that go on in their life that no matter how hard the teacher tries they will not reach them. You have to learn how to handle things like this and let some things go. We as teachers do have to deal with things like not enough room, or not enough books, and many other problems. This is part of our job and we learn how to handle it while still being held accountable.
ReplyDeleteI agree that teachers are held accountable for the student and his or her learning in the classroom environment. However, not many people realize the obstacles that teachers have when it comes to students learning. This could mean there are factors from home that are bothering the student that day, within friendships, not enough materials provided for the teacher, etc. If this is the case, reaching those students is a struggle. I do believe that we as teachers are essential to our students and are to make sure they are learning to the best of their ability. We need to understand what is going on with our students and adapt our instruction to their needs. I agree with Whitney, that this statement seems to be the general public’s viewpoint of a teacher. They do not really understand the day in the life of a teacher until they are put into their shoes, furthermore, I think that is the case with most professions. I also believe that we need to include the parents of our students as much as possible because they are a major part of their children’s education. Having said this, the parents need to understand their value in their child’s education.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article, the article states that if we give the students choices to learn a specific skill, while the teacher is shaping their choices, the students are encouraged and excited to learn more. It also states, “To help the student learn anything useful without crushing his desire to learn in the process, we must be willing to sacrifice the impossible dream that the student learn everything we would like.”(Teaching to Individuals)In other words, we need to encourage the students to learn and allow choices to help them become successful learners. We cannot just teach to the test, we must teach students about life and the real world so they can be successful outside of school. I know we are accountable as teachers to teach and reach as the statement says, but in order to do so people must understand the adversity that comes with teaching. We need to work as hard as possible to teach and reach are students in every way possible. On the other hand, we also need to understand we may not reach every single student that comes our way but we must do everything we can to try.
I find a lot of truth in the above statement. It seems to be the perspective of many politicians and a lot of the general public. I think it is obvious that students and their teachers benefit from smaller class sizes, plentiful and updated resources, and support from families. Unfortunately, the combination of such positive factors seems to be reserved for the wealthier members of our country. Therefore, as teachers, we have to face reality and learn to work with what we are given, whether it is fair or not.
ReplyDeleteI think that schools seem to be adopting curriculums or policies that foster performance orientation, or extrinsic motivation, for their students. They implement programs such as PBIS to motivate the students to have good behavior so they can be awarded tickets to buy things at the school store. They give incentives like pizza or prizes for reading books. They teach toward the test and then move on, eliminating the chance for students to make connections between what they are learning and what they are experiencing in real life. The truth is that it is more difficult to find ways to intrinsically motivate students, especially if their home lives devalue education. Also, with large class sizes, the use of extrinsic motivation may seem to help keep things under control. It is difficult to manage student choice to foster intrinsic motivation, as suggested by the article, when the class has 30-40 students as opposed to one with half as many.
It is true that there are many factors that affect a child’s education, but ultimately, I do believe that teachers have a large responsibility to try their best to motivate each student and to teach each student how to be successful. Personally, I would like for all of my students to be intrinsically motivated to learn, but I also see a need for occasional extrinsic rewards. I teach the lowest 1st grade reading group for 30 minutes a day and on days when I offer stickers as rewards for their work, their motivation instantly increases. I try to balance this routine by adding intrinsically motivating comments for their hard work, so that they are not always working for a prize. I am always very careful with my comments, making them specific instead of just a “good job.” I think that it is okay to use extrinsic motivation, as long as you don’t abuse it, and as long as you continue to put in the effort to make lessons meaningful and engaging so that students are more intrinsically motivated to learn.
There are many reasons teachers are left to pick up the slack in education. I think it is because America as a whole has put a low priority on education. Teachers are low paid and over worked because education is not that important in the public eye. Some families do not support the education of their children because they have to work so much that they do not have time to help with homework. Others just see school as a babysitter. And still there are the parents that expect the teachers to be the sole provider of educational support to their children. Other families believe that they and their children can not achieve in school because they never have. They need to understand that we can not be good at everything. We all have to find what we enjoy, what we are good at and where we fit in in this world. Education gives us a basic background so that we have choices. If we have a basic education and the ability to continue learning then we will have the opportunity to pursue what really motivates us. But some parents are so sure that their children will fail that they send their children to school and just put all the responsibility for education on the teachers. America is starting to make changes in the way we view education but we are not their yet.
ReplyDeleteThis comment is one that teachers are held to firmly. The public and our politicians believe that the success of the youth of America is on the backs of teachers. Because this is the idea that is pushed to the public, this idea becomes a reality. As a future teacher I am welcome to this reality, but it is definately a scarey one!
ReplyDeleteMany others have blogged of the difficulties that can hinder the process of learning for our students. I agree with all of the factors that often come in the way of learing, but just as we expect alot from our students they expect much from us. We must do what we can to adapt to their learning needs or their personal needs day in and day out. It is a continuous adapting process in which no two days will be exactly the same. The article discusses the importance of teaching to the individual and that it is impossible and will serve as a let down if we believe that EVERY child will learn EVERYTHING that we want them to. Each student has a different and unique set of skills that must drive what we teach and what we expect them to learn.
While some, or probably most people have unrealistic expectations for teachers and the affect that they have on all students' academic success, I have expectations for myself to exhaust every available resource and teaching method to attempt to reach every one of my students. By reaching them, I mean that I want to give them the desire to learn. As long as one has a desire and willingness to learn, they will. With desire will eventually come success.
This statement is something that I completely agree with. It is something that I have given quite a bit of thought to due to my experiences as a first year teacher and a graduate student in reading and language studies. As a first year teacher, this statement terrifies me. Throughout my experiences, I now know why so many teachers quit teaching after only a few years in the profession. I try to put this notion in the back of my head and refuse to let these negative factors deter me from educating and reaching as many children as I possibly can.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot force students to like school or want to learn. One can only hope to foster some sort of intrinsic motivation, as small as it may be, in each of his or her students. I used to think that this would be a fairly simple task. I would allow the students to feel successful and they would in turn be intrinsically motivated to feel that success again. To my surprise, this is most definitely not the case. In thinking about this in more depth, I really enjoyed Kevin’s opinion and statement that said, “If we were to break things down, I would guess that better than 95% of everything we do is extrinsically motivated.” Until reading this, I assumed that I was more intrinsically motivated than I probably truly am. I enjoy learning about ways in which I can become a better educator but there are only a few things that I really enjoy learning about. In fact, most of these things are just for fun and have no true applicability to my life or career. I think that it is important that our students understand that we, too, have went through this and could care less about many things that we are forced to learn but do it anyways to help us reach our goals. The reading poses the following rhetorical question: “What is left, then, if the content has no intrinsic value to a student?” The author goes on to answer this question by stating that, “When students don't care about what they are learning, tests and grades force them to learn what they don't care about knowing.” The problem with this is that many students do not care if they get good grades or perform well on tests. They do not care about school and may never wish to perform well at anything. They may never be intrinsically motivated in these areas. These students cannot see school as part of the larger picture and do not look forward into their future. That is where I believe that it is the educator’s job to try and cultivate learning by using any types of motivation that might possibly reach his or her students. I agree with what Brynn said about the use of extrinsic motivation. Although extrinsic motivation can be used advantageously in the classroom, the educator must continually try to make lessons meaningful and engaging in order to encourage the intrinsic motivation that will allow them to learn and retain valuable information.
As teachers it would be very easy to start making excuses as to why we can’t do all the things we need to do to reach are students. There are too many students in our classes; there is not enough time to meet all their individual needs, their parents don’t care and don’t help them, but our job as teachers is to do the very best we can for the children that sit in front of us each day. Those children need to know that we care about how they are doing, and that we want them to succeed. Our high expectations for our students are a huge factor in their success. Teaching is not an easy job, but it can be the most rewarding.
ReplyDeleteIt is not easy to individualize a students’ learning and for them to have that intrinsic desire to learn. If in our classroom we have an atmosphere of actually listening to what students have to say and care about what their interests are then it will make a difference. If our classroom is a place of discovery instead of a place where the teacher gives information to the students, then more children will be motivated to learn. Let students choose what they want to read and they can focus on their interests.
I agree with above statement of how teachers are held responsible for teaching all students regardless of any influential factors. I am guilty of accusing teachers of not doing their job of teaching students until I became “the teacher” and figured that it is impossible to reach every child during every subject. All students do not have the same interests and it is difficult to make all information relevant and interesting to all students. I believe that it is impossible to reach EVERY student especially when students do not care about the material that is being taught. The advice that I seem to get from people who are teaching is “if you are able to reach one student, then you have done your job”. My personal goal as a teacher is to do the best that I can do to reach all of my students, by relating information in ways that is best for them to learn individually. With me being young and ready to jump into the teaching field I thought that I would be able to reach all students regardless of the factors that they may face and I proved myself wrong as soon as I stepped into a class of hormonal eighth graders. According to the readings students learn when they are motivated by doing things that they feel will be beneficial to them. Students must be provided information that is relevant to their life and at the same time is of interest them as well. In the past I have seen teachers that try to make information seem as though it is relevant by placing the information on tests and in a way it becomes relevant to students because we want to do well in the course, but after taking the test the information is not retained unless a student deemed the information relevant and/ or the information was continuously repeated (multiplication tables). The motivation in the classroom article mentions this information as well and I totally agree with what is said. Being a student most of my life I have a lot of experience with memorizing information for certain things and not remembering the same information once the class has come to an end, and this is something that both articles discuss about students.
ReplyDeleteAs many of my fellow classmates have already stated, this statement is true among many people not in the field of teaching. Politicians and the general public have a very skewed view on the role teachers. They need to understand we are teachers and not miracle workers. The one thing we can do as teachers is assess students to the best of our abilities, research, and implement strategies and best practices that we find best suited for our students. We can also motivate and encourage our students to learn and succeed. Teachers have little to no control over what outside environmental factors that students may be experiencing, such as divorce, loss of a parent or family member, or even lack of attention at home. People outside of the field teaching may think they have a clear understanding of how these factors affect students, but until they experience the influence they have in the classroom their thoughts are pure perspective. As for the likelihood of raising test scores, in an over-crowded, under developed school or classroom it is slim to none. How are students and teachers suppose to enhance their learning, when the proper environment and materials are non-existent? It is as if the schools are being set up for failure. However, no matter how unfortunate or unfair the stipulations may be, teachers must overcome them and focus on what they can do for their students. It is important for teachers to focus their attention on things they can change; their students’ view towards learning. In the article, the author discusses the lack of motivation students have for learning and the need to make the content of the curriculum fit into the concerns of the child. Even without money, textbooks, and technology all teachers are capable of providing their students with motivation and connections pertaining to their interests and concerns. It comes down to knowing your students. Know your students likes, dislikes, hobbies, and other factors that you can use to help motivate your students to learn. It is important for teachers to disengage in all the negative feedback, and continue to perform their roles to the best of their abilities. Teachers need to focus their energy and implement their knowledge to their students, not to the spectators of the profession.
ReplyDeleteAs like my many of my classmate, I too agree with the statement. As teachers it is our job to raise test scores and to improve learning to all students. Sometimes, however; that isn’t always as easy as it sounds. When I read the article about motivation, it was easy to put myself into the situation that was being described. As a college student, I find that certain classes are easier to “sit” through than others. If it’s something that is interesting to me, or sparks my interest then I am more engaged and want to learn. There are times when I sit in classes and wonder off, thinking about other things going on in my life because the topic just isn’t that interesting to me. This is a perfect example of how our students feel when they are learning about things that aren’t that exciting to them. Don’t get me wrong, not everything we are teaching is exciting but being in a field experience I see, first hand, different methods that work and don’t work. One example that I’m reminded of is a group of student doing math. The students are 5th graders and their math class consists of doing worksheets, page after page of worksheets. Each day I think to myself, how boring and tedious that must be to do nothing but worksheets. 90 math problems per page, then corrections have to be made if the student misses too many. Friday the students were having a Valentine’s Day party and one student had to finish 11 math worksheets before he could participate. He missed 34 questions on one page and he had to make corrections. I remember thinking to myself, surely there has to be a better way of teaching multiplication facts, a fun and interesting way that will help the students retain the information they are learning.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to being held accountable, teachers are responsible, but it would be ridiculous for us to believe that it is as clear as black and white. As a parent, it was easy for me to blame the teachers but I know realize the factors that are involved. In the real world, students bring their issues to school with them. Some students find school as the only safe place they have and the teacher is there to make school a comfortable and learning environment for all students. Will we be able to reach every student, throughout our entire career, more than likely no, but we have to continue to educate our students and coming up with interesting, motivating ways to teach them will enhance the learning experience.
I definitely agree with the statement above. Teachers are the ones that are supposed to bring the test scores up but why don’t teachers set the standards. It seems the government sets a lot of the standards and the state also, for example, NCLB. The teachers only have so much time to teach each subject throughout the day and if the students are weak in one subject it is hard to focus on that one subject if you have to teach all of the other ones to keep up the test scores for the state tests. Also the teachers have to practically teach to the test these days because of all the requirements they must meet. It is hard to be an effective teacher if everything is put out there for you that you already have to teach so that the students meet the standards.
ReplyDeleteI thought the reading brought up a lot of good points when it came to student and teacher cooperation. I feel that the teachers and the students should be able to work together for their education if possible. If the students are interested in a certain field then why not let them pursue that field before they are out of high school. I feel if the students are interested in a certain area then they will most likely apply themselves towards that field because it is something they like or enjoy learning about. By working with the teacher to benefit their schooling this is also building the students team skills and helping them have a hand in their own learning process. If the students are given at least a few controlled choices it makes their learning more important to them because they will most likely feel their opinion is important and it will up the value of their education to themselves personally. I feel that if students were given more opportunities to have choices in their learning and were able to work together with their teachers in their learning the test scores would go up because the students would value their learning more and it would put less pressure on the teachers individually. Also if the students value their learning it makes it easier on the teacher, but if they have no value of their learning at all then they will most likely not apply themselves in their schoolwork because it will most likely be something that they are not interested in.
I do agree with the above statement above, however most of the time I feel as if the people who are setting these standards for us as teachers do not realize all that our job entails as well as the stress that this statement places on us. When hearing a statement like this it is very easy for me to see why the average rate of years worked for Special Educators is only a few years. That alone scares me. It is our job to do the very best that we can and to to all things in our power to help each and every one of our students succeed. However with the recent state of our public school systems I would say that there are many other factors that can play into a students success other than just what we as teachers do. With the budget cuts that schools are facing, causing outdated textbooks to be used, lack of technology and bigger classroom sizes, these all have to play into a students success as well right? Right. Not to mention the support of our students families? Parents need to realize just how essential they are to their children's education. Their emotional state at home, relationships with parents, relationships with siblings, this all plays into the success that any student has. I agree with the statement and as future educators we need to be doing everything in our power and using the knowledge that we have accumulated through the past four or five years and teach these kids to the best of our abilities. That being said, however, realistically I feel like as educators we need to realize that without the proper support we will not be able to reach out to every single student.
ReplyDeleteWhen faced with the question, how do students learn in today's class? My initial response was, “quickly.” Quickly does not refer to the time in which material is attained but to the time you have to gain their attention. Just like an attention getter at the start of a reading, you have a few sentences to grab your students attention. This is not only at the beginning of school, this is necessary for each individual lesson/subject throughout the course of the day.
ReplyDeleteAs my granny puts its, “this new generation of moms live in this Microwave Era, plain lazy.” This was said to me when I told her that I didn't need a pot to warm up her great grandson's bottle on the stove and the microwave will be fine. Initially, I was upset but it made me think... umm if being a mom now is hard then being a mom back then would be hell! I don't even have enough time to ensure that I am brushing in a circular motion so I use Crest Spin Brush ®!
The children of today are rarely playing like they used to with all this new instant, semi-interactive games that are presented today. Parents even gear towards purchasing the shiny toys that light up, dance and sings for us (Tickle Me Elmo ® ). Original games like the board game Monopoly ® turns into a card game that you get to instantly own property before hitting “Pass Go & Collect $200.” As teachers we have to turn it up!
In the article, Engines for Education: Motivation in the Classroom, the author speaks on how children genuinely enjoy a certain subjects more than others. I think that those children had the pleasure of meeting an educator that put them first. The article then moves on to explain that test are forced relevance. This is scary because if a lesson is not interesting to a child, you are forcing them so learn information when you do not explain its relevance to your students and their life. Be flexible! “Matching individual interests to a fixed curricula is one that is impossible to solve.”
These readings made me think of one of my very special experiences as an educator. I worked with a Kindergarten aged child who is showed difficulty with obtaining subtraction. For the most part, this little guy just liked to wait for the dismissal bell to ring so that he can retrieve the hot wheels from the teachers desk and go home. When I was placed to work one-on-one with him I initially was getting the same distant response from him when asked what is 7-4. I used fingers, manipulatives, heck we even took off our shoes and subtracted with our toes, but nothing worked. I simply looked at him and said, “if you have 7 Hot Wheels and I asked to use 4 during recess, how many would you have left?” His eyes got bright and he looked up at me started to giggle and said, “3, silly!” At that moment I had an educationally epiphany and thought, duhhhh!