“Putting Learning into Service,” an article by Jim Paterson tells of the importance of learning through projects. The article starts out by reminding us that service projects are not a new thing to school. They have been done for a long time. However, there has been an increase of service project. It is said to be at the highest it has been since WWII.
These service projects give students an opportunity to apply what they learn. The students also get more involved in the community. The students look for opportunities in the community, and as a class figure out a project that they can do. Then the students apply what they have been learning in class to carry out the project. When students are allowed to pick the project, they enjoy it a lot more. They do not even seem to realize that they are learning. These service projects are often the highlight of the students school year. The article also goes into tips on how to pick good service projects. The projects should be something that the students can buy into. The students also need time to pick the topic of the project. Let the students run the project, the teacher should just be there to guide the students and prevent them from causing harm of any kind. The project should also apply to what is being learning in the class and realistic. This put project learning into a different light for me. I thought for the most part that project learning was just so the teacher did something else but teach and the students get to do something fun. But taking the project learning, projects and turn them into service projects for the community is a great idea. It is easy to do with family consumer sciences. So much of what we do is to help families and help others in general. We can teach our students how to sew and them make pillow cases for a homeless shelter. We can teach the kids how to cook and then cater a luncheon for veterans. There is so much that we can do. I do think that the article is right. The students should run the project. The students are learning and they will learn more if you assist than if you were running the show. Paterson, J. (2006, 05). Putting learning into service. Leadership for Student Activities, 34, 12-16. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.byui.idm.oclc.org/docview/234975342?accountid=9817
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“Put FCCLA into Your FCS Program” by an anonymous author gives out great advise on how to incorporate FCCLA into your classroom. As many teachers do, the Jessica Pool struggled on how to incorporate FCCLA into her classroom. Eventually, she figured out how to connect, Families First, Financial Fitness, Student Body, and her own program. FCCLA projects connect all the programs together. FCCLA has recently updated their resources making it even easier to bring FCCLA into classrooms. When bringing FCCLA into the FCS classrooms, it takes your class beyond worksheets and program related activities. FCCLA helps students connect to the FCS content, it helps them build personal responsibility, build leadership, and increase their understanding of academic concepts.
A teacher in Georgia discovered this first hand when she used an FCCLA project in her child development class. For this project, the students were to plan and conduct a project related to different types of domestic violence. Each group picked a different type of domestic violence. The different groups, after finishing their project reported on what they had found and how it can help the community and Families First. The class picked what project they should do and then the whole class went out in the community to complete that project. The project did more for the students than the teacher expected it to. They learned more than she thought they would. The students also wanted to continue to doing projects just like this one. At times the teacher felt like they were not learning or being productive, however, it ended up being a lot better than she expected. After reading this, I do not know why a teacher would not want to do an FCCLA project in their classroom. It makes coming up with a project easier. It also helps the teacher know what to look for in grading because there are already rubrics created for the projects. Also, the students that are participating in FCCLA are also able to use these projects in competition. On top of all of this, the students are learning for themselves which means that they will retain more of that information than if you just lectured about that topic. Put FCCLA into your FCS program. (2004). Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, 96(1), 33-34. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.byui.idm.oclc.org/docview/218150433?accountid=9817 https://search-proquest-com.byui.idm.oclc.org/docview/218150433?accountid=9817 The article, “Dimensions of Multicultural Education: Implications for Higher Education,” by Carlos Diaz talks about some misconceptions that people have with multicultural education. The first misconception is that multicultural education will cause a dilution of traditional Western Knowledge. The second is the multicultural education will disunite the United States.
However, both of these statements are not true. The point behind multicultural education is to present information in that reflects different cultures and gender to any topic or subject. However, it is not to take over what is currently being taught. It just changes the way that we teach so that every person gets a say in what and how they learn. It is to help open eyes to see things in a different way to better understand where others are coming from. Also, multicultural education helps us to understand others. When we understand others, we get along with them better. This means that we grow closer together as a people. However, everybody is entitled to their own way of thinking, so viewpoints might clash. These different viewpoints can help others to grow and broaden their perspectives. Teachers need to be aware that favoritism is a real thing. While teaching, most teachers favor men especially in classes where participation is required. Men are more likely to give out information. It is important that teachers avoid this and involve all their students no matter what their race or culture is. Overall, having a class that is multicultural, will help students gain a better understanding of others and help unit each other. This is not what I thought that multicultural education was. I always thought that it was how to teach students from different areas other than the one that you are currently teaching in. I thought it was how you taught students that do not speak the same language as you. I did realize that it had a lot more to do with racism and gender bias. Knowing that, it is some we need to be aware of in FCS classes. I am guilty of thinking that girls are better at sewing and cooking. Men are just as capable as women are to cook and to sew. I need to make sure that when I am teaching, that I teach in a way that involves everyone and expands the knowledge of the students. Diaz, C. F. (1994). Dimensions of multicultural education: Implications for higher education. National Forum, 74(1), 9. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.byui.idm.oclc.org/docview/235212349?accountid=9817 In the article, “Students Motivation: An Overlooked piece of School Reform,” by Alexandra Usher and Nancy Kober talks about how motivation is an important part of schooling. Researching is starting to show that students do not seem to be motivated. There are many ways that students are motivated. However, teachers pick up from where parents left off or step in where parents are falling short. The goal of the teacher it to help students stay in school and not drop out. Sometimes this is done by school organizations. Students are put on teams to support each other and if the students fall behind or start to fail, they are not allowed in extracurricular activates. Other schools have individual interventions with the student that seem likely to drop out. In some schools, they have center that they students can go to help them with their course work that they are struggling with. In the end, however, the teacher makes the biggest impact on motivation. Often times this can be done by the teacher sincerely caring about their students. Teacher can help parents get more involved in their students motivation as well. The more time a teacher can spend with a student, the better the teacher gets to know the student and the more effective they are at helping to motivate that student. An other good way that teachers can motivate students is by doing more group related projects and let the students learn more for themselves and from each other. With that comes a stronger focus on learning and not on grades. When students are more focused on learning and not about the grades that they will receive, they are more likely to do more school work. This is because they shift their perspective more from grades to what they are actually learning.
I really enjoyed reading this article. I have come to realize that the teacher plays a bigger part of education than I ever thought that they did. Teacher not only teach, they also motivate, set an example, watch out for those that are struggling, they help prepare students for the next stage of life, and also have to keep up with their personal lives. It really makes me appreciate the teachers that I had in high school and my professors at college. They put so much work and care into what they do and are often underappreciated. As this course had progressed, I see how my teachers have helped me to get where I am with out me even noticing. For example, my Spanish teacher motivated me to never give up and showed me that it is okay to ask for help if I am struggling. I remember one time, I was struggling in class and she came up to me afterwards and asked me if I would like a tutor. Then she had it arranged that some of the students from the local college to come and tutor me and a couple other students that were struggling. Her doing this helped me to stay in Spanish class another year and a half. It is little things like this that I am realizing now that I over looked but I have grown to appreciate. Usher, A., & Kober, N. (2013). Student motivation: An overlooked piece of school reform. The Education Digest, 78(5), 9-16. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.byui.idm.oclc.org/docview/1349973400?accountid=9817 . “Practicing Love and Logic Can Mean Happier School,” an article written by Ellen R. Delisio talks about how teaching with love and logic an influence your teaching in a positive way. The love and logic method can help improve student behavior and make it easier for the teacher to teach. It is done by setting good limits in loving way in order to get the students on the teachers side and help them more than cause problems. This is often done by implementing nine skills in the classroom. Some of these skills include, showing empathy, developing positive teacher-student relationships, and using choices to prevent power struggles. There are more skills than these three and when all nine are working together, they help with discipline, safety and help to create an environment where everyone feels they have a place and are loved in that place. This method also helps with the stress of the teachers that use it. Once there is a relationship between the student and the teacher, the teacher can ask the students to follow the rules for them. If the students trust the teacher, they will be willing to do things the teacher asks. The teacher still is responsible for coming up with ways to connect with the students as well enforce the rules. The article gave the example of a student wearing a baseball cap in class. The teacher made a connection with the student about the hat, and the team the student was interested in before asking the student to take the hat off for them.
For me, this article enforced the fact that as a teacher, we must constantly be working on creating good relationships with students. We need to work on making connections and try to understand where these students are coming from. It is easy to get along with the students that do what they are supposed to do in class. However, it is often more important to make good positive connections with the students that struggle and act out more. From what I have seen in my short 21 years on this life and especially in the past couple years, it is the students that act out that do not know where they belong and are trying to find that place. Also giving teenages options on what to do helps them feel like they have a choice in the matter. Teens do not like to feel forced to do anything and I have seen many decide to act out just because they feel like they do not have a choice in the matter. Delisio, E. R. (2008, September 8). Practicing Love & Logic Can Mean Happier Schools. Retrieved February 15, 2018, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin536.shtml The article, “Classroom Management and Discipline: Responding to the Needs of Young Adolescents,” by Katherine Evans and Jessica Lester starts out by comparing elementary and secondary teachers in the way that they disciple their classes. Educators are unaware of the developmental needs of students ages 10-14. This causes middle school teachers struggle with discipline problems that occur in school. Also, elementary and middle school teachers are more likely report discipline issuers. Secondary and middle school teachers are less likely to be ready to address behavior challenges then primary teachers. In fact more teachers leave the field because of the discipline issues with the students.
One form a discipline is suspensions. Middle school students are four times more likely to get suspended than elementary students. Some people believed that most of this is because the transition from elementary to middle school is a hard and tends to increase behavior issuers. Others say that the behavior issues are because of home life. One of the ways other ways to deal with behavioral issues is to have in school suspensions. In the in school suspension they reflect the offenses, set goals to improve, and come up with different ways to deal with the issue that caused the behavior. This article also talks a lot about classroom management. It is a joint effort from both the teacher and the students to help with the discipline issues. Another way to help with discipline is to let the students have some responsibilities. Overall, good classroom management helps to solve behavioral issues. This article surprised me. I did not think that teachers were prepared for the developmental needs of a teacher. It makes me want to pay more attention to the developmental stages of teens so that I can better understand where they are coming from and how to help them out. This article also drives in the importance of good classroom management. Evans, K., & Lester, J. (2010). Classroom management and discipline: Responding to the needs of young adolescents. Middle School Journal, 41(3), 56-63. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.byui.idm.oclc.org/docview/217430253?accountid=9817 https://search-proquest-com.byui.idm.oclc.org/docview/217430253?accountid=9817 In the article, “Intraoperative questioning to advance higher-order thinking,” by Christopher P. Magas and four others it relates the importance of good questions to the medical field. The article starts by saying how good questions are important in the medical field. When preparing young surgeons, it is important to ask questions that raise high levels of thinking. It helps prepare them for moments when they have to think fast and have no room for mistakes. One way that higher thinking is achieved is through Bloom’s taxonomy. It goes on to explain that different types of questions have different purposes. As an educator, it is important to know the different types of questions and how to formulate the questions. There are six stages in the Bloom’s taxonomy. The first is remembering and the last is creating. The higher the level the question is the more thought that goes into the question. Close ended questions are at the low end of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Open ended questions are at the high end of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The open ended questions and creating questions helps students learn the most because it gets them thinking outside the box. With the remembering questions or close ended questions, just a fact is needed to remember. For example, close ended questions are yes or no questions. It is one thing to remember an answer than to come up with other questions that further your understanding.
I liked what this article said about the need for higher level questions. It is important as an educator to get your students to think and to think of themselves. If they are coming up with their own questions to answer so that they can further their knowledge, you are doing a good job as a teacher. However, there are times for the close ended questions. Close ended questions are not the best to use when you want to promote learning. To wrap things up, you need both close ended and open ended questions when teaching and you need to know when it is appropriate to use both kinds. Open ended questions encourage learning and help to further education. Magas, C. P., Gruppen, L. D., Barrett, M., Dedhia, P. H., & Sandhu, G. (2017). Intraoperative questioning to advance higher-order thinking. The American Journal of Surgery, 213(2), 222-226. http://dx.doi.org.byui.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2016.08.027 In the article, “Is Your Lesson a Grecian Urn?” by Jennifer Gonzalez, it relates lesson plan to a project that one student teacher did in his class. What the Grecian Urn project was, was an assignment for the student to read a chapter in their book. Then they used balloons and papier-mâché to create an Urn. When the urn was dry the students were to decorate them in a way that reflects the culture of Greece. Then they would test over the vocabulary of the chapter. This was a fun activity for the students, but it did not really teach the students anything. This is happening a lot in classrooms. There are big projects for the students to do that take up too much time and do not teach the students much at all. There are some ways to spot projects like that. For example, if the students are spending more time on the project than learning the content of the class, it is a Grecian Urn project. If the project does not interest them to learn more on the subject, it is most likely a Grecian Urn. When the project does not challenge the students to think and is too easy, it is a Grecian Urn. Another example is when the creativity is worth more than 10% of the grade. Word searches are also good examples of Grecian Urn assignments. If these kind of projects end up in a lesson plan, it is best to cut that project out, or replace it with a better learning project.
This article made me realize that I had a lot of these projects in high school. They were fun projects, but I did not learn a whole lot from them. It also helps me to be aware that whatever project I do has to be related to learning and developing skills. Sometimes the busy work is fun for the students, but is it worth it if they learn nothing from it? Schools are a place of learning. I liked what was said about the creativity. I know that I have done projects were the creativity was more than 10%. Creativity is great, but what do the students learn from the creativity? It really got me thinking about projects that I can do in my classroom that would be both fun for the students and help them learn the concepts that the class is teaching. Gonzalez, J. (2016, October 30). Is Your Lesson a Grecian Urn? Retrieved February 8, 2018, from https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/grecian-urn-lesson/ https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/grecian-urn-lesson/ In the article, "How Long Can Students Pay Attention in Class? A Study of Student Attention Decline Using Clickers," by Diane M. Bunce, Elizabeth A. Flens, and Kelly Y. Neiles, it talks about how it is hard for teachers to get their students attention and why. Student get easily distracted by texts and tend to wonder off when they get board. Some students start to lose interest after only five minutes of lectures. If the lecture continues that time decreases. There was a study done to see if clickers could help the student stay on topic and more engaged in the lecture. What was found was the students that were asked to answer questions by clicking the answer in, were more likely to stay engaged through out the whole lecture. They would work in groups and come up with an answer. The students in the first group learned more because the clickers helped the be more engaged in the class. The higher the level of class the more the students used the clickers. The students that did not use the clickers did not do as well in the class.
I can see now why in most science classes, we use the I-Clickers or systems like the I-Clickers. They help students to engage in what the teacher is saying. I know that that is true for me. I know that even though we may not have access to clickers in our high school class rooms, we can still ask question of understanding to the students. We can have them write it down on a page of paper and give them credit for participation. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ed100409p In the article, “Good Instruction is Good Classroom Management,” by Robert Slavin it gives an example of how one teacher manages her class. This teacher has her classroom policies in place. She does not hesitate to start the class on time. When the class is started on time, it helps the student know not to be late. If they are late, they miss important information. This helps the students know that they should be ready to learn by the time the bell rings and not just getting to class. When two students did show up late, she talked to them privately. For the student that did not have an excuse, she asked him to come after class and they would work a plan to stop his tardiness. Another thing that this teacher did was she turned boring topics into something the students wanted to learn about just by the way that she presented the topic. Doing this engaged the students right off. While the students were working, the teacher would walk around the class. She was ready watching how the students were doing and ready if any started to cause problems. If students started to raise problems, she would give them a look, move over to their direction, or put her hand on their shoulder. The goal was to stop the problem before it became a distraction for the whole class. Another thing that is part of good classroom management is having a signal to be quite. This could be that the teacher raises their hand and when the students notice, they follow suit. It could also be a sound such as clapping hands or a tambourine. Good classroom management comes when students can get engaged and know the classroom policies. I liked how this teacher engaged her students. She would talk whatever lesson she was teaching and make it sound like fun to the students. She also worked hard to correct bad behavior before it became a problem for the whole class. When she noticed students were acting up, she would walk toward them and stand near them. I also really liked how this teacher continued with her lesson even though two students were late. She did not point them out to the class, or acknowledge that they were late tell after she told the rest of the class what was going to happen. By doing this, the rest of the students did not realize that those two students were late at all. I am starting to see how having policies in place for you class can help with the management of the class and keeping the class on topic. Slavin, R. (2012). Good Instruction is Good Classroom Management. Effective Instruction, 4-5.
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April 2018
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