Fires in the Bathroom Chapter 10

The final chapter of Fires in the Bathroom is about going beyond the classroom. This means making real world connections to the material in class. This can be through examples that you discuss in class with them but the best method they suggest is to actually present them with those examples and bring them out into the world by taking the class outside. It does not have to be a huge project either, simply doing regular classroom work outside of the normal classroom setting can be helpful they said. The students said that designing projects outside of class using experts would be helpful because that would provide them with experience that they can translate into the real world and relate to. Finally the topic of arranging internships for students was discussed in the chapter and I had never even thought of this before. I always thought it was something college students did, not high school kids. But I can really see the potential for something like that to benefit them in the long run and really provide them with solid life experience they can use once they graduate.

Fires in the Bathroom Chapter 9

This chapter of Fires in the Bathroom talks about pretty much every teacher's worst fear; a loss of control in the classroom. I personally don't really feel like I will ever lose control of the class but some of the things they brought up do seem really important points to consider. They talk about how some teachers were afraid of their students, personally I just don't see how this is possible because they are supposed to be there to help them, they can't do that if they're afraid of them all the time. They talked about things like not being afraid to apologize because we are only human after all, it's important to establish this fact early on so you're not put on the stop when you do make a mistake. As teachers we can't take one day day too hard, we're all going to have them once in awhile so we might as well get used to it, even our best laid plans can go to waste. It's funny how they mentioned not to try being a superhero, they say that when this happens a teacher focus' all their effort on one student and the rest of the class loses out; I can see how that is a valid argument but I also think a teacher will recognize that the rest of the class also needs attention and will keep them involved.

Fires in the Bathroom Chapter 8

This Chapter in Fires was really helpful I think because it went over one of the hardest aspects of being a teacher and that's making sure everyone in your class is understanding the material, specifically those students who don't have English as their first language. The first tip they gave was to get to know them and they really emphasized this as well, they could have a lot to add to the class if given a chance. Letting them help each other and learn with each other was stated as being very helpful, designating interpreters in the class is useful as well. The 1-2-4-share process described on page 160 was new to me but I thought it was a great tool to use for sharing material with the class and getting students to work in groups and constructively revise their ideas. Finally simply having patience was something they said would help a lot. Don't concentrate on the spelling and grammatical mistakes they make, check to make sure they understand the concept then refine their writing skills.

Fires in the Bathroom Chapter 7

I liked chapter 7 in Fires in the Bathroom a lot because when I teach I hope to teach some AP course and obviously that material will be hard and the expectations for the students will be greater. Some of the advice the students gave were to do things like connect the material to their lives or the real world somehow. Find out what they already know about the material so you can differentiate or when you form groups you can pair students effectively. Asking them challenging questions was mentioned quite a few times, rather then simply spewing back facts, get the to think critically about the material. They emphasized taking students interpretations seriously, these are their opinions, but also present them with different ones as well so they get the entire picture. Finally giving them a lot of opportunities to revise was noted as a helpful tip as well.

Fires in the Bathroom Chapter 6

Chapter 6 of Fires in the Bathroom talks about how to motivate students to learn the material and combat boredom in the classroom. A few tips the students gave to keep their attention were to make the material connect to the real world or some aspect of their own lives so they can see the importance of it. They stated that if the material being presented is interesting then we will have their attention, so avoid the busy work and get them engaged in the material. Also being a passionate teacher was a big factor for them, they said they can tell when a teacher really cares about the material they're trying to teach their students and when it's fake. They stated that they needed to be pushed as well, sometimes that's all it takes. They even suggested bringing in an expert on whatever it is they are learning about so they relate it to a real person or some aspect of real life. Finally making sure the homework has some application to what they are learning will give them some incentive to do it, don't just make them do busy work.

Fires in the Bathroom Chapter 5

Chapter 5 was kind of confusing to me because I think the students contradicted themselves at some points. They stated we needed to treat people as individuals but also treat all students consistently. I did like the fact that they acknowledged the different types of students in the classroom; for example the dreamer, the eye-roller, the hard-worker, etc...It helped me think about how I will address each of those types of students in the class. Also the topic of group work came up and the different times it's appropriate to let students choose groups and when it is not. For example if they have to do work outside of class let them choose groups because it's easier for them to arrange times to meet with their friends and they will be more comfortable doing so. They cautioned against letting one group of students lead the conversation as well, make sure all students get a say. Asking open ended questions helped with this so students are able to discuss and share opinions, not just answer facts.

Fires in the Bathroom Chapter 4

This chapter is important because it talks about the learning environment and how to create a culture for success. The first and foremost point was to provide meaningful material, students know the difference between busy work and actual learning. They discouraged teachers fro comparing students to each other and even comparing one class to another, it almost makes learning into a competition and could make some students feel inadequate. A point I have picked up on throughout some of the chapters so far that has been recurring is to never give up on students, even if they are struggling we as teachers need to push them to achieve as much as possible because we could be their only motivator. Also a suggestion was to let students revise their work and revise it often, that is the whole reason they are learning, to make sense of things and constantly improve their work.

Fires in the Bathroom Chapter 3

This chapter in Fires discussed classroom behavior and what students and teacher should expect. A key aspect it discussed was getting out on the right foot with students. Teachers need to maintain that delicate balance between being their friend and teacher. As a teacher you want them to express their autonomy by allowing them to help dictate the classroom rules but you want to exert your authority over the class as well. Page 42 had a great chart showing some possible reasons for students misbehaving such as needing attention or problems at home or general lack of interest. The last two things which I think were really important in this chapter were when students talked about treating them as individuals but also treating them with consistency and I think that will be extremely hard to do. Also making the punishment fit the crime is key to developing good discipline skills.

Resources

Resources



Totalitarianism

1)FreeEssays.com. 2003. http://www.freeessays.cc/db/35/peh210.shtml

2)"totalitarianism." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 01 Oct. 2008 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/600435/totalitarianism.

3)The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 2008. http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Totalitarian+government

4)1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation.



Monarchy

5)Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire 2008. http://www.monarchy.net/

6)"monarchy." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 01 Oct. 2008 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/388855/monarchy.

7)S.E. Smith. Conjecture Corporation 2008. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-monarchy.htm

8)Directgov.com 1 Oct. 2008



Oligarchy

9)S.E. Smith. Conjecture Corporation 2008.


10)Acharya S. 2001. http://www.oligarchy.net/

11)"oligarchy." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 01 Oct. 2008 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/427558/oligarchy.

12)"Oligarchy." New World Encyclopedia. 2 Apr 2008, 13:29 UTC. 1 Oct 2008, 23:03 . .

Communism

13)1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761572241/communism.html

14)AllAboutPhilosophy.org 2002 - 2008 http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/communism.htm

15)"communism." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 01 Oct. 2008 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/129104/communism.

16)Sweezy, Paul. October 1847. Eduard Bernstein in the German Social Democratic Party’s Vorwärts

My Contributions to the WebQuest wikis

1) Persuasion

2) Retelling

3) Publishers

How to help someone use a computer

"The best way to learn is through apprenticeship -- that is, by doing some real task together with someone who has a different set of skills." I could relate to this because I learn well when I am working with a group of people and we can all pool our knowledge together to figure out the task. When working individually each person has certain strengths and weaknesses. When working together groups can utilize the diverse strengths of people to overcome their weaknesses.

"Don't take the keyboard. Let them do all the typing, even if it's slower that way, and even if you have to point them to every key they need to type. That's the only way they're going to learn from the interaction." I can relate to this rule because I physically need to do the task I am trying to accomplish. When someone takes control of this from me I tend to get a little annoyed and might not pay attention. If they tell me what to do and I accomplish the task I retain that knowledge better.

I think I could use both of these in our presentation because PDA's are a fairly new piece of technology in schools and the best way kids could learn from them is by working together and with their teacher to discover new ideas and ways to use them plus they need to physically do the tasks themselves instead of having the teacher show them everything so they become familiar with the technology.


Agre, Phil. How to help someone use a computer.1996.

Copyright and Fair Use LR

Q11) When I first read this I thought I knew the answer right away, it had to be illegal. I just thought about a class taking a video someone else had created and completely altering it so that they were in it, and with the intent of making fun of the people. I didn't think that there was any way it would be allowed. I would have liked them to provide a better explanation as to why it was legal rather then just saying video can be pulled into multimedia projects. What if the students wanted to share what they created, would it be legal for them to post it on the Internet? I'm just not sure how you can get away with modifying someones original creation and making it into something of your own, I suppose the only reason would be because they weren't publishing it or distributing it anywhere.

Copyright and fair use SR

Q1) This one did not surprise me at all because I actually have backups of many of the Cd's and DVDs I own. I was already aware it is OK to have backups in case something happens to the original.

Q2) I was surprised that this one is legal. I was also wondering how a school is supposed to keep track of how many people are using a program at once and enforce that rule, it seems a little tough.

Q6) Again this one was no surprise; almost everyone has used the Internet for research projects and pulled information out of it into their papers or whatever it is they're doing.

Q14) I couldn't believe this one was not covered under fair use! They just wanted to use it to entertain the children, but I suppose they are within their rights to restrict when you can show their movies publicly.

Q15) The fact that this one is illegal confuses me too. A teacher can go in and edit a video but they can't create a video compilation?!?!

Q17) I knew this one was legal to do. It seems kind of silly that anyone would think it wasn't, stuff like public landmarks and building should be able to be shared.

Q19) I was shocked this one was not permissable, I thought this one would be perfectly fine. The explanation does make sense though since yearbooks are not an instructional thing plus they would be using the whole song.

Q20) I think it was pretty obvious that this one wasn't going to be legal. The school was basically profitting off of the work of other people and thats not right.

Web 2.0 Educator

I decided to read Wes Fryer's blog about his experience with various technologies. He seems like a Jack of all Trades in the technology world. Some of his blogs were about new technology, some were about incorporating technology in schools and school districts, still others were simple tips for people when using their computers. Of the posts which I read it seemed like he had a lot of knowledge about computer security, or maybe that was just what he happened to be focusing on at the time. One of his blogs even described how his Wordpress had been hacked so he had to go and do a lot of work to find out where the changes had been inserted, then upgrade to a newer version of Wordpress, then tighten his security even more so no one could access it.

To me it just seemed like he went above and beyond what the normal person would have done in that situation. He also described a new program called Deepfreeze and explained the pros and cons of it. How it can revert computers harddrives to almost pristine condition but how this could also be used negatively if someone wanted to hide their tracks. I think he has a lot of really good ideas about technology in the classroom and he clearly has sufficient knowledge about a lot of areas in technology. He even posted a comment explaining the power dynamics in a school when it comes to technology. He described the teachers as the obtainers, the IT staff as the maintainers, and the principles and superintendents and the sustainers.

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, Fairness

The first part that caught my eye in this chapter was on page 19 where the students made a list of things entitled "If you're looking for respect..." and it outlined the things a teacher should do if she or he intends to have the respect of the students. They said such things as, "show up on time" and "don't assume you know everything about someone".

The reason this part of the book jumped out at me was because I think when we go into a school to teach and we are the adults we automatically believe we should be respected. This book just goes to show us that the students have certain expectations from us and we need to meet them in order for them to respect them and thus make our job a whole lot easier.

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

The first thing that caught my attention about this chapter was the sample questionnaire the author talks about and provides an example of. I had never had to take one of those in high school before but it seemed like an excellent idea and a simple and fast way to learn some things about the students.

I think the reason it jumped out at me was because of what a simple idea it was and how easy it would be to implement it in the classroom, and yet throughout my entire high school career none of my teachers ever used one. This part of the chapter definitely opened my eyes and made me realize the delicate balance that needs to be maintained between being their teacher and being their friend.