Chapter 10: Going Beyond the Classroom

Fires in the Bathroom: Going Beyond the Classroom

Learning does not have to take place just in the classroom. It is important that teachers find out the students interests which will help to inspire them. Making connections with the outside world will help to teach students about the “real” world and maybe even appreciate school more. Some ways of doing this include doing regular class work outside of the school; bring in experts to teach about topics that go along with your unit, arrange internships/job shadowing for students and encourage students to learn on their own from their families, coaches and peers.

I could relate to what this chapter was saying because as much as I did learn while I was in school I learned the most from certain life experiences. For example when I was a freshman in high school I thought that I wanted to be a pediatrician. In a causeway class that I had my teacher set up a job shadow for me to spend the day with a pediatrician in town. It was a great day and I learned a lot but it made me realize that I maybe being a doctor was not what I wanted to do. This is a lesson that I could not have possibly learned in the class and I was very thankful to have that opportunity. I also loved it when teachers brought up outdoors for a class. For example my high school is about a 2 minute walk to the beach so for many of my science classes we would go to the beach to do labs or English teachers would bring us their to inspire them.

Chapter 9: When things go wrong

Fires in the Bathroom: When things go wrong

This chapter talked about how to keep students motivated and not allow them to give up. It is easy for students to get discouraged because of bad grades. This is why it is important that teachers make sure to check in with students before the grade period ends to see how they felt the semester/term went. By asking students how they felt this term went for them, if they felt they deserve the grades they have gotten and how they can improve next term. If a student feels discouraged its not uncommon for students to skip school or slack off even more. It’s also common for teachers to feel discouraged as well. Sometimes classes don’t go well or teachers have a hard time reaching out to students. When this happens teaching can become frustrated and blunder or behave in insensitive matters towards their students. It is important that teachers know how to apologize, learn not to take a bad day to hard, try not to act like a superhero and most importantly not to give up on students.

I really liked this chapter because as a student it makes teachers seem more “real.” As a student in elementary/middle school teachers did seem like super heroes, like they could never do anything wrong or have a bad day. Now that I am older I realize that teachers do have bad days and even bad semesters. My mentor teacher was telling me that she had the worst group of freshman last semester and had it been her first year of teaching she would have quit. It just showed me that some years are going to be more enjoyable than others and it is important that no matter what I do, I never give up on my students. I know how discouraging it would be if a teacher had given up on me and I always want to make students feel that they have someone who believes in them.

Chapter 8: Teaching Students who are Still Learning English

Chapter 8 focused on teaching children who are still learning how to speak English. It was meant to help teachers who have a class filled with diverse students. The first step is to figure out what students actually DO know. Find out a background of that student which will help teachers to make connections with their students. Be aware of where they are from, what languages do they already speak, what their home life is like and what subjects they are most interested in. It’s important that teachers look past the language mistakes and focus on the thinking that is being done by the students. One helpful way to help these students comprehend the English language better is by having them make connections between the content they are learning and their own experiences. As a teacher it might be frustrating to have a class at such different levels but it is important to be patient with all students and understand that they really want to learn what the other students already know. That is why it is important to have students learn from one another.

When I was in high school our school had little diversity and about every student was able to fluently speak English except for the foreign exchange students. My teachers did not have to worry about having students who didn’t speak English because it was already assumed that everyone would know how. It’s interesting for me to think that when I am a teacher that I may not have students who can speak English and it makes me wonder what types of things I can do in my classroom to help make things easier for these students. I can’t imagine going to a classroom in a different country and not being able to understand anything. I can’t think of a more overwhelming experience and that makes me want to do everything I can to help these students learn. It seems like nowadays when people go into teaching that they just assume that all their students will know English this chapter shows that this is not the case.

Chapter 7: Teaching Difficult Academic Material

It is a teacher’s most important job to have their students actually learn material and not just memorize it. If not all students are comprehending material it is important that a teacher try different approaches to things. It is also important that the teacher be able to successfully access whether a student really understands something or not. Just because a student received a good grade on a test does not necessarily mean they understood the material, they could have just memorized material to receive a good grade on the exam. Having students break down and dissect the information they are given will help them to use and relate that material to their own life. It’s also helpful to have students make interpretations on what information they thought was important and whether or not they agree or disagree with things. This chapter really focuses on how to challenge students yet keep them interested at the same time. Being a good teacher is all about making students think and giving them that time to think in class.

I thought this chapter was very interesting. How a teacher presents information is really what makes all of the difference. I had a social studies teacher in high school that was so passionate about American History that it was impossible for students not to want to learn. He taught us things that were real and clarified the places where he felt that teachers taught us false information. For example he had us learn about the “real” Christopher Columbus and showed us he was not the wonderful man that they taught to us in elementary school. He had us read articles that did not sugar coat the events of our histories past. He would jump on his desk and scream when something really angered him, or interested him or even if he just wanted our attention. He really made me think about what I was learning and become interested in history. I always came to that class prepared because I actually enjoyed doing the work.

Chapter 6: Motivation and Boredom

For some teachers getting their students to feel motivated and interested in a lesson can seem like an impossible task. But, there are many different techniques which teachers can use to help engage students in a lesson. First every teacher should understand that students actually do want to learn and be there and they do know the importance of getting an education. The way that teachers can motivate their students is to show that they are passionate about what they are teaching and actually care about the material that they are teaching. Teachers should also relate their lesson plans to issues that their students care about. They are always seeking information that will answer what they feel are life’s important questions. Teachers should also be realistic when it comes to the workload that they give their students. If a student becomes overwhelmed with homework they can become more likely to give up and less interested in the material that they are learning.


Thinking back to my experience as a student I can think of many times when I have been in a class and have just been “bored out of my mind.” There have been classes where I would make flashcard after flashcard until I have memorized all of the material. As soon as I was done with the exam I would forget almost everything that I memorized. I believe that this could have been different if only my teachers had showed that they were passionate about what they were teaching. It was clear to me as a student that they did not take anytime to think of a creative lesson plan and that they were teaching the material just because they were required too. The teachers that I had who took the time to relate the material we were learning to real life and issues that I cared about were the times that I felt I learned the most and enjoyed school the most. When I become a teacher I am going to do my best to help my students to relate the material to their own life.

Chapter 5: Teaching to the Individual, Working with the Group

This chapter focused on how to teach students individually and how to teach them in groups. There are many different students in every classroom. Some of these “types” include the eye-roller, the wallflower, the hand-writer, the dreamer, the con artist, the goof-off and the workhorse. Each type of student brings something different to the classroom whether it is good or bad. It is important that teachers take note to which student falls into which category, especially when it comes to having them work in groups. Because each student is considered a different “type” it is helpful that teachers understand this in order to be realistic in what they want each student to accomplish. A teacher would not want to put all the goof-offs in one group because it would be pretty certain that nothing would get done. During group work it is also important for teachers to assign each person a job such as the recorder, the facilitator or the material getter. This way each student is assured that they will be helping out the group.

I found the different “types” of students to be interesting and actually consider myself to be more than one. I would consider myself to be a wallflower, a workhorse and even a little bit of an eye-roller. I always do my work and come to class prepared yet I don’t always like to raise my hand with the answer. I am not necessarily an attention grabber so most of the time; I like to keep to myself even when I know the answer. However, I can also consider myself a bit of an eye-roller because when a teacher embarrasses me or does not notice my effort it upsets me and I can become aggravated throughout the rest of the class. I also agree with what this chapter said about rolls in group work because there have been many times when I have been in a group and forced to do most of the work by myself if I wanted to get a good grade.

Chapter 4: Creating a Culture of Success

Fires in the Bathroom:

This chapter was all about how a teacher should make sure that their students will succeed. It is vital for teachers to have faith and encourage each and every student. A good teacher will never give up on a student no matter how much trouble they are having understanding material or focusing. If a teacher sees that a student is having trouble with a specific assignment or lesson, that student should be addressed privately or after class. No student wants to be humiliated in front of his classmates and peers just because it is taking them a little longer to comprehend something. This chapter also discusses the significance of having fair expectations for students. It’s not about accepting perfect scores from students but that they are trying their hardest and giving 100%. It is important to acknowledge students for their hard work even if they don’t necessarily meet the standards, this way students will know that their efforts are not going unnoticed. As a teacher if you show that you actually believe that each student can succeed, then each student will be more likely to succeed or try.

I thought this was an important chapter because it stressed the importance that no teacher should give up on their students. When I was a freshman in high school I had an algebra teacher who would teach a concept and then do at least 3 different examples in order to insure that every student fully understands it. There was never a day that went by where I thought they my teacher was moving to fast or was not reaching my needs as a student. His homework was also always related to what we were studying and was not meant to be busy work but was actually good practice for us. I use to hate it in high school and even as a college student when my teachers would give homework merely just to give work. When I am a teacher I want to make sure that my homework will actually be helpful and worth their time.

Chapter 3: Classroom Behavior

This chapter focused on behavior in the classroom. It is important that students respect their teachers and that teachers are fair to all students. Students want teachers to be aware about what is going on with them without having to tell them. Teachers should be aware of a student’s body language, when a students has their head down on their desk, it could mean that the student is feeling ill, tired, stressed, depressed or bored. There is usually always a reason that a student has their head down and a teacher should pay attention to student’s actions. It is also important for teachers to understand that teenagers go throughout a lot and are dealing with more than just school. Teachers should make time to talk to every student in order to learn as much as possible about students individually. By learning about what a child goes through outside of school can give the teacher a better idea of how to deal with certain issues. For example if a student is doing poor in school or acting up calling that students home might make things even worse for this child at home.

There were so many things in this chapter that I agreed with. I feel that it is important for teachers to be able to create a positive and safe environment for all students. I hate being in classrooms where a teacher favorites those students who participate way too much, it just it makes other students in the classroom aggravated. Then when a teacher calls on you because you’re not participating as a student you want to say “well if you gave all students an equal chance to participate then we would be more engaged in the conversation.” I can relate to so much about what the students are saying in this chapter. I don’t agree with teachers calling on students just to make them pay attention. I believe that it makes them feel embarrassed which causes them to concentrate even less.

Focus The Nation

I used the Focus The Nation website to help me learn more about global warming and about the FTN project. One of the things which I did to learn something new about global warming was voting on the FTN website about which global warming issues I thought were most important and which ones I thought the government should focus on. I focused my attention on one issue called "invest in the clean energy revolution." This revolution is meant to provide low-cost climate stabilization tools that todays young people will need in the future. I liked this one because it focused on the young people of our future, which in my opinion are the most important people to focus on. This site taught me a lot about the different global warming solutions. Another thing I did to learn something about global warming was by reading the blog called "tree huggers." This blog focuses on the climate and enviornmental friendly lifestyles. I learned about doing small things that can all add up and help save the enviornment such as turning of the lights, not leaving your car running and buying clothes from thrift stores. Another fact which I learned from global warming from this exercise was about different "green" activities which teachers can incorprate in their classrooms such as produce an informative play, have students create a pro climate friendly calander and have students watch enviornmental movies.

By concentrating in health I feel that there is a lot that I can do to incorprate enviornmental health into my classroom. There are many lesson plans which I can create that focus on how pollution affects the health of our enviornment as well as what negative affects these pollutants can have on our health. Something I could do was have my students keep a log of all the things they do that affect the enviornment and never thought of such as how long they shower, do they turn lights off when they leave a room or how much they use their cars. I have taken an environmental health class for my major and I know that there are many activities and lessons that I will be able to bring into my classroom.

Web 2.0 Educator

I chose to read Wes Fryer's blog "moving at the speed of creativity" and found it to be pretty interesting. Fryer talks a lot about different types of advances in technology and helps to introduce people to these new technologies. He also talks about the different issues regarding the interenet such as how much privacy a child should have on the internet as well as how fast the internet is developing. I have to say that a lot of the topics whcih Fryer talked about we over my head. I am just learning how to blog and so half of the topics Fryer is talking about I have never heard of. Each blog that I read was more like an informative essay. I would have to say that my favorite blog by Fryer was when he was talking about the United States not pitting enough "effort" into school. I especially like the youtube video "Two Million Minutes." I agreed with a lot that was said in this blog. It seems like students now a days (including myself) take for granted all the opportunities they have to learn about technolgy and what they can accomplish with it. Other countries who have less opportunities seem to have students who are more eager to learn and use every opportunity possible obtain more knowledge. I can see how Fryer's blog is a helpful refrence for many people and he's nice enough to share his knowledge by answering readers questions.

Type I and Type II Technology

Type I and Type II uses are similar yet do have different qualities. Both are technologies used in the classroom, however a gap has risen between the two. Type I technology uses are the applications that help teachers use to continue teaching in ways they have done in years past. Type I uses are more traditional/passive and don't provide new ways of learning to students. When I was in middle school Type I uses seemed the be the only ones used. For example many of our classes used the overhead as a tool for us to take notes. Notes were written on projector sheets and it was a very dull way to learn. Another Type I use was when teachers use to use slide shows as a way to teach a lesson. Instead of having a video teachers would just go from slide to slide and narrate as they were doing it (thankfully this was before I was in school). One last example of a Type I technology use is video cassette tapes. Often times they didn't come in clear and are just an "outdated" way of teaching.

Type II technology uses are considered new and better ways of teaching. Type II uses are computer technology to help throughout students cognitive period. Type II use is supposed to make learning more interesting and fun for students. A type II piece of equipment example would be the laptops that are handed out to all the 7th and 8th graders in my town. They are allowed to do all their research on their own and type out computers on their personal laptops. The students say doing their homework is much easier and enjoyable now that they have the laptops. Another example of Type II technology is the graphing calculator. It is much more advanced than any past calculator and now students can do more on the calculator while actually learning more. One last example of Type II technology is PowerPoint. This allows teachers lessons to be more organized and easy for the students to learn/take notes. I find it much easier to take notes when my teachers uses power point than any other time.

My MEL experiences

Student/Teacher relationships: When I was in the 7th grade I had a homeroom/english teacher who was able to really connect with every student in the class. She was a hard teacher yet still made it fun for us to be in class. As middle school students we no longer wanted to be treated as little kids and she treated us all as adults. Because she was treating us like adults she expected us to act like adults and it created a mutual feeling of respect. I looked forward to going to her class and loved the way she communicated with us.
Learning Styles: The learning styles that I enjoy the most are when we get to do hands on work in class. I hate when teachers simply lecture and expect us to take notes for an hour of class. In high school my geometry teacher Ms. Cheevers knew that math wasn't my strongest subject and so she gave us the choice of doing hands on projects such as creating diagrams so we could do group work and see first hand how different mathematical formulas worked. I was able to understand so much more about geometric shapes that way and it made the class that much more interesting to me.
Interest: I disliked many classes throughout high school. I felt as though some teachers just did not understand how to make class interesting and relate it to us students. Economics does not interest me one bit and my teacher in high school just played boring videos and had us write down notes class after class. I can't remember one thing that I learned in that class and I did my homework just so I could get a good grade. I didn't enjoy one thing we learned and feel as though my teacher could have put in a better effort to make it interesting. That's the most important part of a teachers job is to make a lesson interesting yet effective at the same time.
Helping students succeed: Chemistry was probably the hardest class I have ever taken. I would study for hours on end and still fail each and every test. I enjoyed doing the labs which we were assigned but when it came to taking the tests I just could not get a decent grade. I went to see my teacher, Mr Cole for help often and it just didn't seem to help. By the end of the semester I had a D+ in the class. My teacher pulled me aside and told me that he was going to give me a C for all the effort I had put it. He knew how hard I had worked all semester and that I really was trying to learn the information. It really made me feel that all my hard work had paid off and that my teacher really did want to see me do well and although my test scores were a D average the effort I put in for the class did not reflect the same score.
Hands On- One of my favorite classes in high school was photography. My teacher allowed us to go out and take our own pictures where ever we wanted. We weren't limited to what we took pictures of. What was even better was that we got to learn hands on how to develop our own photos. We were in the "black room" for just about all of class and each student put together their own photo album. It made us appreciate the pictures that we had taken because not only were they are own but we also developed them ourselves. I learned so much throughout that class and really gained an appreciation for photographers and it was all because the whole class was hands on.

Learning Styles Inventory

The results which I received from Learning Styles Inventory were very similar to the ones which I received in Dr. Grace's class. I found that my top two styles were social and physical. I like to work with other people in groups and take part in assignments that are hands on. In Dr. Grace's class I also found that I am a Naturalist.

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust and Fairness

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust and Fairness


The part in this chapter that I found to be the most interesting was the part that stated “should teachers like students?” One student stated it perfectly “It’s not as important for a teacher to like the students as it is for the students to think the teacher likes them. Students feel more comfortable and motivated in classes where they think the teacher likes them.” Teachers must treat students equally and as a teacher, even if you do have a problem with a student, it is important to not let that show while you are teaching them. The students in this chapter wanted to feel as though they were respected by the teachers even if the teacher may not like them. They felt that it is important for teachers to be fair to all students and treat them equally.


I agreed with many of the statements that these students had about their teachers. If a student feels as though their teacher does not like them they are going to be less likely to participate and do well in class. I also liked the list of qualities which the students expect of their teachers such as know your material, grade us fairly, don’t treat us like a little kid, care about what is going on with us etc. I thought these were all important factors to take into account when it comes to teaching. I feel that it might be hard to please all your students but at the same time every teacher should do the best job that they can to make it possible.

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well


In this chapter the students talked about having a balance with their teachers knowing them well enough to understand how they learn and what teaching techniques work for them, yet not so much that the teachers know everything in their personal life. The most important thing that teachers have to know is what teaching techniques work best for each of their students and how they can make learning interesting and effective. The students also talked about not being judged by their teachers no matter where they lived, what they wore or who their friends were. If a student feels like they are being wrongfully judged by their teacher than focusing and learning in class is going to be that much harder.


I already can tell that I am going to enjoy reading this book. It is very interesting to hear high scholar’s point of view on issues and they are easy to relate to because it wasn’t to long ago that I was one myself. I agree with everything the students said about wanting to have a balance with their teachers. I remember having a math teacher in middle school and although he was a very good teacher and a nice person he was always listening to student’s conversations and liked to know every bit of gossip going on in his students lives. I believe that there has to be a place where you the draw the line in knowing what is happening in a students life. Teachers are not suppose to be "friends" with their students but teachers and students should have respect for one another.