The Ron Clark Academy

I just really liked this video and wanted to save it for later reference. So here it is...

The Ron Clark Academy

Dance Classes in Mabel, MN

Here is a link to the dance class' website that I teach in Mabel, MN. STEPS dance class

This dance class has been very helpful to my development as a future educator. I have had to handle different learners, discipline issues, upset parents and also making lesson plans. 

I learned how to make something as simple as stretching fun and exciting. One day I was bored with the normal stretching we did, so I made each action something besides what it was. We would make pizza in between our legs to stretch in straddle making sure to get the crust as far out as possible so that your pizza was nice and big. We would go on adventures to outer space as butterflies and so many other things. 

One time that I had to try something different with my teaching strategy was with teaching the girls a dance. They were struggling with remembering what came next so I made up a story to help them remember the order. 

One thing that we had problems with was with one of our girls. She probably had some personal things going on at home but we did not know what they were. (It also seemed like the teachers were not doing anything and had given up on her, which was more upsetting than anything else.) She would often come into dance class moody and sad about something that happened earlier that day. One time she broke down because some other girl earlier in the day got upset at her because she did not laugh at the other girls joke. In order to help her get past what happened earlier and focus on dancing every day I would talk to her and ask her about her day and if anything bad happened that day I would remind her that its in the past and that she's at dance today and that we're going to do a lot of fun stuff. This didn't always work, but for the most times it did. Unfortunately there were some days where no matter what I said to her or no matter how long we let her cry it out she would never get better and it was just a bad day. However, by the end of the year she was one of our best dancers, it was amazing to see her dancing up there full of smiles. Its days like this that remind me why I became a teacher. 

One Campaign Hunger Banquet

This was suppose to be an older post but I got behind on post so I'm putting it here. 

So today I went to the One Campaign Hunger Banquet. The One Campaign helps raise money to give to people across the world who need help fight aids, global poverty and many other global concerns such as education. During this banquet, Natalie Sugira spoke about her life as an immigrant from Rwanda. She talked about how her family was so poor that she was the only child in her family to go to school and her father had to sell their cows and goats in order to send her there. This got me thinking about the things we talked about in my diverse and exceptional learner class. We lately have been discussing extreme poverty. Today in class we did a project where we got in a group of three and had to pretend we were teachers in a school that was getting three new students. These students were in extreme poverty and lived in a van. It makes me sad to realize how many students are living in extreme poverty and are stuggling to just get a good meal and not get sick. According to Gardner, if these simple needs are not satisfied it makes it even more challenging to teach them things like math or english. How are we as teachers going to meet these basic needs and help them get the best education when we have no control? 

Funding for Education

Today in class one thing that was brought up was the fact that the govt. spends so much money on jails and other more reactive things while they spend so little on schools. I have spent a lot of time thinking about this problem. Although, I completely agree that the govt. should spend more on schools, I think that as teachers we need to realize that we have four main ways to go about handling it. (there are possibly more these are just four that I see right off the top of my head. I am willing to try other things but this is what I see.) 

1) We continue to do what we are doing right now and complain about it. (this way will not really get us anywhere.

2) Fundraise or ask for donations. Find our own way to get the supplies without spending money out of our own teacher salary. Or if you are willing to you are more than welcome to take money out of your own salary. Or even creating a mass company that gives teachers books for a minimal cost or even for free. 

3) Go to the govt. Write letters, talk to representatives, get the idea out there. 

4) Find a way to work with what you do have. 

I do believe that with any of the first 3 ways, we still need to know how to do number 4. We can't keep using the lack of funding as a scape goat. We need to find ways to give each child an equal education no matter what their circumstance. 

Spelling 101

I just thought this picture was funny and that it brought across a good point that spelling is very important. haha. Thats all really about this picture. Just thought you all would enjoy it.  

Brain Development Lecture

Tonight we went to a lecture about brain development and how it is effected with substance abuse. I thought that the information was very valueable and that middleschoolers could benefit from this knowledge. However, the lecturer's approach was not as effective as it could have been. I did like the animation, however, I felt that she over did it which created a distraction from the topic that she was discussing. I also felt that some of the lecture was too childish for middle schoolers. From this lecture I learned that it is important to not overdue special affects and also to be aware of the age group you are addressing. 

Think Different

Here's a great video I found online about creativity and not being afraid to try new things. It is actually based off of a quote that I have come to really enjoy, so I thought I would share it with you all. So here is a link to it:
Apple - Think Different

I think this is important for us as teachers to recognize originality even if it is in the form of misbehaving in class. I think it is important to not discourage creative behavior but to redirect it into a better, more useful form of creativity. This video also shows the benefit of creativity to mankind. Although some people believe that art is not beneficial to schools it helps foster creativity which will help future generations come up with new inventions to help further humankind. Without this creativity we would not have electricity, computers the internet and all of those other things that make our lifes easier. Hopefully, if we as educators are willing to encourage creativity of all types, we can help the future generations come up with a way to save our planet from our current distructive ways.