Lost Generation?

After watching the you-tube video called Lost Generation (can be found by clicking here) I'm almost at a loss for words. I think the generation that they are speaking of is our generation. I think they are stating that this is how it could end up if we don't change now. And the reason they made it was to open our eyes so we can change and thus it won't happen.

I think it is really interesting how the director got all the words to work both forwards and backwards. To get the words to fit both ways is an amazing thought to me. The first way the author tells us how the world will be like in 10 years. He says "I realize this may be a shock but 'Happiness comes from within' is a lie, and 'Money will make me happy' So in 30 years I will tell my children they are not the most important thing in my life." I think that the way that the world in focused right now, we could be headed in this direction. Into a world that is even more money driven and focused on yourself and not the rest of the world. To think that this could be a place in which I end up is scary. I cannot think of myself telling my children that they are not the most important thing in my life, and I don't want it to happen. But, in order for it to not happen we (my generation) must make a change, thus changing the world. When the total video is reversed you realize that this makes more sense reversed, and it's the way we want our world to be. In our world our children will be the most important and money makes us happy will be the lie. This is what we want our world to turn into. And, we all need to make the change.

Because, as the video states: "There is hope. It is foolish to presume that my generation i apathetic and lethargic. It will be evident that my peers and I care about this earth." I think that the world in NOT headed in this direction. And it's OUR generations job to take the world out of this downward spiral and to make the earth more important to us, and to make money not be our number one priority anymore.

High Stakes Community School

In the demonstration of the High Stakes Community School I was a part of the college students group. The reason why I was in the whole group was because as a graduate of the school I was not prepared for college. I can easily relate to this group of people because coming from a really small town in Minnesota I feel as though I wasn't nearly as prepared for college as come of my friends were. I was not given the opportunity to take very many college level courses in High School. If I was given that opportunity in High school I may have had an easier time adjusting to college level courses.

Another part of the school system that needs to change is the the drop-out rate. Although more and more students are staying in school now then ever before, it still isn't good enough. We still have many students dropping out of High School. Without these students getting a High School diploma they are closing many doors to what they can do in the future. So, I think we need to set up some sort of safety net in which students fall into if they are getting close to dropping out. We can't just let students continue to drop out we need to catch them before they actually drop out.

Overall I think we do need to make our schools harder, but we need to focus on all the elements of education. Including PE, Health, and Art. We need to help our students to become very well rounded individuals and be able to excel in multiple different subjects and opportunities.

Singapore American School

At the beginning of the school year I went to a presentation on the Singapore American Schools. This presentation really caught my attention because I would love to be able to travel and teach at the same time. This school gives a great opportunity for American teachers to teach in an abroad situation. All of the students in the school speak English and are in highly competitive classes.

I think this would be a great opportunity for me to do. I would love to travel the world as much as I can when I'm done with college. After getting the opportunity to travel to Norway and Costa Rica last J-term and the fact that I am traveling to South Africa next year I would love to be able to travel somewhere else while doing something I love.

The presenter was very good at keeping everyone intrigued the whole time. The part of the presentation that really made me want to pursue this opportunity was when he described the students as always wanting to learn and go to school. Having students who want to be in school and want to learn, would be great to have since most students do not really want to go to school and learn a lot.

The presenter made it sound really easy to be able to teach abroad and excel at it. He made me really excited to pursue this chance and maybe be able to teach in abroad for some of my career.

Last Child in the Woods

After reading the book The Last Child in the Woods I notice more often how many times our children are not outside doing things that children should be doing. Often you find kids in front of computers and playing video games when they should be outside exploring and using their imaginations. This trend in growing since our generation in which parents become concerned with the safety of their children and will not let them play outside by themselves.

Children need to be in nature more often than they are right now. Children are more concerned with what is going on their facebook than what is happening in the world. Children need to be taken out of their cyber-lives and be put in the natural world. We can learn many things from nature such as; animals and evolution, plants, and water. By encouraging children to go outside and play they will learn about all these different things through the actions and games that they play.

One way to improve safety is to set up a neighbor watch. Have the children in the neighborhood play outside together and have a parent be responsible to watch the kids from a distance. Allowing the children to play by themselves but have the supervision of an adult and also the safety that comes with having an adult present. Also to incorperate nature into your everyday life as a family adopt and tree. Plant the tree and water it and the family will be able to see over time that tree will grow. You can then save flowers or leaves from the tree and take pictures of it. Having that emotional bond to nature will help children to appreciate it more and to learn form nature.

This book really helped me to know how to improve the lives of children. I knew that children were not spending enough time outdoors but I didn't know how to actually have them do it. This book provided me with support and ideas on how to make nature a part of my community, school, family, and myself.

Click Here for a video that my group made about the importance of nature in children's lives and how to incorperate nature into their lives. It provides evidence as well as ideas on how to get children outside and not sitting in front of the computer or TV.

Adolescent Brains and Alcohol

After Karen Williams lecture about the brain and how it continues to develop into the greater adolescent years and how little things such as the food you eat, the sleep you get, and what you drink can cause lifetime amounts of damage on your brain and your development and overall learning.

The lecture focused on a study done by the National Institutes of Health (click here for the NIH website) on brains from the age of 5-20 years old for 15-years. The overall conclusion done by their intensive research is that it usually takes the brain about 25 years to mature and build the basics that is needed for overall learning and decision making into adulthood. The most important functions and the overall decision skills develop last in the brain during the late teens and early 20s.

The last part of the brain to develop is the pre-frontal cortex (PFC). This part of the brain is the most at risk. The growth and development of the PFC is dependent on the Hippocampus and any damage done to this part of the brain can lead to overall development delays and can change the ways in which the brain develops causing defects in learning ability. Drinking alcohol at a young age can damage the Hippocampus in the brain by turning it off for awhile and even shrinking the overall size, thus leading to developmental problems. Teenagers recover a lot slower than adults do when drinking, thus the Hippocampus is not working for a longer amount of time, lessening the ability to learn and grow during this time.

With alcohol involved during the time in which students are developing the PFC, it will not develop to the amount the children need. Without alcohol involved the PFC will develop as normal and the child will begin to be able to make more decisions and know what is right from wrong.

What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?

This article is about the difference in the education systems between the United States and Finland. And what differences are making the Finnish students finish in the top percent in all of the standard testing categories.

One of the biggest difference between these two education systems is the use of technology. In the United States teachers are often put on the spot to use as much technology as possible in their classrooms. Mostly through the use of PowerPoint and computer work. In Finland the teachers do not focus on the advances in technology at all. Most teachers teach on chalk boards and use overheads transparencies instead of Power Point. This lack of technology helps the students because they are not as easily distracted by the flashy Power Point and new technology.

Another big difference in the education systems is the freedom available for teachers. In the United States teachers have to stay focused on a laid out curriculum and have almost no freedom to change the curriculum or the work that the students have to do. In Finland teachers have the chance to change the curriculum in which they are going to teach. This is good because the teachers can change the curriculum to something that they want to teach and that the students are really interested in. This freedom gives the teachers the chance to push the students with something they really want to learn about and excel in.

One of the biggest differences between Finnish schools and American schools is the emphasis on reading. In Finland parents of newborns are given a packet of multiple books to read to their children while they are growing up. In Finland reading can be found everywhere the children go. Including in shopping malls where children and adolescents can easily access the books they want and are interesting to them. Also in many Finnish communities a book bus travels around the neighborhood to lend out books to the children so they can always have a new book to read and stimulate their minds. In the United States an emphasis is never put on reading during growing up. Parents are not taught from the beginning of their child's life that reading should be emphasized and that children need to be surrounded with many books in order to stimulate their minds throughout development.

The United States' education system can learn a lot from the Finnish schools systems in how to emphasize reading and by doing that ultimately increase our scores on the nationwide and worldwide testing.

For another reaction to Ellen Gamerman's article What Makes Finnish Students So Smart? please click here!

Chalk

After watching the movie Chalk the last couple Mondays, it has opened my eyes to all of the challenges that we as teachers will have when we become teachers. I've always known that there would be a lot of challenges and hard times for me as a teacher, but this movie opened my eyes to what life as a teacher will be like.

The first biggest challenge I noticed in the movie is the lack of time that you are able to spend at home. The teacher who had the biggest problem with this often only went home to sleep and got up early in the morning to get to school and back to work right away. This scares me that I will not be able to balance a life a school and a family at home. I know that the teacher in this movie did not really balance her life that well. So, when I become a teacher I must remember to keep that balance in check.

Another big challenge that I will face is the opposition of the students. If I teach in a Middle/High School setting I think I will receive a lot of opposition from the students. In the movie Chalk the teachers often had to face opposition from the students, like them using cell phones in class, and just not wanting to learn at all. This opposition is hard to deal with, but as a teacher you need to find a way to get to those students and make them want to learn.

For more information about Chalk please watch this video : Chalk

Autism and Education Article

This article jumped out to me as soon as I saw it on my desk. Since I am going into Special Education anything having to do with a learning disability or behavior disorder intrigues me right away. This mother in the article deals with a very hard subject for most educators to even talk about. A lot of money goes towards Special Education every year, and many people think that other parts of education should receive more money as well.

I agree with the mother when she states that maybe more money should be put into gifted education. Not enough is done to help out the students who fall into the gifted education program. She talks about her daughter who "hides a book in her desk and reads while the teacher talks." I think that the daughter in this situation is not being stimulated at all. I think that yes the school could put more money in their gifted and talented program, but also I think that the teacher needs to make sure that she is stimulating all of the students in the classroom. The mother states that only 7.5 million dollars are put into grants for gifted education programs, compared to the 24.5 billion dollars that are allotted by NCLB for Special Education. Although I do believe that more money needs to be put into gifted education, I don't think that taking a lot of money away from Special Education is the way to do it. The money that is put into Special Education is all ready being stretched out throughout the schools and districts. And, if more money is going to be put towards gifted education I think that we must also put more money into the arts as well, because those subjects in the schools are also lacking in money to build the systems. I think that the overall distribution of money into schools needs to be reexamined.

The mother who writes this article also talks about how the goals for Special Education students are a lot lower than those goals of students who take part in gifted and talented programs. Although this is true, I think that we as educators cannot say that just because the goals of some students are lower than others they do not deserve the right to all of the federal money that they are given. The Special Education systems have been helping out even more students now that they get more funding from NCLB, and numbers are rising of students who receive help and are now meeting standards that would not be possible to do without that extra money they receive.

Overall, I think this a hard position to be in. Whenever money is involved it is not easy to pick where it should go. It is hard to decide which group of individuals need/deserve the money more. I feel as though more money needs to be given to gifted and talented programs, but money should not be taken away from Special Education in order to do it, but this could definitely be my bias as I am going to be a Special Education teacher.

Steve Chambliss and our discussion

I learned alot from our talk with Steve Chambliss. It was nice to hear from a teacher who has taught for many years, and also to talk to someone who has done a lot of different jobs in the school system in general.

The first topic that really stands out to me that Steve talked about was No Child Left Behind. It was interesting how he said that it was a "wake-up call to public education." I never really thought of it this way and it really opened my eyes to NCLB being really good for our schools. I thought his solution to the problems that arise from NCLB were interesting as well. He stated "we need to improve teaching and create a better learning environment." And I think this is completely correct. We as teachers need to create a better environment for all of our students to learn better. It was nice to see a teacher who really stands up for NCLB. The only thing that he said was really hard about NCLB was the accountability. It is hard for some students to take standardized tests, and I think we should find a better way to make sure our students are accountable for the learning.

Another topic that really interested me was how he said we should start looking into graduate schools right after graduation. I was always told to take a couple of years before you look into that kind of stuff, but it makes more since with all the learning and test taking to jump into it right away (after starting to teach). I think it was really smart to point out that we should take the GRE right away when we are still used to test taking and are still very knowledgeable in those general subjects that are a part of the test.

What really interested me about his talk was all of the inspiring quotes he said at the end of the talk. It gave me goosebumps to hear all of the great things that come from teaching. Like when he said that teaching is "a life of service...and a very rewarding career." This makes me so excited to be a teacher. I cannot wait to begin my life of service and all the rewards that I will reap from being a teacher. He made me even more excited to be a teacher and I cannot wait to begin my journey of a life of service and rewarding experiences.

The quotes that Steve Chambliss were amazing for an inspirational teaching video click here.

New Teacher Panel

It was a great experience to listen to a new teacher panel as they told us about their first couple years in the "real world." The three teachers were all different and each told us something we could learn from them. The teacher I learned the most from was the male teacher, because he (like me) is in Special Education. It was kind of scary to realize that although they prepare us very well here at Luther College, we will come across situations that we never got taught how to deal with, which is when we will have to use what we learned and figure out the situation by ourselves.

What I found most interesting was the use of technology in the schools now. Two of the teachers stated at their school all students grades 5 and above have laptops. Although this is a good thing because of the saving of the paper when tests are given and such, it can also be a hassle. The students always want to be on the computers when they have free time. This I believe is not a good thing at all. In the free time the students are given they should be socializing and being active with friends. These two components are missing in a lot of our students. Our students need to become more social with each other and adults, they also need to be more active and physically fit. This is their chance to be kids and run around and have fun, with the computers in front of them the whole time they do not do this

Another subject I found most interesting was how the schools are beginning to teach manners to children. I think this is a great idea, because many children do not know basic manners to adults. By having the students say hi and thank you after everything they are learning lifelong lessons they need later in life. School is not all about the knowledge of subject matter like math and reading. You also need to learn those social skills in which manners falls into. I think this is a very good thing that these teachers are doing for their students.

After this teacher panel, my eyes were opened very much. I've always thought that you will learn pretty much everything you need to know in college and then you'll be able to deal with all those things when you are teaching, but I know now that I will keep learning once I'm out of college. This teacher's panel was a good way to see what life outside of the "Luther Bubble" is and what we might have to deal with on a regular basis.

Paper Clips and Teaching

I had a hard time thinking that paper clips could help get subject matter across for a group of students. But, after watching the documentary Paper Clips, I think that it all depends on the effort put in by the teachers and the students desire to learn.

The teachers throughout the documentary use a constructivist approach to teaching. The constructivist approach to teaching is a more learner-centered approach to knowledge. It emphasizes students actively constructing their knowledge and understanding. In the documentary the teachers kind of step back as the children collect all the paper clips for their project. By letting the students actively work in the processes of counting the paper clips, sending out letters, and making posters the students gain the knowledge the teachers wanted them to know, but also have a hands-on experience and fun! The teacher's attitude towards this Holocaust project also helped the students to gain a sense of worth through their project. The teachers were just excited to learn about this subject matter and had an open mind so the students also had that same sense of learning.

Another reason this project worked really well was because it was very age-related. The students who were Middle School age were actively engaged throughout the whole project. This was a good project for the Middle School, because usually at that point in schooling the whole hands-on approach to learning is thrown out the window and tests & papers take over. I think that is a reason why the students gained so much more from this project and experience. They wanted to learn about it and it was fun for them. Usually at this age there are not as many projects, but with this on the students got to delve right into the work and they led most of the learning. And in the end they are teaching more students about the Holocaust, because they know so much and know now it is an important subject to know about.

Overall, I think the use of paper clips to teach students about the Holocaust was a wonderful way to get students excited to learn about the subject matter. More teachers could improve their lessons by thinking a little outside of the box, and letting their students "get their hands dirty" in the subject matter they are learning!