Ch. 4: The Essence of Understanding

             This chapter was very interesting to me, and it discusses one of the reasons why I love science so much. I have found in my experiences that when you read something, your brain skips pieces of it and doesn’t always hang on to everything (or even most of the passage) that it read. The reason that I love science so much is that it almost always comes with a very heavy hands-on aspect to the class. It is never just read-and-lecture, there is always something to be tested, something to be examined and explored; something that the students can do to further engrain the concepts and ideas into their long-term memory. In particular, the labs that we did in high school were particularly interesting and I can still remember almost all of the concepts learned in those hands-on lab days. My teacher would give us the lab report the night before, and we would have to go home and read it. After reading over it, we would come back to class and the teacher would discuss the concepts with us and make sure that we understood what it was we were supposed to do. Once we started the lab, which was always fun and had to do with something pertaining to our daily lives, we would begin to see how the concepts applied to everything around us. Filling out the lab report at the end along with the expansion and critical thinking questions with our groups only helped to further our understanding of the ideas presented that day.

                The same applies to some of the labs that I am a TA for at Olivet. I TA for an entry-level Biology lab, and the particular lab that I work in has an excellent professor. She is very enthusiastic and will even interrupt the “pre-lab lecture” to elaborate and find ways to wow the students so that they can connect the information with their emotions. This helps the students to really think about their lives and how it all connects together, everything from the food we eat, to the trash we throw out, and to the children we will someday have. These connections help to establish discussion and really allows the students to truly engage in the subject, so that they will always remember the importance of Life Science.

Ch. 6: Of Times, Teens, and Books

                This chapter, as interesting as it was, had several parts that did not really seem to relate very much to my area of study. Since I am teaching in a science classroom, I’m not entirely sure how I would go about finding graphic novels that relate to science. I’m sure they are out there, but it may not be worth the trouble of finding them, especially since a science classroom focuses on hands-on work, leaving little room to be assigning books to read outside of the school-issued textbook. I do happen to think that audiobooks could be a very good option for those students who are auditory learners, especially since they don’t have a lot of time where they get to use their auditory learning in the classroom. When I give textbook reading assignments to the class, it would be useful to know that the auditory learners in my class can also complete the reading assignment in the way that they will learn it best.

                I do also realize that selection and censorship will have a big part in the books that are allowed in my classroom. If, by chance, I wind up teaching in a religious school, there may be issues either with highly conservative parents or even the school and curriculum itself in regards to controversial topics such as evolution and stem cell research. In this case, certain textbooks that talk about those particular topics may be censored and taken out of those schools and replaced by curriculum that teaches solely creationism. This I believe takes away a child’s ability to make their own decisions, and takes away the opportunity for a great writing assignment. My biology professor presented us with several different degrees of belief in the subject, ranging from creationism to evolutionism and everything in between. Then, after being fully informed, we were given the choice of what we believed in and we had to write a paper explaining why we believed that. I think this is a valuable experience not only for practice in decision making and beliefs, but also in practicing good literacy skills.

Ch. 3: Multiliterate Youth in the time of Scientific Reading Instruction

          This chapter got me thinking a lot. I had heard about using the internet to enhance

learning, however I have never heard of using video games… until now. With the type of schools I

would like to teach in, I feel like this is a very interesting option to help with literacy problems in low

-income schools where many of the students are illiterate. Having grown up as a “Digital Native,” I

am very much inclined to using technology in my classrooms. I also happen to really like playing

video games as a means of relaxing after a long day, especially since so much of my school work

involves reading that my eyes and brain become tired by the time I’m done with my homework.

Since video games are typically a past-time, it seems that they could be another way to “trick”

students into learning. If I have certain students that are not particularly keen on reading a book, I

may actually try this method of helping them become more literate.

                As I was reading, I also began to think about the issue that was first presented in the beginning of this chapter. Why is it that our definition of actual reading is so different now than the culture of our students? As was mentioned in the chapter, I certainly agree that it has to do with the time period of those in charge. The people that are currently in positions such as district supervisor and those even higher up on the “education totem pole” grew up in an era where the most important resource for learning was through reading books. As the author mentioned, the technology we have today was not around when those people were in school, and so they do not know how to learn using technology. This causes an educational generation gap that can only be fixed by us, the future teachers of America, who have grown up with enough technology to bridge that gap.  

Ch. 10: Teaching English Language Arts in a "Flat" World

Looking back on this chapter, I am rather jealous that many of these ideas were not on the forefront of education while I was in High School. My High School literature class consisted of group readings in which we would come together and have different rotating roles that helped the whole group to use diverse methods of understanding the book, however conceptual literacy and synthesis were still not exactly huge priorities in my education, and I have found that I sometimes struggle with connecting ideas to other areas of my life and other subjects in school and I am not very flexible and adaptable. I am a firm believer that learning should be interdisciplinary, and so a goal that I have as a future teacher is to collaborate with my fellow teachers and try to keep the students engaged all throughout the day by connecting what they are learning in one class to another class. I realize that this is harder for High School than it is for Middle School, but like the author said, sometimes we don’t make the goals that we strive for, but having those goals guide us to accomplish more. I wish to also make sure that my students are learning the skills that they need to be successful throughout life, such as sensitivity to diversity and issues in the world. As a future science teacher, I really like research projects. I hope to have a project for my students in which they must do research on a pressing biological issue in our environment and come up with some innovative ways to solve the problem. They will then put together a presentation using whatever methods they believe most suit their personal skills and interests and present the project to their fellow students in a formal manner. I believe that this sort of project will really help my students to develop skills that they will take with them wherever they go, even after the things they learn in my biology class no longer matter to them. The chairman of the Honors program came and spoke to my Honors class today about how participating in certain activities and experiences will really help us to be able to demonstrate the skills that we have developed throughout our education by listing these experiences in a resume. If I guide my students in a similar manner by guiding them to these experiences as well, my hope is that I can inspire them to go out and do those cultural, service, and leadership activities that will allow them to develop those required skils for the future, so that they can maximize their opportunities to lead an incredible life.

Ch. 1: The Measure of Our Success

This chapter kind of hit home for me, as I grew up in a small town with a good number of low-income families, including my own, and several of my fellow classmates were very similar to Derek, the first student that was featured in this chapter. Students like Derek and Collin are some of the biggest reasons why I want to be a teacher. I want to help these types of students find the potential in themselves and guide them to success. If NCLB will not help students in ways other than academics, then I want to take it upon myself to help them in any way possible. My biology teacher in High School always kept snacks and breakfast bars in her classrooms, and when she heard about students that didn’t get breakfast in the morning, she would give them something to eat so that her lecture wouldn’t be drowned out by the growling of a student’s stomach. I plan to do this in my own classrooms. I also want to be sure that I emphasize in my classroom the importance of improvement, unlike the teacher from Derek’s story, who was made by NCLB to focus on what score Derek received. I really like the quote by Albert Einstein which states that “Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” I believe that this quote perfectly describes both the situation with Derek and the situation with Collin, as they are both put into a remedial class because they didn’t get the minimum required score on a standardized test or because they were uninterested in a particular subject, despite the other factors which would show just how competent they actually are. It is like asking a fish to climb a tree and then calling it stupid when it can’t do it. Derek improved a LOT on the standardized test, but since he wasn’t able to get the right score, he was marked as needing a remedial course, which therefore solidified his self-opinion that he was unable to do it and that he wasn’t adequate enough. Collin was very skilled in expository writing when it was something that he felt was important, however when he was asked to write an essay about something he didn’t know and cared very little for, it was like asking that fish to climb a tree, rather than letting him swim. It is my goal as a teacher to make sure that I take care of the other needs of my students outside of just academics, and to also make sure that I get to know the true strengths and weaknesses of my students, and not just what their test scores tell me.

This... Is... KARISA!!!

I bet you would like to know who this is right? Well here goes nothing...

I am a sophomore Science Education major, with a concentration in Biology. I have always loved science, particularly life science because it has everyday applications to ourselves and our environment (and also because it involves animals!). I work as a lifeguard at the Student Life Center and I am also a TA for the intro to Chemistry, General Biology, and Microbiology classes at the University I am attending. I love to swim and play video games and spend time with my fiance, Alex, who also happens to be my best friend. We do as much as we can together now before he graduates and leaves for medical school, because he will probably have to leave me here on my own for our first year of marriage. We are both originally from Colorado Springs, Colorado, where my mom, dad, brother, and sister still live. My family and I like watching movies together, but because of our busy schedules we don't get to spend a lot of time together. When I am not too busy with work and school I like to volunteer at the local pregnancy center with a pro-life group at my school. Being pro-life is one of the few things other than Alex that I am entirely sure about in my life, and I am a very strong advocate for (peaceful) pro-life groups. My desire to be a biology teacher was inspired by my own biology teacher, who showed me just how fun biology is and also became a second mom to Alex during a hard time in his life. I want to be just like her, so that I can not only help my students to fall in love with science, but also so that I can help them during times of emotional distress and guide them in growing into capable young adults.