Concerns over Government's new reading test

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/concerns-over-governments-new-reading-test-2220289.html

The Government's plan is for a 'phonics-based progress check,' aimed at helping those who are behind and need extra help. Phonics is based on the sounds rather than the site of the word, and many in the UK are concerned that this test is counter productive. Children would have to recognize 's-t-r-ee-t' versus 'street.' In my opinion, I think it is important for children to be able to not only recognize a word by seeing it, but by having to sound it out. I do not know if this test is the way to go about getting children extra help, but I do think it is important. During my field experience, I am working with a student who is far behind his classmates. He can easily recognize works such as 'job' 'dog' 'log' but when it came to me sounding the words out to him, he was not able to connect the sounds to form the words. In this case, he does need the extra help, and that is why I am working one-on-one with him, but not every child learns the same.

Story repetition 'helps children'

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/story-repetition-helps-children-2220368.html

This article was about a study that was done, testing the learning of young children through story time. Those who were read the same book multiple times, versus those who read multiple different books, remembers details and gained a larger vocabulary. By reading multiple different books, the children do not pick up on the details as much as just listening to the story. The study could not explain how the learning happens, but it did!
If you think about it, this really makes a lot of sense. I have read many children's books and the children pick up and can follow along when it is a story that they have heard before. Many can explain in detail exactly what the story means and so on. I never really thought about this before reading this article, but as a future teacher, I think this will be a valuable piece of information.

Class Update

2/15: Today we took an inter-cultural competency test.

2/16: Today there was a speaker, Jamie Tworkowski, with the organization, To Write Love On Her Arms.

2/17: Today we did not have class. Instead, we were asked to attend a Black History Month event. I attended "The Smallest Freedom Fighter" on February 8, 2011. Sheyann Webb-Christburg started her speech by singing 'Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.' She spoke about being a daughter of the civil rights movement, from Selma, Alabama. She also spoke about her encounters with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The way she spoke about him, you could see the admiration she had for him. She made you feel like you were right beside that 8 year old girl that she was. Two minutes turned into an hour, and I was tuned in the entire time!

Share this if you are a teacher, love a teacher or appreciate our teachers.

Right now a teacher in your community is grading and preparing lessons to teach your children while you are watching television. In the minute it takes you to read this, teachers all over the world are using their "free time", and often investing their own money, for your child's literacy, prosperity, and future. 


I found this and thought I'd share! :)

Field Experience: Day 01

Monday, February 14, 2011

Today I met my class that I will be working with for my field experience this semester. I am working in Big Woods Elementary, which is part of the St. Michael-Albertville school district, in a first grade classroom. My morning started out great! As I was walking down the hall to the classroom, I saw a bunch of smiling faces and a hand full that I knew. As I greeted the children while they were being checked into the class, I realized that three of the students were ones I had worked with at a previous child care center. I was very excited to know some of the curious faces in the room. After announcements were finished, the class broke up into reading time. I went off with an individual student to work on the letters and their sounds.He was new at the start of the year (2011) and is having trouble forming the correct sounds. Though I was nervous to be working with him alone, I really enjoyed it. I had a sheet that showed what he knew and didn't know from last week. It made me feel good to see the progress he had made in just a week. After working with him, I took two students down to the library to read and take AR (Accelerated Reader) tests. Both students read their book of choice, and tested afterwards. I could tell that they were proud to show me how much they could read on their own, as well as long themselves into the computer for the tests. By the time I was done with these students, it was time for me to leave. I cannot wait for next week; the teacher has something special planned for the students!

Class Update

2/8: Today we watched the video "Bullied," a documentary film about a student, a school and a case that made history. The film was dedicated to a young, 11 year old boy who committed suicide. The film focused on the case that made history, and the gentleman that made it happen, Jamie. Bullying is a very big problem in many school districts across the country. This young man suffered from verbal, physical, and emotional abuse day-in and day-out. Through his struggles, he met a legal advocate, here in Minneapolis, who suggested a law suit. This case would be the first case accepted for anti-gay bullying. The case was won, and Jamie was awarded $900,000 in settlement, though no amount of money can make up for what he went through. Now, he works with schools on bullying, and has been invited to speak in Washington, D.C. Though this story made history, it is not the only like it. Many teens are in similar situations, with no support.
As a future teacher, I was shocked at how the school district dealt with, or more did not deal with, Jamie's on-going fight. As I watched this film, I felt for him and his pain, and I wondered what more it would take for all school districts to take a stand on this issue. With starting my student teaching on Monday, it is my goal to make a difference in the district in which I feel needs a stronger anti-bullying program.

2/10: Today we watched serious of video clips related to bullying. The clips focused on what it takes to be popular, or with the 'in' crowd and the social cruelty issues. After watching these clips, we worked in groups to come up with ideas for an 'Anti-Bullying Campaign.'
These are some ideas discussed in class:

• Provide a resource room
• safe zone for students who feel threatened
• Courage Retreat
• http://www.youthfrontiers.org/index.shtml
• large group bonding activities
• Anonymous drop-box 
• safe for revealing issues throughout school
• System of rewards and consequences
• good behavior earns rewards
• bad behavior earns loss of privileges
• take responsibility for actions
• Senior mentor/Peer mediation
• freshman paired with senior mentor
• easier to talk with peer vs. adult
• Youth Issues class
• focus on issues such as bullying, depression, sexual orientation, and acceptance
• Adult supervision
• more supervision in halls, playground, etc. 
• Parent involvement
• more involvement in rewards and consequences 

English-only bill could create civil rights problems

http://minnesotaindependent.com/76468/english-only-bill-could-create-civil-rights-problems-groups-say

This bill, that would make Minnesota's official language English, could create many problems for many of our systems. The article stated that in other states where similar bills were present, students were suspended for speaking other languages while walking down the halls at school, or were banded from registering to vote. There is currently voting instructions in six languages, including English, Hmong, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Somali. If you look at how many languages documents are printed, you can see the diversity that Minnesota has. I take pride in my state, and the fact that so many diverse cultures feel welcomed to call MN their home. If this bill goes through, it will greatly affect the state. How will these groups feel welcomed when they are being forced to speak English, or punished for not.
I post this article for multiple reasons, but mainly because it could be affecting our school systems. St. Cloud is well known for the diverse community we have. Though many are willing to learn English, they may feel threatened by this new bill. I see the positiveness of learning amongst other cultures, and hope that the bill does not scare off the multilingual culture we have in St. Cloud or Minnesota.

Mother: Anoka-Hennepin School policy contributed to gay son’s suicide

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2010/09/02/mother-anoka-hennepin-school-policy-contributed-gay-son%E2%80%99s-suicide

Bullying is a huge problem, whether it be due to one's sexuality or one's race. Why kids/adults do it is way beyond me. I can somewhat relate to the mother in this article. Her son committed suicide after being bullied about being gay. Not only do I know someone who committed suicide, and was just at an awareness event, but both my brother and sister have faced bullying throughout their school years. Neither of these situations were due to sexuality issues, but none the less, no one should have to deal with being bullied!
The school district in which the mother's son attended, Anoka Hennepin, was offered an LGBT sensitivity training program for all it's teachers. To my understanding, the district denied the offered from OutFront Minnesota, saying that the neutrality policy prevented the support of the LGBT community. In my opinion, this would have been a great opportunity for the school district to take advantage of. I know that not every one accepts LGBT's, but today's teachers need to be informed. In a growing LGBT community, the bullying is becoming more 'in your face,' and is something that needs to be fixed and dealt with. Whether we want to accept it or not, I believe our teachers need to be taught how to deal with situations like this. 

The Global Achievement Gap

Chapter 1: The New World of Work and the Seven Survival Skills

Key points:

• We need to teach students how to think, versus only covering chapters from a textbook, and preparing students for multiple choice tests.
• In-order for educators to see passion amongst their students, they need to involve "hands on" activities for the students to enjoy.
• The emphasis on the standardized tests is due to the fear of more highly educated students from developing countries will be taking over the high end jobs here. 

Qualities needed in today's world of work:

• Ask good questions, the right questions
• Engage in good discussion
• Show ability to work well with others
• Be inquisitive, bright

Survival Skills:

• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Asking good questions, linked with the ability to think critically and problem solve
• Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence
• Having the skills to work individuals across many cultural and boundaries
• Global Awareness:
• 21st century skills used to understand global issues
• Learn from and work with individuals from diverse backgrounds
• Understanding for others' cultures
• Agility and Adaptability
• Being able to adapt in a changing business world
• Being able to move from a hierarchal authority to a team-based environment
• Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
• Seeking out new opportunities, ideas, and strategies for improvement
• Becoming a knowledgeable worker
• Effective Oral and Written Communication
• Growing importance for general communication with cultural diversity in colleges and the workplace
• Accessing and Analyzing Information
• Being able to conceptualize and synthesize lots of data
• Curiosity and Imagination
• Using the "right-brain" skills
• Creativity, imagination
• Using "out-of-the-box" thinking and problem solving

Sauk Rapids-Rice district to change specialist plan to help pay for full-time kindergarten

http://www.iste.org/welcome.aspx

The article explains Sauk Rapids-Rice district's plans for helping to pay for a full-time kindergarten program. As of right now, half-day kindergarten is free, and parents can pay to have their children in a full-day program. This is similar to many districts that I know of. The Sauk Rapids-Rice district however is changing their plans to allow $250,000 to go towards the full-time program. I think this is a great idea, a great way to help those families who can not afford the program. If I were one of the parents wanting my child in the full-day kindergarten, but could not afford it, I would be feeling like I am not giving my child the best. For me, this plan will help any parents who feel the same way.
Personally, I have worked with a full-day kindergarten classroom, and I believe that it is a really good program to have available to all students. The children I worked with had gained knowledge far beyond the average kindergarten student. These students were learning things that I did not even know. And they loved the idea of being smarter than the student teacher!

Class Update

1/25: Today we met with our presentation groups. My group has taken on chapter 7 in our textbook. We have decided to focus on philosophies of education. In general, there are four main philosophies, and this is where we will start our project. I believe that this will be a great chapter to work with considering one of our final projects will be to write our own philosophy of education paper.

1/27: Today we learned about a program called Atomic Learning. I have never used this program before, but it is definitely a program that I am going to take advantage of while I have access to it. During this class, we also went over some other useful site, such as:  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ and http://www.iste.org/. I know for myself, this owl site is going to be very helpful!

2/1: Today we got together with our presentation groups and worked on chapters one and two. To make up for quizzes one and two, we put together what I believe is called and mind web. With the main point of the chapter, webbing out to sub-points. Not only was this a fun activity, getting away from the boring note taking, it was a great learning tool for the classroom.

2/3: Today we watched a clip on the author of The Global Achievement Gap, Tony Wagner. The clip discussed the seven survival skills needed in today's world, which I have already blogged about previously. A point I did not cover though, that I found interesting, was a quote about the longer our children are in our school systems, the less curious they are becoming. I found this to be quite true with most of the children I have had the opportunity to work with. We also briefly discussed a synopsis of The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future, by Linda Darling-Hammond. In this article, I found it to be interesting that once the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was introduced, scores for mathematics and science have dropped significantly. Along the lines of this article, we also went over the four inter-related systems. There is education, which in the United States is seen as being complacent, meaning it is just fine the way it is; economic, which, in the U.S., is significantly affecting the outcomes of students across the nation; political/government, which I believe is related to taxpayers, and the large amount of money being spent to house inmates, rather than educating our youth ; and social cultural, which is highly valued across other countries, and is a system that the U.S. needs to work on.