Becoming a "Wiz" at Brain Based Teaching

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME job guys! I really enjoyed the entire presentation and all the stations. I learned a lot from each exercise. With the memory station, I saw that repetition may not be the only way to memorize something. The facts on the cards were really helpful and resourceful! The activity for the assessment portion was so creative and really got the point across. The point being to let students know what they are going to be assessed on and to use portfolios once and a while rather than tests. Emotions are important to know when dealing with middle schoolers. I liked the idea about having students putting like sticky-notes or post-its with different colors to show that the teacher and other students will know who's having a good day or bad day. The atmosphere section of the presentation gave me some great idea about how I will set up my classroom. I really thought the idea of playing music will make students more comfortable in my classroom.

Again, fantastic job guys! The food, the games, the lessons were all excellent!

Chapter 8: Effective Assessment

I think it's really important for teachers to set clear goals for students when it comes to assessing students. Students need to know what is going to be on the test beforehand and set goals for themselves when figuring out what they want to get for a grade. Using different formats for the assessment should get students engaged and excited about showing the teacher all the knowledge they gained. Using forms of assessment such as debates, movie presentations, journals, etc. rather than an exam will have students wanted to be tested. The author also talks about how teachers should grade assessments and assignments. Using spot-checking style of reviewing homework can save a teacher a lot of time. This would be something I would use in my classroom when check math homework.

Chapter 7: Differentiated Instruction- Fitting the Lesson to the Learner

Differentiated instruction is so important in any level of education. I liked the section about taking risks. Teaching is about experience and taking risks with the lessons and seeing what works then making mental notes for the next class. Doing something outside the curriculum like assigning a writing assignment in math may be different for students but you won't know their reaction unless you try it. Being able to collaborate and make decisions with other teachers or students is a great skill to have when planning a differentiated lesson. Seeing if students respond positively or negatively to differentiated instructing is essential. It requires a lot of reflection on the students' behalf and the teacher's.

Chapter 6: Accountability for High Standards

I liked this chapter because it was about making students accountable for their actions. I think this is a great thing to introduce to students at the middle level because this is an important skill to have for the future. I like the idea of having students teach themselves, like using Jigsaw or scaffolding assignments. This makes them accountable for their own knowledge. I also liked the idea in the book about having students revise old assignments for "extra credit" rather than having students do another assignment. It's also important for teacher to tailor their lessons to their students learning styles. They must hold themselves accountable if there are not enough options in a lesson or if some of the students don't understand because of the lesson. This is really important for teachers to realize.

Chapter 4: Active Learning

The beginning of this chapter talks about having kids move around and using examples in life to engage their interest in the subject. The author described the classic example of using ratios to find the height of something really tall relative to the height of shadows. I would definitely use this in my classroom because it doesn't only get the students outside and moving, but it's a real world application. Another way to get students engaged is to relate the material to their own bodies. This would be great for most areas of science. The author then goes on to list many other ideas to engage students in the classroom such as carousel brainstorming and setting up Olympics courses. These are all great ideas and can be tailored to any content area.

Book Talk 1: Student Orientated Curriculum

This presentation went really well. I liked how it was separated into sections according to scheduling, assessment, etc. Each leader knew a lot about their content. I liked the idea of student-run classrooms and I can see how it will be beneficial to students and teachers in that class. Having portfolios at the end of the year to mark their progress is a great idea. I would use some of the student led activities in my classroom but I'm skeptic to giving them full responsibility of the class.

Chapter 13: Outdoor Adventure

In this section of the book, the author suggests taking students on an overnight camping trip. To me, this seems rather risky. I understand the idea of making students work as a community and accomplish real life situations. Ideally this would be quite an experience. I especially liked the section about how math relates to a camping trip. All of the author's suggestions could deeply relate to the naturalist intelligence which would make math creative. Actions such as determining average width, rate flow, and depth of a creek include concepts such as math, art, hiking, measuring, ratios, and geometry. Then maybe students can stop saying the infamous phrase "What will we need this for?" when talking about math.

Chapter 3: Brain Research Applied in Middle School

In this chapter the author tries to get in the head of middle schoolers. He discusses how emotions play a big role in students' behavior especially when it comes to lying and cheating on assignments. Adolescents like to test limits and cross lines. A set of ground rules need to be determined early on and when a student slips up, they need to take responsibility for their actions. One way to help adolescents to think critically is to discuss logical fallacies. Talking about gray-area issues in the world will help students gain individuality as they form an opinion. However, with opinions it's easy for students to create misconceptions. It's important for teachers to ask straightforward questions, revisit topics frequently, reward questioning, and many other things. Middle school is where students form identities and it's important for teachers to place students in the right direction.

Waiting For Superman

This documentary was a real eye-opener for a lot people: teachers, parents, students, administrators, etc. When the narrator first started talking about the "drop out" factories, I was not expecting there to be so many across the United States. However, it does make sense that these under-achieving schools are near cities where there are more people. It also surprised me that principals and other administrators are aware that most of the students who enter their school will drop out. It has got to be difficult knowing that. Another fact that surprised me was that spending money on a prisoner for four years in jail is more than putting a child through private schooling for 13 years! Hmm... what's wrong with this picture? I can safely say my jaw officially dropped after hearing that statistic. I liked the statistic that America is the most confident country when it comes to how well we did on tests, even though our scores are very low. This made me laugh, especially after the clip of the guy trying to jump a building on a bike.

The part of the documentary that really got to me was the ending- where all the children the documentary followed were trying to get into better schools by the lottery. This made me think about the schools I went to when I was their age. My parents took charge and enrolled me and my sister into a private, Catholic school. They could have just as easily enrolled us into a public school but they wanted us to get the best education we could. These parents want the same for their children but were not as lucky financially as my family was. I am so grateful for my educational experience from kindergarten to where I am now. Through hard work both on my part and my parent's part got me to where I am today. I just wish everyone was so lucky.