Final

Classroom Discipline Plan

• Be respectful.  It is important to be respectful so that other students, teachers, and other personnel can get a chance to speak without being interrupted, and it creates a classroom environment where students feel welcomed.  Students also develop a system of trust within the classroom.
• Consequence: Class starts to lose trust with the offender(s).  The classroom would also not feel as safe or as welcoming (natural).
• Refrain from using electronic devices for personal reasons.  I do not want my students to use their iPods, cellphones, and other electronic devices to conduct personal business while in class.  I provide them with my attention and refrain from using electronic devices to conduct personal business while I am in class with them and I expect the same from them.  If there is an emergency, there are other ways to contact the student.  There will be only a few exceptions to this rule (i.e., iPods may be used when a student has an A in the class, has no make-up work, and is finished before the rest of the class and every student can use them after finishing their tests and final).
• Consequences: If I see a cell phone out, it will be taken away and the student may get it at the end of the day.  If a student continuously uses his/her cell phone, I will take it away and the student may pick it up at the office.  The same applies to iPods.  If students continually break this rule, then they will have to surrender their cell phones, iPods, and other electronic devices to me at the beginning of class and they can pick it up after class ends (logical).
• Raise your hand to answer questions.  It is not fair for students to blurt out answers to a question, especially when they are not called upon.  In order to be called upon, or to be acknowledged, it is proper to raise one's hand to answer a question.  Raising one's hand allows people to respect each other and allows the teacher to remain in control.  It also allows students to have a chance to be active and participate in class.
• Consequences: If a student blurts out an answer, the student will be pulled aside and talked to about how his/her action's were disrespectful (logical).  If students constantly blurt out answers, then other students will not bother to try in class and will become silent and not participate (natural).
• Be in your seats when the bell rings.  It is important for students to be in their seats when the bell rings so that it is easier for the teacher to see who is absent and who is tardy.  It also allows the teacher to maintain control over the classroom and it will be easier to start the day's lesson if students are in their seats when the bell rings.  Students will have assigned seats after the first week, and they will be seated with individuals with whom they work well with, based off of observations.
• Consequence: If students are not in their seats, then they will be marked tardy and will have to follow the school's rules on tardies (if school-wide tardy rules are established).  The more tardies a student has, the more it will affect his/her grade (logical).
•  Be honest.  Be honest with the work that is turned in, make sure that the work you turn in is your best effort, and tell the truth about why you did not turn in your homework when asked.  It is a lot easier to tell the truth than to lie and then reveal the truth later.  If honest, I will allow the student to turn in work that is of better quality by the end of the day.  It is easier to bear with the consequences of not turning in your work immediately than to suffer from the consequences in the long run.  I provide honest instruction, and in return, I expect the same from the students.  Honesty also builds trust in the classroom and helps build a welcoming classroom environment.
• Consequences: If a student lies or cheats on a test, their work, and the student being copied's work will be confiscated and will receive a zero and will not be eligible to retake the test (logical).  If a student isn't honest with the work they turn in and it is not their best effort, they will receive a lower score (lower than what they are used to receiving) and will suffer in the long-run in their grades (natural).  If a student is not honest, then trust will be broken and it will be harder to re-establish trust and build a warm classroom environment (natural).

Reading Response 5 - The Hows and Whys of Peer Mentoring

I chose "The Hows and Whys of Peer Mentoring" because in class, we have often discussed the benefits of peer mentoring and other peer activities, but rarely have gone into what those benefits are and how they have helped not only students, but teachers as well.
In the article, the authors briefly explain some of the problems they encountered when setting up observations, mainly scheduling issues, but then they mentioned the solutions they came up with.  However, the meat and potatoes of the article described the benefits of peer mentoring on teachers, along with new challenges that emerge from these observations.  The benefits include: observers were exposed to a variety of children (ages, learning styles, needs, etc.) and a variety of teaching methods that have enhanced their teaching experiences, teachers became more focused in the classroom when they were not being observed (they pretended that they were being observed), colleagues acted as a reality check, and teachers really will practice what they teach, so students will see how their teachers struggle to refine their skills applies to the working world.  The new challenges that emerge from such an activity are: effecting change within the school and district based off the observations, having teachers put self-reflection and constant change on the top of their list, working with the broader community on such issues as poverty, child abuse, and other problems, and how do we work to improve the life of our students, if we choose to do so.
I can use this information when I teach by constantly reflecting upon my practices.  I found it interesting that teachers would pretend that they were being observed so that they could focus easier, so I am going to try that.  I will take the advice from when I am observed to heart and try to implement some of the suggestions that may be offered.  I will also step up to try to make change at the school that I am at and will become an advocate for the children who are suffering from any societal "ills."  I can also use this information to improve my teaching techniques as well.  I did not really realize during my first semester of observing classes during CP 1 that I was picking up techniques until I started student teaching.  I think that it is important for students to see a model of someone trying something new and working with peers, so that they can gain a sense of what it is like in the working world.

Designing Groupwork

Chapter 1 in Elizabeth Cohen's Designing Groupwork discussed how groupwork is used as a strategy in a classroom and some of its key features, which are allowing students to make their own mistakes and have delegated authority and members need to rely on each other to complete the task at hand.  The chapter also briefly introduces the advantages of groupwork in the classroom - face-to-face interaction (reduces misbehavior), everyone participates because students care about their evaluation by other members, and peer assistance.  Finally, the author points out that with all of the research and published literature that has been done, several theories about groupwork have emerged and that they can be applied to a variety of educational settings.  I'm curious, however, about what these theories are, and how effective they are when they are applied to a secondary school setting, as most of the research that the author has done has been at the elementary school level.

In chapter 2, it showed how effective groupwork is as a technique, as it helps students achieve certain intellectual and social goals and it helps solve two classroom problems that commonly plague teachers.  The intellectual goals that are accomplished with groupwork include helping students with explaining and learning new concepts (conceptual learning), creative problem solving, helping students develop those critical higher order thinking skills, increasing and improving one's basic skills, and improving oral proficiency - no matter what the task is, no matter what the students disagree about, every student learns and develops these crucial intellectual skills in an interactive manner.  The social goals that are accomplished with groupwork are establishing positive intergroup relations and socializing students for adult roles, the skills that are necessary for students to be successful in the adult world.  Finally, the two common classroom problems that groupwork helps alleviate are with the low-achieving student who is often off-task and allows the teacher to maintain control over the classroom while she is working with one group of students - the rest of the class knows what they should be doing, so there is some type of control that exists within the classroom.  This reading has made me realize why I had an easier time in student teaching when I assigned my students to make their own propaganda poster.  They knew what to do, they had accessible materials, they had models, and they were all allowed to express their thoughts in a different, creative way.

In chapter 3, Cohen describes the dilemma, someone usually takes charge of the group and the rest of the group members agree, and the causes of this dilemma in groupwork.  She attributes that this behavior exists because groups will achieve a hierarchy, or a status ordering, that is based on four different statuses, which are expert status (everyone relies on the group member who is the expert of the subject or topic), academic status (everyone relies on the group member with the highest grade or with the highest ability, even if that ability does not relate to the task), peer status, and societal status.  The author then explains that with these status orderings comes expectations that hierarchical members follow, which results in a self-fulfilling prophecy and a continuation of high status members dominating the group and low status members not becoming involved.  However, even though groups can be used to combat these prejudices, if the teacher does not properly make use of grouping strategies and recognizes these inequalities, then groupwork will do nothing more than to further these inequalities. I am curious to know if there are any other solutions, other than heterogenous grouping, to this dilemma, and if so, what they are and how effective they are.

Week Three Reading Reflection - Ethnography

The first thing that I learned was that in order to put "outrageous" behavior in context and to truly understand it, one must suppress their rage and stay with that culture's "outrageous" behavior.  One can use their rage as a way of measuring their tolerance of the act (9).  This is important because if one does not control one's feeling during observations, then one is more likely to write a biased report, and from that report, the bias can spread.  A second thing that I learned was that the behavior we take for granted, such as greeting people and having a laugh at lunch, turn out to be the most significant behaviors in a final report (10).  The author is saying that these behaviors are so ingrained and unnoticeable by us and when a researcher examines this and puts it in a report, we often find that these behaviors are normal and really stick out in our minds.  The third thing that I learned was that students who belong to a certain group, such as athletes and scholars, experience a change in their social status (6).  This explains why certain groups in high school tend to associate with each other and distance themselves from other groups.  These associations tend to give a social hierarchy in schools, with the popular kids at the top and the relatively unknown kids at the bottom.

The first question that I have is why did the author leave out the teacher's perspective?  He briefly stated the common teacher myths in the article and noted that he did not study them in depth, but I am just wondering why he chose to publish the article without gaining an insight from teachers.  Although he did provide some brief insight from elementary school teachers, the insight from middle school and high school teachers was lacking.  The second question that I have is what information or evidence is considered "good" or "valuable," as ethnographers have an array of information to choose from?  Since an ethnographer can study the hierarchy, customs, rituals, members and other factors in a school, which is/are the critical components to study - the author does not go into much detail.  This lack of detail has left me wondering.

One thing that I would like to explore further is if there have been any ethnographic reports done on schools in North County or in San Diego County, as this information can be crucial in choosing a possible school to teach at.

Week Two Reading Reflection - Disrupting Class

One thing that I learned through this week's reading is that a school is composed of four interdependencies - temporal, lateral, physical, and hierarchical (33).  I knew that a school had to conform to mandates from different authorities, but I did not know that this dependency relied on three other dependencies.  These four help explain why a school functions the way it does and why it is often hard for a school to change.  A second thing that I learned through this week's reading is how much is spent on educating a special education student.  As the author points out, in Rhode Island "it costs $22,893 a year on average to educate a special-education student, whereas it costs $9,269 for a regular education student" (34).  I think the reason why so much is spent on special education is because the teacher training is more difficult, the lessons must conform around the student's disability, and the supplemental material that is needed in order for a student to succeed is costly.  Finally, the third thing that I learned was about Henry Ford.  I learned that when he first started making his Model Ts, the steel he used to make auto parts sprang back from their die, so that there was a range of different size auto parts.  These differences meant that the car parts would not easily fit together.  Since steel suppliers could not solve this dilemma, as they were not stamping the steel in Ford's environment, and since Ford could not solve the dilemma either, as he was not making the steel, Ford decided to make his own steel plant and have his workers conform the steel to the dies (30-31).  This short vignette shows how when different problems emerge within a single structure a solution that satisfies all of these problems must be produced and how everything is related.  So one could apply this dilemma to the current school situation.

One thing that I have a question about also relates to the special education funding.  The author points out that over the last four decades, funding for this has increased so much that in many districts it accounts for over a third of all funding (34).  If that is the case, then why do schools consistently put ELL students or children with mild learning disorders in special education?  Is it because the teachers who had these students before do not want their future teachers to go through the ordeal of teaching them?  Maybe if we stopped putting ELLs and students with a mild learning disorder in special education, then we can stop spending as much money on this and spend more on regular education. The second question I have relates to the efforts of teachers.  The author states that "in most U.S. schools, especially at the middle and high school level, even the heroic effort by a teacher to pay attention to multiple intelligence patterns is...almost guaranteed to fail" (37).  Why is that so?  I know that it may be because of the school's structure or because of the way the teacher presents the material, but is there another explanation?  I think there may a combination of other factors that may cause a teacher to fail.

Finally, one additional thing that I would like to learn more about is if other schools have gotten on the same path as the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland have when it comes to personalized learning (36).  It seems as though the program they have works well, as teachers can see where students are in their learning and can then customize their instruction to meet every student's needs/progress.

Week One Reading Reflection - Rethinking High School

In chapter one of Rethinking High School, the authors point out that in modern times, high schools have become an anachronism because they fit a model that was established back during the 1920s (20). This point stuck out to me because high schools today still follow an outdated model that is no longer effective and now results in damaging effects on youth. Instead of changing the model, high schools just add on new curriculum, such as NCLB standards, which only furthers the damage. By following such an outdated model, high schools are not really preparing students for the real world. In order for students to be prepared for the real world once they leave high school, schools need to stop functioning on this older model. The point that I would like to further explore is how high schools "make things worse" (21), since from personal experience, high school didn't really make instruction or life worse for me. The one reform that didn't sound good was size - sometimes the larger schools are more successful than smaller ones.

A number of the Second to None "Components of Reform" were woven throughout the chapter, especially Second to None's component of "Developing Powerful Learning and Teaching." Both Second to None and Best Practices High School promote a curriculum that involves students researching, solving problems, and working together, generating new knowledge, and applying this knowledge to the real world. It seems that in order for students to become informed citizens and to be prepared for the real world, schools have to prepare their students by providing them with the information, knowledge, and experience that is necessary to be successful in reality every day, rather than just cramming them with knowledge that will most likely be forgotten within a few weeks.