Teacher's role in todays childrens education

    This is to review the 4 videos we watched this week.  I found them all to be interesting.  The first two from Dalton Sherman are inspiring to watch because he thanks teachers for what they do.  It is our, teachers, jobs to make sure that every student we come across is like this young man.  Our feelings are imprinted onto our students.  If we have a good day, our students can tell and if we have a bad day, our students can also tell.  Teachers need make sure that everyday is a good day because we want all of our students to have a positive school experience.  We cannot bring our problems into the classroom.  It is already filled with so many challenges, we do not need to allow it to overflow with our own personal struggles.  Just like Dalton Sherman says, "Never lose your joy." 

    I had a negative fieldwork experience last year.  I observed a veteran Math teacher's class in a school district.  In the middle of the lesson, she came to me and said some very negative comments about her students.  She said, "They should know this material by now.  We've gone over this many times and they still don't get it."  Then she proceeded to make comments about her pay, "I don't get paid enough."  And finally, she told me that she was close to retirement.  I never want this to be me, I never want to lose my joy for this wonderful profession.  I truly believe this to be a lifelong calling for me, this is not for everyone.

    Rita Pierson gives two very good talks about her teaching experience.  I would like to use her test grading strategy.  She said, "A student got 18 out of 20 questions wrong on a quiz, so I gave a grade of '+2' instead a grade of '-18'."  I find that to be funny and one of the best strategies I've ever heard used.  There are two different ways of looking at the same grade and she chose the more positive of the two approaches.  Why discourage the child even further, why not put a positive twist on a bad situation?

    Finally, Rita Pierson shows us two examples of how to handle the same situation on the subject of catching a student cheating on one of her tests.  In the first example, she does a role play activity with how to overreact and how not to handle the situation properly.  Then she shows a contrasting style of how to handle and role play the situation in the correct manner.  It is important to treat our students with respect in order to keep their trust and respect for us as educators.  She shows how you can express you disappointment in a proper manner.

    I found all 4 videos to be helpful, especially the last one.  The last one is the most interesting because it is a situation that will, without a doubt, arise in everyone's classroom sooner or later.