Chapter 7b & 7c: Assessing and Reporting Student Achievement

7b
At this point in our education we should have all taken, critiqued, and created our own assessments. A lot of work goes into all three of these. I think that if you want to get an educator or anyone who thinks they know anything about education worked up all you have to do is mention standardized testing. Its like lighting a match. When we talk about assessment nowadays I personally feel like standardized testing is the first thing that comes to mind and, oh boy, will it get people all worked up. Assessment is an essential part of teaching and we wouldn't be able to monitor students progress without it, but I think that kids are being attacked by so many different assessments, day in and day out, when are they ever actually supposed to learn anything. In my own classroom I intend to make assessment as beneficial as possible. It is meant to help you as an educator and your students grow and progress. Although we have to deal with standardized testing as part of assessment I will not teach to the test like I have seen so many teachers do, because it is easier and they don't know how else to do things.

7c
The third portion of chapter 7 begins by talking about all the types of assessment items that can be used to assess students. These include: arrangement, completion drawing, completion statement, correction, essay, grouping, identification, matching, multiple choice, performance, short explanation, and true-false. I have worked with many of these when creating my own assessments. I think that it is very important to use a combination of many different types of these questions on your assessments because it helps to get a better understanding of the student knowledge. This portion of chapter 7 also touches on grades and parent involvement. Grades can be another touchy subject, particularly with parents. If a parent doesn't think that their child is receiving a proper grade from something their child did, then sometimes parents will come in to see you with a lot to say. This is why it is important as educators to have a strong understanding and reasoning for why we do things the way that we do. We must be confident and strong individuals. These are all qualities I will have to have when managing my own classroom and dealing with parents one day.

Chapter 6a, 6b, & 6c: Preparing an Instructional Plan

6a
This portion of that chapter covers the components of a unit plan, the methods of teaching your lessons, and it also talks a lot about learning style and modes of your students. I think that the components to a unit are very standard. They are the same things we have been learning since we started to learn how to write lesson plans. The only difference is that units cover a larger chunk of time and they include multiple lesson plans and sometimes cover multiple integrated subjects. This section talks a lot about differentiating instruction. It uses the terms "hands-on" and "minds-on" learning. I think that it is important to keep the students engaged and to mix up the mode of instruction to the best of your ability. However, as much as the traditional method of teaching gets bashed I think that in some situations it is very difficult if not impossible to get information across to students without using the teacher-centered lecture. With that being said, using the traditional teacher-centered lecture format in your classroom will drive your students crazy. They will get antsy and most likely won't get much if anything out of the lecture at all, especially when overused. We are collecting ways throughout our education to keep students moving and engaged while they are learning. At the middle school level students are really trying to figure themselves out. If the content they are learning is connected or relevant to the things going on in their life  they will be more engaged as well.

6b
The second portion of Chapter six talks about lesson planning. Especially as a beginning teacher lesson planning will take a major chunk of your time. It is important to be well prepared for the presentation of each and every lesson. I think that the more prepared you are the better your students will receive and respect you as a teacher and a role model. If you get up in front of the class and have no idea where you are going with your lesson students won't take you seriously. If you don't put the time and effort into creating your lesson plans than how can you expect your students to spend their time and effort trying to learn the material? I know from personal experience the more prepared I feel for a lesson the less nervous I am when teaching it. If I know precisely what I want to cover and how I want to do it then the unexpected isn't as scary. The book also talks about over planning in your lessons. I think that it is important to the whole classroom atmosphere that your students always have something to do that is productive and beneficial to them. If they don't then that always leaves room for chaos and something to go wrong in your classroom. I will definitely prepare plenty of material in each lesson to ensure that students don't have time to get themselves in trouble. No matter what the grade level they are, students will always be mischievous, but particularly in the middle school grades because they are testing their boundaries and seeing how far they can push.

6c
The third portion of chapter six is all about the actual set up of a lesson plan. Throughout my college career I have had set up lesson plans so many different formats. To me it seems as though no format makes any difference to the actual performance of the lesson. As long as you are organized in your lessons and they contain all of the pertinent information than your lesson should be effectively taught. As you develop as an educator you will develop your very own format for your lesson plans. You will discover what works best for you and which format is easiest for you to follow when teaching your students. It's all about making things easier on yourself in order to best benefit your students.

Chapter 5a, 5b, & 5c: The Curriculum

5a
After taking a little bit closer of a look at curriculum as a whole I can only hope that for at least my first year of teaching I am lucky enough to be able to work in a team of teachers. Thus far in my college career I have worked hands on with the individual lesson plans and even a couple different unit plans, but I have not yet had to deal with the whole curriculum of a school. I think that eventually it will be helpful and more challenging in the long run. It will be a helpful starting point for each lesson plan in order to have a focus. Now we are just pulling things out of nowhere. However, I think that having to deal with sticking to a curriculum will be difficult in situations where I don't necessarily agree with the content that is focused on. This portion of the chapter also discusses curriculum as not only being the academic portion of school, but also the activities, programs of service, and hidden learning experiences as well. I think that this is an important way to look at curriculum because students learn from many different facets in their life, not only from the lessons they are being taught from their textbooks.

5b
Before reading this section of the chapter I always looked at textbooks as a way to move you through the school year. For each subject or class you have one or possibly two textbooks and that is where you go your information. When I was going through school we were just starting to use the internet more often and we used encyclopedias or whatever our school library had to offer for books. Especially in a middle school classroom I think that it is important to use all different kinds of sources to pull your information from. You want to keep your information current and up to date. Up until reading this portion of the chapter I didn't really realize or think about how often one text is used for a course and absolutely nothing else. I don't think this benefits students in any way. This section also talks about writing goals and objectives. In order to do this you need to have a clear idea of what you want your students to get out of the lesson. It also talks about different controversies or controversial topics in the classroom. Particularly in a middle school classroom I think this could be a potential issue quite often. Students are always asking questions about anything and everything. Most of the time it is out of genuine curiosity but with some topics  we as educators need to be very careful how we proceed in answering questions about touchy subjects. I also don't believe that it is our place to answer every question that is asked either. I think that there are some topics that should be left up to parental discretion. I thought it was interesting how the book said it was ok to tell your students your opinion but it is best to wait until after they have explored the topic. I found this to be so interesting because I can't remember a teacher until my college career that ever gave their opinion on anything. Even now some professors won't give you their input.

5c
We have talked about Bloom's taxonomy in many of the previous courses that I have taken. It relates to the cognitive domain and higher levels of thinking. I had personally never heard of the taxonomies related to the affective or psychomotor domains. It is interesting to think about emotions and values, and  psychomotor skills on different levels. When I think about teaching the very first thing that comes to mind is having student learn the "textbook" or academic information, but in the classroom students learn much more than academics. I think that in middle school especially the teaching of how to deal with emotions and their values is very important. Middle school is when students are trying to find themselves and it is important that students have the proper models and guidance. The last section also talks about integrated curriculum. From my experience in creating a thematic unit, this concept is very tricky to me. The task of having to center all subject areas around one common theme or topic is most definitely a challenge. Syllabi are also covered in this section. When I think about a syllabus I normally think about the 20 page long documents that we get in our college courses. However, I think that the shortened, easy to read documents described in the chapter would be very beneficial in a middle school classroom to help parents and students see what direction you are planning on going throughout the school year. I think they can be beneficial to planning your year as well. If you can't explain to your students and their parents where you want to end up or where you are going then maybe you need just a little more planning time.

Chapter 3: Thinking and Questioning: Skills for Meaningful Learning

We ask questions every single day without even thinking twice about it. When  I think about it I couldn't even tell you how many questions I have asked today alone. There are many different reasons that we ask questions but I have never really thought about why. We ask questions to gather information, to clarify thoughts, to learn new things, and to guide thinking along with many other things. There are three different levels of thinking that we use when we ask a question. The first is the lowest, this is when we simply recall information. The middle or intermediate level is where we process information and the highest level is where we apply our previous knowledge to new situations. There are eight different kinds of questions that span throughout all three levels of thinking: analytic, clarifying, convergent-thinking, cueing, divergent-thinking, evaluative, focus, and probing. Each of these questions has it's place in the education classroom and can be used to benefit students. It all depends on how you use each type of question. I think that creating effective questions and implementing them is something that is going to take a little bit of practice on my part. I am still getting my feet wet as far as being in a classroom and I haven't had a whole lot of experience leading a whole class. I think that once I work with students more and more throughout my last couple years of school I will become much better and more fluent in asking the right questions at the right times for each individual situation. I think that this is going to be a struggle for me because you can't just ask the question you have to consider wording, you can't call on the same students over and over again, and you have to give sufficient time for students to respond. I guess as a teacher we are always doing a million and one things at a time so this is just another strategy to work on to keep in my list of effective teaching tools.

Chapter 2a & 2b: Professional Responsibilities of Teachers of Young Adolescents

2a
The beginning of Chapter 2 talks about all of the different responsibilities you will have as a middle school teacher. You are a decision maker for your classroom, you are committed to your students and your job, and you also have responsibility over your instructional methods as well as various other activities outside of the normal teaching environment. There is a lot of planning, implementing, reflecting, and responsibility that goes along with being a middle school teacher especially. You have to think not only about what you need to do to keep your students safe and learning, but also about what you need to do as a professional and as a person. I think that there is much more to consider and much more that goes into being a middle school teacher than an elementary teacher. The students are beginning to get more involved and starting to try and figure out who they are. As a middle school teacher you spend a good amount of time with the students and you are a huge part of their lives. It is much more than just teaching them in the classroom setting. You have to become interested in their interests and involved in their school related activities.

2b
While the beginning of chapter 2 discusses more about what you need to do for your students outside the classroom the second half focuses on what you need to focus on personally to be a good teacher. It starts with a long list of 22 different qualities that a teacher needs to possess in order to be effective. This list includes things like good communication skills, modeling appropriate behavior, being nondiscriminatory, and having a good sense of humor. Looking at all of these qualities a middle school teacher is supposed to posses is a seemingly impossible task if you ask me. I think that if you break down the list and look at one thing at a time you realize that we are already conditioned as future educators to possess some of these qualities. Then the list seems to get a little shorter. Then you realize some of the qualities describe who you are anyways, and the list gets even shorter. Next you realize that as long as you actively acknowledge each of these qualities an effective middle school teacher should possess than you can work on refining them throughout your career. This makes the rest of the chapter that talks about technology and field trips seem like a piece of cake in the grand scheme of things.

Chapter 4a, 4b, & 4c: The Learning Environment: Planning and Managing the Classroom

4a
The beginning of chapter 4 talks about the difference between classroom control and management. Control seems to be an idea of the past and management is the concept now. Management focuses on the entire environment of the classroom while control seemed to focus specifically on getting students to behave and act the way we wanted them to. There are many different classroom management styles laid out throughout the chapter. Some styles focus on giving students more responsibility for their actions while others focus on positive and negative reinforcement. Classroom management not only encompasses how you handle instruction and student behavior, but also the physical environment, atmosphere (positive or negative), and how well you know your students. I think that all of the factors that play a role in your individual classroom management plan depend on your school environment and regulations, but weigh most heavily on your own individual personality. I have been in many different classrooms throughout my schooling career thus far and I have been in various classrooms as a student working towards my education degree; I don't think that a single one of them has been exactly the same in terms of classroom management styles. I also don't think that there is any one correct way to manage a classroom because what works for one teacher may drive another absolutely insane. I don't know exactly how I will set up my own classroom one day but I can tell you that things will be organized and  well mannered because I know my own personality and the things that drive me nuts.

4b
The second part of chapter 4 starts with the very first day of classes. You have to set your boundaries and procedures starting from the very beginning so that your students know exactly what to expect from you and exactly what is expected from them. It is better to refer to these expectations in terms of procedures and consequences rather than rules and punishment. It helps to create a more positive environment in your classroom and to start off on a good foot rather than expecting your students to do something wrong right from the get go. It is best to give your students as little free time, or time for them to do absolutely nothing, as possible. The more time they have to sit around and do nothing the more they will get bored and try to find something unproductive and potentially destructive to do. It is very important to keep them focused. Many ways to help do this mentioned in the second portion of the chapter include seating charts and opening activities to help move attendance along quickly and to give students something to do as soon as they walk in the classroom. Make sure to transition between activities smoothly and to minimize disruptions even when students are misbehaving or not doing what they are supposed to be doing. Start with indirect intervention before moving to direct intervention. I think that personally discipline is going to be a hard thing for me in my classroom. Especially in a middle school classroom. I am not a fan of confrontation and because of that I need to make my expectations very clear and minimize opportunity for students to become off-task and to get bored and possibly misbehave. I can also have very little patience at times and that will be a challenge when students are pushing buttons. I just need to focus on staying calm and collected and not letting my students push buttons.

4c
The last section of this chapter began with what I though was a crazy list of real life scenarios in which different teachers used a wide range of inappropriate punishments. It still baffles me some of the insane things that teachers do in handling a variety of situations in their classroom. These scenarios are just more proof that not everyone is meant to be a teacher. Just in reading them I really couldn't believe some of the things that teachers have done and it really makes me wonder how they rationalize their behavior and what they are thinking. Although the list is long, in the second half of the section there are many different ways in order to avoid situations described in the beginning of the section. I think that like with anything else in teaching these practices need to be finely tuned throughout the teaching career. They are all things to consider and to actively work on, especially in a middle school classroom where things can quickly and easily escalate to a volatile situation that could be avoided if handled properly. You really have to go into teaching in any grade, but especially middle school prepared with your head held high and ready for any situation that could possibly be thrown your way.

Chapter 1: Teaching Young Adolescents Recognizing and Understanding the Challenge

For me, chapter one focuses more on what we as educators need to do in order to prepare ourselves for our individual job placement. It talks about the different types of schools you could be in and the differences between a middle school and a jr. high. There are many different policies to learn that are specific to your school and a countless number of questions that you will need to ask yourself. Without the answers to these nit picky questions everyday functions in the classroom could be very difficult. This chapter also covers the intellectual, physical, emotional/psychological, social, and moral and ethical development of the students. There were also different strategies to use as teacher that help students better handle these developments. Chapter one helped me to understand the many different positions and placements that are possible in teaching middle school or jr. high. It also opened my eyes to exactly how different teaching middle school is from what I am used to learning about the lower elementary grades.