Kerry Wright EDU7666 Journal Entries
Blog 5 Dr. Signer

Topic Heading

I was involved with a discussion initiated by a parent on the discussion boards under the Teacher.net, chat boards (elementary education). The parent is a teacher herself and was concerned about her son. Her son was in an advanced class last year and did well. However, this year the teacher was not challenging the class and her son was starting to hate school. The writer needed suggestions about how to handle the situation.

We agreed that dealing with a bad teacher is a part of developing skills for later life situations. We also suggested exploring other extra activities to help challenge her son. The discussion also brought up other issues and suggestions to deal with this problem. First, one of the participates felt that the parent needed to be more involved with the grapevine of her son’s school in order to use her influence to get a better teacher for the school. Another commentary stressed the importance of looking at a whole school rather than one teacher. According to this person it was more important to find the school that met her son’s needs rather than a teacher. There was also a suggestion to speak to the teacher in order to see if her son’s prospective is accurate.

In the discussion I wrote how I felt that the parent should not put down his teacher in front of her son. One of my professors spoke about the importance of working with your child’s teacher. If a student feels that his/her parent does not respect the teacher than any learning that will be done is lost for that whole year. However, one of the commentaries on this discussion wrote about how it is important to validate your child’s feelings if they are in a bad situation. Children learn and develop if they can express their feelings.

This discussion brought to light the difficulty of dealing with bad teachers and children. My husband and I had struggled with this issue with our own daughter. We had a difficulty time with my younger daughter’s principle. While we did not feel this principal was hurting any students, we had a difficult time dealing with the principal on some of our concerns. I did express my feelings in front of my daughter and felt I should not have done this because my daughter expressed negative feelings toward the principal based on my comments. However, my husband felt that my daughter should be aware that not all teachers or authority figures handle themselves in the most professional manner.

Questions I posed with responses
I participated in this discussion because I do notice as a teacher that it is sometimes harder to have advanced students in your class. I see this year that I really have to struggle with keeping the advanced students motivated. I did get some ideas from the suggestions about afterschool activities described in the discussion. This discussion did hit on my own struggle of how to handle difficult or bad teachers in front of my own daughters. I feel comfortable speaking directly to the teachers. But I am not sure how to speak to my daughters about the situation. This discussion gave me more reflection on the matter but I have not come to a clear situation.

Responses to other questions

When I read the problem outlined by the parent, I felt that the parent was listening to her child without verifying the information. As a teacher I have had situations in my classroom where the student presented a picture to the parent that was missing information or not accurate. I feel it is important to maintain good communications with parents so that the parent understands the classroom procedures and this will enhance the learning environment in the class.

Kerry Wright EDU7666 Journal Entries Blog 4 Dr. Signer

Topic Heading

On 11/2 there was a question about lesson ideas for the elections on the discussion boards under the Teacher.net, chat boards (elementary education). The teacher needed ideas to handle teaching the voting process to second grade class. One teacher responded with a suggestion that she uses for her class. I like the suggestion that this teacher gave which was to set up little cardboard dividers around the table and each student had to take turns casting a vote.
This idea really caught my attention because I felt it gave the students a real idea of the voting process. The students had to wait in line and the choice was private. This approach is much more realistic for the students then asking for a show of hands and tallying their choices on the board.

Questions I posed with responses

I had planned to post the election question on the discussion board but someone else beat me to it. So when I saw the posting I joined in the discussion. This discussion I found had a big impact on my approach to teaching the voting process in my class room. I implemented the idea described above and it really made an impression on my students.

By setting up a voting area with cardboard dividers, I was able to impress upon the students about the importance of following procedures when voting. I think many adults do not take the process seriously and it is important for teachers to give that understanding to young children. I also impressed on the students the privilege we have in this country to vote in private without the fear of retaliation for the way we vote.
I have had elections in my class before. However, I felt this simple idea of dividers and turn taking was much more educational for the students.

Responses to other questions
I sent a message to the writer of this idea that I would try their idea. I also sent a message that I used this simple idea and I felt it was very successful.
I also found it interesting that only one person had a suggestion for teaching the voting process. I guess many teachers do not teach on this topic. I think that is very sad because we need to teach children and impress the importance of voting.