Service-Learning Project

For my major, I am taking a teaching class and this class requires me to do a Service-Learning project.  In this project I have to go to a local school in Lansing and tutor middle to high school students.  The first time I am going to one of these schools will be tomorrow, but I got a chance to go to the orientation.  At this orientation they just gave us a lot of information on what to expect and what they are all about.  It was really cool to listen to what they do for all these kids.  The leaders of this program provide food for all of the students and help them with their homework, along with ways to study and be a better student.  I think is it so cool all the stuff they do for these kids and I can't wait to be apart of it.  This will really help figure out if teaching is for me and the things I need to improve on to be the future teacher I want to be.

Interview from a Professional

Being able to ask people in the profession that you are looking to take up is a great experience.  Taking someone else's point of view and asking them questions can really help students understand what they are getting themselves into and learn more about it first hand from someone who is doing that specific job everyday.  Since I have decided to be a high school teacher one day, I decided to interview one of my old high school teachers.
Mr. Brandt is the head of the english department at Lutheran High North in Macomb, Michigan. To get  a different perspective on teaching I asked my old high school teacher why he chose this profession, he then explained that he wanted to "contribute something worthy to society."  Mr. Brandt knew teaching students would always keep him satisfied because he got to "develop self confidence and a genuine desire for learning."  I also decided to ask him about some advantages and disadvantages to teaching.  My old teacher then explained that he loves the chances he gets to laugh at himself but that sometimes plans don't turn out how you want.
I then asked a couple questions about what kinds of writings he has to do as a teacher.  He explained that he has to write a lot of comments on his students work.  He also will perform explain rough drafts in front of his class.  I personally experiences some of these and it really helped to see someone else writing and struggle through a rough draft.  Mr. Brandt also explains that he uses word clusters of ways to get the ideas flowing and start papers off.
It was good to get some information from a professional in a field that I want to go into.  It really gives me a different perspective and learn more about the job in a different way.

Obviously

The article, "Simple but Effective Ways to be a Great Teacher," has a couple obvious tips on how to be a great teacher, like making sure you show up for your classes and make sure you know what you are teaching(Simple para. 1-5).  Even though these seem like common sense, they are also very important, because who wants to learn from a sub that has no idea what the class did previously.  Also who can learn from a teacher who doesn't even know what they are talking about. A teacher needs to be informed on what they are teaching, and if they happen to not know an answer to a question, they should do whatever they can to get it eventually, even if it is at a later time.
Some tips that don't seem as obvious is to get to "know [your] students on a personal basis" (Simple para. 3).  This is very important so that a teacher can easily connect with his or her students.  If a teacher has no connections with his students, it makes it very difficult to get on their level and understand what they are trying to say sometimes.  Many teachers do put these tips into action and thats what makes them a hard teacher to learn from.  Great teachers know their students and are always there to help them.  They understand everything they are teaching and keep their students informed.

Source:
http://www.squidoo.com/classroomteachers

Always Remember the Students

One of the most important concepts to remember as a teacher is that you are not focussing on yourself but on your students. Always trying to think of what you can do better as a teacher rather than thinking what the students should be doing.  Although sometimes the students can be wrong and not doing what they should, sometimes it is the teacher that needs to change their ways.
In the article, "Teaching is Not About Us," talks about this exactly.  The author, Professor Joe Martin, talks about how you need to believe what you teach and always practice what you preach (para. 8).  If a teacher does not even know what they are talking about or when being in the same situation, doesn't do what he is teaching, can not be trusted.  Who trusts people who don't even take their own advice?
Professor Joe Martin gives a couple questions that teachers should ask themselves if they feel that they are losing touch with their students that really help to figure out the problem.  One of the questions is "Am I part of the problem or solution?" (Martin para. 11).  This is a great question to start with because a teacher needs to know where to begin.  Should he start with himself or his students, because solving a problem with the students is very different from solving a problem with yourself.
All teachers need to remember how stay connected to their students and always remember why they are teaching.  Not for themselves but for the students.  They need to want the students to learn for the students to want to learn.

Source:
Martin, Professor Joe. "Teaching is Not About Us." New Teaching Begins Here. LDH Technology. Web. 18 Sep. 2012.

Short and to the Point

The blog article, "Advice to New Teachers and New Students: Learning is a Quest" has a very simple delivery and style.  The author, Maryellen Weimer, PhD, gets directly to the point in her blog.  She talks about some tips for new teachers such as "Consider questions more important than answers" (par. 5).  By this she means that questions are how students understanding, so when they do ask questions it means they are learning or at least attempting to learn.  Weimer's style is so simple and to the point that it is perfect for the way it is delivered, in a blog.

The scholarly article, "Universal Screening in Mathematics for the Primary Grades: Beginning of a Research Base," the style is very formal.  The author's give a lot of facts that most people would not find interesting.  They go into details that almost seem unnecessary and make the reader want to stop reading if they don't have any reason to know any of the facts.  The delivery of this article is also very complicated only found on an online library which means whoever was reading this article wanted to find it for a specific reason.

The style and delivery of theses two articles make it very clear who their audience and purpose are. For the first article by Maryellen Weimer, PhD, is for any teacher interested.  She just states a couple interesting and helpful tips for any teacher to use.  The purpose of her article is specifically for the average teacher or anyone interested in teaching or even learning.  For the scholarly article the audience would have to be some researchers, either for a simple paper or maybe a parent looking for some answers about their child.  The purpose of the article would be to give out facts and details about why some children struggle with math and will always struggle.  The scholarly article is for a more specific group while the blog could be for anybody.

Sources:

Clarke, Ben, Gersten, Russell, Haymond, Kelly, Jordan, Nancy C., Newman-Gonchar, Rebecca and Wilkins, Chuck. "Universal Screening in Mathematics for the Primary Grades: Beginning of a Research Base." Exceptional Children; Summer2012, Vol 78 Issue 4. (2012): 423-445. Web. 13 Sep. 2012.

Weimer, Maryellen, PhD. "Advice to New Teachers and New Students: Learning is a Quest." Faculty Focus. Magna Publications. 12 Sep. 2012. Web. 13 Sep. 2012.

Always Up-to-Date

All teachers can use some improvement on their teaching skills no matter how long they have been teaching.  In the article, "Tactical and Structural Recommendation," it gives many tips and advice to better a teachers skill.
Some points that really stuck out to me is one of the tips that says "speak less, so that they think more." This really stuck out to me because I know that I can only sit through so much of a teacher only talking.    When a teacher continues to talk and ramble is when a students starts to get distracted or either start doing other things such as doodling or talking. When or even if I ever become a teacher, I really hope to make my students think, because I know when I figure something out before my teacher actually taught me it, I had more understanding of it and I would think thats how other people work as well.
Another pointer that stuck out to me was "think aloud in front of your students."  I would think that most students would better understand what a teacher is trying to teach if they know exactly what the teacher is thinking.  As a teacher is trying to explain something a student should know everything that is involved, so if a teacher is keeping ideas to himself or herself, it could confuse some students.  They would have no idea where an idea or thought came from.
This article had many good tips that could help any teacher in any subject and a lot of the tips I read I would definitely consider using as a teacher in the future. Any teacher could use some improvement, so looking up articles like this on a regular basis could help them keep updated with their teaching techniques and be the best teacher for his or her students.

Source: http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/tactical-and-structural-recommendations/467

Answering Some Questions

With teaching, comes a lot of different techniques.  Every teacher seems to teach in a slightly different way.  Some teachers seem to befriend their students while others seem to make sure every student in their class fears them to a certain extent.  Both techniques definitely work from my own personal experiences, but I would eventually like to figure out which one is actually best.
Using Reflections on Learning, which talks about the many ways in which children learn I learned some interesting facts.  Two learning approaches it talks about is behaviorism and cognitive.  The behavioral approach the idea that behavior should be explained observable experiences.  The cognitive approach depends more on thought.  These are two ways that might help someone know how to approach a student teaching them something new.
Other facts about being a teacher, such as salary is that most feel as if they are under paid, but obviously they feel as if it is worth and love their job, which is all the matters to me.  As long as I am enjoying myself in whatever I do, I am beyond happy.