Jing Powerpoint

Observation

During my service learning, I made an observation of a fourth and fifth grade class at Miller Valley Elementary school. These are around the grades I am hoping to teach after college. In my observations, I saw that these students are very unruly; they do not listen to the teacher, and can very easily become rambunctious. When one student starts to make jokes, or act up, the people around him tend to do the same thing. I believe this is because they don’t want to show weakness and want to be equal with the “cool” kids in class.

I found this to be different than what I expected to see in the fourth and fifth grade classes. I expected to see the students respect the teachers and listen. I knew that there would be one or two people in each grade that would be one or two that would cause trouble, but I did not expect all of the students to follow them in suit. I also noticed that when I took part in helping out the class and out at recess, they listened to me and were very quiet when I talked. This could be because I am a male and tall and they fear and respect me or it could be that they don’t really know me, so they respect me.

I am hoping that when I become a teacher, my students respect me and can be controlled easily. If not, I will then need to learn how to handle them. I also observed that I will need to work on multi tasking. The teacher was able to keep the kids under control enough have prepared them for a test. She also got them to calm down to take a test. I will need to observe more teaching to understand how to do this. The good news is that I have at least three years to observe teaching.

Vissuals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2izH5QBpyIc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE7WNIaN0hU&feature=channel

I think both of these videos will help me out very much because they talk about the good and the bad of the jobs. I am thinking about either being an elementary school teacher or a middle school teacher and both of these show the good and bad of both.

Annotated Bibliography

Ansana, Fofana. "LABOR-SIERRA LEONE: NEW TEACHERS CAUGHT IN A MONEY SQUEEZE. " Global Information Network 17 March 2010 Multicultural Module, ProQuest. Web. 5 Apr. 2010.

This source goes over teaching in Sierra Leon, in Africa. It talks about how, not only are the teachers underpaid, but some are not even getting paid. The government is starting to aim for universal education, so they are enrolling kids at an extremely fast rate. Unfortunately, they are not hiring teachers to keep up with the growth. Some of the schools have taken matters into their own hands by hiring teachers on their own. The government is refusing to pay these salaries. This is a good article, showing that teachers are underpaid all around the world. I will be using this article in my essay, but I am going to look for more from around the United States.

Anonymous, . "Casting the tough vote. " American Teacher 1 Mar. 2010: Education Module, ProQuest. Web. 5 Apr. 2010.

In Detroit, there was a plan to cut more than 1500 jobs, mainly targeted at teachers with 14 years or less experience. With the down turn in the economy, especially in the auto-related industries, many people have moved out of the greater Detroit area. Student enrollment drives funding, and with people moving out of the area, that means fewer students, with less funding. With less government funding, they will have to release teachers. With this new contract that has been signed, most employees, over the next 40 day pay periods will take a $250 cut. Although this looks bad for the short term, it will be good in the long run because it will save the district almost $130 million and about 1500 jobs. It is good to see that even in tough economic times, the schools are still trying to help out the teachers. It looks like this will be a tough time to get a job, so I will use this article to prove that point. It is a very good article, and I like that it is set in a big city, as I plan to more to New York and teach. I am hoping to find out how the teaching future is looking in New York.

Goldstein, D.. "The Education Wars. " The American Prospect 1 Apr. 2009: Social Science Module, ProQuest. Web. 7 Apr. 2010.

In New York, a vote has recently passed that merit pay, or extra pay when students test scores improve, will apply only when the entire school sees improvement. They are also offering extra pay to those teaching hard to staff subjects, working in rough schools, or taking on responsibilities such as mentoring new teachers. This is good and rewarding to the entire teaching work force in New York. It encourages teachers to work harder and to take on more responsibilities. It is also going to get more people involved in teaching, now that there are more benefits to it. This is a very good article that I will defiantly be using in my paper because New York is where I want to teach.

"New York Teacher Salary." Teacher Portal. Teacher Portal, n.d. Web. 7 Apr 2010. .

I found this web site also very helpful. It informs on how much teachers make depending on where they work. It makes it very nice to know how much the average starting salary is in a state, the average median salary is and how it relates to the cost of living. It also gives a little overview of why people move there to teach and why not to. The New York example is, “But living in New York - especially NYC - having a teaching certificate for K-12 will be tough to have a high standard of living in the high cost-of-living area. Get your masters degree to augment your salary as your career progresses. But then again - it is New York, the most interesting place in the world to live. You have other benefits, so being a teacher may just be your day job!” This will be a very helpful web site in deciding where I want to move to work.

Proposal

The topic I have chosen for this assignment is teaching. I have wanted to become a teacher for the last 3 years now. I am majoring in elementary education. I would love to pursue this and be able to shape young minds. Some of the controversy that surrounds this profession is the low salaries and the amount of work that is put in. I hope that by doing this assignment I will be prepared to go into my profession ready to accept the responsibility. I also hope to learn about laws in the past that have affected teachers today and also, laws that might affect teachers in the future.

I know that teachers have always been underpaid but I am hoping that within the next few years, some laws pass that will allow them to make a salary that they can raise a family on. Teaching is my passion and I will pursue it no matter what.

Testing

Hey. I'm Mike Mattina and this is my first blog. Just testing to see if everything is working. A little bit about me is that I have played baseball since i was 4 or 5 and i played all 4 years on varsity at my high school. I am not playing in college, but over the summer I play in 21 and under leagues.