Safety First

On a recent observation  at the school that I'm doing my practicum at, my cooperating teacher was moving into a lesson on welding and metal working.  Before my cooperating teacher even moved into instructing the students on how, what, and the ways of using the equipment at hand he gave a in depth instruction on the importance of safety when using the welder and Oxy-Acetylene torch.  He explained the proper way to operate the tools and instruments to reduce and insure that no accidents are able to occur. He explained that it is important to wear your welding helmet properly to reduce the risk of being "flashed" which can effect vision and to make sure that knobs are turned precisely to make sure that the the gases going to the cutting torch are mixing properly.  With this instruction there were no injuries to any student participating in the hands on assignments dealing with this lesson.

Waiting on Superman

"Waiting on Superman" is a documentary about how some Public City Schools are failing and not performing up to par, alongside not educating the students as well as other Charter Schools in the region.  The parents of several students are hard working citizens of that area who want the best for there children so they can receive a great education and be in more of a better learning atmosphere centered around great teachers and faculty who love there job and educating students.  Several well deserving students are entering a draft lottery in hopes of being selected to attend a Charter School where they will beat the odds that were against them in the other School Systems and flourish in the Charters Schools.  Overall, I think "Waiting on Superman" is a good documentary highlighting how some of America's School Systems need  Improvement and even though there may be a large number of kids in the system who may perform badly and in some cases may not take education seriously, but yet there are a whole lot more students who really care and want to be successful and standout.  This documentary should push all of us to want the best of education and work hard enough until we get there.

The 21st century Classroom

The classroom in the 21st Century has evolved a lot over the years and molded into more technological environments than what it was centuries before. The classrooms have changed from rooms with just teachers and books, along with chalkboards and projectors. You can now walk into classrooms and expect to see students interacting with I-pads and reading passages instead of reading them out of books, while the teacher uses a state of the art smart-board to write homework assignments, notes, and examples, leaving the old-fashioned allergy inducing chalkboard in the past. I plan to have a well-rounded, orderly ran classroom where students will show respect to me as well as me showing them respect while they exhibit good work ethics and focus while learning the content that I teach. The classroom will be a fun but serious environment to be in, with education paraphernalia all around so that the students will be reminded of why they are in class.