My discipline

Be respectful
Natural-All students will not feel safe and respected, resulting in the class being an unpleasant place for students and the teacher
logical-Students will be warned. If behavior continues it will result in punishment in the form of referrals or phone calls home
Come to class on time
Natural- Students will miss out on information and distract the class
logical- Students will be marked tardy and lose out on participation points
No Ipods or cell phones during class time
Natural- Students will distract themselves and others in class
logical-Students phones or Ipods will be confiscated and turned over to the assistant principle (as stated in the student handbook)
Clean up after yourself
natural- leaving trash, gum and other things makes the classroom look trashy and makes it a less
appealing place then it already is
Logical- I will make you scrape the gum of the bottom of the desks, chew it and blow a bubble
Try your best
Natural- Students will get the most out of their education when they show up and try their best

My vision.....

Reading Reflection "Designing Groupwork"

Chapter 1
The book describes group work as students working together in a group small enough so that everyone can participate on the assigned task. Students are encouraged to ask questions, make suggestions, listen, agree, disagree etc to come up with a good final product. Research has shown that there are desirable effects that result from group work.

Last semester I was able to set up a lot of different activities where the students could engage with each other. I do think that group work is a great way to aid in student learning. Teenagers are talkers and instead of fighting that natural urge for them talk I think we should feed into and use to it everyone's advantage.


Chapter 2
Why Group Work
This chapter explains that group work is essential in both intellectual and social growth for students. Group work will help students intellectually by helping them with conceptual learning, creative problem solving, developing higher order thinking skills, oral language skills as well as help them with basic skills. Socially group work teaches positive inter group relations, how socialize like adults, and how to stay on task.

If there is so much research about why group work is so efficent I wonder why some schools and teachers are still hesitant to adopt this style of teaching. Last semester my teacher encouraged trying to incorporate as much group work in to the class as possible. This semester is going to be a challenge because Oceanside is on the notebook system which encourages a lot of power points and teacher directed learning. I hope that I can some how involve group work still into the class


Chapter 3
The Dilema of Work
This chapter covers the problems that many teachers have when incorporating group work into the classroom. Like the real world, students will develope different statuses within their small groups. These statuses vary from expert, academic, peer and social. Teachers need to find a way to create as much equal interaction as possible in the groups

My teacher last semester gave me numerous ideas of ways to make sure all the students in the group had a different role. One thing I liked for posters was "your color your credjavascript:void(0)it". Every student had a color and had to put something down on the poster. This way each student had to participate and the other students needed that student to do good which encouraged better group work. Its good to try and get all the students involved but also be empathetic that some students might be nervous and stand backish in different social situations.

What makes a Schools Ethnography Ethnographic

3 things I learned
A. I like the idea that the Ethnography should be guided by point of view rather then a standard uniform way. This way the person doing the research can have a little more leeway to go where he/she wants with it and have more time in the process to reflect.
B. Ethonography means to write about nations. However, it does not need to a specific nation just any type of network
C. It's important to be asking the question of what and why is a school may be missing. Ask why things are the way they are

2 things I question
a. how much can your personal bias distort your ethnography? If your at a school that doesn't have a great reputation or your at a high achieving school is that going to affect your research?
b. How can you really grasp the culture of a school in 8 weeks?

1 thing I want to learn more about
a. I'm excited to learn more about my school site, Oceanside High School

Disturbing Class Chapter 1

3 things I learned
a. creating a school in which we can customize learning for all of our students is unrealistic do the standardized nature of our secondary schools
b. All students have different ways of learning (linguistic, physical, musical etc), however most students learning styles are not met at our public schools
c. It's difficult for teachers who have spent years in school, both being a student and teaching, to change their idea of how a class should be run

2 things I question
a. Is it realistic to think we can actually create the type of school discussed in the chapter? (lack of funds, support from politicians, administration, community etc)
b. We talk a lot about differentiation for our special needs and ELL students. How come we don't seem to talk so much about our students different learning needs?

1 thing I want to learn more about
He talked a lot about the different learning styles, and how to define intelligence. I would like to know some specific strategies on how reach all these different learning styles in secondary schools

Chapter 1

6 years ago three people decided they wanted to start a new school. Something was innovative and differed from schools in the past. The school they created was in Chicago, name The Best Practice School. They just graduated there first class recently and still will not claim to have the best school. However, they are not willing to say this was not a success. The begin by saying that schools are not all that bad. Adolescent crime, and dropouts have dropped and student graduation in inclining. Yet still there are some major problems with schools still in the 21st century. The school they created would be safe, and encourage student learning and encourage them to seek higher education. There are 11 things that need to be addressed in secondary schools- size, climate, voice and leadership, teaching, curriculum, community, scheduling, technology and materials, assessment, professional development, and relationships. The chapter once again goes onto to talk about how elementary schools in Chicago have seen a surge in success yet still over half of the high schools are on academic probation. High Schools have been the most resistant to change. “Are schools are failing all of our kids some of the time and some of our kids all of the time”
I definitely think that our schools can use a little rethinking and change. I feel that the main problem with schools in California is overcrowding. I think that every other problem can possibly be traced back to how crowded our schools are. I was just at RBV last semester. There are almost 4,000 students at the school. It’s overcrowded and the students are flushed through the system and go unnoticed. This gives the school a climate that is not nurturing or personal. A curriculum that is differentiated enough. It is extremely hard to have Technology and materials for that many students. And the most obvious is the difficulty to develop relationships and be able to get to know the students when you see nearly 200 a day. I actually like this book and am excited to see the different ideas they implemented in their school and to gain new ideas on how I can improve any school that I am at.