Quote I Try to Live By

"They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel."
-Carol Buchner

I found this quote during my year as an educational assistant. This immediately stuck with me and was what I was almost already living by. But it put it so nicely into words that I wrote it down immediately. This quote has become the foundation of my philosophy to teaching.

I strongly feel that the connection we make with our students is a huge part of classroom management, attendance and environment in our classroom. I think that if our students connect with us and respect us then they will have an understanding in the class towards us and their fellow peers. I always appreciated teachers who treated me well and respected me. I wasn't a behavior issue in my classes but I partially think that I felt the need to respect my teachers because who they were, as well as the connection that they made with me.

This is my motto not only during my teaching life, but I have always tried to follow this in every interaction. Now I can't claim that I am the best person ever and always follow this but I do try to keep my reactions in check. I think that the feeling that you get when you think of someone is more so what comes to mind first (especially with me) than what they may have said or taught me. Feelings are important, that is why we have them and I think therefore we need to be aware that they can get hurt and that will affect the people we interact with, more than anything else.

I would love to have teachers all read this and really take it into account with how they interact with students.

Scoring is Scoring!

During our last class of the semester we talked about Failure Models and Professor Runte talked to us about the students that were challenged to put as many balls into the garbage can as possible. Runte told us about how the mothers of the children who stood close to the basket were crying and feeling like they were failures as mothers. But I really must question this over reaction to the children out smarting the game.

I have to question us, as students- if we had a test and we could choose to use our notes and books would we? or would we use just use our brain? I feel like this is a similar situation. We can make it easier for ourselves to achieve better or we can try to stick to the norms of test taking and only use our brain. Especially as education students I feel that we would want to do our best and go for the "A".

I think that the mothers of those students should have not been upset, proud if anything. Creative ways of thinking should not be punished and honestly, they were being intelligent about the best way to get the reward. If the function is to get from point A to point C do you have to go to point B first?

I have read in a few different articles that state that education is stunting creativity in our students/kids and I think that this is a prime example. Why can't students do the same activity in different ways, if it is all about the product what does the process matter? I think that with some things there are only one way or maybe a few but with some things, when there are few restrictions, why can't there be multiple ways of doing things. And furthermore, why does one or more of them have to be wrong.

I wonder why some of the mothers (and please note that mothers was stated, not parents or fathers) responded the way they did. I question if there was one mother that was over sensitive (to put it politely) that did not like that her child wasn't doing exactly what every other child was and was upset by that. What if that was an influence on the other mothers, seeing that that mother felt she was a failure for something completely different. I am not sure if the mothers were shown individually to be honest, if they were than this could not be a factor, but had they been in a group then maybe it could.

I think one of the current issues with our education system is that we don't necessarily accept different processes to the same goal. We have to only get there the one way, I can understand that some subjects don't necessarily leave a lot of room for variation but there are subjects that have a lot of room, e.g. language arts, social studies and more.

Creativity is an important part of every child, I can honestly admit that I am not creative. I like the step by step process, I don't really think of creative things (I am sure you have all noticed throughout my blog).

I think the parents needed to just realize that these kids thought through the concept of what needed to happen to get the reward and the best way to do it. Hats off to those kids deciding they wanted the most chocolate bars possible or the most success at getting the ball in the garbage can and then solving the best way to have a high percentage shot or the best way to get the most candy.

My job choice/path

I am currently in my final week of university life. I still have my final practicum to go, but as for university time, this is it. I can recall days in high school when I thought this day would never come (being almost done with education), until I choose to once again further my education.

Remember filling out those forms in grade 1 stating what you thought you wanted to be? I know that we have watched the UP-series, but what about in our personal life. Were we right about what we wanted to be? I can't remember for sure what I wrote, but I am pretty sure I wrote teacher, I am sure my mother has it somewhere. Now for myself, I have swayed on what I wanted to be for a while in school. I thought about all sorts of things, coroner, veterinarian, nurse... but at times I look back and question WHAT WAS I THINKING? Coroner, for example, I couldn't imagine seeing a dead body. Yet for some reason I thought I would enjoy attempting to solve the mystery of what caused the death of that person. Again, I shall repeat WHAT WAS I THINKING??? As for the other ones, they were a bit more reasonable.

But for the people who have never changed their ideas of what they wanted to be, I must question why? I feel that I, as a child, adolescent, and now adult, I am very different and have gone through many phases. I am different than I was, and I did at times change my mind about the focus of where I wanted to be in the job force. But for anyone to have not swayed the opinion or looked at different options I question if they are even allowing for other possibilities.

I understand that some people just know what they want to do, but the whole time? I guess maybe I just am not good at sticking to a decision but I can't understand not ever considering something else. I know that our older generations didn't have all the exposure to the jobs we do. I think this would also have influenced our thought process on which job we would want to have. If we were a part of the older generations we wouldn't have had as many job options or had the ability to know about them as much. I think this is a positive thing for a few reasons, we won't have to just fit into the common every day job, we can explore paths that are right for us as individuals and be able to do different jobs.

I know that my career is very fitting for my individualness and I am hoping to have a long career as a teacher. Did any of you change your career paths during your education?

This experience

Blogging has been a completely new experience for me. I honestly never thought that I would use this technique after the day we did it in our technology class during PS1. I honestly didn't know what to expect from this activity.

I have shockingly enjoyed this assignment more than I thought I would. I liked that classmates could give their perspective of what they saw in class or took from the reading. I know that the class and I have had some debates about the simplest of concepts about why they are simple, or why we choose or accept them. This has been a completely different world for me, before this class I didn't read blogs; I partially was unaware of what they really meant.

I still feel uncomfortable about my views being out there for the world to see and someone taking my views in with their past history influencing what they take from what I am saying. I still don't actually like this factor because I am not the best at expressing what I am trying to say in to words. I don't like my inability to immediately say, that isn't what I meant if someone misunderstands me. I don't like confusion!!! haha Therefore I don't always just simply put my point of view out there without the background information which I am sure you could especially see in my last blog posting about the farmers needing aid or assistance.

I wonder if these blogs will affect me in the future. I am currently contemplating whether I should delete these posts post grading or if I should leave them here as something to remember my state of mind during this process? To help me reflect on things I was going through and that I was learning about.

I hope you all enjoyed this experience as much as I did! I hope that I gave a different perspective for you to see the issue from and perhaps even sway your opinion or at least open you up to my point of view.

I think I can admit to you all, I never would have thought that I would actually blog a day in my life! My family was like what??? You are blogging? Weird!!! But now that I have done it, I am not opposed to the idea of using it in my class.

Alberta is Nothing???

In class the other day Professor Runte stated that most of the world saw Alberta as nothing. The idea that our big province, with plenty of resources was seen as nothing makes me extremely sad. Now I know that when it comes to a political perspective that our province gets the shaft or denied all the time, or at least a lot.

I feel that the issue that faces a lot of the people from my area have been ignored or at least not given the attention they deserve. Farmers, they are very important to the world! But they are continuously denied the help that they need (not every farmer needs help, but currently a lot do). I have watched many farmers and ranchers for that matter struggle to make ends meet and even have to give up a lifestyle that has been passed down in their family for generations. Farmers and ranchers produce the food that we eat, yet we deny them. I feel like we are biting the hand that feeds us?!?! Isn't there a saying about that... that tells us NOT to do that?!?!?!

BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), droughts and hard years continuously affect their ability to put food on the table for their families and yet we ignore them. They have a tough life and they are an important part of our stability when it comes to food. Why are we ignoring them? I guess this issue might be closer to home because I hear about the families that are struggling. One of the neighbours to our farm had to give in last year, he sold all his cows because he couldn't afford to keep the lifestyle going. Farming and ranching isn't just another job, it is a lifestyle, and a hard one...

I initially didn't agree with Professor Runte saying that Alberta was nothing, but after thinking about how issues like this are ignored, I can't help but wonder if he is right.

Alberta is an awesome place! I don't think it should be ignored; we have a lot to offer and frequently do. Alberta deserves respect and I think we should start demanding it!

First Nations Only School

First Nations Only School

It was brought up in one of my classes that Manitoba is considering creating schools that will only be for First Nations students. I was a little shocked to hear this, I was not in history class and we weren't discussing back in the day, we were discussing a possible future event, it didn't make sense to me.

Is this not madness? I understand that there are issues, that we are struggling to keep our First Nations in school and we are struggling to make a connection for First Nations to see the importance of education. I don't think that creating a school for only First Nations is the way to solve this issue; this will only further other issues that we are currently trying to solve.

If we support creating schools for only certain races, how will we learn to interact with different races? Will this not further the cultural barrier that we are trying to break down? Does this not take us back decades? Why will this work better now than it did back in the day?

I think we need to do some homework and try to find ways to make connections with these students to keep them in school and have the priority of education. James Fuller, who is currently doing PS3, has taken steps in the right direction. He is currently doing a study to see where First Nations students feel they are (in many different categories), and then comparing that with where the teachers think these students are. I think this is the type of work that needs to be done, the creation of different schools is not the right direction.

A peer in my class proposed that this was a good idea, yet I am reluctant to see the merit of this idea. I don't think races need to be separated...

Canada isn't a melting pot; it is a stew- with lots of great elements that makes it delicious. A stew is a combination of things, it isn't like a 3 course meal where everything is served separately. Part of the appeal of the stew is the mixing of flavours! I don't want a 3 course meal, I want the STEW!!! :)

Do you like stew?

What's hip with the kids these days?

A lot of our teachers have mentioned that it is important to stay current with what the students are into and what is cool. I think that staying current is definitely an important thing to do. However, sometimes it can be quite rough, during my PS1 I was in a rural elementary school. Can anyone guess who was really cool at that school? Hannah Montana, so my friend (student teacher as well) who was in the same school, 2 grades up, sat down and decided we needed to know what this intense love was about!! We made it through about 5 minutes of the show before questioning what was going through our kids' heads? I am guessing we watched a bad episode, I have seen a snippet before that was not that bad, but for the mass love of the show, we were confused.

I understand that I probably went through those phases that teachers also didn't understand, Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? (just discussed it today actually), Rugrats, Alex Mack (she was touched with toxic waste and then could just disappear because of it)Home Improvement, Step by Step, and I could probably go on for quite a while (I am currently feeling really old so I will move on). I wonder what my teachers thought of these shows when I would talk about how great they were.

I wonder if our generation was as influenced by the television as the current generation is? I had a student in grade 1 who did not own a ball. Can anyone honestly say that any of their friends didn't own a ball? Any form of ball! I think that this generation is so far removed from physical life that it is hard to relate my life to theirs. I know we can always make a connection, but sometimes it is irritating to me that they have moved so far away from the physical activities and to a sit on the couch and watch a box or look at the computer.

I may be more irritated by this currently because I am taking Physical Education for Non-majors and am seeing disgusting statistics about obesity! It is disgusting to learn how many children are obese and that the new generation may be the first generation in a long time, that won't have a longer life expectancy than their parents, it's crazy.

Now to come back to the real issue at hand, we need to realize that students are obviously influenced by their peers and popular culture, so we need to use that to our advantage. We need to show good examples of popular culture or connect it to what we are teaching. Ie. Miley Cyrus teaching dance moves, that can be connected to physical education or just some point in class when you need a bit of movement, perhaps a class project?

I think as a teacher, I will need to buckle down and experience some of these activities that the student enjoys, so I can relate a bit better to my student. I think I have got quite a good thing going with this Twilight series, I enjoy it and so does most of the world! Maybe my students will call me hip :)