'Looking'

Teachers, their sole per pose is to teacher children and teens the basic knowledge. Some of the teachers today struggle with running a classroom. We want the kids to learn but times are changing and children are getting more difficult to teach. We have more special needs kids, and more children of race and as teacher we need to teach in such a way that we get a response from all. We need to explore our students and understand what teaching methods best fit them. For most in what Corinne McKamey has wrote about in her article 'Uncovering and managing unconscious ways of 'looking'' teachers need to be more invited and not just sitting at their desk and listen to their teacher talk to them. The classroom needs to be more engaging and exciting for all. As for student teacher relationship that needs to become more of a bond where the teacher is trusted and therefore the student making sure that whom ever the student or teacher is isn't crossing that line and becoming best friends. Youth and Action has talked about this many times and one of their staff members seems to become a mast at from what I have observed in class. 

This whole topic made me thing of two teachers in my life that have done exactly what Corinne McKamey would see as a good educator. First is was my forth grade teacher and he was the best. He would turn our lessons into fun educational games and we all wanted to play. Spelling bee basketball was my favorite and face-off with multiplication tables. Face-off went as far as playing other classes and ours always won! Even against the sixth graders. We were so proud and it got us so motivated as a whole class. The other teacher was my senior year english teacher. Everyone loved her she was fun and exciting as well. And our lessons always had an activity. One that  can remember was when we were reading hamlet the whole class had a part and we all had to stand up and act it out. And eventual after writing a paper on it we got to go to New York city and see it on broadway with Jude Law as hamlet! It was great but not only was this teacher fun she was so helpful and you could go to her for anything. We always had students from other classrooms coming in to get help from her for their senior projects I was just lucky enough to have her and man with out her I don't think I would have graduated high school. 

Being an extra ordinary teacher is super important in the world that we live in today. It is always changing and teacher need to know that they as well need to change with the world. Everyone learns differently and some need a caring teacher and some need that tuff love teacher. But it is up to the teacher to find out what child needs what. 

This video is a little long but so great !!! It is about a teacher and he is amazing !! 

Get Involved !

In reading Kohn's article it made me think a lot about my CEP Class that I took a couple of semesters ago. And at once point we were disscussing how parents and or guardians should never say no to a child. The reason being that we as caretakers need to explain our reasoning of no. I completely agree that we should never say just no. We also talked about how caretakers should all in all not say no at all because it is sending negativity toward the child. We should instead say things like "kyle we shouldn't talk that way about each other because we can hurt there feelings" Vs "No Kyle don't say that". When we use the word no with no explanation we are not teaching the child the difference between right and wrong even though it seems like we are.
In this article Kohn also talks about middle and lower class children and the after school programs that they attend. I think it is very important for children of these families to attend as their life is not the  easiest and they should not have to deal with their parents struggles. But I also think that parents should be more involved when they are sending their children to an after school program. It is important for them to know what is going on with their children. What are they doing there, do they like it, and what are they getting out of their time there. All thing parents or guardians should keep in mind. A parent caring about their child is the best thing for their child even if they need to for get about all the hard ships they are going through. Sometime's we need to put that away for our child !