Chalk!

Chalk, the official teacher version of the Office! What a hilarious show this was! I really enjoyed watching this for our Monday night gathering. I think mostly it gave us some insight as what not to become as teachers, which is definitely a good thing to see as well as hear good things to do. The characters on this show fit their parts perfectly! How hilarious! I really get a kick out of the history teacher, who informs his students that he had only been teaching for about an hour and ten minutes official after class started! I think it's going to be a great reference to see these teachers in order to see what works and what doesn't. Of course none of us are going to be perfect when we start, and could maybe be somewhat like these people on this show. But like these teachers do, we need to adapt to different teaching styles to see what works and what doesn't in order to engage kids in what we are teaching. All of these techniques are very realistic and seem like they could be likely to happen in our classrooms so I feel like Chalk is somewhat preparing us for the real world! Reality t.v.! :) Here's a pretty great example of the history teacher lacking a little flavor for teaching, I'd say...

check it out!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS6Xc_l0Kjo

For the second section of watching Chalk I feel like the movie really gave me a sense of how NOT to teach. I felt that some of the teachers were there for the right reasons, and some definitely not. For example the teacher who only wanted to win teacher of the year. However, I do know that this movie will be beneficial to my teaching career in some way. It's just one of the many things I'll have to keep in mind when thinking of how to manage my teaching in the future!

Parents Forum

Well, it was a fun way to finish up our series by talking to the parents of some students from the community in Decorah. I was really interested in what they had to say about many aspects of the school day. I guess what they were saying was just resounding in my head as I kept thinking, "Ok Katie remember this! You will need to know this..." While they were talking I just wanted to start writing a list of all the things I need to remember for when I become a teacher, which will most defintely be a blog for another day :). One of the most interesting aspects that these teachers touched on I felt was the feeling they had towards NCLB. Kind of like we had talked about in class today, I guess after hearing all the other educators views on NCLB I was starting to accept it as a postitve thing. Like Jim mentioned, I was thinking after the parent forum that maybe I was being too easily bought into and having too much of a positive thought about it! They really didn't like it! I guess it was nice to see from the outside of an "Educational Perspective" what someone not doing our job thought about the whole dilema. Like one of the ladies mentioned, she felt it labeled her child. And like Steve mentioned, so my child has a low english grammer grade...what are we going to do about that? Sit around at night at work on english grammer? I mean there really are some aspects you just can't change. And I feel that NCLB does have some positive and negative aspects. I think as teachers it is our goal to compromise these two aspects and at parent teachers conferences need to not focus on all the data driven things, but more personal things with each student. We may have that data, but don't need to label kids by their scores. So much to figure out for the future of my teaching career! Should be lots of fun! I can't wait! :)

Luther Graduates Forum

Wow! It was really great to have these teachers come talk to us on Monday night... very helpful I felt! It was really neat to have the perspective of very new teachers, all under less than 10 years of experience. It was also very sweet that all of them attended Luther, so I think I felt more of a personal connection to them, and vice versa. They really understand what we are going through as ed students at Luther and I think all of their responses really fit into something we could relate to and understand. I just felt like their discussions were very relevant into my life because that will be us hopefully very soon! It was nice to have someone so close to us in age explain how they have coped with situations thus far in their beginning teaching careers. To get into more specifics, there were two very important points they brought up that really hit interest with me. The first thing being that sometime teaching takes twists you don't expect it to. For example, the teacher that ended up going back to school to get her special education degree because she was wanted for that position. I think that's really need that she was able to be so flexible and change pace to find something she truly now has come to love and enjoy doing! I think it's always good to be flexible, just like they explained. The other really important point they brought up was in response to a question about NCLB. The math teacher explained that she used to teach to the test because she was in a school that was on the list, but now that she found her groove she doesn't feel she needs to do that, especially at a new school. She reminded us that you can't be too much of a perfectionist. She explained that she always had all these high hopes for what to accomplish in a day, but you can't always get everything done and you just have to be happy you got some learning accomplished. The main point I took away from their visiting was that you need to be ready to expect everything! Be ready to be on your feet ready to tackle any new challenges that come to you! I'm even more excited to be a teacher now! I feel like I need to start a list of all these things I want to remember to do when I'm a teacher, so many people have such good advice. But like the music teacher explained, you have to take all of that knowledge and create yourself, into the teacher you are going to be!