Chapter 11

I like how this chapter started by saying that,"Teachers use massive amounts of energy doing much of the thinking that kids could do for themselves." Often times I feel as though we as teachers do all the thinking for the kids. When the students are taking notes, we summaries the info for them. When we want students to answer a question, we echo the question for them. When we pose a question, the answer is given word for word in the text. Often times I feel like teachers spoon feed the students to much. If kids are given adequate time, they can make a lot of these connections on their own. Some teachers do all the thinking for the students. As a result, the teacher goes home exhausted and the student goes home full of energy.

Chapter 10

One quote that stands out for me from this chapter was,"kids will respond positively to a penalty when they see a logical connection between their behavior and what happens to them as a result of that behavior." This past Friday all the teachers were going to a funeral. On Thursday, my teacher told her class that they better behave for the subs.One of the students (who is usally terrible when there is a sub) suggested that any cards pulled should be double time at recess. The class agreed, and when they got their cards pulled that day were more then willing to serve the extra time. By letting the students come up with the consequences they took ownership of their behavior.

Chapter 9

I loved the example were the math teacher gave the students the option of doing the even or the odds, by assigning twice as many problems.Then when she wanted them to do the whole page she gave them the option of writing their answers on the front or back.
Another valid point this chapter made, was if you give students choices they will be more excepting when they don't have a choice. I seen this when one of my teacher's I'm working with had a substitute teacher. The regular teacher never gives her student's a choices. As a result, when the sub came in the students made the choice that they were not going to be controlled today like they had been all year. There was more noise coming out of that room in one day then I had heard all year combined.

Chapter 8

This chapter makes me think of an interesting situation I observed this week. One of my student's got an A on their math test.Usually this student fails their math test. When the student recieves the failing grade he announces it proudly to the class. This week when I handed the test back, he went to his sit and had a big smile on his face. However, he didn't announce his grade to anyone. For some reason, he didn't want the class to know he had done well, even though his facial expressions showed he was very proud.

Chapter 7

When this chapter talked about the school with 324 rules I thought it was South Range Elementary. One of the hardest things for me to this point, has been trying to learn all the rules and the consequences that go with them. Sometimes it feels like no matter what the kids are doing their breaking one of the rules. I loved the one rule idea."You can do anything you want in this class,provided it doesn't cause a problem for someone else. I think most students would see this as fair and reasonable.

Chapter 6

I like how the teacher handled Johnny and is playground behavior. I have a student in my class that always tries to put the blame on something else when were discussing his behavior. I've used this exact approach, I telling him that we are not here to discuss Joe's behavior. This student is now on a behavior plan so after every class period, I have to give him a score based on his behavior. He often wants to argue with me, but I always answer," I'm not going to argue with you now, but if you want to discuss it at recess or after school I would be glad to.
Another thing that open my eyes was the sexually abused girl's situation. As a teacher you perceive education as very important, but some students see education as pointless. It is these differences in perception that leads to a lot of altercations between teachers and students. It is this perceptiion that I'm working on changing with my student's. No matter what they want to do with their lives, education is an important part of that dream.

chapter 5

The begining of this chapter makes several valid points. The first being that kids have rights. At the begining of the semester when I was observing, I heard a student say, "You can't talk to me like that.I have rights." The second point I think that speaks to why some kids are a challenge, is the home environment.We had a 1st grader come to school this week with a shirt that said," I'm a virgin and you are not getting any." What kind of of home environment does this child have? The last point that caught my attention was Mr. Fowler. He reminds me of the math teacher I'm working with. She is very much like a drill sergent. As soon as she leaves the room her students' lose their halos over their heads.