Two Week

My practicum was awesome both mentor teachers were really helpful. Especially my PE sponsor Ms. Johnson. She had alot of really good connections with here students through teaching not only pe but AVID and music appreciation as well as health and career classes. She was an awesome role model for modeling report with students and interacting with them. My science sponsor Mr. Turner was a great guy to talk and bounce ideas off of as well although his teaching style was one i probably wont apply in my teaching. I found the kids in his class were not engaged in the material during class. When i did teach his grade 8 classes a lab they were immediately more engaged so i started to think of ways to engage them more in a lecture style format without having alot of boredom and one class of fun with a lab every few weeks. This could be mini demos every class or videos and other things for them to see that related to the material on a daily basis. Ill also take away the importance of being flexible when teaching and staying one step ahead of students. IF you act like everything is going to plan they will believe that it is.

Technology in the classroom

I thought Mattaeus's presentation on Tuesday was really interesting in showing the wide variety of tools out there for use in the classroom some of which i didn't know existed and have never used. Soundcloud, polleverywhere, wordle, prezi, compozer, audacity, web2.0, wolfram alpha, and smart phone remote are all programs i had either never heard of or never used before the presentation. I will have to expose myself to these over the next months and year and see how and if I think i can use them in my classroom environment. Students are always going to be using new technology and getting farther ahead of teachers so i think its my job to really try and find out about new technologies and how to use them in the classroom. Try and use social media and other sources to make the classroom a more inclusive and safe environment for students. If using these programs will help students engage in the learning process and help them learn better then it would be very useful to me and something i would want to implement.

Hot Topics

This week we talked about a few really revelant topics to schools, teachers and coaches today. Recruiting, illegal use of prescription medications, charter schools, merit pay. I think recruiting is the biggest current issue in high schools. Offering "scholarships" or stealing players from other schools to make sports teams better raises ethical issues. Those coaches may be from outside the school but as teachers and teacher sponsors for these teams and schools i think we need to look at what is best for the students and not necessarily the team or a particular team. I think that the loopholes that people have found have to be closed up and it they will have to continually be closed when people find new ones. I liked the idea that came up in class of having to play in the tier that your school size dictates that you should so you cant play up and recruit players from outside district. Kids should go to their local school unless that school is under performing in academics or another school offers a specific program that they want to attend, Sports shouldn't be a reason to move schools.  I think prescription medication is a topic that may soon come to high schools kids may feel pressure to get assignments done and take things that will help them do that. I think we as teachers must work with parents to educate them ourselves and students on the legality of these issues as well as the dangers and try and prohibit the use or sale on school property and hope the parents do the same at home. Charter schools is another interesting subject and i think as i said above if your local school isn't offering programs that you think are good enough for your child then you have to do whatever you can to get them the best education so i don't really have a problem with students going there. I think the problem lies in if the charter schools aren't being run properly are just money making machines and aren't providing the education they promise or the process for getting in isn't transparent and fair.  The final topic was merit pay which ties into charter schools who only employ "good" teachers and get rid of ones that don't fit at their school.  I think merit pay is a good idea in principle only employ the good teachers and not the ones that are not providing a good stimulating environment for their students. The only problem is how do you subjectively grade teachers? student evaluations? student tests? parent evaluations? administration evaluations? how do you account for socioeconomic conditions in a classroom or under performing or over performing kids? this idea only works in principle i believe but is something that may happen sooner than later

Khan Academy

http://www.khanacademy.org/#Biology

 I feel like we're probably all talking about this amazing resource thats out there on the internet.  My second teaching area being science I'm obviously focusing on the biology perspective of the website as well as the other science portions because there is only upper level Biology in high school.  I thought watching his speech at the TED conference was very interesting about the flipped classroom with the students watching lectures at home and then working on homework during class. I could totally see this working for math physics and chemistry. Biology though i see as being less homework based. But it could totally be watch the lecture at home and then do some sort of related activity in the classroom or watch the lecture to get a head start on the material coming up or review the material that was just completed. Obviously this is a great resource and you would have to be really familiar with the website to know what topics it has up there that are in your curriculum or missing from it in order to direct students to it or teach your own lectures.  I will definitely be keeping this website book marked not only for my own teaching but for the practicums as well because it is such a good resource for paced learning so that students can slow down and review without having to feel embarrassed putting their hand up in class. I think the tracking software would be awesome as well seeing exactly who is struggling with what so you can maximize your one on one time with each student.  This program would allow students to race ahead and others to go at their own pace. I think it could cause a problem when testing though because you have to test knowledge somehow and if you are going to have the test for everyone on the same day one person might be way ahead and one person might be not quite up to where the test is yet. Again its an awesome resource i will really think about how to implement into my future teaching.

Sex Education, Public and Private Schools, Provincial exams

I thought all of these hot topics were fairly relevant to my future teaching in schools. First and foremost private schools provide another avenue to find a job in this current saturated job market.  Along the lines of what we actually talked about in class today I think that private schools are a solid option for parents who feel they want to give their kids a slightly higher priced education with smaller class sizes and a school with more prestige that may help them get to that university they want in the future, or have a certain religious belief they want instilled at their child in school as well as at home.  I know personally my parents thought about and gave me the option of going to a private school, which i declined. I knew a few kids who went to private schools and it just wasn't for me i was in schools that i excelled in and had friends in so the move didn't make any sense.  I think its an excellent option for certain students who have the resources to go that route. I also think that the fact that most schools are very expensive puts a hardship on the parents especially of those students who go onto post secondary and have to pay for that as well as it is an extra burden for some.  The provincial exam issue is another contentious one the lack of which i think removes some accountability from teachers as to the marks they give their students. With a standardized provincial exam the teacher who gives the students too high or too low a grade can be subjected to some sort of review by their school or district although this may not happen in actual practice.  It also gives some sort of mark for universities to look at when giving entrance to applicants.  Putting all this pressure on one test may be unfair for students but for those moving to post secondary that is the way it is.  The current optional system only serves those who wish to gain entrance and government scholarships to universities and has removed a certain amount of accountability from teachers. The last topic sex ed is probably the most contentious of all, when to teach and what to teach if at all.  I think it is irresponsible to teach abstinence in the current society we live in and a more forward approach beginning at a young age needs to be implimented. Starting first with appropriate personal relationships between peers and moving into areas of puberty, physical development, sexual development, couple type relationships, lesbian gay and transgender relationships and finally sex, contraceptive and STI education.  All this needs to be universal so all students are getting the same important education. I personally would feel better able to handle areas of relationships and physical development and puberty and would probably bring in someone from outside to to the sex, contraception and STI talks so as to keep the student teacher relationship more open and avoid any awkwardness. Also i feel that those in the professional (public health nurse, counselor) have more experience in those areas and  would be better suited to teaching that material.

Mexican QDPE

I put this as a comment underneath the pictures but I thought for ease of read it would be easier to put it up here as well.
These are two pictures that I recently took on vacation in Puerto Vallarta Mexico. When we walked by the school there was loud music playing but we couldnt see what was going on so we searched for a spot to see what was up. There was about 200 kids in the courtyard of this school with all their teachers dancing and doing aerobics. It was about 11 in the morning. I got me thinking about how i would incorporate daily physical education into a science class. I thought about how certain subjects such as the human body could be used to devise experiments for the kids to try like increasing heart rate and respiration and then measuring to show the effects of exercise. Along with nature walks when talking about different plant and local animal species