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.

Chapter 5: Practice makes perfect!

As a special education teacher you come across so many situations that sometimes you can not solve.

The book states that neuroscience research confirms the important role that experience plays in building the structure of the mind by modifying the structures of the brain. Mainly practice increases learning.

I do agree with the research but how about in regards to students with disabilities such as mental retardation. I had a couple of students with mental retardation and other students with disabilities. Every day I would do my lesson, off course modified to there specific needs. I noticed that when I reviewed their knowledge of specific lesson they would not remember it.

I decided to some research and see if there is an answer to my questions. I came a cross a study by C.T. Ramey and S.L Ramey (1996) Prevention of intellectual disabilities: Early interventions to improve cognitive development. They found that providing an enriched learning environment through an intensive, high quality program for young children who were at risk for developmental delay resulted in significant increases in IQ scores.

So, basically the research stated that practice makes perfect. Even though I needed to repeat each experience numerous times, it was worth it because my students remember the lesson and were able to repeat the lesson on their own. I am still doing research on the specific area of mental retardation because I have two students with sever mental retardation and they also have seizure problems. When I would teach them something in a previous lesson they would forget it when they have a seizure.

(This website is a good chart to put up in your classroom)

http://homepage.mac.com/yogitrish/ERAU_Project2020/documents/NineBrainRules.pdf

Chapter 4: Your native language is a precious gift that reminds you where you come from!

Language development studies illustrate that children’s biological capacities are set into motion by their environments (95).

My language skills development in a weird way but my environment really affected my language skills. I grew up in the Philippines until I was three years of age and could talk only my mother’s native language which was Kapangpangang. Something happen when I was three my mother and father came back from the military and took my brother and me back to Guam. This was a very confusing time because my sister and father talked English but my brother and I talked Kapangpangang. The one thing I noticed was that I did not have a hard time learning English. I guess this goes back to the concept of that children being at an early age to develop knowledge of their linguistic environments, using a set of specific mechanisms that guide language development. It seemed that while I was young I was able to learn English merely by being in an English speaking environment. But something else was amazing my mother told me that when I would go back to the Philippines I would go back to speaking my native language and that when I came back to Guam I would have to learn English all over again. But she said that it was easy for me. Through my whole childhood this process was continuous because my family and I would always go to Philippines every year. Also my grandmother moved in with us and spoke nothing but my native language so that was reinforced in my environment by her. Now I am twenty-five and can speak fluent English and Kapangpangang.

I agree with the study that the enviornment does play a big part in learning a language. Because I grew up in two totally different enviornments but I was still able to learn both languages.

In our island I here so many families complaining that the children now a days don’t know how to speak there language. But parents have to understand that it is not their children’s fault but theirs. They must keep the language alive when the children at a young age because research states that children absorb and learn language while they are young.

So to all the parents out there, who speak a different language and have young children, speak to your kids in your native language, because it is a wonderful gift of culture to pass down to each generation of your family and something special that reminds you where you come from.

Chapter 3 (b): Mini Melting Pot!

“With Guam being a melting pot, teachers should understand that each classroom is also a mini melting pot full of different types of ingredients. It is the teacher’s duty to be the cook and make sure that the outcome is a wonderful dish.”
Devi Barcinas


Another topic that interested me was transfer and cultural practices. I found this topic to be very interesting because it relates to me. I was born in the Philippines and raised there until I was three years of age. After my third birthday my mother moved me to Guam with my eight year old brother. While I was in the Philippines I latched on to the Filipino culture and so did my brother. Coming to Guam was a big culture shock. I grew up in a strict non Americanize catholic home. My father was in the military and my mother was already Americanize because they had been traveling around the world with my sister.

As per my education, when I started attending school I brought so much prior knowledge to the table due to my up bringing that it would clash with the teacher and my classmates. You, see in the Filipinos children really respect their elders by not speaking until they are spoken to. In the class we are encourage to speak our mined. I got in trouble many times for not participating in group discussions. Until one day my mother came to school to explain to my teacher my situation. Through the passing years I have changed and adapted to the Americanize way of living on Guam.

The main problem with my teacher was that she did not take the time to ask what was wrong. She just assumed that I did not want to participate in the activities. As teachers we should take the time and learn each student’s culture and their pass life experiences. It does not have to be in detailed but just by asking a child if their parents are in the military it tell a lot of the child. The best way also to find out prior knowledge is to get some information from the parents.

Chapter 3 (a): Tranfer between school and everyday life.

(This picture is from our fisheries workshop, were studetns actually go on the boat and troll fish HANDS ON LEARNING) This students caught a 7 foot marlin.

The topic that caught my attention in chapter 3 was “Transfer between school and every life” The book states that the ultimate goal of schooling is to help students transfer what they have learned in school to everyday settings of home, community, and workplace. Students are motivated to spend the time needed to learn complex subjects and to solve problems that they find interesting. Opportunities to use knowledge to create products and benefits for to other are particularly motivating for students. (pg 73 & 77)

I work for the University of Guam Cooperative extension service 4-H Youth development program. 4-H is an informal education program conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The mission of 4-H is to assist youth I acquiring knowledge, developing skills, and forming attitudes that will enable them to become self-directing, productive and contributing members of society. This mission is 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.

The workshops we develop are geared towards the interest of the youth of Guam. We have fisheries, sports, horticulture, entomology, food & nutrition, arts & crafts, and animal husbandry. Our audience is youth of Guam in the public and private school settings. All our workshops are curriculum based and geared to helping students transfer what they have learned in school to everyday settings of home, community and workshop place. We do this by teaching students different basic life skills such as; responsible citizens, healthy life style choices, caring for others and etc. Workshops are all hands on learning and students have opportunities to use knowledge to create products.

Through all the workshops and data that we have collected it shows that this type of teaching skill works. Our participants always come back every year and join. Also teachers from GPSS always want us to come back in a continuous basis to present our workshops.

Chapter 2 (b): Teachers can even be experts in different aspects of teaching.

Petersen, P.L., & Comeaus, M.A. (1987).Teachers’ schemata for classroom events: The mental scaffolding of teachers’ thinking during classroom instruction. Teaching scaffolding and Teacher Education, 3, 319-331. (PK23).

http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/tbarcalow/EdPsy362/S6M1.htm

This article was very interesting it talks about comparing novice social studies teachers to experienced social studies teachers. The researchers wanted to look at the other studies of experts and noticed that expert chess players and experts at solving physics problems seemed to have large memories and evaluated situations using advanced schemata. The researchers used this background to hypothesize that studying expert teachers would yield similar results. They found that experienced teachers have more verbal abilities, more recall of classroom events, and more elaboration in discussing classroom situations. The researchers concluded that the schemata of experienced teachers is more cognitively complex.

I can’t say that I agree with this article in regards to that you must be a 10 year teacher to be an expert. In the past I had so many teachers and professors that have not perfected their skills and they are already a veteran teacher. I believe that teachers have some of the characteristics of being an expert such as: being flexible and dynamic, having background knowledge which contributes to problem solving, domain specific, and one who devotes time to work hard in one area. As mentioned in the articles teachers can even be experts in different aspects of teaching, such as classroom management, motivation, or curriculum design.

Yes, being an expert teacher means knowing your content area and how to teach it. I believe that motivation is the key to being an expert. After a couple of years some teachers feel burnt out and lose their motivation to education youth. This in tells that even though you have been working for 10 years as a teacher, it does not mean that you are an expert in your content area.

Chapter 2 blog (a): Don't be a robot teacher!

I strongly agree with the concept that instruction that enables students to see models of how experts organize and solve problems may be helpful (49).

In the past years I came across many teachers and professors who really do not understand this principle of expertise of modeling. Some professor and teachers really prefer to just stand in front of classroom, reading from the text book or just telling us to read the chapter and answer the questions. All they do is lecture from the same pile of notes every year or have us Xerox the notes and memorize them. I remember having one professor that uses the same notes over and over again that you could literally notice the aging of the paper.

Well, from all that experience with professors and teachers who merely did nothing but stand in front of the classroom and look like a robot, I am so glad to say that I did not turn out that way because I learned nothing from those individuals. As a special education teacher, I wanted my students to be able to see the whole process to which I obtained my conclusion or answer. Every day of my lesson was some what like a modeling session. I would have my power point presentation and then I would do a mini modeling presentation which would either be a brain storming activity or hands on experiment. Although I encourage my students to follow my model of solving problems, I also did not discourage them from coming up with a different model in solving there own problems. By them doing that it gives me an understanding that they did comprehend the lesson and that is it not merely memorizing it but understanding.

Modeling can be used within a wide range of subjects and should not only be designated to math or science. Modeling is a good form of instruction for problem solving skills and bills a students deep understands of the subject matter being taught.

Chapter 1 Blog (b): Creating a student and teacher friendly classroom!

In any educational setting there is always two roles, there is the teacher and the students, who work together to educate the students about the subject matter being taught. This way of teaching is designed to modify the students' behavior, experience, understanding, and knowledge. This refers to chapter ones discussion in regards to active learning, which indicates helping students take control of their own learning.

Past educational system structures are perceived to be a process of learning, memorization, association, and practice. Students' intellect growth coincides with their development through different phases: coordination, symbolization and visual recognition, language, logical thought, and eventually formal structure and explanation. The process of educating a child intellectually must take into account these characteristics. But cannot only focus on one type of process such as memorization, they must explore the different process so the student will have a boarder view in regards to different world views and facts.

Education must pace development, not ignore it or follow it. You can not teach students new information if they are not developmentally ready. For example; a student may be in the 9th grade but the teacher can not assume that the student reads at the 9th grade level. Teachers must take the time to assess student’s level of performance.

The teacher's role involves sharing knowledge and experience with the students at an appropriate times. But not forgetting to take into consideration students pre-existing knowledge and preconceptions, and using them to develop a more effective lesson plan. By doing this teacher’s lead the students through different learning situations to encourage independent thought, critical analysis, realization, and problem-solving.

I believe that if teachers must take the time to set up their classroom to be a “student and teacher friendly environment” as a call it, so that students may feel a sense of belonging and have an ownership in contributing to their educational needs.

Chapter 1 Blog (a): Past learning experiences make a difference!

Chapter one was very interesting, the section that really caught my attention was the part on learning with understanding. I agree with this type of learning. Through my middle school years majority of my teachers would base their test and style of teaching on memorization and I really felt as if I was not gaining and absorbing the information taught. They did not challenge me to dig deeper for more understanding of the subject matter. I would have rather learned and understood what was being taught then just merely memorizing.

When I became a special education teacher at John F. Kennedy High School, I did use the memorization way of teaching but only for facts that needed to be memorized such as mathematical formulations or historical dates. I believe that students what to know why they are learning the information be taught. My students were interested on what made the facts so interesting or important.

By using the learning to understand technique students will obtain and understand more information when asked a question. In addition students will feel more confident when answering questions on subject matter. And information taught to them will be stored in long term memory rather then short term memory.

Hi Everybody (",) !

Hi! Everyone my name is Devi Barcinas and I am in the masters of education program with a specialization in secondary counseling. Looking forward to getting to know everybody! (",)