Learning theories in the classroom setting

    I have always tried to gather information on my past experiences in the classroom to determine how I would manage my own classroom. I have seen good examples and some not so good examples and some extreme examples where I can honestly say I would never have my class ran in that way.
I think to begin the year off I would try and create an open classroom where the student's and their families feel they are welcome and safe. In doing this I plan on getting to know my students and their families by doing home visits before school starts. In doing this I believe it will give me a better understanding of each students background and develop a strong connection with the families.

    I do not want the students to come in thinking I am a drill sergeant, but that I do expect respect. I also know that in order to get respect from my students I must give respect to my students. My students will know that I have high expectations for each and everyone of them and that through this mutual respect there is a sense of genuine care for all. I would love to set my classroom up as a sort of "family" environment with students grasping the understanding that this is our classroom and that we are all responsible for what happens within the walls of the classroom. Classroom rules will be displayed on the walls for easy reference and the rules will be followed by all including myself. I will model the expected behaviors on a daily basis thus being a from of DLT as a concrete example and give rewards to students as they demonstrate these behaviors on a random basis leading to BLT in the classroom. I would constantly model these behaviors for children to see what is expected and instead of just telling them (abstract) the behavior would be modeled (concrete).

   I have seen many classroom settings in my past experiences and one that I always refer back to is the pod seating, where children are set in pods of four students. In doing this type of seating arrangement the children will feel more confident in using their more knowledgeable peer (SLT) in the classroom and they can refer to students in their pods to ensure they are grasping the contents being taught. In addition to basic classroom seating charts I would pay more attention to my language to ensure it is comprehensible to all students and when it is not I would go back to DLT and provide concrete examples of the terms not understood.

  I believe my goal to visit each of my students home before the school year starts will give me a better understanding of each child's (CLT) background. Finding out how the student's family dynamics work and take that into considerations when planning my classroom. Who has access to what materials and what I need to do as a teacher to ensure that all of my students have the same opportunity to succeed. I believe if I have a small understanding of each studnets schema I can work off that ensuring sucess for all.

 Many times I hope that as I become a classroom teacher I would be able to model the type of classroom management found in movies such as "Freedom Writers" or "Stand and Deliver" with James Olmos another great one was with Morgan Freeman in "Stand by Me" and another great one is Ron Clark who developed the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia.  I know it seems like a dream but that is eventually my goal to be the type of teacher that they write stories about... good ones of course.

Grading

So our EDUC 107 professor wants us to grade our own papers???/ UGHHH I keep wondering what type of grade to give myself without being too critical as if we grade to high we have to "talk" as he says as well as if we grade to low we again have to "talk".  Keep wondering how many students will give themselves an A and how many of us are willing to be truthful and give ourselves the grade we truly deserve. What are other peoples thoughts on this new grading critique?

Lessons in the classroom

Okay okay so I didn't blog last week for Educ 107,  and just doing this weeks blog now. Last weeks class was interesting to say the least and seeing the different types of lesson plans classmates came up with was quite interesting.
Last week group one  (Spelling) I felt was not a very engaging activity and felt that people were put on the spot, not sure if this would work well in a classroom setting as there are a variety of levels in the typical classroom. I felt that the instructors were not very well prepared as many words were put out and they did not have the correct spelling. Although a good point was made out of this lesson.
Group #2 Social Norms - Loved the videos and great classroom discussion.
Group #3 Speeches- Not very well organized and at times looking for volunteers for the activities, ran out of time.
Group#4 Verb conjunction in Spanish- Lesson was overall okay but unaware of what grade level this was gearing towards. I did feel that the lesson needed to be more engaging as it seemed as it was more lecture than a lesson, in addition many words that were taught, I as a native speaker don't use as that is formal Spanish and not what is spoken outside of schools.

This last Thursday my group presented on the topic of Healthy Eating Habits, I felt we did a good job, but that we over-planned. I felt that we had an interesting topic that we covered and used a variety of technology to help engage our fellow classmates mentally.  The poll went very well as did the bags of lard on the table. if this were a real classroom setting I feel that there could be much more done with this topic and it would be able to be expanded into all areas of the curriculum.