The Substitute

For my next outside event I decided to watch the movie the Substitute. I remembered watching this film with my dad a while back and thought it related to education quite well. The movie is about a substitute teacher who comes in and teaches in a low income area. This area is quite rough and some other issues soon arise involving gangs and so on. Looking at the movie at an educational standpoint I think it fits quite well. It has different backgrounds and heritage which is an important topic we discussed throughout the semester. In Education you will most likely be forced to become more culturally diverse and as a teacher we need to be able to incorporate everyone.

Freedom Writers

This movie is about a teacher who teaches in a low income community. Throughout the movie the teacher and the students seem to learn a lot from each other. The teacher has the students write in journals about anything they want her to know about them. The teacher was shocked to see how many students wrote about their lives and found a lot more about the individuals as a whole. I found this movie to be very interesting. This seemed like a different approach to get to know your students more. Overall, I think this was a very clever and neat technique to add to teaching.

Wrestling Nationals

The past two years I have been involved in wrestling here at Luther College. This year we ended fourth in the country along with two individual national champions. I did not wrestle at nationals this year but I did go and attend the event. I found this event to be somewhat of a learning experience. While I was there I was able to see how other students from other schools were behaving. Also, I was putting myself in a new situation while being surrounded by different backgrounds and so on. I found this experience to be very fun and enjoyable.

Guster

A while back I went to the Guster concert here at Luther College. I don't listen to Guster very much and at this time I never really heard of them. I decided to go with a few of my friends. While I was there, I noticed the different kinds of students that were there. I was putting myself in a different situation and learning what some of their interests might be. This relates to education because in education you have to deal with different surroundings and different backgrounds of students on a day to day basis.

Does the internet and technology off promise and hope for education or learning or does it just create additional problems?

I believe that the internet can be used as a productive tool in education. The internet makes it very easy to access tons of information. Also, a student has access to such things as online journal articles which are used as many sources in assignments and research papers. The internet provides an easy access of information for students and is a very important eductional tool used in our schools today. Although, the internet does have its fair share of bad websites and this can be problematic to the students. I know that when I was in high school many of the bad websites were blocked and we were being monitered by someone at all times while online. Even at home, I still believe students are able to get more good educational information from the internet than bad information.

Camera's in School

When I was in high school it seemed that cameras were being put up all over. I feel that the their is a need for cameras for safety reasons although there seems to be to many. My high school spent a lot of money on different cameras that were placed either outside or inside the school. I always felt that there are plenty of other things that our money could of gone to. Also, the cameras seemed to act as a way to get students in trouble in the hall ways for little things instead of being used for safety. I know many students dislike being watched all the time by the faculty and staff. This is just an issue that I felt was controversial when I was in high school.

What makes for good teaching?

A good teacher is someone who is able to connect well with students and still be able to stick to the rules in the classroom. A teacher must have good communication skills and be able to interact well with kids. Also, in my opinion a good teacher needs be well organized and well prepared.

Why do we teach? What is the difference between school "work" and student "learning"?

The reason I want to teach is because I have always loved being around kids and making an impact in there lives. I first relized I wanted to become a teacher when I worked with kids on a mission trip with my youth group. I felt that I really made an impact in their lives and in teaching you have the chance to make a difference in students lives everyday. Also, I have grown up around teachers my whole life and have been able to see teaching inside and out. I feel that a teacher's responsibility is to become a role model for students. I believe the best part of becoming a teacher is being able to impact kids and watching them grow into a better person because of us. The difference between school "work" and student "learning" is school work is used to accomplish the goal of learning. School work leads to student learning. Without school work it would be hard for students to learn in our society today.