Library Lecture

I feel like the lecture about library resources was mare than we needed. I think if we would have gotten a list of the references and sources that she gave us we could have figured out where to find stuff ourselves and spent our time in a better way during lecture. There was way too much time spent looking at the ERIC site when it is pretty much the same thing as every other EBSCO website. We also were not told about the Curriculum Library which we will need to know about in our education career. This lecture just seemed kind of pointless to me because we learned a lot of this stuff about the library in Paideia last year and we are from the technology generation and most of us know our way around the WWW pretty well, at least well enough to figure out how to use a search engine or search on EBSCO. I would have rather spent our time doing something else.

Chalk and Wire and Class Discussion

I feel like in the longrun chalk and wire will be very useful as a teacher searching for a job. It is basically helping us to prepare our professional portfolio and resume. Right now it just seems kind of tedious and almost impossible as to how we are going to cover all the competencies for each level of portfolio in our 3 years left. I hope it all falls into place a little bit more as things move along in our classes. In the future, I will be very grateful to have been required to do this portfolio all through school so I don't have to do it on my own when I am looking for a teaching position.

The class discussion we had today (Wed. 9/24) I feel was very interesting. I always wonder why we teach children what we do and why people feel that they need to learn certain subjects. In some ways it is what is expected of us. In high school, a lot of people expect students to get all the way up to Calculus if they can. But for me, taking the difficult classes that I probably wouldn't need ever in my life were just a way to challenge my brain and keep me thinking in new ways. Yeah, it's nice to not have 3 hours of homework every night if you take easy classes or the minimum requirements but I get bored taking those classes and feel that I'm not working to my full potential. When I know I could be doing more it makes me feel lazy. It's a hard semester when you take these classes but it opens your mind to a new world and who knows, maybe you find something you really like to learn about or you will discover that even though you are good at something and capable of doing it, it just isn't your cup of tea. I want to be taught things that I didn't know before and that will challenge how I think and make me work hard. I think that is the point of taking the more difficult classes that you will never use again in your life.

Reaction the "Write and Wrong" article

I was amazed when I read this article! I couldn't believe that a teacher would be fired after cooperating with the principle of the school to not start out with the book "The Freedom Writers". She asked parents for permission to read the book in class and not one of the parents asked their child to return the book to school once they were handed out. I feel like the principle didn't even read the book so they couldn't have realized that the students in this class would have related very well to the students in the book. The teacher didn't even really seem like she got a chance to explain why she wanted her students to read it. She was just told to not start with it. But on the other hand, what are you supposed to do when the one or two parents that didn't sign the permission form to read the book come in and complain? I don't think it seemed likely that the parents would complain about the book because none of the students returned their books. I feel like the administration should have explained more about why they didn't want the book used in the classroom because this may have helped the teacher to understand why she couldn't use it and may have caused her to not hand it out to her students ever during the year, and then she wouldn't have been fired. I think the school needs to communicate more with teachers so they know why decisions are being made.

"Lions for Lambs" Reflection

At first, I didn't really understand what a movie about war over in the Middle East had anything to do about teaching, but as the movie went on we met the profesor and his student. The student was so unmotivated but you could tell he was smart. He made up the lamest excuses for why he didn't show up to class. I liked how the profesor said something like, if you can't balance your academic and social life then you shouldn't be in school. I think that is very true. There needs to be room for fun but you can NEVER forget why you are going to school, to learn. I also liked how the profesor said his job was to sell the student to the student. I agree that that is a big part of teaching. Teachers are trying to show their students how valuable they are and what their potential is. Teachers should always be pushing their students to do better. Overall, the sections of the movie where the profesor was talking with his student were very useful for teachers to learn something from.

Reaction to Hiroshima Lecture 9/12/08

I thought this lecture on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was pretty interesting. The information about atomic bombs was something new to me and hearing the story of Mr. Inoye gave great insight to what it was really like for someone that lived there during the bombing. The presentation was definitely geared towards college level thinkers. For younger kids, this lecture would have been completely boring and not understandable. A PowerPoint was used to show the main points of the atomic bomb information but it was not creative by any means.
I really liked how Mr. Inoye talked about education. He had to leave school to work in military factories when he was in eighth grade, and after the war he wasn’t really sure if he wanted to continue his education. His father encouraged him to go back to school; to make a better life for him in the future. Mr. Inoye loved to read and had a book collection that he was devastated to lose in the bombing. Education was so important for his family that he had to walk three miles, take the train, take a streetcar, and then walk another mile before he reached the makeshift school. The building was so rundown that when it rained the students had to hold umbrellas above their heads while sitting at their desks. To me, this shows just how important education was to Mr. Inoye and that he didn’t take it for granted. I just wish that younger middle school and high school students could have been at this lecture to hear his story so they realized how well off they are.