Chapter 7

Chapter 7 talked about different types of assessments and different types of test questions. First, I really liked the many different types of test questions and the explanations of the questions. I believe that it is very important to use many different types of test questions. Many teachers get in the rut of using 4 or 5 different types of test questions, when there are so many more types of questions they could be using. Also, different types of test questions allow students to showcase what they know in a different way. That is why another reason to use many different types of test questions is because since students learn in so many different ways, they also will be able to show what they have learned in many different ways. Some students will be good at showing what they know through writing an essay, but other students are better at showing what they know through performance assignments. Different types of assessments (whether it's a diagnostic, formative, or summative assessments) will have use different types of questions. That is yet another reason there are so many different types of test questions.

Chapter 6

This chapter talks about the different ways that students learn and about making and planning lesson plans and units. In ETE 215 we had to plan a integrative thematic unit. That assignment taught me so much about how to construct a unit and how much time it takes to do so. It took so much more time than I ever would have expected. Writing lesson plans and units that are done well definitely cannot be done quickly. It is something that takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. The chapter also talked about the many ways that students learn. Kids learn in so many different ways that it is so important to recognize that and tailor your lesson plans to how the students learn. Each group of students that you have will learn differently than the last. This is why it is so extremely important to tailor your lessons to each individual class that you have. I have been a daycare teacher for over 4 years and each time I teach a lesson I revise it according to how the students in my class learn. I think that this chapter covers so much essential information about lesson planning and the different ways that children learn.

Chapter 5

This chapter focuses on planning and curriculum (and the importance of planning your curriculum ahead of time). As a teacher, planning is essential. Planning helps keep you organized, and in the case that you become sick it keeps your substitute teacher organized as well. Classroom can become hectic and busy very very quickly, and planning ahead makes it easier when this happens. Planning also is essential when planning the curriculum you are going to teach. Also, not just what you are going to teach but how you are going to teach it. When planning curriculum it is important to get information from many different sources, not just one. This saves you from getting biased information and also gives students a wide variety of sources to look at. There are many things that go into curriculum from objectives to standards to assessments to making sure that all of these things align. This is why it is important to plan your curriculum ahead of time. Curriculum is definitely not something that you want to make last minute. Last minute curriculum planning often ends up being not as good of quality as you could make it. This is why I think that this chapter is such an important chapter.

Chapter 4

This chapter focused on an essential element of teaching-classroom management. If classroom management and discipline is not there, it is impossible for the classroom to run effectively. It is necessary to have rules in your classroom and be consistent in them from day 1. I am a daycare teacher and I learned very quickly that if you are not consistent with the rules, the classroom cannot run well. This is because students never know what is expected out of them. My coordinating teacher for my field experience stressed the importance of this. She told me that it is important to establish the rules right away and be consistent with them instead of gradually easing into the rules. She said that this way the students know what is expected from the very beginning. I liked what the authors wrote about rules in the classroom. A summary of what was written is this: do not have too many rules, only have the rules that are essential and then add rules as needed. I think that this is very important to do, because you do not want to overwhelm the kids with rules.

Chapter 3

I really enjoyed this chapter about thinking and questioning. I think that all too often teachers do not use enough types of questioning, and do not wait long enough for students to answer questions they ask. If teachers wait long enough, most of the time they will recieve an answer to their question from the class. Many times, especially in older grades, students know the answer they are just afraid to say it or do not want to be involved in the class. I really like how common core is making students answer more questions and explain more things. I especailly like that they are doing this in math. I took a math class in which we had to explain how we solved every problem, and it really made me think about why I did each step of the problem. This made me understand the problems better. Also, I think that many teachers have slipped away from asking the higher level questions in the classroom. They just stick to the questions that are lower level questions and easier to answer for the students. This in turn makes the students not think as much when asking questions, so when they come across a higher level question some struggle in answering it.

Chapter 2

I really feel like chapter 2 touched on a very important subject, which is all of the responsiblities teachers have besides their responsibility to teach the students the material they need to know. When thinking of teaching, the thing that is most thought of is teaching the necessary material to the students, not on everything else the teacher is responsible for. I liked how it talked about everything from field trips to guest speakers and how to deal with various situations like these.
The chapter also talked about the various teaching styles (the three main ones being romanticisn/maturationism, behaviorism, and cognitive/experimentalism). The one that I agree with the most is the cognitive/experimentalism teaching style. I believe that children learn very well (possibly best) from doing and learning things hands on. You can talk to students about a topic and show them pictures about a topic, but they learn so much more when they become hands on with what they are learning. There is many different ways to do this, and it just depends on the topic being discussed which way to choose. Also, through this teaching style, I think that children get to express more of their opinions and views through the learning (which I think is very important). Children have many importnat things to say and I believe that we can learn as much from them as they learn from us.

Chapter 1

This chapter talked about the imortance of a middle school or junior high for young adolescents. It discussed different ways to incorporate middle schools (ex: school within a school). It also talked about the differences between middle schools and junior high schools. I found that reading about this was very interesting. I did not know that there was a difference between middle schools and junior high schools. I thought the names were interchangeable, except for the fact that sometimes middle schools have fifth and sixth grade as well. I also did not know how different their focuses were. Chapter 1 also discussed the importance of a mission statement and a vision statement and gave examples of each.
Chapter 1 also talked about the different types of schools. I did not know that there were that many different schools. I had heard of charter schools and magnet schools, but I had never heard of a full-service school or an International Baccalaureate Middle school. It also talked about that schools could be a combination of the different types of schools (for example, it could be a charter magnet school). I like how schools can combine types to find a type of school that best meets the school district's needs.