Chapter 14: Succeeding in Your Teacher Education Program--and Beyond

My concerns

• I do not want to have to deal with standardized testing.

• As a special education teacher, will my budget be low, and will other teachers be willing to make their classrooms inclusive.
• Will I be stuck in the classroom all day or will I have support with incorporating therapeutic recreation.

There are two stages that I find in each of these. The first is self, this is to say I am concerned about my competence and my sanity. As a teacher these are two things that are important to maintain, without competence, or sanity I will not be a good teacher.

I think that the second stage is the most pertinent to my concerns, most of them are based of self, but effect much more then self.

Chapter 13: Improving Teachers and Schools, and School Reform

As a future teacher it is important to build up my resumé. A couple things I plan on adding to it are, practicum (student teaching), good scores on the praxis. I would also like to add (durning my first year) a national board certification, from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

During my first five years as a teacher I hope to become a better teacher, I will work on this daily and hopefully get better and better. Some experiences that will be beneficial are things such as teacher workshops, having a mentor teacher, I also plan on taking post college training sessions.

Chapter 7: Thinking about Teaching and Learning

These are three ideas I would like to incorporate in my philosophy paper

• Page 266 I like Ralph W. Tylers and his four ideas about teaching.
• Page 277 I like the first two Hilda Taba but not the third.
• Page 275 I really Like Confucius
• Page 276 i agree with Perennialism
  

Chapter 6: Social Context of Schools

Bullying
Because special education is my major I have chosen the bullying of people with disabilities.
First I would take preventative steps these would be:

• Teaching of disabilities
• Teaching of person first language
• I would also make sure that my classroom was integrated
  

There are several potential issues I can anticipate:

• The misuse of the word retarded
• Social outing of individuals
• Cruelty

For the misuse of the word retarded I have three techniques:

1. Show the entire class or individual student this PSA or a similar one
2. Hand out a words hit like a fist card
3. talk one on one and help the student understand why it is a harmful act

For social outing and cruelty I would mainly use preventative planning or:

• Use the above techniques
• Send the "ringleader" to the office, make an example out of them

How do I start thinking like a teacher

I have started to think more like a teacher, this is from the work I do with individuals with disabilities. I find that it is not too different from regular thought, perhaps it is just more objective. When thinking about what to plan I find myself considering what aspects will be learned from the activity, as well as making sure it isn't overwhelming and it is beneficial, and fun. It is important to think about all aspects of a situation to make sure the activity goes well. I am not saying that the way i think all the time is the same way a teacher would, but I do feel like i am able to asses situations, and ideas as a teacher would. I feel like having class discussions about the purpose of different school activities and events would help me think more like a teacher.

Which theories and historical influences should most impact the schools we'd like to have

I have taken more away from historical influences and past events. I think it is important to learn from the past, and therefore know that it is important to incorporate all types of students into the classroom, it was hard to end segregation in schools and that is something we can all learn from. Historically education has been a lot of trial and error, what i take away from this is that it is more effective to teach children at the same age, in a small class, that is community based rather then lecture form. Hopefully my style of teaching will be a success and not a error.

I am interested in theories and would love to go into more depth on them.

How can I use knowledge of the learner to be a better teacher

I haven't taken anything away from the class yet for this topic, but I do have examples of how good teaching has influenced the way I want to teach. All of my teachers that I have great respect for have been very intelligent. They have all gone to college and worked hard to be the teachers that they are today. I will use this example they have set for me, and I will use this knowledge to learn from everything, from a stranger i meet on the street to learning in the classroom. We are always learning, every interaction you have you learn something, be it useless, interesting, hurtful or joyous. As a human I am forever learning from my experiences the real question is will I be able to share these experiences and knowledge with the prowess my teachers have had.

I want to know how blogging and setting up wiki sites will make me a better teacher.
(No disrespect intended, just curiosity)