Learning About the Diversity of My Students

When I first read this blog prompt, I immediately thought of the Maples article we read, Opening Quality Lines of Communication: Seeing My Students through the Eyes of Their Parents, and the "In a million words or less, tell me about your child" assignment. I really think that this is a great idea and found it amazing that this particular teacher received such wonderful feedback from it. I realize that not every attempt at this "assignment" may get the same amount of response, but I do think that any response would offer a much deeper and more thorough evaluation of students and their cultures or personalities than could be gained right away by the teacher alone.

Another good way to gain multiple perspectives on diversity in the classroom is to just listen to the students. Discussions, and not just recitations, could possibly allow for a teacher to obtain a lot of information about the students' cultures, beliefs and personalities. We read in the articles about discussions that if the teacher is not just asking questions that require yes/no answers and instead asks questions that require the students to think before responding, that the answers will often include information that can aid the teacher in learning more about her students personalities and cultures. These types of answers will also be more abundant if the teacher is not monopolizing the bulk of the conversation and allowing the students to take the roles of facilitating and evaluating the conversations.

All of the readings for this weeks seemed to focus on conversation. In Weinstien's book, about classroom management chapter 10 talks about recitations and how classroom talk in unlike any other conversation. while this kind of conversation can be good for assessing students knowledge about facts it has a judgmental tone and is somewhat shallow in my mine. In the Gambrell article entitled Response-Centered Talk: Window's on Children's Thinking, it presenting the idea of open discussion where authentic dialog between the students and adults were taking place over the topic of certain books that the class had read together. The teacher still led the discussion but there was more critical thinking taking place instead of question and answer.

In applying these concepts to teachers learning about the diversity in the classroom, it seems that the best approach is not just through questions but through genuine conversations with the students about their background, hobbies, home life, family value and traditions and personal beliefs. These authentic conversations centering around a variety of topics can help teachers gain a clearer picture of the who his/her students are .

My goals for this course is to learn more about and put into practice technology for helping children learn to become better readers without loosing the basic fundamentals of children knowing what a book is. I also want to learn more teaching strategies for spacial/deaf education students that sometimes cannot hear the sounds and words being pronounced. I am interested also on how these self assessments will happen and hope that they will give me an accurate idea of what I need to work on to become a better teacher.

I have to admit that with all my other classes and the amount of reading for this class and the others combined I am a little worried about completing all of the reading assignments.

Course Goals for TE 402

While looking over the syllabus for this course, one word seemed to jump off of the page at me quite a few times: technology. Technology and the use of it in the classroom tends to make me a bit anxious; but I am looking forward to learning more about it and how I can incorporate it in the classroom.

Another course goal mentioned that I know I need to work on is ongoing self-assessment. Last semester was mostly a chaotic blur for me and I never really had (or made) the time to take a look at myself as a learner or a colleague. This semester I intend to pay more attention to myself as a learner and a colleague, as I am sure it will help me be better at both.

After completing the first readings, I find myself even more excited about this course. I am very interested in exploring literacy and all of its aspects.

Goals for TE 402

In reading the goals for the class, I agree that I want gain experience covering the required materials based on educational standards. I also want to continue to acquire positive and effective teaching, curriculum building and class management skills; and I want to take an active part in my learning in order to be able to benefit my students as much as possible.

I know for myself that in order to accomplish these goals I need to make other goals such as not filling my schedule so full that I do many things OK and nothing well. also I need to take the time to read and reflect on resources given in class not in order to check it off my list but for understanding. Writing down questions and using my instructors and peers as resources will also me helpful.

This semester I also want to build better relationships with my classmates as they will me my colleagues in the field of education. there is much to be done this semester but also much to learn. I am looking forward to this class and hope that travelling to my afternoon class will not cut into my learning.