No Child Left Behind Role Play

I feel that engaging students in role play will be beneficial to their learning. After a while, even in my classes, I tend to wander off while teachers are just talking. But by having students engage the questions and ideas and fire the questions back and forth at each other really works.
I thought Dr. Langholz and Dr. Kinnick did a great job of setting the scence for the role play. If they just stood there the role play wouldn't have been as effective but since they both particpated and provided useful information. They did their jobs as role playing and it helped engage the students.
In my town, I feel the people who have a higher adavtange are the parents that contribute to the school. In one case, a student got special privledges because her parents had more power in the school system, it may not necessarily be the higher income families.

Passion!

Let's start with the negative, In high school, I had a teacher that spoke with a monotone and we did nothing fun to gage our learning..he sat and lectured and lectured. Some people might have learned from his teaching style, I did but it was definitely not the style I will use in my teaching.

But to brighten it up, I remember a teacher with great enthusiasm. The teacher I observed for Intro to Teaching throught NIACC. She is a great teacher and she did great songs and such to gage the students to participate in. She loved her job and her kids knew it too.

Authenticity

Teachers need to be authentic. I feel that if you are authenitic, you would be authentic in many situations. The students know when a teacher is just going throught the movements or putting on a act. When a teacher is excited about the subject they are teaching, the children will be more likely to be excited about the subject. The teacher has to have the same excitement for the boring repetitive math facts as for the cool science experiment. If not, the children will feel that if the teacher is not compassionate about the subject, why should they be excited about learning it. Each student needs to have that excitement to boost their learning and the teachers need to do everything to boost the children's excitement for learning.

Compassion!

What does compassion mean to you?
It seems compassion really is what people do, their action. You cannot show compassion by just saying "I am a compassionate person". If you were compassionate about something, you go out and do something, even if it is just to volunteer at the soup kitchen or at the local library or donating money or your own time to the schools PTO carnival.

A fellow blogger wrote about compassion and how the teacher incorperated into the class room. This blog was very interesting. It gives me ideas to think about to help students boost their confidence and know that others around them DO care about them. Here is the link to the blog---http://leslieinvancan.blogspot.com/2006/01/compassionate-teacher.html--

When my past teachers showed compassion towards me I felt accepted and that I could participate in class and not be shy.

My example was at in a camp setting, but I consider the counselors, teachers in a way, I will relate it to compassion. In camp, all of the campers had to sheets of paper to write down comments about fellow campers, I remember on day I got a sheet saying that "they loved to see my beautiful smile." I still have that paper today, hanging by my mirror showing me that I am accepted and people DO care about me. In just seeing that sheet of paper when I feel sad, it just boosts my confidence :)

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me...

I define respect as when a person values another persons opinion and thoughts and then treats that person with dignity by appreciating the person for their character, knowledge, intellect. It shows how valuable that person is to others. I feel respect has to be earned, it shouldn't be handed out.

I believe that respect in the classroom is a two way street. The students have to respect the teachers and believe that the teachers will teach the students to their best ability. In turn, the teachers have to respect the students and believe that each student can learn, it is just how the teachers present it. If the students respect me ( as a teacher) I will respect them.

If the respect is not present the students are then more likely to talk back and be disruptive, leading to a classroom that can be more out of control (Ford).

Respect is best established when both parties agree on what they feel respect is. Students and teachers should brainstorm and list ideas on what they think respect is. If it is discussed at the beginning, the teachers and students can refer back to it, if needed.












Ford, Donna. "Respect in the classroom starts with teachers." 2008