pages 1-7
I think that the ideas that middle schools started with were a good start. They were seen as advisory boards and they were meant to show teenagers how to be responsible. Middle schools didn't really stress the importance of education until later on. I'm not really sure what the point of any school is if there isn't any teaching or learning going on. It is important to have advisers and life lessons, but there needs to be the added element of education.
There is an additional challenge to middle schools where the advisers are needed. children ages 10-15 are going through a lot of changes physically, mentally, and emotionally. Plus a lot of families aren't what they used to be. Divorces and single parent homes make it really hard for all students to deal with, but especially for those students that are going through major changes.
pages 9-19
There were two big ideas that I got out of pages 9-19. "A successful school for young adolescents is an inviting, supporting, and safe place, a joyful community that promotes in-depth learning and enhances students' physical and emotional well-being".
This is saying that a school cannot be successful if it is not supportive. I think that a supportive and happy positive environment is just as important as having good teachers that know what they're doing.
The other idea that I liked in this section was "schools do not presume to educate children alone. In today's society, genuine family and community involvement are fundamental components of successful schools for young adolescents". All teaching and learning does not take place in the classroom. It is vital to have some lessons take place in the community and have some life lessons taking place with it. The best teachers are the ones that can bring the lessons to real life and involve real problems.
pages 19-34
I liked that this section talked about relevancy to the students. If the students aren't interested or the subject doesn't pertain to the students than they aren't going to care or be interested in learning. It is important to make the lessons that are being taught relevant to the student's lives because "it allows students to pursue answers to questions they have about themselves, content, and the world". Most middle school students are still thinking and wondering about how they fit into the world that they live in, so making relevant lesson plans makes it easier for them to maybe figure it out.
The other big idea that I came across in this section was the idea of having student's set their own personal goals and keep track of their progress. This shows them if they are reaching a high achievement or their full potential in their classes. Charts are good because they can see how they are doing and they can also see how their classmates are doing too. Its not good to compare themselves, but sometimes it is a motivator to see how much your peers have done compared to you.
pages 35-51
These pages give a few bulleted points about what pretty much everybody in the school should be doing at a certain time. It gives guidelines and ideas to help all of the people in these positions. This list includes pretty much everybody except for the janitors and the librarians, but i am sure there is a list somewhere for some protocol for them to follow when dealing with middle grade students because they need to know too.
In the second half of the reading it characterizes middle school students into groups of development: physical development, cognitive-intellectual development, moral development, psychological development, and social-emotional development. each group gives some characteristics of these children. I think that this is helpful because teachers can look up how a particular student is acting and figure out what part of development that they are in. These characteristics could also give the teachers pointers on what steps to take to help their students.
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9 comments:
Well Angela you seem to have found a couple sweet links here. I think the divorce one is very important for middle grades teachers to take a look at. Divorce rates seem to always be going up in this country and it occurs to many middle school students (I have seen it first hand). Nice job.
Your divorces link is certainly useful; it will help remind us as teachers that there may be reasons behind why our students act the way they do, and this gets specific. The involvement link is also a great resource, especially because of the additional links that it provides. Nicely done.
I checked out your link on divorces affect on children, and I really liked the big idea that the children have more similarities with "normal" families than differences. I think as teachers if students feel an empty void when their parents get divorced we can help to provide them with a sense of structure and normalcy.
The website about the effects on divorce on children is a good one to read because it's a huge issue that teachers are going to have to deal with.
The constructing partnerships is also a great website, there are so many other links in that one website and each one has a lot of helpful information.
The article about motivating students has a lot of good tips that reinforces the facts that young adolescents want to be motivated in the classroom and it's our job to do that. I liked all your links, good job!
Your first link about children of divorced families was very interesting to me. The results said that these children have more difficulty in school, more behavior problems, more negative self-concepts, more problems with peers, and more trouble getting along with their parents. As teachers we must keep all those things in mind as we teach our students. It's just another reminder that we must get to know every student extremely well, as well as get to know their families, so we can help them learn to the best of our ability. Great links.
I view partnerships between family, community, and school as a very important aspect in student success. I loved the link, especially the plethora of articles that could be accessed through it. It was well outlined and contained a lot of information. I also liked the goals that were outlined in the motivation site.
I thought the site about divorces was neat. Coming from a divorsed family myself, I always find it interesting to hear people's opinion of divorce. Personally, I know I am better off with my parents divorced then I would be if they were together (not that everyone is so lucky) and I have friends who wish their parents were divorced, but instead "stay together for the kids."
I think the divorce article is interesting. I actually wrote an essay on the effects of divorce on children when I took Child and Adolescent Development. A lot of what happens to young children when their parents get divorced depends a lot of the personality of the child. Some children can make it through a divorce just fine. But then you have the other end of the spectrum where you have the students who shut out the world. It's a hard thing to deal with. I like the article though. I think the link about family involvement is entertaining. We read about how students are distancing themselves from their families during this time period, but yet the school and family/community involvement together is an important aspect and makes a huge difference. For the motivating link, I love the part about the students creating their own goals. I am a huge fan of students being more involved with their own education because then you provide them with ownership. You are telling them that they are responsible and they came up with it. Great link.
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