My Middle School Teaching Experience

During the winter term of 2008, I did my student teaching in the middle school setting. I felt the experience was a complete success. My cooperating teacher was helpful and let me have the freedom to make small changes in the classroom. This allowed me to help the students learn using my own teaching strategies. Through my cooperating teacher’s guidance, I was able to teach a unit on Ratios, Rates, and Proportions. She also helped me understand more about classroom management. I enjoyed all three classes of students and found each class had their own unique personality. There were very few problems during the term with behavior. I started each day with an entry assignment, which kept the students busy right from the start of the class.

I brought in some of my own personal items during our lesson on scale factor. We talked about the scale factor of a record album versus a compact disk. This gave students a first-hand experience of the difference in the size of the record compared to the compact disk. We talked about how the record had twelve songs on it while the compact disk held thirty songs. Next, we talked about the semi-truck I drove in the past. I showed them a model of the truck, which was ten inches long. We compared this to the actual truck, which was seventy feet long. We found the scale factor of the model compared to the actual truck and discussed how the actual truck was longer than two of the classrooms in the school.

For the final task during the unit, we conducted an experiment of how fish and wildlife officials determine how many fish are in a lake. This experiment was called “Capture/Recapture.” We used beans in a bowl as our lake, with brown beans as the marked fish and white beans as the unmarked fish. This worked well for the experiment and students worked in teams to collect their data. Each student recorded the data on their own worksheet and completed the calculations on their own. After they estimated how many fish (beans) were in the bowl, they wrote about the steps needed for the fish and wildlife officials to determine how many fish are in a lake.

During the term, I learned about classroom management and teaching methods in mathematics. I sat in on every staff meeting to learn how administration and teachers establish curriculum. I worked with the mathematics team as they drafted a mathematics placement test for all incoming sixth grader. This gave me additional experience in connecting the state standards with curriculum. I will be able to use this experience in my future school.

Student teaching in the middle school is another verification that I belong in teaching. My passion for teaching has become even stronger since then. I am thankful to have had a great principal, cooperating teacher, and support from all the teachers in the school. Without their support and open-armed acceptance into their world, my middle school teaching experience would not have been as successful.

About "Public School Teachers Using Machines in the Next Decade" by Larry Cuban

The article “Public School Teachers Using Machines in the Next Decade” by Larry Cuban addresses how schools will be using technology in the classroom in ten years. He gives three possible scenarios that can occur. He believes the elementary schools will change more than the secondary schools. The different possibilities are “The Technophile’s Scenario,” “The Preservationist’s Scenario,” and “The Cautious Optimist’s Scenario.” The first scenario is where there are plenty of computers, software, and equipment for classrooms and the teacher is more of a coach or facilitator. The second is where technology is put in place, but does not change the teacher’s role. The third scenario is where technology in the schools will slowly change the role of the teacher and their methods.

Of these three Cuban thinks “The Technophile’s Scenario” is the least likely to take place. His reasoning for this is that “technophiles often underestimate the influence of the age-graded school organization in shaping teachers’ workplace routines” and “they often minimize the power of social beliefs that have endured for centuries and perform important functions in society.” He claims it will be difficult to change the thinking of the teachers on how schools are to be operated. He also thinks that during the 1960s and 1970s the administrators making decisions have been cautious when it comes to different types of technologies.

Cuban believes the other two possibilities are more likely to happen, but that they are very different. Because elementary and secondary schools are very different, the elementary school is more likely to be like the cautious optimist’s scenario and the high school like the preservationist’s scenario. He claims this is because in the elementary school teachers are with their students all day and in the high school teachers are with their students for about fifty minutes a day.

Teachers’ Views of Computers as Catalysts for Changes in Their Teaching Practice

It is extremely important that teachers reflect on their teaching methods and respond by implementing new techniques and technology to improve their teaching. The teachers in this article mostly made changes not because of the technology, but rather other factors that influenced their thinking. For many of the teachers, they made changes because their school implemented new curriculum. Their action was changed through the requirement to change. Other teachers in many cases had already been thinking about constructivist teaching and were given the technology for new teaching strategies. Some teachers consciously chose not to become constructivist teachers.

The fact is teachers use self-reflection to make decisions about their teaching methods and make the changes only when they feel it necessary. It is important for teachers to receive the proper training with technology and its use for making these changes. Then there must be thoughtful reasoning to conclude the changes are necessary. The local influences teachers receive are the main catalyst why teachers change their thinking and teaching methods. As more schools implement new curriculum for teaching methods, many more teachers will use technology to help them with constructivist teaching. This will engage students to take part in their own learning, teachers will become facilitators, and the process of learning will become more individualized to the students they teach.

Ensuring Equality of Educational Opportunity in the Digital Age

“Ensuring Equality of Educational Opportunity in the Digital Age” is an informative article about the use of technology or lack of use depending on many factors about ethnic groups and poverty-stricken schools. If we are to make all students in the United States have equal use and instruction of technology, we must be certain every school is funded equally. We must also address how ethnic groups and poverty cause a shortfall in the quality of education a student receives.

We must plan and implement teacher education to assure every teacher has the qualifications needed to provide technology instruction to the students. It will also be important for all students to have access to computer technology. It will be important not only to have access, but for the students to have an understanding how to properly use this technology.

The first key concept is addressing tangible inequities with topics of existing solutions and emerging solutions. Here they address the fact that if every student is to be able to develop the basic technology skills, then all the inequities that exist must be addressed and solved. They point out the fact that there is not an immediate solution to this issue. I feel we may not be able to solve the issue completely, but we must attempt to get as close to the solution as possible.

The next key concept is less tangible factors which include the topics skills and drills versus problem-solving approach, controlling students versus student control, integrated versus additive tool, classroom management tool, software limitations, and insufficient role models. There is a difference in how different social group use technology and how they are being taught by the teachers. Many times it is difficult for the schools to hire highly qualified teachers and, therefore, student learning suffers. This is particularly true in the inner city where many teachers are not willing to teach.

They also talk about how some social groups use computer technology as a servant relationship and some social groups use computer technology as the master relationship. We as teachers must work toward ensuring students learn to use computer technology as the servant relationship. This alone will improve how a student thinks and increase their creativity. Over time we will be able to increase how all social groups use technology for their benefit.