Good Girls, Gone Bad

A few months ago, one of Hollywood's "It" girls Nicole Richie was arrested on charges of driving under the influence. It's just the latest in a string of scandals and potentially deadly behavior by celebrities whose every move is watched by kids.

So what kind of lessons are they learning? And what is this saying for our teen girls today in terms of positive role models?

Young celebrities influence the way teenagers, girls especially, dress, eat, and see the world, according to child experts. "Every parent worries that their kid is going to want to be like this idol that they have plastered all over their room," said "Good Morning America" parenting contributor Ann Pleshette Murphy. Police say Richie was arrested alone in her car driving the wrong way on a California highway at 4 a.m. to the alarm of onlookers. At 5 feet 1 inches and just 85 pounds, she failed a field sobriety test. Police say she admitted to smoking pot and taking the prescription painkiller Vicodin. With recent polls showing that so-called bad girls are the envy of school hallways, news of Richie's arrest spread fast.

"She got arrested this morning, I think," one girl told ABC News. "It was all over the Internet." Like most American teenagers, the girls who talked to ABC News already seemed to know every detail about the latest celebrity girl gone bad. They agreed that the celebrities were teenagers' role models today, but that what they were saying to teens wasn't good.

This all has some parents concerned. "It's so outrageous," Toni Ann Rinaldo, a mother, told ABC News. "You just hope as a parent they're going to take what you say and do the right thing."

Richie is following in the high-heeled footsteps of other fallen teen queens. Lindsay Lohan has been scolded by Hollywood co-stars for partying too hard and working too little. Paris Hilton was arrested on a DUI charge in September. And, of course, Britney Spears has been leaving two kids at home to celebrate her newfound freedom.

When will it end? Who is a proper role model for our teen girls? Is Hollywood even a consideration for a place to look for someone for our young girls to look up to?

Sub in a Tub

Substitute teaching can be a tough gig at the best of times. Even a dream class can become unsettled with a temporary teacher, so being prepared with a repertoire of interesting and fun activities will aid your chances of having an enjoyable and rewarding teaching day. Here's an idea for a substitute lesson for substitutes!

How Many Words?
Play a game called How Many Words with the class. Students of all ages love this task. Write a sentence on the board, ideally no more than 7 words long. Any sentence is fine for this activity but something age appropriate and entertaining is more likely to engage the class … alternatively a generic sentence like: “I love weekends - hooray for Friday!” usually works well.

Using only the letters found in the sentence, students are to list as many words as possible – of course students will start by listing the individual words of the sentence in their count, but that’s fine. The class will probably need reminding that if a letter does not appear anywhere in the sentence it cannot be used to construct a word. This activity tends to keep a class busy for ages and can even be run with students working in pairs. Add a small reward for the student or pair who can find the most number of words and this activity is a winner!

Read more: http://substituteteacherlessons.suite101.com/article.cfm/3_quick_substitute_lesson_ideas#ixzz0NDu4PUQB

Teachers, look how far we've come!

Yesterday
Teaching has had dramatic changes over the past 40 years. Between 1950 and 1970, it was common to find teachers in classrooms with two-year degrees, no behavior management training, and little knowledge of learning disabilities. There were often no televisions in the classrooms. No one even dreamed of computers, copiers, portable calculators, or telephones in the classroom. A classroom consisted of desks, black chalk board, chalk, books and a record player. One-fifth of teachers held an advanced degree.

Fast-Forward To The Present
Today, teachers can send a message to print their worksheet written on a portable laptop to the office printer 500 feet away by wireless message. Students are presenting reports at the middle school level by Power Point. These changes happened in 25 years and teachers have had to keep pace in this world of changing technology. There is more added to their already full plate every year.

Teachers of the 21st Century:

•spend an average of 50+ hours per week on teaching duties, including noncompensated school-related activities such as grading papers, bus duty, club advising, fund raisers, phone calls at home, and evening activity supervision.
•teach an average of 21 pupils at the elementary and 28 at the high school level.
•spend an average of $443 per year of their own money to meet the needs of their students. Elementary teachers spend about $498 per year. Secondary teachers spend about $386.
•make an average starting salary of $31,704 per year.
•73% enter the teaching profession because of their desire to work with young people.


Read more: http://educationalissues.suite101.com/article.cfm/nea__todays_teacher_issues#ixzz0NDqQoaFC

My Philosophy of Education

“Tell me, and I’ll forget.
Show me, and I’ll remember.
Involve me, and I’ll understand.”
-Chinese Proverb-

I consider myself a provider, mentor, motivator, and one who can inspire. In looking at the proverb above, it relies on expanding the knowledge of students from just simply textbook materials, to beyond classroom experiences. By instilling this philosophy in myself as a teacher, I can involve my students and inspire them to be successful individuals. My Philosophy of Education reflects my personal values and the needs of my students and the English department. An ongoing assessment of my teaching style, my students learning abilities, policies, and societal issues have influenced my profession as a whole. My philosophy of education relies on 3 fundamental backgrounds: Essentialism, Progressivism, and Behaviorism.

In terms of Essentialism, I tend to regress to the foundations of education. Traditionally, I like to make my lesson objective known to the students. By presenting this frame of reference to students, they can correlate the information with another subject that they might be learning in a different class, or assimilate the information to a previous lesson. As a result, my students are comfortable and able to express ideas freely. In keeping in the above proverb, my students are becoming involved and are able to take the information with them as they progress through their education.

With this idea in mind, my Progressive nature displays to students that are creative individuals and are able to interact with myself and other peers socially. As a teacher, I am able to accommodate different points of view and offer remediation plans for those students who might not progress at the same level. It is my philosophy to bridge this gap and help to instill confidence.

In terms of Behaviorism, this solely depends on my classroom management style. I expect my students to treat me with utmost respect, as will I with each of them.
I also wish to conduct my own professional behavior in a superior manor. I tend to rely on having positive relationships with my colleagues. Having an experienced teacher as a reliable friend is a wonderful way to share and correlate ideas and activities that will benefit student learning.

I truly believe that if my philosophy if education is implemented then I can expect wonderful things from my students. As stated before, my philosophy is an ongoing work in progress. I rely on my self assessments and student evaluations in order to determine the best methods for motivating all learners to excel.

References

DeCourcy Hinds, M. (2002). Teaching as a clinical profession: a new challenge for education. Carnegie Corporation of New York, Retrieved June 27, 2008, from http://www.carnegie.org/pdf/teachered.pdf

Kaplan University Graduate School of Education. (2003). Master of Arts in teaching and learning conceptual framework. Fort Lauderdale, FL: Kaplan University.

National Commission on Excellence in Education. (1983, April). A nation at risk. Retrieved June 12, 2008, from http://www.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/index.html

Is NCLB all that it's cracked up to be?

Millions of disadvantaged children are now getting the attention and focus that they deserve due to the No Child Left Behind act passed in 2001. The advantages of this act signed into law, is that each child, regardless of gender, race, family income, or disabilities are given the educational consideration that all students should be provided. Along with the student aspect, the overall quality of education has been increased due to school districts improving their performance. State standards have been implemented and NCLB aims to show achievement towards these goals through federally mandated standardized testing.

However, in relation to Pennsylvania, NCLB has had small success. One concern, specifically in the urban districts such as Philadelphia, is inadequately designed assessments and close-minded school responses due to the pressure to get overall district scores up. The inner city schools are not getting the educational attention they deserve. Through a case study in Baltimore, MD, one significant change was the inclusion of all students and presenting educational materials in a fun and exciting way. By engaging the students in a learning carnival style atmosphere, school can be fun again. With students, teachers, and family members working together, the push for educational reform in inner city schools can become a reality. Right? What do you think?

Wallis, C. (2008). No child left behind: doomed to fail?. Retrieved June 16, 2008, from Time Magazine Web site: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1812758,00.html

Psychological Perspectives on Education

Psychology Perspectives on Learning
Beatrice Washington
Rachel Lawrence

The four major Perspectives of Learning that we are going to discuss are Behaviorist Perspective, Cognitivist Perspective, Constructivist Perspective and Social Psychological Perspective. We will also discuss what their implications are in learning.

Behaviorist Perspective
B. F. Skinner was a proponent of the behaviorist perspective. He believed if you rewarded desired response you could shape one's behavior. Skinner also believed that voluntary beharior such as learning new skills was not just regurgitation. His work helped to develop computer-assisted instruction which has many uses in today's classroom. Skinner's approach to behavior was very logical and precise and this helped to improved the learning of basic skills. The drawback to his work is that it relied only on observable behavior and therefore it could only be used on the basic and simple learning task. Skinner's scientific approach to observation shows that behaviorism has limited applications in teaching higher-level skills.

Cognitivist Prospective
Cognitivism is based on work by Jean Peaget (1977). "Cognitivism deals with how people think, solve problems and make decisions" (Smaldino, S., Lowther, D., & Russell, J., 2008). Unlike behaviorist, cognitivist makes a mental picture of information. This information is stored in a short-term memory spot and as new information is gather and rehearsed the cognitivist adds the rehearsed portion to the short-term memory that it already has. A new spot is created for the information that does not fit. Once the short term memory is fully rehearsed it is then stored as long-term memory and the process repeats itself and learning takes place. Since short-term memory and long-term memory keep evolving, learners take information and skills in the long-term memory and develop new cognitive strategies for dealing with complex task. Therefore higher-level skills are being developed. Cognitivist prospective has a wider realm of learning than that of the behaviorist prospective. Students are able to be more self reliant and a teacher then becomes a facilitator.

Constructivism Prospective
The overall means of constructivism is that children are able to create a coherent system of knowledge based on their interactions with the world. "This perspective considers the engagement of students in meaningful experiences as the essence of experimental learning" (Smaldino, S., Lowther, D., & Russell, J., 2008). The constructivist perspective on learning allows students to relate problem solving techniques along with discovery. Learners can create their own interpretations of given information. "The emphasis on the constructivist perspective is on learning through action. While action refers to mental action, young children are most active mentally when they are physically engaged in figuring out how to do something" (Constructivist perspective, 2002). In order to teach with this method, students should be provided with ways to assemble knowledge, rather than merely basic facts. The ultimate goal of this perspective is to allow students to base their learning on their own use of knowledge to facilitate their thinking in real life.

Social-Psychological Perspective
The social-psychological perspective suggests looking at the organization of the classroom on learning. Within this approach, it is beneficial for students to use cooperative learning so that they can more socially benefit through competitive and individualistic learning. Some cooperative learning techniques include small-group collaboration, learner-controlled instruction, and rewards for group achievement. Through teaching with this approach, students can relate to one another and benefit socially through learning.

Resources:
Smaldino, S., Lowther, D., & Russell, j. (2008). Insturctional technology and media for learning. Columbus: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.
(220) Constructivist perspective. University of Kansas Inclusion Project. Http://www.circleofinclusion.org/english/approaches/kamii.html

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Rain got you down? It's been raining here for a few days now in the suburbs of eastern Pennsylvania and it seems that adults and kids alike are all in a wet slump. Here are a few educational activities to cheer up those raindrop blues!

Become a Water Detective!
Let's find out where the water goes! Follow a small stream down a street to a storm drain, or discover a small lake or a giant puddle. This can be the beginning of a larger exploration of your neighborhood, to larger streams, or to an estuary where hidden drains emerge into the water. If the water goes underground, try and find where it goes! Municipalities will have a list of the drains and their entrances and exits.

Get Artistic with the Rain!
Do rain painting. If you have a promising puddle and have an outdoor covered area, catch some of the rain and bring it in! Give the kids giant brushes and let them paint an area with water. Or bring a container outdoors and see what the rain sounds like when it falls. Metal containers beside the corner of the building or house will make the best noise!