End Of The Semester

I can not believe that the semester is almost over. It seemed like a few weeks ago we all met for the first time sitting in groups telling each other where we are from and what we are interesting in teaching and why. But here we are three and a half months later and the semester is basically over. Im just about done with the last of my work for the semester and all I have left is a few projects, presentations, and finals. Hopefully I did well in all of my classes and I am looking forward to a nice month break from school. In the end I am glad that I was able to experience this class and got a chance to meet a group of really cool people. I wish everyone the best of luck with the long road to becoming a teacher. Happy Holidays

Inquiry Project

So its been awhile since I blogged about the inquiry project so here's a little update. I decided to join a group instead of doing the project on my own because I found it to be way to much research to do by myself added on top of the work I have for all my other classes. So our groups question for the inquiry project is, how parent involvement effects student achievement? From our groups research, field work, and observations we were able to find much info in order to answer our question. I had no idea just how much of an affect family and parenting had on and child's education until we did this project. There are so many useful ways that parents can get involved with a students education in both outside and inside of school. Most parents look at education as something that is done just between their child and the teacher, but parents do not realize that just how much or little a parent gets involved with their child's education can have a major effect ether positive of negative depending on what they do. I found this inquiry project to be very eye opening to something that I did not think was a serious part of education at first and I am glad that my group picked such an important topic. I really hope that our group did a good job on this project and well found out soon because we are presenting our project tomorrow in class.

NCBL

After learning all about No Child Left Behind, I started to think if since NCBL is causing so many problems with education in America then why is it even worth having this law??? NCLB is making school districts follow there format of basically pass or fail standardized testing in order to recieve federal school funding. And many urban school districts are having trouble meeting these testing standards yet they do not have the funding for the proper resources to teach the students what they need to know to pass these standardized tests. Then why can't the government just help with the funding of these school districts in the first place so they will have the tools needed to meet these standards instead forcing them to follow these laws first in order to then recieve federal funding. It just doesn't really make sense to me. Hopefully in the near future there will be a way to solve both the laws of NCLB and the needs of urban school districts in a manner that is somewhat reasonable.

Arts High School Full Day Observation

This past Monday I had made my trip back to Newark to do my full day observation at Arts High School. The teacher I did my observation with was Terrance Brogdon, one of the six physical education and health teachers at Arts High School. Because of the new block scheduling that they just started this year at Arts, Mr. Brogdon was only teaching health classes this marking period. The classroom enivornment was alot different from normal high school classes like math and english. His classroom was a very open, speak your opinion type of class. All the students seemed to really enjoy having Brogdon as a teacher and would look to him for advice on things outside of the classroom. Most of the students were very well mannered in his class except for one class that had about 35 students in it, this was the only class where the teacher seemed to have trouble keeping the students on track with his lesson plan, all the rest of his classes were about 20 students and he was able keep control of the entire class and get through his lesson plan easily. One thing that i really enjoyed about my day at Arts High School was that I was able to sit in on a meeting that he had to attended that had to deal with getting students prepared for the HESPA exams. Mr. Brogdon and other teachers at Arts were figuring out and brainstorming ways to use Bloom's taxonomy in a sort of test form, like done on the HESPA's, in order for students to be able to practice for the exam. Overall I found it to be a very exciting experience and it totally changed my preceptions about urban high schools. Now that I have actually observed an urban high school it has giving me much interest in someday maybe teaching in an urban school like Arts.

Community Service

For my 10 hours of community service I wanted to somethings similar for both my 5 hours in an urban community and the 5 hours in my hometown so that I would be able to compare the two. So for both community services I had helped out at small basketball camps that were being held over the weekends for young elementary school children. For my urban community service I had gone to South Orange where my friend who goes to Seton Hall was running this camp for kids in the South Orange area had allowed me to come and help out with this camp. For my community service in my hometown I had went and helped out at a similar camp that was being held over the weekends by my high school's basketball team.

From my community service hours I was able to make comparisons between the two basketball camps that I had helped out with. The one basketball camp that was held in South Orange the kids arrived on a bus and there were not that many parents in attendance while at the other basketball camp held in my hometown the majority of the children's parents were in attendance throughout the entire camp. Even though there were not that many parents at the camp in South Orange, the kids were very well behaved and were very interested in the camp activites that were well set up for all the kids to participate in. As for the camp in my hometown, it seemed to be more of a social event for the kids where they were playing with there friends and the parents were involved with much of the activities set up. Overall I found both of these camps to be very positive for the children and there it was a very enjoying thing for myself to attend being that I have an interest in coaching in the future.

School and Community Events

For my 2 school and community events I had attended the Thanksgiving Football game at the high school I had went. I had also went to a school craft sale that they had at my high schools church in order to raise money for the church. While I was at the Thanksgiving football game the school had many events going on during halftime that involved a parade for the homecoming king and queen and also the rest of the homecoming court. There was also many alumni at the game showing there support for the school. Almost all of the faculty and and teachers were at the game. This to me showed that the school was very involved with the after school programs and was showed much support by the current people involved with the school as well as people who were apart of the school in the past.

As for the school craft sale that I went to, it was more of a community event then an event just for the school. There were many people that were not involved with the school but were involved with the church. Many of the students in the school were there helping out with the sale by ether cleaning up or helping set up tables and chairs. This event seemed to be very full of energy and many of the people there werent even involved with the school and were still showing support for the school and the community. From what I heard they had raised a large amount of money for the school's church and it was a very successful school event.

Abbott vs. Burke

From what i read about the Abbott vs. Burke case was that it put in place a framework that is being used by New Jersey schools that are located in high poverty areas. This framework included many things to try and improve not only the curriculums that are in these schools but also the environment that is present within the school. The thing that stood out for me the most was how they are tring to improve the environment that each school has. It is very important for students to be educated in an adequate classroom environment in order for them to learn to their full potential. For example how this new framework is having facilities rebuilt so it will provide the room needed for all of the schools programs while also relieving overcrowding of students by having smaller classrooms for the students to learn more one on one in. These are things that will help these schools continue the improvments that they are making for the students living in high poverty areas.

First Look at Arts High School

After going to the Arts High School I can not wait to go back to begin my observations of the classrooms that I have with my assigned teacher. When I first walked into the school I did not know what to think because the first thing I saw was metal detectors and a security guard. But after seeing the students singing and hearing from the people that are in charge of the school it had totally changed my ideas that I had before coming into the school. It made me feel like everyday when each of the students come into the school they enter a world that is filled with oppurtunities for each of the students talents that is completely different from the world they have outside of school that for some of them is filled with harsh and difficult times that a teenager with there talent should not have to deal with. I am anxiously awaiting to return to the school and meet some of the students and teachers that get to experience an environment like Arts High School on a daily basis.

Observations......

After this past weeks class I was able to learn the importance of observations especially as a future teacher. I feel that my inquiry project question will fit in perfectly with the observations that I will be needing to take in order to answer my question. Some of the things that I will need to observe in order to answer my question is not only the behavior of the students but also the behavior of the teacher and if he or she is really putting their full effort into the subjects of Physical Education and Health. I will also observe how well the students are grasping onto the things being taught in class and if they are really taking what the teacher says into consideration. I will also need to do some observation within the community as well at certain events such as sporting events. I feel that if I am able to get these observations that I will be looking for it will greatly help with my inquiry project.

Inquiry Project Ideas....

As I am sitting here thinking of ideas for this project I am trying to incorporate my field of Physical Education and Health while also being able to use the things that we have learned in class so far to come up with answers for my questions. One question that I have come up with that I might use for this project is, How will the emphasis of Physical Education and Health have a positive effect on not only schools in urban areas but schools all over America? Again this is just an idea that I have come up with and I am hoping that class this week will help me come up with a concrete question that I will use for this project.

Parker Reading

When asking the question, what role does state and federal government have in shaping public education, a good way of answering this question is by looking at what kind of goals the government has set up based upon democracy. One of the main goals by both the state and federal governments is to have education form citizens under a democratic environment. That is why the government plays a major role in public education. But even though the government plays such a major role, it is still up to the educators to form democratic citizens from students. “Educators are justified in shaping curriculum and instruction toward the development of democratic citizens” (Parker 3).

The role that the governments play in public education is one that involves providing these schools with the things needed to form democratic citizens such as the educators, materials needed, most of the financial costs needed, and the foundation of the curriculum. The state and federal governments are depended on to form the base of these learning environments in ways that will give educators the foundation needed to help teach students. Another role that the governments play in public education is that they keep observations on the results of each school, that will lead to the necessary adjustments needed to improve a school’s learning environment.

In conclusion, the state and federal governments make numerous adjustments every year in public schools, in order to make sure that they are giving the educators the best environment to create students into knowledgeable democratic citizens. And as the school years go on the government will continue to make adjustments to each school’s curriculum until it reaches a point of perfection. But in the end it is still all up to the educators to use the curriculum given to them to shape students minds and complete the overall goal of the state and federal governments.

Haiku

Colors Everywhere!
They Are All We Ever See!
Is That All We See?


I wrote this haiku about colors because lately in class most of our conversations have been about races and how its effects our school systems. It seems like schools these days worry more about how each race does in school instead of how each student does in school as an individual. I realize that race is something that is really important in America but doesn't it seem like people let this huge topic of race control their lives and how they live?

Martain Blog

Schools have specific curriculum standards that provide our students with the higher capability to learn. Also standardized testing provides administrators with the in deciding what our students are having problems with and all what knowledge of what our students are learning in the classroom. This will help our schools they excel in.
More than half of the country’s public school students are white. Children of color make up the majority of public school enrollments in six states and many school districts. Children of color also constitute a majority of students in two-thirds of the nation’s 50 largest school districts, and over 90% of enrollments in several of the nation’s largest districts. In major U.S. cities classrooms are more culturally diverse.
A majority of teachers have advanced degrees as well as more then 10 years of experience. This means not only are our teachers well educated but have stay in the system for quite some time and have great experiences with our schools. Nine out of ten of the teachers are white as well as eight out of ten teachers are female.

First Day Reaction

The first day of class, I feel, is one of the most important days of class that you will have throughout the semester. The reason for that is because it is the day where you meet not only your teacher for the class but also your fellow classmates. In this first day you also go over all the material that will be taught to us during the course and also all of the assignments and grading procedures that teacher will discuss with the class.

This first day of class was one that was very exciting and also nerve wrecking for me because being that I am a transfer student from Brookdale Community College and it was one of my first classes that I was taking as a student at Montclair State. So many things were going through my head such as is the teacher going to be boring, is the class going to be to difficult for me to handle, and am I going to be the only student in the class that is a transfer. As I walked into the class I sat in the first open seat that i saw and waited for the teacher to arrive while other students were entering the class seeming just as curious about the course as I was.

As the class began all of my worries were fading away, the teacher seemed to be very funny and interactive with all of the students which is always a plus because no one like a teacher that just sits there and reads from his notes. The class material seemed to be just perfect in ways that it will challenge me but not overwhelm me to the point of a nervous breakdown. And it turned out that the majority of the students in the class were transfers just like me. After going through all of the class materials and getting to know all of the other students in the class I was looking foward to the rest of this course and also the rest of my time in college.