EDSS 530 Final

Classroom Discipline Plan

1) Classroom Expectations for Students:

1. Listen when someone else is speaking
2. Give your best effort
3. Don't be afraid to fail
4. Try everything before asking for help
5. Be respectful of everyone

1: Logical - People will not listen to you. You will not learn important material.
2: Natural - You will not recieve an A in the class.
3: Natural - You will not learn from your mistakes. You will not grow as a person.
4: Logical - I will not be able to help you, since I do not know what you don't understand.
5: Logical - People will not respect you. You will have classroom liberties stripped from you.

Reading Response 5.2(EXTRA CREDIT): Teachers Evaluating Teachers

I chose this article because of the title basically. It sounded like an interesting concept and it caught my attention. My initial thoughts prior to reading the article were that teachers would observe other teachers in their classroom, similar to how principals observe classrooms now, and do a write-up on the good, bad, and ugly of that teachers class. I was correct in this assumption after reading the article. The program, adopted in a Cincinnati school district, had quality veteran teachers step outside of their classroom for two years to mentor beginning teachers. These quality vets also would assist veteran teachers who were becoming stagnant or having difficulties in their teaching methods. This is met with some resistance from unions, however, because of the opportunity for the "consulting teachers", the ones helping the new and reforming teachers, to recommend a reforming teacher for termination under the program's rules. Honestly, I think this type of system is a great idea. We have are students do peer review, and so why wouldn't it work for us? Also, the administrators aren't in classrooms anymore, any may not give appropriate or accurate feedback on your teaching.

Reading Response 5: Getting to the Heart of Quality Teaching

This article basically summarizes everything that we have learned in the credential program, or have come to realized about schooling throughout our experiences. I chose this article because I thought it would give an insight into how all involved parties can work to improve teacher quality in their schools. However, this was not the case at all. This article discussed the "what" not the "how". That is, the article talked about the things that were wrong in schooling, and with teacher quality, but not how to fix it. It stated that the classroom sizes are too large, teachers don't have enough time, there are not enough teachers of color, the teachers are teaching to the test, and some teachers are too boring and irrelevant, etc, etc. Basically, in reading this article, I learned nothing new about the teaching profession and education field. This might be a good thing though. It is through the program at CSUSM that I have learned all of these things. So maybe, by me being bored with this article, the statement can be made that CSUSM is doing its job in that it is making the future educators that pass through their system aware of everything that is involved in education.