Peer groups in elementary life

Remember back to your early days of elementary school. Like most you will have memories of you and your childhood friends in the classroom. Now try and think of the dynamics of the groups you hung around with. The boys created hierarchies where there was always a ring leader with his followers. For the girls they always came in pairs, one never went anywhere without the other. And for some they did not fall in any of these groups, these students could develop adjustment problems and emotional difficulties as a result of the isolationism. Elementary students of today compared to students in the 1980's and 90's have a noticeable difference in behavior's and activities. Children of the past two decades spent more time studying, playing sports, reading, and involved in personal care. Very little time was spent watching television or playing video games because they had not evolved yet into what they are today. The children of the past had more human interaction which I think lead to less out-casting even at the elementary level. Students where more excepting of one another then; now a days if your in the third grade without an ipod you are going to be looked upon awkwardly. SO the elementary school is based on these groups and the interactions of the students determines who is involved in the "cool groups". These interactions of elementary students and their peers can have a direct impact on student learning. A child is so easily rattled that is that child is having a bad day not much learning will be accomplished, because they will not be able to get past the issue that they are experiencing. That is why as educators we must try our best to include all students and even facilitate acceptance of others.

How is class time related to student achievement?

In the next coming years an emphasis will be placed on the teachers ability to teach the material in a effective way. Not only will this be monitored through standardized test results but through annual overview of teachers effectiveness. This places a accountability on the teachers. For example a Physical education teacher can be evaluated through a SOFIT assessment this tracks the type of instruction, Activity level and practice time of the students. The same kind of evaluations are being implemented into the general education classrooms. The question of, How much time on the material is related to the student achievement. The common thought is that the more time you spend on a topic the more knowledge you will retain, yes Practice makes perfect. Although it is how the content is delivered. Now a days teachers are being urged to deliver the content thorough Intra-task variation which means that teachers teach to the different levels of learning. When you teach to the high and low students in the room at the same time. With this Intra-task variation and elongated time on material; i think it will have a direct impact on student learning and achievement. Yearly evaluations will let teachers reflect upon one's teaching style. This is great because teachers should always be refining there methods and theories that way they produce the best possible learning environment for the students. These evaluations of the teachers will go in correspondence with president Obama's educational reform, where he states that he wants to reward the good teachers and weed out the bad".

Educational Organizations

The teaching profession is one of the most organized occupations in the country. This is due to the unifying organizations of (NEA 3 million members) National Education Association and the (AFT 1 million members) American Federation of Teachers. Both of these organizations help protect teachers with tenure, they also work to improve work conditions and salaries of those same teachers. The system works through a collaboration of all teachers that have a representative to voice the opinion of the teachers needs. It is up to you as to what organization you would like to join each has there different benefits. The NEA offers free legal services, and training opportunities on issues from technology to academic freedom. The NEA also elects pro-education candidates that promotes legislation beneficial to teachers and students. (www.nea.org). On the other hand you have the AFT which supports education reform. The AFT supported national standards of teachers, charter schools induction programs that enable new teachers to work with master teachers. The AFT is very similar to the NEA except it is on a smaller more localized scale. Both of these organizations provide literature "education week and teacher Magazine"these journals keep teachers informed about their agencies and up to date on their teaching world. For aspiring teachers you can find out useful information at WWW.inspiringteacher.com this is a great way to network with teachers who can help with any of the early teaching troubles you may have. If i had to choose today i would go with the AFT because it is a smaller scale and it looks out for the development of aspiring teachers through their mastery programs.

Poolside Portfolio Showcase

Today I attended the Portfolio showcase held by the upperclassmen of SUNY Cortland's Physical Education program. This gave me an opportunity to view other Phys.Ed students portfolio's, it was a great tool for sparking ideas for my own In my Ped 201 class we have started our professional portfolio, this will track my progress through the Physical education teacher program. The portfolio will be a collection of artifacts that highlight my teaching competencies and to demonstrate my readiness to teach. After I complete my student teaching i will be able to use my portfolio in a job interview to highlight my skills and abilities to be a physical educator.

New generation of positive gaming

Today I was fortunate enough to be invited to a workshop about this new gaming system that promotes a healthy alternative to gaming. It is called Idance, going into this I had a little knowledge about the system, but all i really thought it was a modified version of Dance Dance Revolution. Boy was I wrong this program truly is the future of gaming. First of all you can play up to 32 players at once, that is a whole class in most instances . Everyone can be on the same skill level this works best when you have a class of beginners or you can modify each individual mats difficulty level as the Idancer becomes more confident. In having this many players play at once you are almost guaranteed to have positive competition among the students because after every song you get a detailed description of your steps. After every song it provides a graph analysis, where you stand in comparison to the rest of the class, how many combos in a row and other features that can help to make students more physically fit. From the teaching aspects of the system you can control all features of the game from one remote. If a group of students is having trouble and are stuck between two levels a instructor can go ahead and add bells, bumps, or claps at every note to stimulate the auditory sensory rather than just the visual sense. This is a great tool that helps the students drastically. There is more; to get the whole class involved you can join all the mats together to form a square and everyone can play in unison as well as switch mats in a circular rotation it really is fun to watch as well as be apart of. The possibilities are endless with the system and I am looking forward to gaining more knowledge about the future of gaming.

A light snow fall brings christmas spirit to St. Mary's

This week's lab concluded our experience at St. Mary's elementary school. The theme of the day was Christmas in order to get the the kids in the spirit of the holidays we made a game up that had the children be Santa's helpers because santa's had become sick. So he needed the kids help. Half the kids were elves and the others were reindeer who pulled the elves from house to house dropping off presents for Santa. As they dropped of presents they had to do different activities. The kids loved pulling each other around on the scooters, as well as bringing lots of cookies to santa to get him better. After the kids made it to all of the house they had to go tell santa all bout their journeys and what movements they had to make in order to make it to the next house. They kids enjoyed talking about their different travels and sharing with each other. Most of all they enjoyed helping Santa out when he needed them. This lab was our last time with the St.Mary's kids, I have learned alot from these kids and i am thankful for having the opportunity to teach them as well as learn from them.