Summative FInal!!

                Taking SED 407 this semester has been really unique. We had class on a school bus for one thing. But besides this, SED 407 also offered something that I was not expecting when I enrolled, an almost completely observation based class where instead of the traditional read for homework and do this assignment, I was able to observe students and learn by seeing how they learned and how they interacted with the teacher, it was a more natural way to learn because I was making real world connections and coming to various realizations rather than saying, “well, if the book says so, it must be true.” During this time, I have learned a number of valuable things, a number of which I couldn’t learn from a book, for example, teenage students love stickers, candy and any other little prize a teacher gives for a job well done. Through the teaching of my two lessons, I learned that sometimes, if a student refuses to pay attention, in certain circumstances, you just have to let it go so that you can teach the other students who are, as tough as that may be. There are two particular things that I learned during this semester that have really stuck out in mind. The fact that in order to be a good educator, you not only have to know your content, but also your community, and that in order to be able to teach every one of your students, especially in an environment like District C, a teacher has to be flexible, differentiated and able to interact with every student personally.

                As a future teacher, I have come to the conclusion that when I get a job, wherever it may be, an affluent, wealthy, prosperous town, or a poverty stricken, high crime rate inner city, it is very important that I learn about my community. After attending the Kids Count seminar, I was surprised at some of the information that I learned about poverty rates, teen pregnancy and crime rates in the big cities in RI, and I think a teacher who teaches in one of these cities, and doesn’t know about this, or pretends it doesn’t exist, is not going to be able to teach effectively. In order to know your students, it is important to know in what kind of environment it is that they live. If a student comes into class with a black eye, is it because they were messing around with a friend and ended up catching an elbow to the eye, or were they jumped on their way home from school yesterday by a gang for their wallet? A teacher should visit the stores in the city or town they teach in, drive around for a while and see how they feel and connect it to their students. Besides getting to know the town they are teaching in, it is very important to get to know what the home life of the students is like. Visiting a home not only allows a teacher to meet parents and speak to them, but at a more simple level, a teacher can look around and see what kind of house a student lives in, is it a nice, big house, or does the student live in a small one bedroom apartment with five relatives? I don’t mean to make students sound like objects, but it’s important to know what a teacher is working with, students are our material, not just the content we learned in college, and knowing what their life is like can give us answers to questions that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to answer.

                Being a teacher requires a person to have a lot of characteristics and abilities. A teacher has to be a mentor, tutor, instructor, authoritarian, they have to be approachable, respected, smart, patient, among a number of other things. The most important thing to be, in my opinion, is flexible, and by flexible I mean a teacher has to be able to reach out to every one of their students. During my observations at District C, I saw a math teacher speak Spanish to her students in order for them to understand the lesson. Her Spanish wasn’t great, but that doesn’t matter, what matters is that she used that skill to include the students who didn’t speak English. In this way, a teacher should know if the city they are teaching in has a predominantly Spanish, or Portuguese, or Italian student body. A teacher has to be emotionally flexible as well, I saw a teacher who handled a student argument by threatening to call the fathers of the students, then when another student was acting out, she went over, crouched beside the student and spoke to them one on one to see what was wrong. There has to be a flexibility in terms of student treatment. In a classroom with 20 students, sometimes the teacher has to be able to handle a problem 20 different ways in order to get the desired result. Flexibility in instruction is vital, not every student learns the same. This was made clear when we saw the panel of student speak about what they liked and disliked in instruction. Some liked packets…some liked group work, there has to be this differentiation in teaching if every student is going to be included.

                This semester has really affected me as a future instructor, it has given me a number of tools and ideas that could only come with in the field observations, not from a book. If I had to pick something that disappointed me, I would say that I could have perhaps spoken more to students, during my observations I didn’t really want to interrupt the lessons, but when I did speak to students, the info they gave me was amazing at times because that’s probably the only way to get real, uncensored, raw information about what it’s like to be a student at the High School, it has to come from the students themselves. 

Parent Walkthrough

So last class, we had to walk through the high school with a parent. One of the parents did not really speak English, so I walked through with her in order to avoid a language barrier issue. We went to a Spanish/French classroom and observed the ending of a French class and the beginning of a Spanish class. I must say, it is a bit frustrating that we didn't observe an entire class because it is difficult to measure the performance of students and the teacher when there is a five minute interruption and change of class and topic, but that's just the nature of the scheduling. More was seen in the Spanish class, during the French class the students worked on an assignment and there was not much interaction other than that. During the Spanish class, one particular student stood out. This student came in and immediately started to listen to her Ipod and not really pay attention at all. The teacher let this go for a little while, but eventually called on the student to participate. The student had a rather negative reaction to this which caused the teacher to speak to her at her desk about what was wrong. It was obvious that the student was either having a bad day or having some kind of issue because they were not into being in the class at all. This had me thinking about the difficulty of having every student in a class paying attention and happy. How can we make 20 students, all different and going through different problems, challenges and issues, happy and attentive? One day, you might have 10 happy students who are willing to learn and pay attention, 2 students who are arguing with each other, 1 student who went to a concert yesterday and is now falling asleep in class, 2 students who are having problems at home, and 1 student who hates the subject you are teaching and so doesn't want to be involved. It's the teacher's job to find a way to make it work, and this is where you have to be creative. Teachers due to the nature of the job have to have so many different characteristics in order to make it all work, they have to be: creative, kind, stern, authoritative and respected, but also approachable, knowledgeable. Some of these are contradictory, like how can we be kind and approachable but respected and authoritative and stern? Going back to the walk through, the parent certainly seemed to grasp the difficulty and challenges of the job, she told me that she liked the teacher and her teaching style.
http://alove4teaching.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-many-hats-teacher-wears.html

High School Observations "so far"

I am currently in the process of observing the teacher that I am going to teach the two lessons with. So far, it's been interesting comparing the high school with district C's high school. The high school that I am teaching the two lessons in is located in a middle class town, primarily white, primarily I would say college educated. Driving around one sees small business that look like they're doing well, nice houses, a lot of nice green grass, it's very...safe. Compared to district C, it is almost the opposite. I think this brings up a pretty interesting dynamic, comparing what you see in a well to do, affluent school district, and what you see when the finances and other factors aren't there. It's a lie when people say that money doesn't matter, of course it does, this high school has nice computers, new looking classes, technology and even a new "wellness center" which is a completely separate building, there is another separate building connected by a catwalk, so this high school is a complex of three buildings, different from the one building in district C. The Spanish classes in this high school are full of American born, non heritage speakers. Every high school has it's own challenges. I believe this high school, despite it's advantage financially, I believe the lack of diversity and maybe a sense of some students being jaded by the ease of having money is a challenge. These students are not able to identify with poorer people, with different races and ethnicities, when 99% of the students are white and wearing abercrombie and fitch, well, while there's nothing wrong with this, it takes a toll on one's perception of what really happens in other cities. I listened in on the students conversations and a lot of the topics were not very important, shallow and basically what one associates with a typical teenager conversation, a lot of gossip. In district C, the challenges are much different. Financially, there are definitely problems, students are coming from low income families, and this has a long list of problems: nutrition, family life, stress, lack of motivation for education and instead wanting to work to help financially, these all affect students negatively. There are schools that are safer than others, if I were to teach at the high school I'm observing in, I wouldn't be worried about money, crime, or anything like that. There isn't much room to help students improve their lives, they are already comfortable, likely to go to college and likely to be more motivated to learn. Students in district C are going to require much more work, they need to see that they can improve their lives through college and through hard work, they need someone to show them, to mentor them, and this is the kind of challenge I want. I think it's a bit boring to work in a safe school, where the students are already molded into good students, why not work somewhere that's challenging, where there's more room to make a difference?  
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/02/nation/na-schools2

 

Social Automation/Lack of personal interaction

Last week I observed for the first time at the school that I'm going to teach my two lessons at. I heard a lot of things throughout the day, but one thing really stuck in my head. A teacher told me that if she had any advice for me, it would to get involved with online teaching. She believed that future generations would be educated online with online teachers, reducing the classroom aspect. I started to think about this and it started to worry me. As a teacher, I want to speak to students and interact with them on a personal level, not through a computer. I do believe that year after year, there will be more computer based instruction, but it would be a shame to automate the educational process. Today, there are Self Check Out lanes, automated ATMs, online shopping, etc. I feel like there is less and less human interaction, texting has resulted in people not liking to speak on the phone, all of this can have a negative effect on speech ability and interaction. I worry that fifty years from now, there won't be any reason to leave the house. You can wake up, go to school/work on the computer, order food/groceries on the computer, text your friends and maybe video chat, do some online banking and then watch T.V to finish up your day. People won't see the sun for weeks, we will speak no more than ten words per day "through video chat", and yeah, that's it, eventually only text will be used, resulting in future people not having vocal cords and being completely incapable of speaking....just kidding, I hope. If this is our future, well, I don't know how pleasant it will be. I'm obviously being extreme, but it's heading that way for sure, a person can honestly and realistically live completely at home without the need to go outside. Anything can be delivered, bought, or requested online. I hope that when I get a job as a teacher, that I will have actual, physical students. The link I included is a great infographic. Enjoy, and if you want to try something fun, try not to text your friends for a couple days, instead, call them whenever you need to talk...
http://www.forkparty.com/17565/could-you-survive-without-ever-leaving-the-house-infographic

Taking PE/Health students to CF

Last week, we took the Health and PE students to the School in order to expose them to what we were doing. It was interesting because it reminded me of our first trip and how I felt/thought. On the ride there, I asked the student sitting next to me what it was that he expected to see and experience when we got there. I figured that he might have some preconceptions and I was right, he said that he knew about District C's history and I agreed, but I reassured him that he would be surprised when we got there. I used the experience as almost like a day of research for my own personal use. I wanted to know how a persons preconceptions changed after experiencing something first hand. Anyway, so through out the day I asked him if he was surprised and he said yes, and even that his school was in some ways "worse" than this one, that his school was more rowdy and disorganized. This was a pleasant and interesting surprise. I remember on our first trip, wondering if the school would be like what I expected, and to be honest, some of the things that I thought I would see, I did. I knew the student body would be dominantly hispanic, I expected to hear a lot of Spanish, so in that regard, I was correct; however, it's important to realize that it's a High School, the students are all full of hormones and energy, so of course some students were going to be more boisterous and loud and of course they're going to swear, they're teenagers. I failed to look at the school through a non biased lens. I only looked at the location, not the people. There was that one altercation in the hallway, but you know what, now that I've changed my opinion, I realize that it's not because of the school or the location or the past history of the city, it's because "teenager", that's why. This experience is great in 407, but would be in my opinion even better for an FNED 346 class where race and gender and stereotypes are discussed. I truly hope that this program is adopted by FNED 346 because I wish I had these experiences when I took it. For that class, I worked at a High School in Providence and just from that, my preconceptions of inner city schools were changed, never mind if I had done this type of observation. In the link below, I recommend taking a look at the "How an area looks" paragraphs and think about our I-spy activity on the bus.

http://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/quality-insider-article/danger-preconceptions.html

Tutoring experience

So now that I'm in my sixth week of tutoring, I'd like to talk about what I've experienced and learned. It's been interesting comparing what I've learned in class and then trying to apply it to my tutoring and teaching..It's all a big experiment really. Anyways, so I tutor two students on a regular basis, at least two to three times per week, and it's been really good so far, I like to students that I tutor and, honestly, I've seen improvement lately. I've tried a number of different tactics, from telling them to study on their own, to drilling it into their heads with repetition, different exercises on the board, etc. Whenever I tutor, I use an empty classroom so I can utilize the board and open private space, it's nice. I would recommend tutoring to any education major because it's really good practice. So, over the last few weeks I've seen improvement in one particular student and it really does make me proud, of not only him, but also of myself. It's a great feeling and it's one of the reasons why I'm becoming a teacher. I feel like when I do my two lessons, that having tutored will help me because I am going to go in more confidently knowing that I have already improved my own student's proficiency and knowledge. I will continue to use my tutoring as almost like an education lab, where I get to try out new things and see how they work and what I prefer. It helps me to understand my own teaching style and expectations.
http://www.parentsleague.org/publications/selected_articles/does_tutoring_help_or_harm_your_childs_education/index.aspx

Essential Question

During this class, we have been asked a number of time what our essential question is. I feel like I have finally begun to construct a solid question that represents my personality, style and mentality, which is what I believe a good question should do. So with that, here it is...."How do I conduct an enjoyable class where the teaching and learning scaffolding is hidden, so that learning can naturally happen through enjoyment and interest instead of out of necessity?" I also have an essential question that has more to do with continued interest, and it goes like this, "How do I turn a foreign language, something that isn't really necessary in life, into a topic that the students will want to further pursue in life, not for necessity, but for enjoyment?". I believe as teachers, one of our jobs is to be an advocate for our subjects, we should try to "spread the love" for english, math, foreign language, history, etc. We should try to sell the subjects to our students so that they pursue them in college and in life. If I can influence a student so much that they decide to pursue a degree in a foreign language, be it Portuguese or Spanish, I will have done my job. Oh and if you were wondering what my picture is, it's a damaged wall where the bricks are showing...representing how good teaching can hide the main structures of a class.

http://linguagarden.com/2013/04/6-ways-to-motivate-your-students-in-the-foreign-language-classroom/

Standards......Or the lack thereof

Recently, the issue of standardized testing has been prevalent in the media and in Education. There have been a number of arguments for and against required testing due to students who felt it was unfair to be required to pass a standard test given throughout the state. A good argument can be made for either side, but personally, I have an opinion on the topic. Throughout my 4 years in High School, I heard many rumors of grading standards going down, to where a passing grade would become a 60, instead of a 70. Another thing I noticed was when I graduated, I walked the stage with certain students who I was pretty sure were unlikely to have passed their classes. I personally feel like in today's education system, standards have been lowered, and it is worrying. I feel like a High School diploma isn't as valuable as it used to be, people used to work very hard to pass High School, but now, there are arguments for no more grading in schools, with a number of schools following a "free" concept, where there are no grades, no assignments, nothing, the students choose what they do "http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2003645914_unschooled01m.html". I personally believe there should be higher standards, a diploma should mean something, not just a piece of paper given to students after four years, but something earned. People are too worried about offending other people, one argument is that it's unfair to fail students, well, I say, too bad, if everyone is given a diploma, then where is the value? During my senior year in High School, a number of students brought alcohol to a school event. They were threatened with not walking the stage, but guess what, they did. Empty threats, low standards, and giving everyone a diploma after four years. This brings me to another area in schools that bothers me. Many schools have banned dodge ball from gym class because it could injure students or make them feel bad.  I have also heard about banning any form of activity where students can lose, due to them feeling sad, I don't understand why we have adopted this mindset of "don't offend anyone, everything must be P.C". In the end, when I become a teacher, I can honestly say that students will earn their grades, if you deserve a 40, well, you'll get a 40, not because I want to offend or sadden or discourage the student, but because my classroom will have standards. On a slight side note, this is also a problem in colleges, where in my freshman psychology class, it was scaled so that no matter what, three students at least would get an A.........why?
As a disclaimer, this is obviously all my opinion and I beg of anyone reading this to agree/disagree with me, I'd love to have a discussion about this!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-sigman/when-everyone-gets-a-trop_b_1431319.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ann-he/grade-inflation-killing-i_b_1392527.html

Teaching strategies. "Fun edition!"

During last week's class, we discussed understanding by design as well as using different strategies as structures for learning, for example, the square game. The square game was a simple way of demonstrating many important techniques. Team work, roles, and understanding instructions we're all covered during the class, but I believe the hidden meaning behind the square game was the most interesting. We learned that through this simple exercise, one could build a framework in a students mind through which many different exercises can be implemented. Forming sentences by giving each student a part of speech and then having them form the sentences together was very interesting to me because it's an activity that would be useful in my field of study. It would allow each student to understand how to use a verb, a noun, adjectives and subject pronouns, etc.. All the while they would work on teamwork skills and playing certain roles in a group.

The other topic covered, although more in a secondary fashion, was the topic of "fun". I found it interesting that the word "fun" had an odd meaning in class, "I thought classes weren't supposed to be fun?!" I heard a couple times from Professor Horwitz, clearly poking at our opinions of fun and it's place in a class. Personally, I don't see why a teacher wouldn't want a class to be fun. Anything g that's fun is going to be have a good reception, as well as more interest, thus, more attention is paid and more learning happens. A fun project will inspire students to work harder, whereas a dull assignment will likely cause students to loathe the assignment and do anything to get it over with. Throughout this semester my essential question has been forming, and is currently, "how do I make a  class where my students are MOTIVATED to learn". I believe motivation and fun can go hand in hand, especially since foreign language is not as required as math and science, where motivation can come from necessity and not from interest or fun. Foreign languages need to be fun, motivational and interesting because if they aren't, students will simply stop taking them after the required one or
two years. Thankfully, I believe a foreign language is the easiest course in which to have fun.

http://funforspanishteachers.blogspot.com/2012/08/17-fun-games-to-play-in-spanish-class_15.html?m=1

Why I want to be a Teacher. "Portuguese Edition"

Porque é que quero ser professor? Bem, isso é uma questão que tem uma resposta fácil. Para mim, desde a escola secundária, tenho querido influenciar as futuras gerações, mas isso é apenas uma parte da minha resposta. Talvez seja um pouco egoista, mas quero ter um emprego que gostarei, que vou disfrutar. Eu sei que não se pode ter tudo, e não desejo ter tudo, mas também acho que com muito esforço, é possível ter muito, e uma coisa que sem dúvida quero ter, é um bom emprego. Desde iniciei os meus estudos portugueses, sabia que era a minha paixão. A gramática, a estrutura linguística, tudo, adorava. É excitante saber que um dia terei a oportunidade de trabalhar com línguas estrangeiras, de trabalhar com estudantes jóvens. É excitante saber que um dia eu vou trabalhar como professor.
http://www.alleducationschools.com/education-careers/article/teaching-career-perks
"Please use translator on the right side of the page to translate to English. Select any other foreign language then choose English and it'll work. If anything sounds funny, it's because translators are not perfect...Thanks!"

 

Chapter 5 and making connections

After reading chapter 5, I started to think about a personal experience I had in High School. In chapter 5 I read about Brainstorming strategies, and I remember how my 12th grade English teacher would approach every reading assignment. Right before we would start any new book, he would have us speak out loud and just give out basic ideas of what we thought the book was about by looking at the picture on the front cover, the title, the author, the size of the book, anything we wanted. After this he would tell us a basic summary of what the book was about, confirming whether or not we were right. Every time we read the book for homework, the next day we would come in and talk about what we read, what we liked, didn't like and what we thought was going to happen next. This way, we were constantly making connections with the reading, and getting involved with it. At the end of the unit, we recapped on everything that we had read, talked about what we liked, didn't like, and then we had a book report. I really enjoyed this style of teaching because, as was discussed in one of our very first SED 407 classes, we made many connections and didn't forget the book. It made it interesting and I looked forward to talking about it every day. Making these connections to everything that we teach is crucial, no lesson should be half-baked, no matter what it is, if it's important enough to be taught, it's important enough to be taught well.

Blooming Onion

During the last few weeks, after a number of visits to School C, I feel like I've been seeing layers peeled back week after week. The first visit was rather calm and, not bland but.....safe? Unassuming? Anyways, every week since I've been seeing new things that I didn't notice on the first day. I feel like there are more students in the hall every week, more interactions, more things being revealed. Last week, I was stared down on the bus by students sitting on the sidewalk, we've had to jostle by crowds in the halls, also last week I was scheduled to go into a special education classroom, but there was some kind of commotion going on between a student and the teacher, so we didn't go in. On the first day, the hall was empty, there were no students outside, nothing but a clean school, and now, I'm starting to see more, and it's really interesting. I don't mind being stared down by students or being surrounded by crowds of students yelling in Spanish to each other, I find this all interesting and exciting. I have never quite had a class like this before... It makes me wonder what am I going to see next week, or over the next couple months. Another thing that I've seen develop is the interactions between the Principal and the students. On the first day, we didn't have a chance to see this, but now, walking through the halls with him, I see him shaking hands with students, while he's telling them to get to class, which is interesting because he's obviously respected and liked, but at the same time, authoritative and commanding, he does his job well. I will try to keep updating new things that I see during our experience here.  

Toward a Balanced Diet of Reading: Hard vs. Easy

While reading chapter 4 of Subjects Matter, I came across the "Hard vs. Easy" portion of the chapter. This peaked my interest because it's such a subjective thing, hard and easy. What is easy for me may be impossible for others, for instance, I can easily explain the difference between indicative and subjunctive moods, but others may not, in the same was that I can't do Shakespeare, but English majors could do it in their sleep. In this part of the chapter, the concept of students needing to read text that they understand is mentioned, and this for me was obvious, but then I realized that it doesn't always happen. Students with reading disabilities for example are sometimes given the same text as the other students, at which point they may sit there and stare at the text without even trying because it's too hard. It's understandable that teachers may not think that a student can learn from a very basic text, but once again the chapter explains this, it says that in order to get good at reading, sometimes a student has to read a lot of easy text to build up their skills. This reminded me of weightlifting, you can't go into a gym and start with 50 pound weights. You usually start with 10, then 15, then 20, and so on and so forth, so why isn't this method utilized in High School? This is one of the reasons that I enjoy reading this book, because it gives us obvious yet not so obvious information and advice. The link below leads to a website describing strategies for helping students with learning disabilities. The other link is a cool chart that I couldn't use as a picture but that shows when certain reading objectives are explored in schools.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/33084/
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/english/2010/progression_charts/reading_skills_by_grade.pdf

My literacies

Throughout my life, I have learned many things and found many hobbies. Naturally, as one tends to do, some hobbies and skills became things that I became very interested in or very good at, thus, making me literate in the different areas. Some of those hobbies/activities for me are: Watches, Cars, Bussing Tables, and Grammar........yes, Grammar.

First, Watches. Ever since I was about 13 years old, I have wanted a nice watch. Basically, I feel as though men don't have a lot of options when it comes to buying nice things. Women have necklaces, rings, bracelets, purses, etc, but what do men have? Watches. I received my first nice watch last christmas. My girlfriend bought me a black seiko with diamond hour markers, and from that moment on, I was hooked. I currently have a watch collection of 5 watches, I would have 6 but I sold one to get another. My watches span from my rather simple black seiko, to my newest/most pricey watch, a custom order diamond Movado. After buying some watches, I eventually wanted to learn how they work and how to put them together, so I am currently in the process of teaching myself about watches.

I have always had a fascination with cars. After many years and car shows, I can identify cars at night, from a distance, simply by their headlights. This helps sometimes with identifying police cars as well. I have also been interested in the inner workings of cars, but still only have a slight understanding of how they work/ how to fix them.

I have worked at Luciano's Restaurant in Wrentham, Ma for almost two years now. There are some days when I don't mind it, and there are others where I swear if the food weren't so good, and weren't free, I would quit. It is an upscale restaurant close to Gillette Stadium that is frequented every once in a while by Patriot's players, such as Vince Wilfork, Teddy Bruschi, Wes Welker, as well as former Patriot's player, TIm Tebow. During the past two years, I have essentially perfected the art of bussing tables. After practicing for so long, I basically do two jobs, I do my job, and then help the waiters and get paid extra. Not everyone can do this, but since I am able to complete my work quickly, I have time to do more, which helps a lot at the end of the day. I am currently in the process of making the transition to a waiter due to my good work, but I can definitely say that I am literate in bussing. I think working everyone should at some point in their life work in a restaurant. It is hard work but it usually pays off if you can handle it. The link below details some responsibilities for your typical busboy, but trust me, it is a job that has many different tasks, more than are mentioned.
http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/kind-job-busboy-do-1214.html

Grammar, a topic that usually scares people, is something that I have been studying for many years. The reason that I am including this is because I have done a lot of learning outside of school. Once I started taking Portuguese in High School, I started to become interested in language structure, ended up buying a number of books, and studying outside of school due to pure interest. What started as a simple interest turned into my future career and college major. Ask me about the indicative mood, or the subjunctive mood, or verb tenses and I can describe them in and out. It is because of this that I believe learning out of school is just as important as in school.

While these things don't have much in common, I believe they will all help me some day in the classroom, for a number of reasons. Watches and Cars have taught me and attention to detail and working with small parts, as well as learning not only what things are, but also how they work. Bussing tables has taught me work ethic. In my opinion, restaurant work is some of the hardest work, people come and go at a very fast rate, few actually stay for extended periods of time. Two years is like 20 years in a restaurant. Working here has taught me how to handle stressful situations with a smile. I have learned to not let anything get to me at work. Finally, having a very profound understanding of my content area due to outside work is obviously useful because teachers need to be experts in their content areas. Overall, even though none of these are really related, they all contribute to my future goals.  

 

Town C High School

I have always had Town C as my neighbor. Admittedly, I would say that my home town and Town C  are not very similar, I have travelled to and spent some time in Town C frequently. Knowing of their condition, I wasn't sure how the school would be, but to my surprise, it was in better condition than I thought it would be. The school itself didn't necessarily reflect the outside, which is good because the school environment is important to how students do in school, a school that is in shambles may have poorer results due simply to the fact that students might not feel safe or happy in that environment. I was impressed by the principal's knowledge and attitude. He was very enthusiastic at our presence in his school, which made me feel welcome. As for the uniforms, I do believe in individuality; however, I feel as though the students will still be able to express themselves while still being appropriate, at least that's what I got from the Principal. I am very excited to begin observing and taking notes!

Teaching irony in literature

During chapter 2, the topic of irony was brought up and it got my attention because it provoked a number of different thoughts about irony and how it's perceived and interpreted. First of all, irony can be viewed very subjectively. Some of us may read a text about a pig who's favorite food is bacon and find it very....ironic; however, there are other people that may say, well, what's the big deal if the pig likes bacon. In this way, it's subjective, what may be ironic for one person may be normal for another. I find that as a result, it could be difficult to teach irony to students since they could have differing opinions. As a future language teacher, my classes will likely focus more on grammar than on reading novels, but I can appreciate the challenge that is irony in a reading assignment. I believe it to be easier for older students to understand because irony requires a higher understanding and a more advanced thought process because it requires students to connect two or more things and to find the similarity. This goes back to what was in chapter 2, on page 42, the teacher talks about how workshop students had a hard time identifying irony on their own. On page 43, they discuss teaching irony to two different classes in different age groups and how the students from both classes picked up on the irony through the use of comics and short stories. Irony can completely change the meaning of a text and how we interpret it which is why it's so interesting. It gives us multiple lenses through which we can read. Sometimes the irony is clear, and other times it requires a lot of analysis to pick it out, either way, irony is very interesting as well as potentially challenging for a future English teacher. One other little thing is sometimes people can't differentiate irony and sarcasm, so I have included a link describing the difference.
http://scepticalprophet.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/difference-between-sarcasm-and-irony/

 

About me

My name is Christopher Barbosa, I am a fourth year student at RIC and my major is Portuguese/Secondary Education. I also have a minor in Spanish.