Today in class my Winter Group did a Round Robin reading of an excerpt from Elie Wiesel's book, Night. This book is about the life of Elie, a young boy from Romania who was sent to Auschwitz when he was 15 years old. The following is a hypothetical conversation that Elie and his father may have had on their way to Auschwitz:

Elie: Father, where do you think we are going?

Shlomo (Elie's father): I'm not sure son, but I think we are traveling east.

Elie: I'm scared and I want to know where mother and the girls are.

Shlomo: Don't be scared Elie, we are probably going to be moving to a new ghetto. Your mother and sisters are probably in the next car and we will see each other again when we get there.

Elie: If you say so.

Shlomo: Don't give up hope Elizer, everything will be alright. We'll all be having dinner together in a few hours I'm sure.

Elie: I'm getting worried about Madam Schachter, she keeps screaming about seeing a fire at night. What do you think she is seeing?

Shlomo: Oh, don't worry about her, she's just thirsty, she's delusional. She sees a fire because she wishes we had a fire in here at night because it gets cold.

Elie: I hope we get there soon.

Shlomo: We'll be there soon son, very soon.

Fires Chapter 10

The final chapter of Fires in the Bathroom, Chapter 10 was about reaching out to students outside of the classroom. Teachers can do this by connecting material to real world events, giving students opportunities for internships, and bringing learning outside the classroom.
I thought the idea about bringing learning outside of the classroom was awesome. It is easy to see how teachers could do this for math and science classes but there are also many ways for history teachers (something I hope to be someday!) to do the same. This might include bringing students to historic landmarks, taking them to medieval festivals, living history villages and so much more. I think activities like this cater to almost all of the eight intelligences and make learning even better and more exciting!

Fires Chapter 9

Chapter 9 focused on situations that can arise in a classroom and how teachers and students can use damage control to improve those situations.
This chapter gave me a lot of insight into some of the questions I have been having since starting Practicum. I have been wondering a lot lately how I'm going to be able to handle a class full of rowdy students. How do I keep them under control? What is the appropriate punishment? I really liked what the students had to say in this chapter because it eased my mind a little. One student talked about a first year student being tormented by that class the first semester then left alone the second semester because he was doing good. I really hope my students will cut me a break when they realize I'm there to help them and give them a good education.

Fires Chapter 8

Chapter 8 was totally not what I ever expected to read about in this book. It had to do with teaching students who's first language isn't English.
There are a lot of good ideas in this chapter on how to teach successfully to a classroom full of limited speakers. I never thought about this at all because it is nothing I have ever really been around. Coming from a very small town in Maine, everybody spoke English and no teacher ever had the challenge of teaching kids who couldn't speak English well. That has got to be so challenging and to be honest I do not know if I could do it. I would try my hardest but I'm not sure what the outcome would be. I hope that won't make me a bad teacher.

Fires Chapter 7

Chapter 7 dealt mostly with challenging students. It also focused on how to teach more difficult subjects, like math and science to students.
I could relate with a lot of students in this chapter because I also struggled with these subjects. One student talks about how her math teacher basically left her behind. I felt that way a lot because most of the other people in my math classes did well and never had to ask questions. I was the total opposite, I needed step by step instructions and help and if there was one term that I didn't understand then I became completely lost and behind as the other students were acting like it was a cake walk. I used to get so upset and frustrated that at times I didn't even try, and my teacher never really helped me move along and I ended up failing math. That event in my life motivates me to never let that happen to any of my students.

Fires Chapter 6

Chapter 6 is mainly about motivating students and keeping boredom at bay. It also talked about homework and ways to make it more enjoyable and also how to connect material to the real world.
One of the students mentioned how their teacher invited a Holocaust survivor into the classroom after they read Night. I thought that was really cool. I like that the students became interested in the subject after seeing that it really effected somebody.

Fires Chapter 5

Chapter 5 was really interesting. There was a lot of discussion about students being prepared for class and knowing the material they are responsible for.
In this chapter a student named Lauraliz wrote something that stopped me dead in my tracks and made me laugh out loud. She said that she had a strategy to fool her teacher into not calling on her. She would pretend to be taking notes or re-reading a page, basically making herself look busy. I used to do that all the time in high school, especially in my math class because I figured that if it looked like I was busy the teacher would be impressed and feel confident that I knew what I was doing so that he wouldn't have to call on me. Needless to say my trick usually worked. When I'm a teacher I will definitely look out for students like me!

Fires Chapter 4

Chapter 4 talks a lot about student success and how teachers can help them to do so. One particular section dealt with pressures on students, especially pressure from their parents to do well.
One student talks about her sister having good grades and how she feels as if she needs to match them. I can understand where she is coming from because my brother (who is in the same grade level as me) was always getting honor role in high school because he was really good at math and science and most of the other subjects, where I was very weak in math and science. My parents always made it a point to tell me that he did so well in school. Things changed when we started college because I was taking all history courses and he was taking science courses, and all of a sudden I was the one getting the better grades and he started to get flak from my parents.

Fires Chapter 3

Chapter 3 focused mainly on classroom behavior. The students gave suggestions on how to start classes off on a postive note, and they also gave insight into why some students act up more than others and the reasons behind such behavior.
One of the students wrote about why kids sometimes need to put their heads down in class. She explained that sometimes they are just having a bad day, are tired, feeling ill or just plain bored. Another student also added that it is important for the teacher to recognize what is wrong with the student on such days. I remember in high school, this one student always kept his head on his desk during class and the teacher never said a word. She would just sit there and look at him, roll her eyes and continue with class. At that point in time I thought it was right of her to just ignore him but now I see that she should have never ignored him.

Focus the Nation

I finally saw An Inconvienent Truth for the first time today. My guess was that the film would be a lot like a Michael Moore film but I was pleasently surprised by how simple it was, just Al Gore giving a PowerPoint presentation. I really learned a lot about Global Warming, including;

• what exactly Global Warming is
• where it will have the most impact
• what changes I can make in my daily life to help stop Global Warming

Since I have a history concentration, I found it a little difficult to think of ways of incorporating Global Warming awareness into my classroom. I could talk to my students about why Global Warming has become such a threat, how it all started (possibly talk about the rise of industries, automobiles, etc). I could also talk to them about the things they could do to help reverse the problem so that history (them) could change the future (their children and etc.)

Type I and Type II Technology MEL

Type 1 technology basically is using computers and other technology in the classroom that does not alter how a teacher actually teaches. It may be a device that aids but does not change the lesson at all. Three examples of this could be: a calculator, writing a paper on the computer (which is the same as writing a paper any other way, except on a computer a person is typing rather than actually writing), and possibly an overhead projector (because all it does is make showing information to students easier but does not change the information). Type 2 technology is using technology in the classroom to actually alter what is being taught, or creating new ways of teaching. Three examples are: WebQuests, computer games (ex. Oregon Trail), and the internet (for research, audio, clips and etc.)

My MEL Experiences

• Student/Teacher Relationship: I had a great relationship with my high school chemistry teacher Mr. Trotzky. While he was supposed to be teaching me chemistry (which he did), he ended up teaching me more about current affairs, history, Judaism, and sociology. I felt like I could ask him anything about anything. I still continue to be great friends with him.
• Helping Students Succeed: Just about every teacher I had in school had confidence in me and they told me, and other students that all the time. I never felt like the teachers were judging me and they always had high expectations for me and my peers.
• Hands On: My history teacher in high school was very hands on. She would give really great lectures and lessons followed by tons and tons of projects, in class activities, outside activities, creative projects and so much more. She gave me great ideas of things I would love to do with my future students because I learned so much from them.
• Autonomy: Most of my teachers encouraged me and my classmates to take control of the things that we were doing. We were given a lot of independence and we also were given choices on things such as either taking a test or doing a project. Sometimes we even got to pick what topics we wanted to learn about in a certain class. One teacher even made one student a day present "current events" to the class and at the end of the week we would have a test over those topics.
• Avoiding Rewards: A lot of the teachers in my school avoided giving rewards to students. This one teacher, however, there was one teacher that gave rewards to students for high preformance and they would do it in front of the class. This made the people getting the rewards uncomfortable and the kids not getting the rewards feel worthless and jealous.

Learning Styles Results

After taking the Learning Styles survey I was not very surprised by my results because I think that I am a mostly a social, visual and verbal learner. These results also matched up perfectly with the Multiple Intelligence test we took in Dr.Grace's class.

Chapter 1&2

Fires in the Bathroom Chapter 1&2 Quick Response


Chapter 1-

I was surprised by the section in Chapter 1 about teachers getting to know students. Especially the suggestion of “teacher tours”. These are trips that teachers take with students to show them around their neighborhood and expose them to their reality.
This jumped out at me because having come from a very small community, there was never an issue with the teacher getting to know the student because the teacher had known the student since they were born in most cases. This reminds me that not all schools are like the one that I attended and that as a future educator I may have to deal with the issue of not personally knowing my students before they even come into the classroom.


Chapter 2-

Chapter discussed student-teacher relations. For the most part students feel that the teacher should be more worried about the kids liking them then if they like the kids.
This gives me a lot to think about because I am the type of person that wants everybody to be happy and I prefer that people like me so I tend to be friendly to everybody. I know that eventually I will have to get over the fact that some students may not like me even if I treat them with respect, have a sense of humor and make myself available to them for support and help.