Blog Post 4

Dear Senator Rob Portman,

I have read that it is said that the elementary and secondary schools or not thorough or efficient.  After saying this it is said that it is unconstitutional, but it still remains to be our educational system, Why?  There are a list of things that need to be done in order for a school to be thorough and efficient in DeRolph V.  With these many things listed I do not understand how you can keep this is your school system because the kids and future generations need a stable and solid education.

Another big thing is the fact that students and staff need to feel safe and feel they can come to school everyday and not have to worry about anything harmful happening such as, a ceiling falling on them, or desks being sturdy to hold students.  Some inner-city, and even public schools do not have the money to help rebuild this stuff and buy new stuff for students.  With this being said I feel like it is important these schools receive more attention and maybe have a little more money given to them by the government because in my opinion, the biggest thing about schooling is not the education but the students' safety.  They need to feel like they are in a harm free environment because if the feel safe about their surroundings then they will be able to learn better because they will not be worrying about something happening.  But, if they are worrying constantly but their safety they will be more focused on other things going on.

Thank you for taking your time to read this and hopefully you will take some of these things into consideration.

Sincerely,
Cameron Mayle

Shaker Middle School

Today we went and visited Shaker heights middle school where I observed a Science class and what we thought was going to be a math class but it turned out to be a social studies class.  In both classes the students were very engaged in conversation and were not afraid to say what they thought.  All of the students in the science class were on their chrome books and were playing a game that involved energy transformation.  I could tell that the students would get frustrated if the failed to complete the game, but once they did I could see the satisfaction on their face and they would say, "Yes!" They were very intrigued by the game and loved the challenge of finishing it.  But the teacher made sure they did not stop there.  He would tell them to try and find another more complex way to win the game instead of the way they just found.

In chapter 4 I think Ayers using the metaphor building bridges to describe the gap it takes to travel from no knowledge at all to using and gaining all knowledge that you can.  I think that he wants to expand one's thinking from going to the knowledge they have and going across that to gaining all the knowledge they can and then applying that to every day life.

An example I saw in the classroom was when the students solved their solution that was their knowledge they had and were able to do it.  But, he wanted them to gain more knowledge and think about it more outside the box and think of another more complex solution to solve the problem.

Noble Elementary School

Noble Elementary played a big role in allowing me to realize even more why I do not want to be an Early childhood major.  Even though I am a Middle Childhood major and realize it is 4th-9th grade I would like to be in more of the 7th or 8th grade range.

For about 40 minutes I observed a first grade class and for pretty much the whole time the students were all seated working on the workbooks and worked independently.  They were not very noisy which I thought was surprising.  I was expecting a very chaotic class but they teacher kept it in control and it seemed like all the kids wanted to be there and wanted to learn.  But the fourth grade class I observed for the other 20 minutes was much different.  All the kids were out of their seats roaming around the room and were very noisy.  I felt the teacher had very little control of the class and it was much different from the first grade class.  I expected the roles of the classroom to be switched.

After observing at Noble I felt like this reinforced my thinking on why I do not want to teach elementary school kids and want to be a middle school teacher



Interpretations                                                                           Descriptions
Class was loud and noisy                                                          Students got quite when they were told
                                           
Everyone got rewarded                                                              Stayed seated most of the class

Tough for the kids who want                                                       Engaged and wanted to learn
to learn to actually learn

Blog Post 3

There are many questions that I have about teachings and things of that nature.  One big question I have is the fact that very few teachers contact a child's' parents because of how well they are doing in the classroom.  Now a days when a parent sees a call from the school or a teacher they automatically assume something bad is about to come of it.  Very few times does a parent answer a call from the school saying how well their child is doing at school and in the classroom.

When parents get these calls about their children acting up they automatically think that is how the child is all the time in the classroom because they never know if the exemplify good behavior or not because they never hear about it.  As a parent I would get mad at my kid but as the teacher I would try and call each parent to let them know how well their child is doing or if there are some things he/she need to work on.  I would not just focus on all the negatives.

With all this being said, my question would be, why do teachers only focus on negative things?