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.