The first seven pages of This We Believe is about how we should shape a middle school. It says that we should pay attention to the lives of the adolescents attending the school and bas e the curriculum we teach on them. The pages also touch on how society is constantly changing now and because of that, we need to think more about where there students comes from. Lastly, the seventh page gave the National Middle School Association's mission statement.
I really enjoyed this reading because it ended on telling us the mission statement of the NMSA. I think that it was very important to know because it shows us what the goals of the authors are regarding middle school students. I also agree that times are constantly changing, and along with the times, teens are changing. Although we have all been a teen before, times were even slightly different. This makes a world of differnce when we go out and teach teenagers.
As we move on in the book, we are given the emphasis that students and teachers need to have positive interactions. Teachers need to set examples of working hard and interacting with coworkers so that students understand how those interactions work, but also so students feel comfortable. Students, especially between the ages of 10 and 15 need to feel safe in their learning environment. I really liked that this book mentions that students going from the middle school to high school should go through a moving up program. I think this is important because the experience between middle and high school is very different. Middle schools are a lot more supportive than high schools and this can be a difficult transition to get used to.
Of course, as teachers, we need to know how to create a curriculum that students will want to be involved in. In order for us to do this, the book gives us certain tips to use. We should make the units interesting and prevalent to the students. They need to feel like what we teach them means something to them and there is some point to it. We should also make the units challenging for the students. Though the students are young adolescents, they are very smart and will not benefit from a really easy unit. The book continues on, including having a classroom of the 21st century.
As we continue to read This We Believe, we start to understand the curriculum we teach needs to feel relevant to the students we are teaching. I think this is especially critical in middle level education because this is the period in our students lives when they are still trying to discover themselves and their interests. However, I think it is harder to make the content we teach more relatable in certain subjects like math. In my personal experience, I only had one math teacher who tried to relate algebra and geomotry to the real world. When I could relate a subject I hated to the real world, I succeeded a lot more than the classes where I sat and filled out worksheets. The students are going to be like this when we teach; if we just allow them to sit and do papers, they will not be motivated to do the work. However, if we allow students to be interested and have experiences relevent to them, they are more likely to succeed.
The last section of This We Believe is a setion that involves all of the different departments and hierarchy of the education system. In order to accomplish the great things we intend to in the classroom, we have to make connections with the many different people associated with our school. I used to think that there wer two very distinct people who worked for the education system; the teachers and the people who delt with the business side of the school. However, I was wrong. Everyone who works in the education system has contact with the students in some way, and effect their education.
As we continue to read This We Believe, we start to understand the curriculum we teach needs to feel relevant to the students we are teaching. I think this is especially critical in middle level education because this is the period in our students lives when they are still trying to discover themselves and their interests. However, I think it is harder to make the content we teach more relatable in certain subjects like math. In my personal experience, I only had one math teacher who tried to relate algebra and geomotry to the real world. When I could relate a subject I hated to the real world, I succeeded a lot more than the classes where I sat and filled out worksheets. The students are going to be like this when we teach; if we just allow them to sit and do papers, they will not be motivated to do the work. However, if we allow students to be interested and have experiences relevent to them, they are more likely to succeed.
The last section of This We Believe is a setion that involves all of the different departments and hierarchy of the education system. In order to accomplish the great things we intend to in the classroom, we have to make connections with the many different people associated with our school. I used to think that there wer two very distinct people who worked for the education system; the teachers and the people who delt with the business side of the school. However, I was wrong. Everyone who works in the education system has contact with the students in some way, and effect their education.
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