(Oct. 12 in-class writing): What makes you feel welcome or less-than-welcome in a class or subject?

One thing that makes me feel welcomed into a class is when I can see teachers make effort to remember students names right from the start. On top of that, asking the opions of students also makes the classroom more welcoming. Specifically, even though asking for feedbacks are important for teaching purposes anyways, the feedbacks themselves will make students feel that they are valued. Another minor but significant thing is that the classroom will be open and available for students to eat lunch and hang out in during break/lunch time. On top of that, it would be very helpful if the teacher can sit in the classroom, not all the time, every once a while to interact with the kids. All and all, I personally feel the teacher's relationship with students is independent of the subject or how hard the subject is.

Exit Slip - Tania/Amadeus/Steven's guiding questions

Identifying
1) a topic area
2) two or three guiding questions

Research
3) what has been learned about this already
- academic papers or books
- practioner articles
- the press and popular culture

4) making contact with the reason world.

Presentation
- slide
- bibliography resource list
- interactive activity for class

GUIDING QUESTIONS: 

How does motivation affect learning
What is teacher's motivation/goal to asign hw
What is the motivation for students to do hw
Does the type of relationship bewteen teacher and student affect students' motivation to do hw
Manditory hw vs optional hw --> integrity . motivation to do hw
hw load --> grade (wts the right balance?) 

Entrance Slip - Embodiment/Aesthetics

I think embodied learning can be incorporated in sciences in general. In fact, I see great potential in using them. A lot of times, the sciences are very theoretical in natural, and it is very hard for students to visualize the content and concepts; therefore having a difficult time understanding and/or growing an interest towards it. For instance, as the article suggested, by adding some aesthetic example, the students may pick up on the WHY part much more quickly than a boring proof or paragraphed. I would love to incorporate 'fancier' examples or demos that triggers the sense of students, hoping to get their interests higher. However, I don't necessary think movement will help too much. I could just be my misinterpretation of the word movement or simply a lack of knowledge. Perhaps movement will help in teaching physics? I just can't think of examples where movement will help in specific manners in subjects like bio or chem.

Exit Slip - Inquiry Question/Topic

I want to focus on the concept of motivation. I think that in general students will take more ownership and proactivity if the they are motivated. That being said, the question then becomes how can we as teachers to promote and invoke the motivation within students. Based off of the first journal entry, many components can play a factor. How can we help students find their own interest? Does the envrionment help (place-based-learning)? Does the poeple they are friends with help with creating a positive mentality or attitude towards the learning subject? Once more knowledge is gained in those areas, the next step would be figuring out how we can facilitate and prompt certain settings so that the students can be more interested and motivated. On the contrary, what kind of factors demotivate students or make students loose interest? Grade? Family? Hobbies? Pre-determined biases?

Entrace Slip - Grade

My views and thoughts in regard to grades are rather conflicted. As a student in high school, I absolutely loved report card day. That is because my academic performance has always been among the top. However, at the same time, I know many people who hated those report card days for the opposite reason in terms of academic performance. Thinking from the perspective of a teacher however, I feel giving out assessment is crucial for the development of students. The question then becomes whether giving out letter grades is the best option. I think letter grade works brilliantly as a tool for segregation and categorization. Letter grade will make those who are self-motivated or competitive, such as myself, work harder, and find the acknowledgement in the form of letter grade rewarding. At the same time, it will discourage those who doesn't feel the same way. Regardless, it will form a categorization among the students - the "smart" ones and those who aren't. Right now, I really can't see teaching Math or Science, specifically, without incorporating some sort of statistical and numerical assessment. In both subjects, things are very structured, and empirical measurement is important.

Exit Slip: Role of Media in Classroom

Media plays a huge role in modern education. Media influence range from social network to news and blog. I think it is really important that students have proper education in regard to media. Media is very powerful because it impose a type of control and social norm over not only students, but adults as well. What people suppose to look like, act like, and other stereotypes that may or may not be healthy. I am not here to say that media is all bad, its power can be used in the appropreiate manner. And when it does, the effect can be very beneficial. Examples can be using social media to spread words of positivity, hope, or motivation. However, I think it is safe to say that the majority of the media seem to have negative effect on the general population, whether its giving out biased information, or distorting facts. Hence, students should be given the proper training in how to interpret various information from the media.

Exist Slip - Orchard Garden

Gardening can be used very effectively to encourage healthy learning. Gardens are great places for place-based learning that promotes inquiry. Furthermore, gardens can help build and maintain a more positive classroom envrionment. When done properly, there are many things students can learn from a garden, ranging from art to science.
However, there may be many difficulties in the creation and maintainence of a garden. The land is very hard to come by. Maintaining a garden also takes a lot of time and effort. Hence, not many schools have a garden under their name.
Regardless, learning in a garden can be used as an example for place-based-inquiry. One is not neccessary restricted to learning in a garden. Parks, nature, and other places will all have similar function in terms of place-based-learning and inquiry.

Entrance Slip - Orchard Garden

I am not really a gardening type of person. However, after reading this article and thinking about what I have learned in the B.Ed program, I am starting to like the idea of incorporating gardening into education. First of all, place-based-learning is a huge topic and focus for the new cirriculum. Place-based-learning is more than just trying to learn things about a certain place. Instead, the important part is the community that occupies the place rather than the place on its own. Hence, what better way to implement place-based-learning than to have students build and contribute to a garden as their own community? Moreover, as the article mentioned, gardening incorporates so much more than just gardening. One can easily combine the idea of food, culture, and language into the experience. Academically, we can teach them about the biology, earth science, mathematical symmetry, chemical composition of the scent, and many more.