Comprehension

What does comprehension mean?...well I would say it means the understanding of something or the ability to retain information. The problem with comprehension is that as teachers we do not always know whether our students are retaining information from the plain-old-boring text books everyone loves! Some students don't always comprehend from textbooks the best. It may take diaries, journals, or other forms of reading material to capture the attention of some students. I know that I am a student who does not comprehend well through strictly text, I find it unbelievably boring and redundant. I enjoy the true stories told by the people themselves through journal entries or an autobiography. Not all students learn the same way and it is our job as educators to reach out and find the best way everyone of our students learn. Making different resources avalible for every student to work at his/her best!

Sometime within the past couple classes we discussed how making your students raise their hands when they have finished may make them feeled a bit rushed. The other day this past week in one of my classes we had to do a quick assignment about a an article we just read. The professor said that everyone will speak about their answers when we were finished. I was already nervous about finding the exact answer we were suppose to have found when I thought about being the last one to raise my hand...forget about it! I was too focused on not being the last one to raise my hand...in fear that the other students who found the answer quickly would think I was dumb! I settled for an answer that may or may not have been the right one just to raise my hand because I feared being judged by my fellow peers. I thought about what we were discussing in class and how this type of activity may hinder your students from performing at their best ablilies. This is exactly what it did to me...I was unable to find the correct answer and feel confident because I felt - - stressed and rushed! I def. feel that students may not understand because they are too concerned on not being last when they should be focusing on finding the correct information. Through my experience I feel that other ways can be used to get kids to be active and participate....rather than have them feel pressured and not quite understanding the assignment they are suppose to be grasping. It didn't make me feel okay and I was a college student...I couldn't imagine how it would make middle schoolers/highschoolers feel when they are still trying to find out who they really are and trying to be accepted amist a judgemental crowd involving their peers.

Classroom Management

Today in class we watched a video on the right way versus the wrong way to handle your classroom. I feel the video gave some good tips on how to prevent your classroom from getting out of hand. The biggest thing that I grasped fromt he video as being useful was having a friendly/joking attitude. I feel when you are always yelling at your students the yelling becomes not as affective because thats all they know. When you have a friendly personality you are allowing your students to respect you not only as a teacher but as a person who has emotions and if they were to get out of hand and disappoint you they may care knowing their normally happy teacher be somewhat upset with their actions. I also like that having this attitude allows the students to have a little flexability...I mean afterall we were all students at one point and sometimes you just get antsy!! This friendliness and joking makes it easier to maybe make a point to lightly discipline a student in a joking manner but still getting the point across. I have learned through experiences in many classes that the teachers you aren't to tyrannical have more success in classroom management because the students feel like the teacher's care about them and are not always out to get them into trouble.

A Little About Me

Hey everyone!!! So here is alittle introduction about myself...my name is Kris and I am a junior in college. I am originally from the suburban state of PA but I received a softball scholarship to a college in NJ! I have never experienced the city life until I arrived at school. It was an amazing time of my life exploring a different aspect of the world, especially coming from a very small town with only farms in sight. Since my freshman year I feel I have become a more diverse and open-minded person. I have learned so many things by coming and experiencing the college life, it has opened my eyes to many new things. I am now in my second semester of my junior year and pretty soon will be graduating next spring! Hopefully I will be able to use the knowledge I have received from my college education and be able to make a difference in the lives of young adolescents as a teacher/mentor. I will not only have my students learn to their fullest capacity but my goal is to make learning fun! I want the students to walk into my classroom excited knowing the class will be educational as well as extremely intriguing, capturing every students multiple intelligences.