Im Just A Teacher So What Do I Know

I chose this picture because this depicts how I think children feel when teachers stand in front of the class and lecture....all they here is....wahh wa wa wa wahhh....

Standard 5- Emphasizing dialogue over lecture

The final standard is challenging us to get out of the habit of “telling the students stuff, testing them, and then tell them more stuff”(course DVD). Instead of lecturing our students we need to be having dialogue with our students and begin to listen more than we talk. When we talk with students instead of talking to our students we are able to see more clearly what their needs are and better ways to assist them. Dr. Tharp suggests this is best done through implementation of small groups where the teacher is having an instructional conversation with approximately 5 students.

Strategy 15-Partner Work, is a great way to include more dialogue into your lessons. Through using partner work in your lessons you are able to have more conversations in the classroom. Teachers are able to visit these partnerships and asked leveled questions, which engages the students in even more dialogue.
I have tried to do away with the “lectures” in my classroom and have more whole class discussions. I have noticed through experience that students enjoy getting to talk with their teacher instead of sitting and listening for long periods of time. Another strategy that I utilize that encourages dialogue is choosing a couple of students to eat lunch with me and have what I like to call “lunch and learn”. I try to do this with my struggling students who need just a little extra one on one time. I have noticed that this is really effective with my ELL students as well. The students feel so special to have lunch with the teacher and they barely even notice they are learning in the process. It makes for great conversation with kids and I always learn so much about the kids as they feel more comfortable opening up to me in this type of setting.

The fourth standard is focused on engaging students with challenging lessons. In my opinion we often hold back on challenging our ESL students because we assume they won’t be able to perform like the “other” students or that they need easier, more watered down work. It is important for all students to experience challenging lesson. Students are often excited about the opportunity for challenge and this is when they truly experience growth in the classroom. If we keep students at the level they are comfortable at we would be cheating them out of the education they deserve. Creating challenging lessons can be difficult for a teacher to design. There is a fine line between stretching students and completely overwhelming them. Getting to know your students early on will help to establish exactly what they are capable of and how much challenge they can handle with out shutting down.
I could not pick just one strategy out of the 50 for this standard simply because I feel you can take any of the 50 and make it challenging in some way. When I think of challenging lessons I think of lessons that are hands on and project/experiment based. I also think of having students use critical thinking skills that push them to think outside the box. The Internet is a great tool to use in creating challenging lessons. I often times have my students research topics or find new content that I haven’t taught that is relevant to what we are studying. I love to tell my 3rd grade students “you are going to be doing middle school work today!” They get so excited and proud that they are learning beyond their grade. We can no longer expect our students to “sit and spit” content that is presented to them. If we want to adequately prepare them for the future we must challenge them to make learning their own and challenge them to learn outside of their comfort zone

The 3rd CREDE standard is Connecting School to Students Lives. This to me is perhaps the most important standard. I feel that this important to any child, language learner or not. I know that most children do not store curriculum into their long term memory if they don't realize how it connects to THEIR own life. This is also a technique that will help ELL students master concepts more quickly if they are able to see concrete examples of the content they are learning.

I searched on Teacher Tube to find a lesson that is an example of what standard three is all about. Here is what I found....


Strategy number three on page 24 also goes along with standard three. The "Realia" strategies bring concrete objects into the classroom to build background knowledge and vocabulary. This also allows students to learn through the use of their senses. This helps support ELL learners in the classroom as well as lower level students with less real life experiences.

Dr. Tharp reminds us the four elements of language are reading, writing, speaking, and listening. He states that these are the most crucial developmental tasks of child development. The second CREDE standard instructs teachers to develop students' competence in the language and literacy of instruction throughout all instructional activities. Dr. Tharp presents the fact that teachers talk 92% of the time and students usually talk 8%. This is something that must be changed if we want to see our students excelling in the four areas of language. If language is going to be developed in the classroom then students must be given more opportunities to read, write, speak, and listen in all subject areas.

A strategy that can help master this standard is strategy 15, Practicing Verbal Interaction. The conversation role-play technique is clever way of having students work on the four elements of language while also incorporating group work into the curriculum. This conversation activity can be implemented into any subject area. This would also be an excellent way of getting students to engage in more talking while giving the teacher more time to be the listener.

The CREDE standards are designed to help teachers focus on improving the education of students whose ability to reach their potential is challenged by language or cultural barriers, race, geographic location, or poverty. There are five standards that have been developed to
teach effectively-
#1)Teachers & students working together
#2)Developing literacy & language skills across the curriculum
#3)Connecting school to students lives
#4)Engaging students with challenging lessons
#5)Emphasizing dialogue over lecture

Today I am going to discuss more about standard number one and what it means to me as a teacher of the students mentioned above, as well as identifying a strategy from course materials that goes hand in hand with the given standard.

And so my ramblings continue.! Here are the questions I will be addressing today:
What are my assumptions about why some people are affluent and others are poor? Do I think it is fair? Inevitable? I have always been baffled about wealth and how some people have more than others. I do know that I do not look at money as what defines us as "rich" or "poor". I am a middle class citizen but feel that I live a lot better off than some wealthy people. Life is what you make of it and I do feel we hold a lot of power in our own hands. As far as "fair" is concerned I have never really experienced "fair" in any aspect of my life. Fair is a word that doesn't exist and could absolutely drive a person crazy if you dwell on it to long.
Whom or what do I blame for disparities in wealth and opportunity? Poor people? Wealthy people? The system? What do I think needs to be changed? Do I want to be a part of that change? If so, in what ways? I honestly think that the disparities in wealth in opportunity come from a fear of change. People often break free from what holds them back because they are afraid of the unknown. I am able to look at many of my students and predict what their future will be just based on their home life. I know that they will adopt many of their parents behaviors or bad habits and not try to change their life for the better. Since the first day I began teaching I have always taught my students that you have to strive to live better than your parents. You have want a better life for your self and your children. It is hard for me to get them to understand that but that is how I want to be apart of the change. I want the cycle to stop with the students that I have.