Sunday, September 20, 2009

Entry #4

"The best teacher is one who suggests, rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself." - Edward Bulwer-Lytton

This quote means that the best teacher is one who allows students to have a choice. They teach but do not give their own opinions about the material. The best teacher gives students the tools they need to teach themselves. I agree with this quote, it's important to let students teach themselves and have their own opinions about various subjects. Teachers that are too opinionated may sway students interests in various subjects. I can relate to this both by being a students and my teaching experience so far. I personally learn best when I have to look up information and teach myself.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Peer Teaching Reflection

Our focus of our teaching was on a slap shot for hockey. I think over all the lesson went well but there were parts that we could improve on. Our voices could have been a little louder, we need to project them so everyone in the gym can hear. Also our lesson ran well with our peers but the slap shot may not be age appropriate for middle school students because of the potential danger. So next time i would pick a different skill. Middle school students could end up injuring themselves or others having a long handed implement such as a hockey stick.
Color coding the sticks for teams also could have been done. We color coded the hot spots to break up the students into two teams but matching the hot spots with the sticks would have been even better. Another thing that we could have done to make the lesson run more smoothly would have been to count down the time it takes for the students to transition. Giving them a specific amount of time will make them hustle more, our students were taking their time when moving from the activity back to the meeting place. Demonstrating our first activity during our introduction at the meeting place would have given the students a better understanding rather than waiting until they moved to their hot spots. It was harder this way for the students to all see a proper demonstration. The last thing i wanted to comment on to improve was to reinforce the rules and call out students when they aren't following exactly what they were suppose to do. We initially told the students that when the whistle blew to put their sticks down by their feet. But when we blew the whistle only a few remembered to put the stick down and we did not reinforce the rule.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Kanye was way out of line interrupting Taylor Swifts acceptance speech. That was her moment to shine and he had to jump in and steal it and say that Beyonce had the best video. Beyonce obviously felt he crossed the line too by giving up her award speech to have Taylor come back out and redo her acceptance speech. Beyonce didn't have to give up her speech but felt it was her place because she remembered giving her first acceptance speech with destiny's child and she knew how exciting it was.
MTV does not provide us with a needed service. If anything MTV corrupts the minds of adolescents. MTV used to only have music videos and have shows centered around music which I wasn't against. The only thing I would suggest is for parents to stop having their young children watch music videos because it teaches them provocative dance moves and profanity. But today if you turn to the MTV channel you can't even find music half the time. They show reality shows such as 16 and pregnant, The Hills, The City, Is She Really Going Out With Him, and many more. So many people follow these shows and can't wait for the next week episode. It's sad that so many people fill their heads with the nonsense in these shows of other people's lives which aren't even true. If you gave a test to Americans about the government and then one about MTV shows and artists i guarantee they will be able to answer all the questions about MTV and only a few about the government.
As a teacher for middle school students, I believe that most of the students watch MTV and know the latest gossip of the celebrities. Middle school students are so easily swayed and always want to be like the cool kids. They look up to artists and watch all the television shows. Alot of kids look up to Kanye and may get the impression that jumping into someone else's spotlight is acceptable or even cool.

Friday, September 11, 2009



When I was in middle school I loved to play sports and music. I was competitive in field hockey, lacrosse, and Nordic skiing. Field hockey was my favorite sport at the time so I would go to different field hockey camps all summer. I was also quite musical, taking private piano and flute lessons every week. I played the flute in our middle school band and played the piano in our jazz band on top of the lessons. In middle school I always wanted to be like my big brother Nate, which is why I got into competitive Nordic skiing and hiking. The picture posted above is a picture of my brother and I on top of Buck mountain in Lake George. I didn't have any pictures from middle school with me but this is us in high school.
I had a great time in middle school. I tried to be involved in as much as possible, I would plan the dances and parties for the school with my friends. My two favorite classes were math and PE. I was in the accelerated math program all through middle school, I loved working with numbers. PE was also another favorite class because I got to play sports and games with all my friends instead of being at a desk. The girls PE teacher was the field hockey coach and always made PE class exciting.
I view middle school a little differently now. Back in middle school the 8th graders looked so old and we looked up to them. Now I go back and everyone is so young and insecure about themselves. Over my breaks I go home to New York and substitute teach around the local schools for PE. Last year I had the chance to teach middle school PE a few times. I found it interesting how different the kids are at the elementary, middle, and high school level. The middle school kids were always trying to act cool and do what there friends were doing. They only wanted to be partners with their friends. I had additional experience with middle school kids this past summer. I moved to Boston for the summer and was a camp counselor at the Roxbury YMCA, which is a very diverse area. I was assigned 10 kids that I spent 10 weeks with. One of the kids I had was a persons with disabilities and another had anger management problems. After the summer I learned a lot about middle school children and greatly improved my behavioral management skills. From this module I want to gain the materials and knowledge to effectively teach middle school PE.