Maine Memory Network

The "Maine Memory Network" was a great resource that we can all use. Being a social studies major this will come in handy many, many times. I went on and looked at Hermon, my home town, to see what our history was like and it was amazing! Things have changed so much and I can not believe how many fires we had in the early 1900's!! I could use this in the classroom all the time, we could have the students compare and contrast the differences and make maps showing how things have changed or put on a skit after researching the history of the town and acting out the differences. I saw these examples from other school examples and so not only is this helpful in information but it is a useful tool to be able to think of fun lesson plans for the students in Maine!

How to help someone use a computer

"How to help someone use a computer" is a very useful article for everyone because it helps people that are looking to help and also people that do not know things about computers. Something that stuck out with me is "if its not obvious to them, its not obvious" what an easy statement but it is so true. It would be so easy to judge a person that does not understand technology as much as we do and make them feel dumb. I can see myself say "well it is obvious".. and that would not help the situation at all it would just make things more tense and stressful. This will be something that i will tell myself often. An important rule "Never do something for someone that they are capable of doing for themselves" We are trying to help them, not do it for them. Whatever they are working on is their project, not ours.

I can use this information for the rest of my life. It is great for our class o be reading this because we will be groups and have to do projects with other students that may not know as much we know and we need to stay calm and be a resource that can help. We can always refer back tho the ideas and advice from this article.

Chapter 10: Going Beyond the Classroom

Arranging internships for students is such a great idea! "However modest our contribution, doing real work in a field that interests us not only develops new skills and habits but also gives us more motivation for academic work"(178) This is awesome, if I was able to get internships for the students they would be able to work outside of the classroom and we could talk and do projects about it while we were in class. They could be in groups or individual but it would be all voluntary and would benefit our classroom and the people that they are helping. I never would have thought of this before EDU 101 because we were mentors in classrooms and although it was megar it was the most helpful thing I did all year. I was able to see what it was like to be in a classroom and so what if it was a learning lab I was not a student and I was doing what I want to do!

Chapter 9: When Things go Wrong

Report cards cause much fear in many students minds and in some cases it is a confidence booster but for others it may ruin their day and the only thing on the mind is what their parents are going to say. On page 164 one student proposes questionnaires students could fill out before they got their report cards and one to fill out afterward. This could show how they felt before and if it was very different then what the scores show the teacher would know to have a meeting regarding the grades they received. After the students got their report cards they would have the chance to fill in a different questionnaire stating if they were happy with the grades they got or how they could improve. Not only does this keep you as the teacher on the same page it gives you a greater understanding how the students are feeling and how you can help them improve.

Chapter 8: Teaching Students Who Are Still Learning English

I learned a lot from this chapter because I have never been in an ESL classroom so seeing what the students thought was great for me. "Looking past language mistakes" (150) this would be very important for teachers because we need to understand that if English is not their first language it would be hard not to make mistakes while taking in boat loads of information in English. We must praise what they have learned and complement often at the hard work they are doing and their new abilities. When I was in high school I took French as a foreign language and it was so difficult for me, I was able to speak but not able to write and this make homework and projects very hard for me. My teacher knew that I was having difficulties and worked with me after school everyday, having the one on one time with her helped me so much and I was able to write much better and felt more confident in front of my classmates. This was all due to her constant praise and helpfulness.

Chapter 7: Teaching Difficult Academic Material

Chapter 7 was a good chapter for me to read because breaking down material that is difficult to students will be a challenge to new teachers. It is going to be hard to overcome the fact that people do not always understand what is going through my head. I will need to practice what I am saying and how I am saying it in order to make it as easy to understand as possible. "Try different ways to approach things" (125) this is exactly what I am talking about, using different techniques and seeing what works the best. I might think that I am explaining it greatly and then the test scores come back and everyone has failed, I will conclude that I failed at teaching the material and go about it a different way so that the students will be able to understand better. While at Mt. Blue I was asked to make a test over Africa, I did as I was told and the test was given. After talking with Beth she told me new and fun things to do before taking the test like looking up youtube videos from Africa.

Chapter 6: Motivation and Boredom

Motivation is a hard thing to do when dealing with a classroom filled with twenty or so hormonal teenagers. The last thing most of them want to do it listen to lecture and take notes for an entire period, and to be honest, neither do I! We need to be able to connect things with the real world, like page 105 talks about. This should be easy for my major because when dealing with history it is easy to show how we got to where we are as humans now by looking at the past. Currant issues are so important for students to know and understand even if it is something comical like a TV show the class should cover stuff that is going on today and then lead it into what the subject is covering and how closely they may or may not relate. Having students choose what they do their project on but using the teachers guide lines might make it more enjoyable for students and more worth while for everyone, this would throw a little twist on each project to make them individual and tie the past with the young future.