Week 7 Reflection

The podcasts that I found to be interesting are Ted Talks and NPR education.

Ted talks isn't necessarily about education (although a lot of them are) but there are a lot of different podcasts that make you think about different things that are going on. For instance, one that I listened to was about a doctor who was a violinist and he talked about the difference between music and medicine and how music can be better than medicine.

On NPR education there are talks about great education with ideas on how to improve education. Seems like there are new talks once a week. I think that podcasting would be interesting to use while I'm just driving in the car. My family lives an hour away from where I am and sometimes I'm sick of listening to the radio. I could plug in my iphone and listen to a podcast about education while I'm driving. It seems like I never get away from it, but anything to help my students I'm definitely willing to give a try! There are a lot of podcasts on how to improve student achievement, working with "at risk" students, things other teachers have tried, lessons that have worked and not worked.

 While reading Chapter 14, this paragraph really made sense to me,

 "This has fostered movements such as HPI, which views performance outcomes as the end result of a number of interacting elements such as clear expectations, timely and specific feedback, access to required information, adequate resources, properly aligned policies, efficient procedures, appropriate incentives and consequences, targeted training, comprehensive selection systems, communication of values, knowledge sharing, and varied management support activities as well as many others (e.g., Binder, 2009; Marker, 2008). The demonstrated ineffectiveness of single-solution, miracle interventions to improve performance have bred mistrust for the next “flavor of the month” and a receptiveness to the systemic approach of HPI."

I think of all of the ideas they covered here is exactly what you need to do in order to be a great teacher. Students need clear expectations for everything they are doing. Whenever my students have a project, they need a rubric. Then they know exactly what I am looking for and exactly how to get 100% or whatever grade they are trying to earn on it. I also am doing interactive notebooks with my students. On Friday when they turn in the notebooks, I give them a grading sheet so that they know exactly what I am grading and exactly what I am looking for.

 If you give your students high expectations, they always try to meet and exceed them! If you don't tell your students what you are looking for, they will never know and be able to grow to their full potential. When I grade tests and quizzing I always give them partial credit. If they mess up something easy like a negative sign, I always circle it so they know exactly what went wrong. If they do not know how to start a problem or get stuck in the middle, I give them hints or little clues on what do to next. This way, they can always do a correct and reflect in order to earn a higher grade. I think that fixing your mistakes is a great way to learn. When you can find these mistakes, it sticks with you more often for what 'not to do' next time.

 I think that access to required information, adequate resources, and properly aligned policies go together. In order to students to be able to learn and retain as much as possible, you need to make sure they have the resources and information they need. I always tell my students different websites they can use in order to watch tutoring videos at home. I always make my students be organized so they can use their notes and homework as a resource. In their notebooks, I have them make a table of contents so they can go back to and easily find what they are looking for.

 In order for students to feel comfortable, you need to make sure that are have clear expectations, positive, and negative consequences. They need to know that you care about what they are doing and you are there to help them. I have a Google voice number that I give each of my students so that they can get a hold of me any time. That way if they are doing their homework and need to talk to me they can. Also, some of my students don't have a person in their life they can talk to about difficult situations. I feel like I can be more than just a teacher to them. Some of my students are extremely happy that I give them this opportunity.