In Chapter 9 of Christine E. Sleeter’s book, the author argues that while teachers face constraints of the standards movement, they also have varying degrees of agency to construct multicultural curriculum. Are there any standards-based tests for students in your school? How do you satisfy individual learning needs of students with diverse language and cultural backgrounds while preparing them for the standards-based tests they have to take? Please give specific examples from your teaching experience. If you do not teach, could you provide some examples from our readings or class discussions?

Dealing with the unexpected in our classrooms

In “Becoming a Transformative Curriculum Leader,” Henderson and Hawthorne present a positive and encouraging article, driving us to go beyond teaching itself and into a deeper, more impacting career. As motivating as this article is, it is also idealistic, and it tends to ignore many of the daily struggles that teachers face. However, one of the best points it makes is “not see(ing) things black and white… when dealing with people, especially children, conditions are usually cloudy.”
I believe that this is a very healthy attitude to keep as we interact with our students in class everyday. We’re always facing new situations, sometimes unexpected, sometimes out of context, that take us by surprise and that make us feel “unprepared” to deal with them. We often have to make decisions instantly, and only after do we think “maybe I should have done this or that instead.” In this way, it is important to know that there are no “black and white,” right or wrong answers. We are not working with computers, or predictable beings, but instead, with a group of children with an enormous amount of variability. Thus, how do we take this lack of “black and white” in our everyday practices to become successful professionals? How do we take unexpected behaviors, responses and attitudes in our children to make the best out of the situation? How do we use the no “black and white” approach to keep us reassured that we are doing our jobs right?

Teacher Talk

In Preschool Teachers' Talk, Role and Activities Settings during Free Play, the article suggests that what the teacher says in conversation will stimulate the quality of the learning expirience that children get out of "free playtime" in early childhood. In mathematics class(fall student teaching placement), for example kindergarteners are first given math manipulatives to play with for at least a week in this "free play" activity in order familarize the child with the piece before a formal lesson. The teacher does not get involved but they are allowed to do an independent discovery. What method would you use? A free play where the teacher raises dialogue with the students? Or allow children to "free play" without teacher dialogue as a independent discovery activity?

Whole Language in the Mathematics Classroom?

The article, "Incorporating language arts into the mathematics curriculum: A literature survey," stated that "whole language teachers are those who believe in reading literature in the classroom and who attempt to integrate listening, speaking, reading, and writing across the curriculum. Literature and language skills, however, are often neglected in the mathematics area of the curriculum. Educators are now discovering ways to incorporate reading into mathematics through the use of children's literature." Reflecting on the curriculums we recently designed, were you able to integrate literature and language skills into your mathematics units? If so, how did you accomplish this? Do you agree that it is important to include whole language learning opportunities in the mathematics classroom? Why or why not?

What a trip!

One of the course readings for our Science Curriculum class praises the “field trip” or “a trip into the field”, as a unique pedagogical practice that provides students with long-lasting learning experiences by giving life to the lessons from their science classrooms. The article also explains how the “field trip” should be a discovery oriented and inquiry-based expedition that allows students the opportunity to create the open-ended questions that will guide their own exploration. If everything goes as planned, the children should remember their “field trip” as the highpoint of the school year.

In the article it also states that close to 100% of individuals interviewed remember something they learned from one of their elementary school field trips, I however do not. The only field trip I do remember clearly took place when I was teaching Environmental Education in Guatemala. We had been covering the importance of plants and the negative affect that deforestation has on the Environment. At the completion of the unit, all the students took a field trip to a near by forest where they all had the opportunity to take part of a reforestation project. Hopefully every time those students think about the trees they planted or even go to see them grow, they will remember the lessons they learned about the importance of plants to all living things.

Although I don’t have any long lasting memories from my elementary school experience, I still believe field trips are a valuable teaching tool that could be used in all the different subject areas. I would like to know if there was a field trip that you took in elementary school or any other time in your life, which sticks out in your mind? If so, what was it like and what where some of the things you remembered learning?

When is the correct time?

Many people say that certain materials/concepts cannot be taught to certain age group/grade. What do you think about that? Do you think if there's enough, well executed, and well planned scaffolding and instructions the students can have a deep understanding of the concept?

Lesson Study and Bilingual Education

According to TIMSS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study) results, Japanese students show more advanced performance and deeper thinking in mathematics. Many mathematics teachers’ in other parts of the world are looking closely at the strategies and techniques of Japanese teachers to help them improve their teaching as well as their students’ achievements in mathematics.

Some reports say that one of the key elements of their success is that they conduct Lesson Study, in which the teachers work as a group. They first choose a research theme in math, which should be school-wide and then they select a goal and unit of study to focus upon. They then create corresponding teaching plan and one member of them will teach it. The other members of the group observe the lesson. After the observation, they will discuss and revise the lesson and document the findings.

Do you think this kind of teaching-researching teamwork will be applicable to bilingual education? If you think it will, do you have any specific idea about how it can be applied?

Posted by Qing Qing

We had a discussion before in the math class about memorize the multiplication table. We all know that if the children just know how to memorize the table, they will not be able to explain why 5 times 5 equal to 25. They will not truly understand the meaning of multiplication. But by the end do we need to help the students to memorize the multiplication table? If they do not memorize it, they will have to rely on the calculators or the multiplication table all the time. They will not be able to calculate things fast. How can they survive in this competitive world? Growing up under Chinese Math education system, I feel that I learned a lot of math skills that I will not need during my high school years; teaching in the U.S school, do we teach our students enough math skills?