Instructional Problem: 4-H Youth Development Life Skills Program

Background:

4-H Youth Development is the youth education program of the Cooperative Extension System. This informal educational program is conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, state land-grant universities, and local government and combines the work of federal, state and local extension staff and volunteer leaders. Participants are primarily between the ages of 9 and 19 and reside in every demographic area: farm, city, and in between. The main purpose of 4-H is to assist youth in acquiring knowledge, developing life skills, and forming attitudes that will enable them to become self-directing, productive and contributing members of society. This activities are carried out through the involvement of parents, volunteer leaders and other adults who organize and conduct educational subject/project experiences in community and family settings. These youth contribute to energy conservation environment improvement, community service and food production, and participate in programs that aid youth employment and career decisions, health, nutrition, home improvement, and family relationships. In the process, 4-H youth apply leadership skills, acquire a positive self-concept and learn to respect and get along with people.

Problem:

The frequency of actual educators incorporating the life skills curriculum into the classroom is fair to none. 4-H Youth Development lessons involve hands-on activities which concentrate on given life skills. Students who participate in the life skill workshops have to complete a pre-post evaluation after each presentation.

It’s estimated that 25% of our nation’s youth engage in “high-risk” activities such as heavy alcohol, tobacco, or drug use, delinquency, and poor school performance or non-attendance. Almost one-third of our youth fail to graduate from high school. As a result of these high-risk activities, youth become a burden to society instead of contributions. The number of our nation’s youth exhibiting at-risk behavior points to a lack of skills necessary for adulthood-skills in working with others, understand self, communicating, making decisions, and leadership. The development of life skills allows youth to cope with their environment by making responsible decision, have a better understand of their values, and being better able to communicate and get along with others.

Chapter 10: My Reflection!

I took this opportunity to highlight which section of the book I really thought to be important. The topic that most interested me was the section on Expert Teachers. Expert teachers know the structure of the knowledge in their disciplines. (242)
· Teachers need expertise in both subject mater content and in teaching.
· Teachers need to develop understanding of the theories of knowledge (epistemologies) that guide the subject-matter disciplines in which they work.
· Teachers need to develop an understanding of pedagogy as an intellectual discipline that reflects theories of learning, including knowledge of how cultural beliefs and the personal characteristics of learners influence learning.
· Teachers are learners and the principles of learning and transfer for students learners apply to teachers.
· Teachers need opportunities to learn about children’s cognitive development and children’s development of though (children’s epistemologies) in order to know how teaching practices build on learner’s prior knowledge.
· Teachers need to develop models of their own professional development that are based on lifelong learning, rather than on an “updating” model of learning, in order to have frameworks to guide their career planning.


A TEACHER'S SURVIVAL KITFOR EVERYDAY LIVING.
TOOTHPICK-reminds us to look for the good qualities in our students. You may be the only teacher who says something positive to them that day.
RUBBER BAND-reminds the teacher that they have to be flexible. Things don't always go the way we plan, But flexibility will help to work it out.
BAND AID-reminds the teacher that sometimes we do more than teach, That we help heal hurt feelings, broken dreams, And lend an ear to a problem.
PENCIL-reminds us to be thankful and we should list our blessings daily, But also encourage our students to list their blessings And to be proud of their accomplishments.
ERASER-reminds us to allow students to know we are human And make mistakes just like they do, and it's ok. We must all be able to learn from our mistakes.
CHEWING GUM-reminds us to stick with it And encourage our students to do like wise. Even the impossible task or assignment can be accomplished By sticking to it.
MINT-reminds us and our students we are worth a mint. (We may not be paid a mint, but are worth one.)
CANDY KISS-reminds us that everyone needs a hug, Kiss, or warm fuzzy everyday. (All teachers, students, parents, and even administrators)
TEA BAG-reminds us we need time to relax, Go over our blessing, and take time for others. Family, husbands, wives, friends, children need quality time together.
A teacher must be willing to show their students how much they care!!!

Chapter 11: Educating the future policy makers of Guam!

While reading Chapter 11, I came to a research which talked about “Develop Tools for Effective Communication of the Principles in This Volume to Policy Makers” this part was of course very intriguing because of our islands whole state of political chaos. The research mentioned numerous positive avenues that we teachers can take to shape the future policy makers of Guam. It is recommended that research be conducted to : Assess preconception of education policy makers regarding the goals of K-12 education and the strategies for achieving those goals. Are they consistent with the principles of learning in this volume? Identify examples that engage the preconceptions of policy makers (if those preconceptions diverge from research findings on how people learn). Identify methods of communication that are most likely to reach, and teach, policy makers. Compare the effectiveness of alternative approaches, including concisely written materials, personal contact, and briefings of seminars.

I think this research topic is very beneficial to Guam because some of our policy makers are not doing very well in the political arena. If we can incorporate some of these methods in regards to policy making in our social studies classrooms, I believe we can defiantly reshape Guam’s political government.

Chapter 9: The homework guessing game!

The other interesting topic in chapter eight was the part on connecting classrooms to community. I believe that on Guam this is a major problem. Because majority of parents really do not know what goes on in the classroom. I know that GPSS has made some effort in trying new ways to involve parents in their children education such as; daily planners that let parents know what is going on and if their child has homework. But there is a big fall back to the daily planners, student must bring the planners to school every day and right their homework or other events in the planners themselves. Really think about it how many students actually use their planners. In my classroom I had to give my students an incentive like bonus points every time they bring in their planner, but even at that only about a total of 10 of my students brought them in.

Then we go back to this whole issue about parent teacher conference. Believe or not I believe this whole system really does not work. We meet with parents every quarter to let parents know what the progress of their child is. But when it comes down to it only parents of students who are passing come to the parent teacher conference. For last two years for my teacher conference I had a total of 14 parents within those two years.

The book mentions some modern technologies that can help make connections between students in school and out-of-school activities. For example, the “transparent school” (Bauch, 1997) uses telephones and answering machines to help parents understand the daily assignments in classrooms. Teachers need only a few minutes per day to dictate assignments into an answering machine. Parents can call at their convenience and retrieve the daily assignments, thus becoming informed of what their children are doing in school (224). I think this is a great idea because it stops the big hassle of parents trying to guess if their child as homework or not.

Chapter 8: My first year as a teacher!

My first year as a teacher was very funny because I had a very fast crash course in teaching. You see my I did not major in education; my major is in consumer family science with an emphasis in secondary education. So, basically I did not have to take all the classes as education majors would need to take. It so happens that if you do not major in education you don’t have to take the student teaching part, in which you basically have a master teacher that guides you in the classroom. My students teaching actually was supposed to happen after I graduate and it would be called internship. Internship basically meant that you where in the classroom with no master teacher, you where on your own. It sounded exciting because unlike student teaching you get paid when you do your internship.

Well, I really believe that it is a better idea to give students using education as an emphasis the opportunity to do student teaching because teachers learn through their interactions with other teachers (191). The book states that an example of formal mentoring occurs when an experienced teacher takes a new teacher under his or her wing to provide insight and advice, sometimes for state programs and an informal mentoring occurs through conversations in hallways, teachers’ room, and other school settings (191).

My experience as a first time teacher was not like a formal mentorship or even an informal mentorship. Well, let me give you a glimpse of what I went through that day. It started with me in the main office being introduced to the principle and telling me what classroom I would be in and what subject I would be teaching. They did not even give me an orientation; I just went straight to the classroom. When I entered the classroom, it was chaos students where jumping, around throwing the teacher paper and basically over powering the teacher. The teacher had told me that the principle informed her that she would be mentoring me for two weeks just to get used to the classroom. Well, guess what she only mentored me for a day, can you believe that!

My overall experience was not so bad. It turned out that the students where really good but just lacking classroom discipline. Also the special education team teachers helped me out a lot. So, even through my mentor left me, I still had a whole team to teach me the ropes of being a teacher.

Chapter 7 Blog: UOG lecture hall learning!

I did not want to focus on my experience as a teacher for chapter seven because I found a topic that deals with college students. In the chapter in talked about interactive instruction in large classes. Off course not all classes in the college level are like this but I remember my freshmen year majority of my classes were big, such as psychology, art, and sociology.

There are so many disadvantages for this type of classroom setting such as; how does an instruction provide an active learning experience, provide feedback, accommodate different learning styles, make students’ thinking visible, provide scaffolding and tailored instruction to meet specific students needs when facing more than 100 students at a time. (pg.82)

The book states that a program call Classtalk, consist of both hardware and software that allows up to four students to share an input devise to “sign on” to a classroom communication network that permits the instructor to send questions for students to work on and permits students to enter answers through their input device.

This would be great to have at the University of Guam, but everyone knows we are not up to date in technology or sometimes it is not in our budget. My past experience with this type of classroom setting was not a very educational one. The only thing I learned was to go to class, sit down, listen to the lecture, take notes, and then get ready to take a test. It goes back to my experiences of my professors using memorization way of teaching.

Chapter 6 Blog: My Classroom enviornment!

I found this chapter very interesting and educational. It really made me think about what type of classroom environment I have. While reading this chapter and the part on learner centered environment, I realized that this is the type of classroom environment I use.

In a special education classroom I believe that teachers must use learner centered because students in this type of situation feel more confident when they do the work on their own and come up with the answers on their own. Through my experiences I found that my students care less about the problems I solve for them or the projects that I develop. Students want to take pride in their work and I also believe that student comprehend the work more if they take ownership.

Instead of boring you with a description of what is the meaning of a learner centered environment, I found some tips on creating an effective learning environment and a learner centered environment.

To create an effective learning situation in the classroom, Combs (1976) says that three characteristics are needed:

Combs, A.W. (1976). Fostering maximum development of the individual. In W. Van Til & K.J. Rehage (Eds.). Issues in secondary education. (NSSE Yearbook, 1976). Chicago: National Society for the Study of Education.

1.)The atmosphere should facilitate the exploration of meaning. Learners must feel safe and accepted. They need to understand both the risks and rewards of seeking new knowledge and understanding. The classroom must provide for involvement, interaction, and socialization, along with a business-like approach to getting the job done.

2.)The atmosphere should facilitate the exploration of meaning. Learners must feel safe and accepted. They need to understand both the risks and rewards of seeking new knowledge and understanding. The classroom must provide for involvement, interaction, and socialization, along with a business-like approach to getting the job done.

3.)Learners must be given frequent opportunities to confront new information and experiences in the search for meaning. However, these opportunities need to be provided in ways that allow students to do more than just receive information. Students must be allowed to confront new challenges using their past experience without the dominance of a teacher/giver of information.
New meaning should be acquired through a process of personal discovery. The methods used to encourage such personal discovery must be highly individualized and adapted to the learner's own style and pace for learning.

In A Different Kind of Classroom (1992), Robert Marzano makes six assumptions about creating a learning-centered classroom:

Marzano, R.J. (1992). A different kind of classroom: Teaching with dimensions of learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Instruction must reflect the best of what we know about how learning occurs.

1.)Learning involves a complex system of interactive processes that includes five types of thinking the five dimensions of learning.
What we know about learning indicates that instruction focusing on large, interdisciplinary curricular themes is the most effective way to promote learning.

2.)The K-12 curriculum should include explicit teaching of higher-level attitudes and perceptions and mental habits that facilitate learning.
A comprehensive approach to instruction includes at least two distinct types of instruction: teacher-directed and student-directed.

3.)Assessment should focus on students' use of knowledge and complex reasoning rather than their recall of low-level information.