Chapter 7c

Many believe that making tests is a simple task however it requires much work. In order to have an effective test one must incorporate many different types of questions this will help cover different students with different learning abilities. When making an essay question you should have a rubric to follow while grading this way students are allowed to be able to receive points when answering the questions.

Chapter 7b

In the education field the one problem teachers, parents, staff, and students have today is assessment. In the book it gives you the purposes and principles of assessment and reading through I have seen countless times this not being followed through. As future teachers we should take note of this so that we can structure our classroom to follow this. There are many advantages and disadvantages to standardized vs non standardized testing. I believe one important thing to help the children with starting at the middle school level is helping cope with anxiety.

Chapter 7a

Assessing students learning always raises a red flag in my opinion because teachers get criticized for the way they grade. The policy at district 150 in Peoria IL is that if the student does their work the lowest grade they can receive is a 50%. When making this change I remember there was a lot of concerns and speculations. When a teacher is assessing a student I believe it is very important that they follow the book by assessing them in the three criteria: What the student says, does, and writes.

Chapter 6c

In this part of chapter 6 the main focus was the importance of a good lesson plan. Now this could be very broad and there are differing opinions on what a "good lesson" plan might be. In the chapter it outlines the key points that better a lesson. When becoming teachers I believe one must take notice of these for they are very important. I was substituting all spring break and I noticed the difference in a lesson plan that was detailed compared to one that is not. We have always been taught that you should structure your lesson plan so that if someone walked in and picked it up would know where everything was and what to do. Being put in that position I feel it makes a huge difference when you do this, not only for the substitute but also for the class to run smoothly because the students will see that the sub knows what he or she is doing and will not try to take advantage of them.

Chapter 6b

The lesson planning outline is very important for when you have an interdisciplinary thematic unit. I believe the most effective units for students are ones that relate to themselves and have meaning. When planning a thematic unit I believe it takes more work however it has a greater meaning. I believe this is an important strategy to use in your classroom. You have to communicate with other teachers to incorporate the theme into a majority if not all subject matters.

Chapter 6a

In this part of Chapter 6 it emphasizes on the planning and instruction of a lesson, even though I believe that the deliver method of instruction is the most important part, the planning of it is as important. To incorporate this into class, when planning a lesson one must select an appropriate issue, followed by having a set goals to have accomplished and objectives. Followed by a detailed set of procedures. When teaching you have to keep the different learning styles in mind, as well as Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence.

chapter 5c

During this part of the Chapter it talks about Blooms taxonomy which is a very important when coming to lesson planning. As a teacher you must incorporate the different styles ands categories of Bloom's taxonomy. There are different ways they talk about using these taxonomies in the classroom and I believe that one should use them in the classroom. The last thing they talked about was the importance of a syllabus and the content inside of it.

Chapter 5b

During this part of the chapter it talked about how there are specific guideline for the use of textbooks. I believe this is very important because as a future teacher to know that the textbook shouldn't be your only source of materials when you are teaching. There should be a balance of videos, discussion questions, exercises, etc. I am a huge advocate for group discussions, however with that being said, there must be a lot of attentiveness in those group discussions and as a teacher you must monitor the classroom for controversy.

Chapter 5a

To be an effective teacher, you have to plan effectively and efficiently. The curriculum has two important goals that need to be accomplished: 1) planning hands on experience, meaningful exploration and 2) to have meaningful learning that's engaged in hands on learning. The curriculum dominates your classroom. When I have a future classroom I will make sure to implement all three levels of lesson planning.

Chapter 4c

In this part of chapter 4 it emphasizes on student misbehavior caused by teachers. I believe this is very important because teachers don't realize that their actions can cause students to act up. Some actions a teacher may see as harmless could really have a potential threat on the students learning career. One of the items that were listed in the chapter was, using "shhh" to to quiet students which is very unprofessional and distracts the students. I agree with this as a teacher I will make sure not to "shhhh" my students because in my opinion it doesn't do anything effective. Some of these teacher-caused misbehaviors are obvious that you shouldn't do them, while others aren't so when implementing these in ones classroom you must be careful and practice avoiding these mistakes.

Chapter 4b

In this part of Chapter 4 I believe the importance that was  being stressed was how as teachers we need to set down the guidelines from day one in our classrooms. When the students see that the teacher has a set of rules and regulations not only put in place but ALSO enforced than the classroom will run smoothly. As a future teacher I believe that it is important on the first day you should make sure the students have assigned seating, they know the information about the class (i.e safety exits, emergency procedures), endorsed behavior.

Chapter 4a

The beginning of Chapter 4 was discussing the learning environment of the classroom. How you remain an effective teacher with trying to avoid little distractions. As a future teacher when I have a classroom I believe this is a major component of retaining your class as a conductive learning environment. As a teacher when you are in control of your classroom then you will have control of your students. Having a lesson run smoothly because you know where all your materials are and don't give the students that downtime to be disruptive in class will avoid many problems. The same techniques for having effective classroom management differ from teacher to teacher, which I feel not everyone keeps in mind. It is very important to get to know your students and put the confidence inside of them.

Chapter 3

Chapter three focus on critical thinking and also the different techniques of how to get your students to think critically. It gives you the different types of questions that you could teach students to avoid when gathering information and appropriate ones. As a tutor I see this is an important skill students need because I can see the difference in students who teachers implement this and the ones that don't. Teachers need to be able to help guide their students to an intelligent thinking process.

Chapter 2b

In the second part of Chapter 2 I found it focused on the main importances of becoming a competent teacher. The three basic rules are structuring the learning environment, accepting and sharing instructional accountability and demonstrating wittiness and overlapping. When using a variety of different instructional teaching techniques it will help you cover different learning styles. Another part of the chapter that I found very important was as a teacher, creating a safe learning environment for your student. I believe when the student truly does feel this then they will start participating in class and evening opening up to the teacher. Finally incorporating technology in the classroom this day and age is essential for the students because they have grown up with all the new technology so you have to tie it in to the classroom to make the lessons more appealing.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 is an introduction to the chapter. I liked how in the beginning of the chapter it explained how their are different types of middle schools because when middle school first comes to your mind you go to the traditional 6-8 grade classroom setting. The chapter emphasizes how when you become a teacher you need to first familiarize yourself with the school, the different policies, and paperwork. When teaching middle school it is also very important to understand that these children are going through many physical and psychological changes that even they don't understand yet.