Britton+Kleaveland

Assignment 12: 11/30 -Multiple Intelligence Quiz and how accurate do you think the results were and did it help you understand your own learning style? I thought that the quiz results were very accurate. My three highest categories were nature, body movement, and spacial intelligences. I believe that these are three of my largest strengths. I love to be outside and surrounded by nature whether it be hiking, hunting, fishing, or boating. I feel very comfortable around wildlife and find animals and plants fascinating. I literally watch the national geographic channel or animal planet all the time. Body movement was my second highest score which I feel is very accurate. I love to be on the move and can rarely sit still for extended periods of time. I love to play all types of sports and I find that being physical active helps me in a number of ways. I find physical activity relieves stress, helps me focus, and makes me feel better both physically and mentally. When I have a lot of studying to do, I try and go for a run before I start because I find it easier to sit and focus after releasing built up energy and stress. The spatial category also represented my strengths accurately. I have always been good with directions and navigation. I am a geography major so that may have something to do with it but I believe I have a good natural sense of direction and rarely get lost when driving. I also enjoy 3D art and have always enjoyed past art classes that focused on sculpture. The suggestions the website listed in regards to my top three intelligences were semi-helpful. For the nature portion, it suggested that I study wildlife or study in a garden. I find these suggestions pointless for my purposes because I am going into education and have little time/interest to invest in studying subjects that I am not being graded on. But the results did help me understand my own learning style. I realize that physical activity helps clear my mind and allows me to focus. That is why I like to take breaks from studying and take short walks or move around for a little bit before returning to my homework. The spatial aspect of the quiz was also useful in understanding my distinct learning style. I tend to make graphs, charts, and visual aids to help me comprehend important information. In conclusion, I thought the quiz was surprisingly accurate and provided some interesting suggestions on ways to improve my study habits.
 * Britton Kleaveland**

Assignment 11: 11/16 Response from Corresponding Colleague -How do you get to know your individual students? Do you use any kind of community building activities in your classroom?

At a small school like Catholic (200 total students) you get to know these kids fairly easily. For instance, I taught you and your brother and your sister. So I got to know your family well over the years and each kid a bit before they were ever in my classroom. Getting to know kids individually is done through extra-circular actives as I coach and volunteer for things around the school (for instance, I am the 11th grade class rep). The main thing is you have to go out of your way to ask kids about their lives and make them believe you are interested. Kids usually love talking about themselves - asking questions lets them think you care about them other then as a student.

I don't do community building activities, but for instance when in group work I usually try to make the grouping random or purposely put kids with people they don't know. I feel that only strengthens the room instead of having the same people always grouped together.

-What limits do you put on your relationships with your students? Off the top of my head: Don't have girls alone in your room (EVER). If you communicate with students via email or text or phone make sure it is only school related (those can be great tools, but it HAS TO ALWAYS BE SCHOOL RELATED. I CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH) Be careful of every question you ask your students (for instance, the other day I asked a girl if she burned herself on her wrist. Turns out she has a skin condition she is embarrassed about. I felt like a fool, but looking back, it was my fault. You can't think through every single question, but you have to always error on the side of caution.). Obviously you don't want to touch students (See Penn State....). You should let them into your life a little bit (tell them about your family, about when you went to school, something funny that happened the night before, etc) but they should never know problems in your life.

As far as relationships in general, your job is to help kids. So if a kid is telling you about something personal, you should respond in an appropriate manor. They may be telling you that because they have no one else to tell or because they look up to you. So you should give them advice based on how well you know the student and the situation.

Assignment 10: 11/8 -Reflection about Haslett visit I really enjoyed our visit to Haslett Middle School. I learned a lot just observing Ben's class for a short time. His enthusiasm really surprised me. I felt like he had a lot of trust and respect for his students and I think that his students reciprocated those things. He used examples and questions that related to his students lives like facebook and road construction when talking about a reform lesson. He did a very efficient job at controlling his students and didn't waste time stopping his lesson to ask students to quite down. He picked his battles wisely. I liked how he randomly selected groups because it was quick and avoided kids being excluded or left out. He used his own stories to get his points across which seemed to really intrigue his students. He also used terms and questions that students could understand. I think that more visits and observations like this would be very beneficial for our class!!!!

Assignment 9: 11/2 -Describe crucial aspects of the hidden and null curricula that you experienced in secondary school. One thing that I really remember from high school was how my history teacher payed extra attention to student athletes. He was our social studies teacher as well as our high school's head football coach. During class, he would call the football players up to his desk to talk about the upcoming game or that days practice. They would joke and laugh while the rest of us were working on in class assignments. This was hidden curriculum that a lot of students picked up on, including myself. The time he spent focusing on football and individual football players made us think that he was playing favorites and that the students that didn't play football for him were less important. It seemed like he would assign us pointless in-class activities that would keep the rest of us busy so he could focus on his football team and talk to his players. This hidden curriculum also made us think that he cared about athletics much more than he cared about our education. His attitude and actions during class caused football players to praise him as a wonderful teacher but the rest of us felt left out and underrated. I attended a private school and we never talked about the theory of evolution. Although we were required to take science classes, all of our religion classes focused on the "Adam and Eve" theory of human creation. Because we rarely spoke of evolution, most of the students who attended my school believed that the theory of evolution was irrelevant. This type of null curriculum affected our beliefs and understanding of how human beings developed. Our religion teachers provided us with a biased, one sided notion and didn't provide us with both sides of the story. This null curriculum forced many of my fellow students to believe that evolution was not important. During my high school years, I realize I learned a lot of things that were not in the formal curriculum including those stated above. I think it is important for us, as future educators, to understand the messages we are sending our students even when we are not teaching a lesson or explaining a concept. Students pick up on teacher's actions and comments much more than we realize and we need to keep that in mind when we enter the work force.

Assignment 8: 10/24 -What surprised you the most about this article? I was really surprised that these beliefs were so widespread in American society. Looking back on it, its hard to believe that people were classified as savages and barbarians and thought to be incapable of higher mental capacity. It was also very surprising to read Woodrow Wilson's assumption that increased heterogeneity of the nation would lead to the disintegration of democracy. In all of my history classes, I have learned a lot about Wilson including his contributions to the league of nations but I have never learned anything pertaining to his views examined in this article. It was surprising to hear these claims from a man that is so highly regarded in American society. I was also surprised that these progressive educators saw no contradictions between their idea of democracy and the way minorities and immigrants were viewed. The way that tracking was modeled after the growing industrial system in which students were referred to as raw materials, each of a different grade also shocked me. -What would you argue were the strongest influences on how social studies began? I believe that one of the strongest influence on the emergence of social studies was the wide spread belief of caucasion americans that the influx of immigrants would destabilize democracy and eventually lead to its destruction. The attempt to create a sufficient manual labor force was also an important influence but many believed this labor force needed to be assimilated to the dominant american culture in an attempt to prevent the destruction of the current system in which the proletariat elite formed the social ideals. Social studies began in an era of massive change and progressive educators proposed a system of education that they believed would maintain the stability of the democratic government, provide a proficient work force, and instill in all students the traditional values of the Protestant elite. -In what ways might the foundations of social studies affect what we do or don't do today? I believe that the assumptions that factored into the founding of social studies will affect what we, as teachers, will do in the future. The assumption that individuals are inherently superior to others sounds ridiculous today and some of the views reflected in this article only reinforce my belief that all students have the capability to succeed, regardless of their race or background. I think it will force teachers to reevaluate their curriculum. Although many of our American social studies text books still have traces of these anglo-saxon assumptions, educators need to make sure they are not trying to assimilate all students into their view of a 'producer' or 'consumer'. The idea of tracking is still a hot topic in the sphere of education and I believe that the idea of tracking and separating students in different courses based on teacher evaluations will continue to be a controversial topic in the future.

Assignment 1: 9/7/11 I truthfully can not remember a favorite memory from any of my social studies classes. My high school history teacher was also the football coach and he spent most of our class time talking to his individual players about upcoming games or on his computer scouting other teams. At the time I enjoyed it because we got to spend almost the entire class time talking to our friends and goofing around but I can not remember one thing that he taught me which is sad because it wasn't until college that I discovered my love for social studies. My college professors have shown me how interesting history can be and that a history class isn't always just some teacher standing there lecturing nonstop while students are napping in the back. It can be intriguing and fun if the teacher is doing his or her job correctly. My negative experiences with social studies in high school is what fueled my desire to become a teacher.

1. Describe some attributes that good teachers possess. I believe that a good teacher must possess a number of different attributes. Those include caring, enthusiasm, good listening skills, compassion, creativity, confidence, among a number of other things. I think that a good teacher must be enthusiastic about their subject material because how are students supposed to get excited about learning new material if they see their teacher just going through the motions. A good teacher has to be creative in making their lessons plans to keep students interested and attentive. It is hard for students to benefit from class if all a teacher does is get up and lecture for an entire class period everyday. Every student is different and teachers need to be creative in creating lessons that will grab the student's attention and appeal to different styles of learning that each student possesses.
 * Assignment 2: 9/12/11**

2. What are your own strengths and weaknesses as a teacher? Compassion, creativity, and enthusiasm are some of my best attributes as a future teacher. I truly love kids and I care about their educational development as well as their personal lives. I want to be sure that my classroom is a place where students feel comfortable voicing their opinions and are not afraid of being ridiculed. I think that I make students feel comfortable and I think that is important in the learning process. I also believe that my creativity will allow me to make interesting lesson plans that will get students interested in social studies, something that I missed out on in high school. I think the biggest thing that I have to work on is my public speaking skills which has a lot to do with confidence. I've always struggled speaking in front of large groups of people but I hope that with more practice I will have more confidence and control over my own classroom in the near future.

3. What are some skills that you need to work on to improve your teaching? I think that I need to work on gaining confidence as a teacher because it will help me with my classroom control and public speaking. Speaking in front of your classroom is a big part of becoming a successful teacher and I feel like placement this year will help me practice and develop these skills. Our afternoon sections on Wednesday will also help me practice these skills as we work on classroom introductions and things of that nature.

1. What has been the most difficult part of planning this unit? Unfortunately I was not able to participate in planning a unit last week due to medical reasons but I think the most difficult part of planning a unit is deciding how much information to incorporate into it. If you try to pile to much information into a unit it may be difficult for students to comprehend the lesson and may be overwhelmed by the amount of material being covered. On the other hand, if you do not cover enough material in a unit you may end up covering the same material for multiple class periods and it may seem repetitive to the students who may end up loosing interest in the material. If you don't cover enough information then you may be left with a lot of free time. In that free time, students may start goofing off and it is hard to regain your students attentiveness once they get off track. It is important to use all of your class time wisely. It is a delicate balance between covering too much material and not enough when planning a unit.
 * Assignment 3: 9/19/11**

2. Do you think it is important to organize your unit plan chronologically? Around a theme? A combination? I believe it is important to organize units using a combination of themes and chronological order. Each lesson could be based on a broad theme like european politics in the 20th century. Within that theme, it is important to organize the material chronologically because it is important to understand that history builds upon itself. The political realm that emerged after WWI was a direct result of the conflict itself as well as ideologies and beliefs that were evident prior to the outbreak of the conflict. To understand why the Bolshevik Revolution came about and how Lenin came to power, it is important to understand the tsarist regimes that were in power prior to the revolution. If a teacher's unit plan skips from one time period to a later era and back and forth, it may be hard for students to understand why certain aspects or conflicts in history came about. Especially when teaching history, it is important to understand the background information of a subject to help students understand how and why things happened.

Reflection 4
1. I would like to know how you plan your units and what factors you take into account when doing so?

I look at the standards that would fall into that teachable unit (as given by the state. Sidenote: as a department we have narrowed down the standards that we feel are "critical" to teach, so that is predetermined). I then look to how long it will take to teach the total unit in days - so that becomes a math problem: if it takes say a total of 10 days to teach (two weeks) the unit, I need to figure out what is going to get done each day, have a review day and a test day. Once I roughly know what needs to be done each day I then look at each day and how the materials is going to be presented/dealt with. I am big on lecture as far as day to day planning, basically because I feel it is an effective use of time and it is how they are going to be taught in college so it prepares them. I would say HALF of my lesson plans are lecture orientated in nature. I also do other sorts of ways for them to get the info - projects, guided reading, research, etc. This is my 8th year teaching mostly the same classes, so each year you are simply tweaking what worked and didn't work the year before and either adding a bit more, or more often, deleting things that are unnecessary.

2. How do you decide what material is important to incorporate into your unit plans?

Interesting question - As I state above, we went through a whole process of figuring out what standards were "critical" to teach each year. This was based basically on what material the MME tests for (so "critical" in the states eyes I suppose). However, there are things that I believe are essential for my students to know that the state or school didn't identify. Take for instance the US Civil War. According to HS level US History in Mich, we are supposed to start teaching with the 1900s and move to the present. However, then HS kids never get the Civil War at a high school level (as the state says they should get that and be tested for that material in the 8th grade). I just can't agree to that so I teach that as two separate units in the beginning of the year (coming of the war and the war itself, then a small third one on reconstruction) before I start what we as a school said is critical. Again, if my job is to teach kids about the history of our country, I don't feel I can do that effectively without covering the Civil War. And maybe that is just me, but again, I feel I have to as I was hired to educate them, not just meet Word-For-Word standards. There maybe things one day you feel are important that the state and school are telling you aren't. Simply put: you wouldn't be doing your job if you don't teach those things. By all means find a way to work those things in. Never assume the people who wrote the standards know more then you (I certainly don't!).

As for individual plans, you really have to look at your objective and include things that will help the students learn/understand what the objective is. That is the deciding factor.

I work backward - I look at the standard and think, what details do the kids need in order to understand it? For instance, if you doing a unit on the Coming of the Civil War, there may be eight to ten political events that contributed to the war starting. Teaching all eight or ten events might be a bit time consuming and in all honestly just unnecessary for accomplishing the objective, so you narrow it down to say five that will still lead the student to know that political factors contributed. The objective is the important thing, the details (or actually "what you teach") are basically what you feel as a professional will help them get the objective. For some objectives the details are no-brainers. For others, you can pick and choose as long as it relates back to the objective. Make sense?

How do you feel about the process of creating a professional growth and development plan? Do you think this is a useful task? Would it have usability in a middle school or high school classroom?
 * Reflection 6**

I thought that the Professional Growth and Development Plan was a very useful activity. It made me consider me own weaknesses and strengths in regards to teaching. Students often avoid examining their own flaws. It can be a scary thing to think about but it also makes you think about what you need to work on to become a better future educator. I think this type of self examination can be very useful in a classroom setting. It is difficult to address your weaknesses and improve upon them if you are never forced to examine your weaknesses. This activity helped me create specific goals and a plan on how to achieve them. Its important to understand that there is always room for improvement. I think that it would be very useful in a secondary classroom. Students are often told by teachers or parents what areas they need to improve on. From my own experiences, I know that young people do not always take kindly to criticism from others. I think this self examination could help students make their own choices and self motivate them to identify and address certain issues they may be having in school. This activity avoids criticizing students and gives them control of their own growth. Many students dislike being told what to do and this activity gives them the opportunity to decide what areas they need to improve on.

How will you teach about Columbus after our discussion the other day? Why?
 * Reflection 7**

Our class discussion the other day really affected by perception of Christopher Columbus and the way we should teach about him. I think that is important to cover much more information pertaining to his mistreatment of indigenous populations during his explorations. When many students are asked about Columbus, they refer to the well known rhyme, "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue". I think that many students have a preconceived notion about Columbus and his accomplishments which are inaccurate. I plan to incorporate different historical recollections of his actions into my lessons. Columbus is hailed as a hero in American culture and I think that belief needs to be questioned. There is no doubt that he made some remarkable accomplishments but students should learn about his methods for dealing with the indigenous populations he encountered and teachers need to allow their students to take the information you provide them and create their own conceptions about Christopher Columbus. I really liked the activity that we talked about during class about assigning groups roles to play like Columbus and his crew and the indigenous population. I would try and plan a lesson that puts the students in the victims position.