Chapter 5

Importance of teaching the arts

Teaching the arts has shown to be very important in a child’s schooling over years of research. There have been many surprising results in a child's behavior intellectually and socially. Teaching the arts is a part of the No Child Left behind Act, which is being blamed for budget cuts by many different schools. Teachers are expected to challenge all of the students in the classroom, not just the ones who are very talented. The students who do not have much talent need to be recognized as well because art can be expressed any way that an individual wants; students should not be discouraged for not painting a Van Gogh perfectly. Students who participate in art classes of any kind show big improvements on behavior in school. Students pay more attention in class, increasing their performance in learning and they also learn how to work as a team, and also raise levels of self-confidence. Students learn how to accept leadership roles, how to cooperate more with other students. When a student completes a project they have a better sense of self-confidence because they were able to complete something, and it makes them challenge their own abilities as to what else they can accomplish. The research has shown that participating in arts helps students out in many different areas, and I agree completely. Arts are a great way to get more involved with things, children who do not have many friends because they are viewed differently will be viewed as a creative person when they put their pen to the paper and create.

http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/tools/initiative/updates/040826.html

http://magazine.jhu.edu/2009/08/bringing-science-to-the-teaching-of-arts-in-schools

http://www.makeaconnectionthruart.org/po_lifeskills.htm

Chapter 2

Importance and ways of teaching culture

Culture is basically the way someone is raised, beliefs, religion, and family traditions. Culture could be considered beliefs or values that are really important in an individual’s life. Teaching to a culturally diverse classroom could be difficult if not well prepared. In fact, most teachers avoid teaching cultural classes because there are so many different opinions that scare them away. Teachers that avoid teaching cultural classrooms avoid teaching them because they feel it will take more time, or more materials that they do not have. Also some teachers feel that they are not capable of teaching to a culturally diverse group. And in some situations, teachers just don’t feel it’s worth teaching. You need to be aware that everyone has different beliefs, so if you are not careful you could go into certain areas that might offend and individual or group. Be careful when referring to certain groups such as African Americans, or Hispanics. Try to be politically correct, try not to refer to anyone as Blacks or Mexicans, not everyone is in the same group. Some cultures believe that their ways of doing things are better than other cultures. Some of the individuals in the class may think that because they do something a different way makes them inferior to others. Show that it is interesting how they do things, let them do it the way the individual wants to avoid making them feel like they were doing it wrong. Teaching a cultural classroom could be an exciting experience to learn new things about different groups and cultures. Cultural classrooms can show you different ways of doing something that might be easier and more effective than how you usually did things.

http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/culture/cuindex.htm

http://www.heartwoodethics.org/2-teaching/teach-culture.asp

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kodotchigova-RolePlay.html

Chapter 4

Ways to help students considering suicide.

Many students attempt or actually follow through and commit suicide. It is very important to be aware of the signs of someone who wants to commit suicide. If you see the signs early enough it is possible that you can prevent someone from committing suicide. There are some signs that can be obvious that the person is thinking about committing suicide. There are also very small hints that can be easy to miss. Things you can look for would be someone talking about how they wished they were dead or that everyone would be better off without them or students who are abusing substances such as drugs or alcohol. One of the best things you can do is approach the person and without being too aggressive and ask them if they are thinking about committing suicide. Ask questions like why, when, and how. Show that you love and care for the person. Do not be judgmental when talking to the person, be supportive, avoid saying things such as "things could be worse" or "it will all work out." If they open up to you that could be a sign that they want to live but just need help realizing the reasons for living. Do not promise that you will not tell anyone else about this because you cannot handle this situation alone, you need professional help. There are hotlines that can be called, school psychiatrists, counseling, and many other people or groups that could help. People who talk about suicide or give obvious clues that they are thinking about it, are usually thirty times more likely to follow through with suicide. I think suicide is a very serious thing that should never be taken lightly. If you see the signs do not avoid it because it’s not something you want to deal with, step up and help, or find someone who can. I do not think anyone has a strong enough reason to end their life; they just need someone to show that there are thousands of reasons that they should be alive.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/228421/how_to_help_someone_who_is_considering.html?cat=5

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/suicide/MH00058

http://www.ptsdsupport.net/ptsd_and_suicide.html

Chapter 3

Tolerating sextual oriantaion in schools

Sexual orientation tolerance in schools is very important. There are approximately two point nine million homosexual adolescents in American. Due to harassment from peers, about one third of them will attempt suicide before graduating and another third will just drop out all together. There was a study done on schools around the country to see how tolerable their schools and school policies were for different sexual orientations and where given grades on how tolerable they were. The grades came from six different categories: the existence of statewide safe schools laws, statewide non-discrimination laws, support for education on sexual health and sexuality, local safe schools policies, general education issues (e.g. student/teacher ratios, graduation rates) and existence of laws that stigmatize LGBTQ(Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, & Questioning) people. Out of all the states fourty- two of them received an “F” and only two received an “A”. New Jersery was the highest with a ninty- five percent and Mississippi was the lowest with a negative three percent, the only state scoring lover then zero. California was ranked number five. I think sexual orinetaion tolerance is crutial for schools to encourage. I’ve had many gay friends and I belive that they should be treated like any other student by teachers, and treated like any other friend by peers. I have witness much harrasment to some of my friend for being homosexual and I think that it is not right to treat someone differently just because they have interests in the same sex as they are. Sexual orientation tolerance should be taught stating in elementry school. No student should ever be discriminated for being different, whether it’s their gender, race, or sexual orientation.

http://www.tolerance.org/activity/anti-gay-discrimination-schools

http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/library/record/1687.html

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/356923/teaching_tolerance_nontraditional_sex.html

Chapter 1 and 14 Reading Reflections

Chapter 1
Rewards of teaching

There many rewards to becoming a teacher. The book tells about two different types of rewards; extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic rewards are public or external rewards and intrinsic rewards are internal or self satisfying rewards. The extrinsic rewards stated in the book are salary, status, power, and work schedule. The intrinsic rewards are students, performance of significant social service, stimulation and support from fellow teachers, and the work of teaching. One article I found on-line is about teachers who enjoy their jobs. The first teacher, Devon Keefe, is my favorite story in this article. It says that she has taken many classes to qualify for teaching, every day she has to wake up early and be prepared for her large class before the school day starts, but these things are all worth it when she sees how interested the students are with reading and learning. I find this so intriguing. It makes me wonder how it will be when I eventually become a teacher. I am sure that I will feel the same as Keefe. I can not wait to be able see my students enjoy learning what I am teaching them. It will make me feel like I succeeded. The intrinsic rewards are far more appealing then the extrinsic ones. And salary is not much of a reward of teaching. Teachers are paid far less then they should be. Teaching is one of the most important professions if not the most important and they are paid horrible. I find this depressing. It is a good thing that is not the reason I want to teach.

Rewards of teaching inspire students- http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/00/1113/3a.shtml

Chapter 14
Teachers getting along with parents

If you are a teacher, it important to get along with your students parents. In the book it states that the major problems between parents and teachers are: varied perceptions, judgments on students, differences of social class and experiences, overburdened parents, changing students, and privilege and responsibility. I looked up different ways to prevent these problems the website KidSource, presented an article called Preventing and Resolving Parent-Teacher Differences by Lilian G. Katz and Others. The ways that this article says to prevent differences is to let parents know how and when they can contact you with any concerns or problems: let then know the times they can meet you and know the phone number they can reach you at, keep an open mind: if they have a different point of view then you do, listen and do not argue, try to see it from their prospective, help parents with concerns with parent-teacher conferences: if you are approached by a parent about a problem, set up a meeting to discuss the problem, and involve parents in classroom activities: if you are planning a classroom activity, let the parents know how they can help and get involved. This article also states some ways to solve parent-teacher disagreements. The ways to approach solving problems is know the school policy for addressing the disagreements and know how, when, and where to address the problems. There are many ways to avoid conflicts with parents, but if a conflict surfaces, know how to go about solving the disagreement. Parent-Teacher involvement and agreement is very important in the school atmosphere.

Preventing and Resolving Parent-Teacher Differences- http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content3/parent.teacher.3.html