Volunteer in or join an organization or get involved in a group comprised of people who are significantly different than you

This past summer as part of my study abroad requirement for Goshen College, I attended a Study-Service Term in Nicaragua for 12 weeks. During the first six weeks, each of the 23 students in my group lived with a host family, attended language and culture classes, went on field trips around the country, and ate a lot of Nicaraguan food. This was a great introduction to the country and it definitely helped to bolster my Spanish skills for what was to come. During the second six weeks, all of the students then moved to a service location. For many of us, our service assignments had at least something to do with our majors back at Goshen College. But again we lived with host families, worked in pairs at our service placements, practiced our Spanish, and ate a lot of Nicaraguan food.

For my service assignment, I wanted to work with kids, but I didn't want to be confined to teaching English. One opportunity was to work at an orphanage for developmentally disabled children. There weren't too many details provided, but I decided to go for it. I'm so glad that I did. During my six weeks working at Hogar Belen, I had the opportunity both to work with some fascinating children doing physical and occupational therapy and got to know some of the fabulous staff who worked with them day in and day out.

One of the most important things that I learned there that is definitely applicable to the field of teaching is the need for patience. For example, on our first day there, we were told that the woman in charge of physical therapy would be back by 1:00 to introduce to us the kids and teach us about what we would be doing. It turns out that she arrived by 2:00. This was a daily occurrence of things being scheduled for one time and happening at another or completely throwing the schedule to the wind and finding something else to do. For my service partner Jonna and I, this was frustrating for our North American sentiments about time and schedule.

The other way that I learned about patience was through working with the children. They were absolutely unlike any other children who I had worked with before. Many of the children were lacking verbal, social and motor skills. In my previous experiences with children, many children do not do what they are told simply because they don't want to. These children didn't always do what they were told because they couldn't or they didn't understand. For example, several children struggled to eat with a spoon, but this was something that the staff really emphasized was important for their development. The children became frustrated with the spoon and would just give up and eat with their hands. In the moment, it was frustrating to say every minute or so, "no, use your spoon," but looking back and being able to recognize that that patience and understanding of where they are coming from is really important.

My ability to stay calm with children in sometimes very stressful situations (with the additional challenge of communicating in Spanish), I think helped the children learn how to deal with situations in a better manner. One child, Karla, comes to mind. Too often she would become quite agitated when we tried to go to physical therapy or eat calmly at the table. She just wanted to do what she wanted to do and didn't want to listen to anyone else. One day after nap time, she was a little bit calmer and I invited her to come sit on my lap. As is a habit of mine, I began whistling. Very quickly, she became quite calm and attentive. As my interactions with her continued, I learned that music was an important way to calm and focus her. I'm glad that I took the time to find ways to connect with her even though at first interaction, she was a very frustrating child to work with. My supervisor actually commented on how well we were working together, and of course, I really appreciated that feedback.

This experience in Nicaragua was important in terms of working with people who are different than me, not only because I was working with some children with very severe disabilities, but because of the tremendous patience and care that I saw modeled as I worked with the Nicaraguan care staff at the facility. Even though their job was frustrating and relentless, they still showed such joy as they worked with the children. As Jonna and I got to know them better, they shared that these children are their second families and that even though the pay isn't great, this job was still worth it. That attitude, particularly because of the financial hardships evident in this area of the country, was particularly touching to me. It also helped me to see that common bond, that no matter how frustrating a job might be, it is relationships that can hold us together.

Study Effective Teachers

One of the many opportunities that was laid out for me during my student teaching was the opportunity to study effective teachers. So during the last weeks of my student teaching this fall, I tried to observe at least one or two classes each day other than the ones with my cooperating teacher. I thought that it was particularly important to observe other math teachers, but I also observed other teachers in my block (Language Arts, Science, and ESL), to get a sense of how they deal with some the same students that I saw in my classroom. Both types of observations were definitely helpful for a variety of reasons.

One teacher who I particularly enjoyed watching was Mrs. Weatherholt in 7th Grade Science. She taught in such a conversational manner so that student participation felt absolutely natural. As part of their weekly reading time, they read an article about earthquakes and then wrote their own paragraph summaries. She was very quick to praise each student who volunteered to read theirs aloud. It was not false flattery; she found specific aspects about each student's writing that she was able to commend. She had such presence with her students that they seemed compelled to pay attention and participate, even some of the students who have caused behavior problems in my class and in others.

Another observation that was particularly helpful to me was Ms. Taylor's ISTEP enrichment class, which is targeted towards students who are having trouble passing the math portion of the ISTEP. I taught this same class for a few weeks and really struggled with it, in part because the curriculum felt very prescribed. It was nice to see Ms. Taylor including those same elements that I did in my class, but in what felt like a more engaging and helpful manner. For example, for our daily bellwork questions, we both used the same material, but rather than reviewing the answers simply on the overhead, she asked students to share their answers on whiteboards. Another step that she utilized to further student learning on bellwork was that for problems that students had a great deal of difficulty on, she gave them the first step and then asked them to continue working out the problem on their whiteboards. I thought that this showed a good balance between skipping over difficult problems and ceaselessly answering questions. They also followed the same format as my class for the "10 Questions;" however, she spent time reviewing the day's skill and gave them quite a few examples before they went through the actual "10 Questions." Though I felt like she was covering the material much more thoroughly than either I or my cooperating teacher had been able to do, I felt like her class period was paced appropriately and that she was not rushing through material. It was inspiring to see her using the same tools as I had to work with in the class, but her using them much more effectively.

Learning to identify allies

Through my i-search paper for Secondary Curriculum and Instruction, I think that I built an important ally. My topic of exploration was looking at how working professionals actually use mathematics in their workplace. As I thought about who I wanted to contact, medical and business applications came to mind and both of the individuals who I talked to were more than willing to help me out and were interested in what I was trying to look at. I found a great book called "She Does Math!" which details real-life math that female working professionals do. Many of the problems had to do with engineering, but I didn't think I knew any engineers to contact. Suddenly I recalled a new teacher at my former high school who my mother (who is an administrator at said high school) told me about.

Her name is Gail Anderson and she worked in aerospace engineering prior to obtaining her teaching license just a few years ago. Not only did she understand my quest to find out how math is used in the real-world, it is also something that she strives to incorporate into her teaching. She assigns a paper to her students asking them to explore this topic on their own and she actually requested to add my i-search paper to her body of resources to share with her students.

I certainly hope to use her as a resource again and perhaps I will have the chance to observe her classes sometime when I visit home.

Become aware that you are a role model and act accordingly

This topic might be considered to be a bit silly, but it is something that is actually quite important to me. And that topic is clothing. Now, I'm not one to spend hours in the morning picking out my clothes for the day or even one who enjoys shopping. The reason that I think clothes are important is because whether they should or not, clothes say a lot about a person. We all tend to make a lot of snap judgments about people, based on their general appearance, of which clothes are certainly a part. In fact, I was just reading something today on this very issue at feministing.com

We see a hot women on the street, for example, and automatically assume she has a great, easy life, a loving partner, a successful career--all because her hair is shiny and straight and she wears a size two! The reverse effect is ever-present these days; when a woman is overweight or doesn't fit the conventional standard of beauty in some other way, we assume all sorts of completely unrelated thing about her--she's lazy, unhappy, untalented, unloved.

At my field placements this year at both Goshen High School and Goshen Middle School, I have been struck by the way in which girls dress. Now I'm not one to tell other people how to dress, but particularly this semester, I have been very conscious of the way that I dress when I go to the high school. My goals are 1) to be professional 2) to dress attractively without showing a lot of skin or wearing skin-tight items of clothing. I think that the media tells young girls that the only way for them to be considered attractive is for them to wear a skin-tight shirt or a dress that is far too short to be considered a dress. I don't know if any of them ever think about it, but I figure my goals aren't bad ones and I happen to be an influence, well then all the better.

Get experience with all types of learners and their families - part b

I recently finished reading Jennifer Baumgardner's book Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics." I had read another book by Baumgardner during my first year of college and decided to try another. Bisexuality was a topic that was briefly mentioned in my Human Sexuality class last semester, but I thought there was certainly a lot more I could learn about the topic. Though some of her experiences were a bit too far from my own, there certainly were ideas that I was able to identify with. For the some of the same reasons that I enjoyed Anne Marie's presence at the GWSA retreat (see part a), I enjoyed Baumgardner's personal experience with the topic as well as her more academic treatises on the subject.

One interesting issue that goes alongside of bisexuality is their inclusion (or exclusion) in the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) community. While they are included officially in title, Baumgardner suggests that bisexuals struggle to know their place. They typically experience alienation from the heterosexual community when they have a same-sex partner, but are treated as hypocrites from the same-sex community when they enter a heterosexual relationship. As Baumgardner points out, "Anyone who can access heterosexuality at some point is living a more socially privileged life than a lesbian is" (195).

I appreciated what Baumgardner had to offer on the subject of the relationship between bisexuality and feminism. Baumgardner describes this movement of second-wave feminism:

"Another radical argument for looking to women in the 1970s underscored the political purity and courage of women who gave up the sexist privileges garnered by their association with men. Those women were known as "political lesbians." They might not have ever slept with a woman - indeed, they might have been straight - but they disavowed heterosexual identity and men." (75)

This phenomenon of second-wave feminism helped me to understand why feminists are stereotypically portrayed as emasculating lesbians.

Through reading this book, I have a greater acceptance of those who have chosen to live life as a bisexual. Rather than being considered to be simply sitting on the fence, I think I’m beginning to understand that some individuals are sexually attracted to individuals of both sexes. My understanding of feminism also helps me to make sense of all this.

Get experience with all types of learners and their families - part a

On the first weekend of this semester, GSWA (Goshen Student Women's Association) and Advocates offered a short retreat at the College Cabin. Though it was just for a few hours, this "retreat" offered attendees the opportunity to learn more about transgender issues in a relaxed, informal environment. Our time there was moderated by a variety of college students from the hosting clubs and Anne Marie, a transgender individual, provided the topical input. We began by discussing two questions with those who we were sitting with. These questions dealt with the nature of gender: essentially, how much of gender is a social construction and how much is biological? I was sitting with a friend who has studied a great deal of psychology and so it was interesting to hear her perspective on the issue in addition to those of the others around us.

We then discussed several articles related to how transgenderism is presented in the media. One article that we focused in on was an article from ESPN that was about a transgender individual who had a sex reassignment surgery and had just won a long drive championship for golf. Anne Marie called the article out for not even being about the athlete's success; the article is only about the controversy surrounding her win and even the title suggests their bias: "Former male Lawless wins women's title." There were several issues that arose through the discussion of this article. The first was a disbelief of the biased perspective presented by the author of the article through quotes such as this: "However, if a woman has the knees, hands and feet of a man, she has genetic real estate that is more gifted." Secondly, the article seemed to disregard Lawless's transgender identity as not being real and simply to achieve success in golf competitions.

After sharing in a lunch of bread and soup, Anne Marie shared about her own experience of coming to terms with her transgender identity. She shared about her reasons for choosing not to have sex reassignment surgery. Anne Marie is a pastor of a church in Chicago and so her experiences as a transgender pastor and her experiences with the church as a larger entity were also interesting to hear about. Finally, she shared with us some of her work outside of the realm of sexuality. One item that I found to be fascinating was her evaluation of Christian language with the objective of examining how racism and violence have been institutionalized. She discussed the ever present dichotomy of light as good and dark as bad along with violent language that is common in Christian liturgy. I don't agree with all she said, particularly since I know very little about traditional liturgy, but I found her opinions to be quite interesting.

The day ended up being quite informative and enjoyable. Not only did I learn more about transgender issues, I was able to converse with my peers about a variety of issues that don't typically come up in daily conversation. Anne Marie's presence at this event was very influential, not only did she help to us to understand the issue; she helped put a face to it.

Practice democratic principles - part c

Living in a house this year, with dishes to clean and meals to cook, each one of us in the house has had to learn to work together in order to make sure that everything gets done and that everyone is at least decently happy with how things are going. We do several different things to ensure that things are going smoothly. First of all, at the beginning of the year, we all sat down and created a "Kenwood Konstitution" which outlines how we will do things like buy groceries and when we will eat meals together. At times it was difficult and tedious. We all had different ideas, for example, about what kinds of food items should be community. Even though we were able to create a set of guidelines at the beginning of the year, we have also been able to be flexible and adapt so that things might go better.

Each Sunday night we have a house meal, which is supposed to be mandatory; however, it is quite difficult getting 9 peoples' schedules to correspond. At the house meal, we often discuss problems within the house or things that we may need to keep in mind. For example, the past several house meals have been spent trying to plan an open house "Kristmas at Kenwood." Despite all of our busy schedules, I thought that we did a good job of planning this event. We formed three committees, each with three people in order to pull off this event. We also have nonmandatory house meals three other times during the week, which are also times that we discuss things that are happening within the house or just have fun together.

At the beginning of the year we also formed a chore wheel so that our house could stay relatively clean. Each week, the wheel is spun so that we get a new chore. Theoretically, if you did not do your chore for a particular week, you are supposed to contribute 25 cents to a "fun fund" which we haven't actually established yet. Despite the lack of punishment for neglected chores, we have also done a decent job at keeping up with the housework. One snag that we ran into regarded the cleaning of our two bathrooms. The plan was that one male and one female would be on bathrooms for each week, though as the wheel was spun, this didn't always work out. Then one bathroom or the other was not being cleaned. So around midterm, we formed a new chore chart, which has separate options for bathrooms to ensure that both the male and female bathrooms would get cleaned.

Even though living with so many people can sometimes be frustrating, it has definitely been a good experience to learn how to make decisions as a group and to adapt plans that may not be working as well as they could.

Practice democratic principles - part b

In light of the recent election and current interest in the individuals that President-Elect has chosen to include in his cabinet, I have chosen to critically examine his cabinet thus far, paying attention mainly to gender, racial identity, and age. The likelihood that an openly same-sex oriented individual would be selected seems to be quite low, at least in my opinion. There would be other groups that would traditionally lack representation in positions of power.

First of all, I am tremendously excited about the appointment of Hilary Clinton to the position of Secretary of State. To have two consecutive women in such a powerful position is perhaps indicative of our country's willingness to accept well-qualified women for these kinds of jobs. While most Democrats have gotten over their bitterness following Obama's nomination as the Democratic candidate, I think that this is still a good move that may help to increase party unity.

Only three posts, as of this point, will be filled by white males. Personally I find this to be rather impressive. I do not know much about Robert Gates, who will remain in his post of Defense Secretary when the Bush administration vacates office in January. Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner appears to be a good choice based on his experience and knowledge of the bailout. Tom Daschle, Health Secretary, while he has extensive experience as a House Representative, I'm not sure of his qualifications for the position of Health Secretary.

The remaining four posts will be held by a woman, a racial minority, or both. African-American, Eric Holder, will serve as the first African-American Attorney General, after also serving in the Clinton administration. Janet Napolitano was chosen for the position of Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, given her experience on immigration as Governor of New Mexico. While her appointment to this position is of course notable, unfortunately Pennsylvania governor, Ed Rendell, belittled this achievement by saying that she is perfect for the job since she has no family, thus she has no life. As if the only measure of someone's life is whether or not they have a family. African-American Susan Rice will occupy the position of UN Ambassador after working in the Clinton administration for a few years as the youngest assistant secretary of state. After running for the Democratic nomination, Latino Bill Richardson will join Obama's cabinet as Commerce Secretary. Announced this week, Steven Chu, of Chinese background, was nominated to the post of Secretary of Energy. Chu is known for his work with alternative energy and global climate change.

Given the diversity of our nation, I think that it is only appropriate for the leadership to reflect the population. Of course a better job could always be done, but I think that this cabinet is looking pretty good.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7716467.stm

Practice democratic principles - part a

For the past several months I have been an avid reader of feministing.com, a feminist blogging site. I first discovered this website as part of taking the course Introduction to Women's Studies last fall. I had kind of forgotten about it until a friend was telling me about something that she had read on it. Over the summer, I added it to my quick links bar and I have been ultimately using it as a procrastination tool ever since, one that I find to be much more beneficial than facebook, for example. Feministing includes eight female bloggers who each post several times a week (or even several times a day) and a community page, where readers can post. In the past few months, the community blogs have become more and more interesting as more readers contribute. Many times the posts are simply pointing out the sexism present in typical news articles and advertising. Other times, they are praising gains that women have made in different areas or publicizing different feminist events. There is also discussion of a variety of issues. Oftentimes posts will be followed by dozens of comments.

Overall, I think that it has helped me to become much more critical of advertising and the slant that the media imparts. If this were to be my only source for news, yes, I would be receiving a quite biased view of reality; however, I think that this blog heightens my awareness in of possible biases in news stories and helps me to consider more careful my participation of certain cultural practices. Being critical of society is beneficial. People who blindly accept whatever they are told will not do well in life. Feministing is presenting a particular lens through which to be critical, but it happens to be a lens that I agree with (usually) and is important to me.

I will conclude with a final comment about feministing's logo, which may be seen by some as utterly ridiculous, counterproductive, or downright offensive. The creators of feministing sought to take a traditionally sexist, objectifying image and to alter it to represent their mission. I see this as being analogous to other feminists working to reclaim the terms "bitch" or "cunt." Though it may initially turn some people off, I think that the logo promotes conversation and ultimately does achieve the creators' goal of undermining "the sexist beauty standard she is supposed to represent" (http://www.feministing.com/faqs.html).

Get political - part c

This year marks my first opportunity to ever vote in a presidential election. International enthusiasm for the event was also running quite high. After growing up in a family where politics were rarely discussed, it felt quite out of place for me to be at a college where politics were of great concern. I had formed quite a poor assumption that since my family wasn't very politically active, Mennonites as a whole were not. I now know that while there certainly are Mennonites who consciously choose not to be involved in the political process, there are plenty of Mennonites who believe that it is their duty to be involved in electing the officials of our country.

I watched portions of the first debate, moderated by Jim Lehrer, with friends. I must say, my friends' witty comments criticizing McCain were much more interesting than the actual content that either candidate covered. While it certainly wasn't perfect and was even annoying at times, I appreciated Lehrer's attempts to have Obama and McCain actually discuss the issues together rather than talk at the audience or TV cameras. At the time of this debate, I wasn't quite sure on what the financial crisis consisted of exactly, so I didn't really understand either one of their fixes. Since then I have learned about the financial crisis and subsequent bailout.

During the second debate, which was the vice presidential debate, my feelings about Sarah Palin were confirmed. While she was good at sounding smooth, I did not feel as it she had a lot of her own ideas to contribute to the conversation. To a certain extent, this is what the vice presidential debate felt like as a whole, each vice presidential candidate regurgitating their candidates' views and opinions. While each vice presidential candidate obviously comes from a quite biased position, I appreciated that both candidates were constantly comparing their party's position to the opposing viewpoint.

The third debate I was able to watch very little of, but the few segments I did see did not portray John McCain very positively. One article that I read following the debate questioned McCain's penchant for the town hall format because of his struggles with following this format during the third debate. This debate was also in the midst of the negativity that the McCain campaign pushed particularly as November drew closer. I did not appreciate the attacks from either side because I felt that they just created further separation along party lines and continued to mask the real issues at hand.

The debates were interesting to watch with friends here because of the partisan feelings of the majority feelings of my friends. I would have enjoyed being a fly on the wall at other debate viewing parties to see what criticisms may have been suggested about Obama. Our country is at an interesting crossroads and I sincerely hope that despite the divides that this election has caused that we can come together behind President-Elect Obama in order to pursue the path that will be best for the country.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/debates/ge/index.html

Get political - part b

Over the past several months, I have had my homepage set to the BBC. Sometimes it makes no effect whatsoever; like when the internet is so slow that I just stop it to get to what I really need to do or when I am just in a hurry. Even when I do not take the time to actually read articles, I still find it beneficial to at least glance at the headlines to see what has been going on the world. Then when I do take the time to read the news, I have a better background to know what kinds of things have been going on for a couple days or if they just happened.

For instance, over Thanksgiving weekend, I was not on my computer very much, but the few times I was, I noticed that something was going on in Mumbai, India. I was busy during that time, but when I returned to school, I was able to take the time to read up on the issue. If I hadn't known that there had been an ongoing hostage crisis, I probably wouldn't have taken the time to read several articles about that subject. Now that I am more well read on the issue, articles on this topic are more likely to pique my interest. Just today, I saw an article entitled "Are Mumbai attacks a chance for peace?" Even though the article is above my head in terms of the background knowledge needed for the article to be of much worth, I believe that the more you know about news, the more you will continue to find out.

Another one of my favorite features on BBC is the "most read" or "most emailed" stories. Sometimes they are quite indicative of major political events that are transpiring, other times, they are much more trivial. For example, the third most read article today is "Google tells us what we look for." Is this article critical to the functioning of the world? No, but it is interesting. Another nice feature is that when there is a news item that has been covered multiple times, BBC includes a column of stories that help to provide the reader with background information and other articles that were previously published. For someone like me, who struggles to read the news on a daily basis, this feature helps me to catch up with what is going on before I read the day's events. Though reading the news is something I am interested in, it is not always something that is placed as a high priority.

Get political - part a

Back in October, I had the opportunity to attend a talk lead by Tim Roemer, a former Indiana House Representative. That wasn't really why he was on Goshen College's campus though - he was here to campaign for Barack Obama. The whole experience was rather interesting, beginning with a disclaimer that the Church-Chapel was simply being used for the facility and it did not indicate in any shape or form that Goshen College was backing Barack Obama. I suppose that it makes sense that the college shouldn't back any particular candidate; however, given the overwhelming consensus on campus this semester, I guess I wasn't really thinking about what the official position of the college should be.

I would sum up my overall experience as rather disappointing. His discussion of Obama's policies was not very specific. He repeated that he did not want to represent Obama's opinions or positions on any given topic, which I suppose is fair, but I did not feel like I learned very much from the experience because of the vagueness of his answers. Additionally, when some college students and community members attempted to make him firm up his answers and take a side, he was quite evasive. I found the afternoon to be typical of what I would stereotypically associate with politicians - evasive and smooth talking. Of course it was interesting, though I was disappointed with how little I felt that I learned about Obama.

Take your education seriously - part c

This semester, one elective I am taking is called "Personal Violence and Healing" taught by Regina Shands Stoltzfus. Our final project is a research paper on a topic of our choosing. While much of the literature that the class studied involved violence against women, I tried to choose a topic that was perhaps a bit more applicable to my area of study. For the past several months, I have been researching child abuse and specifically looking at the academic effects of child abuse and how schools can learn to address the issue. Not only is the topic of personal interest to me, there are definite professional applications. Another component of the project is leading the class in a 30 minute presentation on the topic. While I was not explicit in my intent, I formed my presentation as if I was presenting to a panel of new teachers. Perhaps this presentation will be something that I can utilize later in my career.

While I have not found many effects of child abuse that are specific to the academic arena, it has been amazing to see how most of the "typical" effects of child abuse would also then affect a child in the classroom. For example, something like low esteem will not only affect how a child interacts with others, but low self-esteem also causes students to believe that they are incapable of completing their schoolwork. It has also been interesting to see how the different types of child abuse affect children in different ways; for instance, the academic effects are certainly most pronounced for students who have been physically abused. Students who have been physically abused are 25 times more likely to repeat a grade in school and are also suspended the most often (Briere et al., 1996).

Schools are the number one reporter of child abuse and I believe this is rightly so - teachers have the most daily access to children than really anyone but their parents. However, there are still a tremendously high number of cases that go unreported. How can schools work to make sure that more cases are being reported? Thus far in my research, the answer seems to be a resounding call for teachers to be more educated on the topic. For one reason or another, teachers, first of all, may not be aware of their role as a mandated reporter of child abuse. While laws do vary from state to state, in every state, teachers are required to report suspected cases of child abuse. Secondly, teachers may not be aware of the signs of child abuse. There are obvious signs, such as strange or constant bruising; however, there are many types of child abuse that do not have such outward displays. Neglect and emotional abuse are most likely to go unreported.

This is a tough issue for teachers to deal with because the report of a suspected case of child abuse may serve to damage the already tenuous parent-teacher relationship. Comparing the consequences of a damaged relationship versus an abused child should make the situation quite clear. Of course, further complications ensue when school districts do not support their teachers. Though it is a difficult topic, I am glad that I have chosen to examine this area because I feel that it is quite relevant to my future career plans and will only further my pursuit of helping all students to be successful in the classroom.

Briere, J., Berliner, L., Bulkey, J.A., Jenny, C., & Reid, T. (1996). The APSAC Handbook on Child Maltreatment. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Take your education seriously - part b

This fall I had the opportunity to go to one of the regional conferences for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in Cleveland, Ohio, of which I am a member. The long drive was certainly detracted from the day's events; nevertheless, it was still a great experience. Ron Milne took the five math education majors who will be doing student teaching next fall as well as the two students who are currently student teaching. The day consisted of browsing the convention hall, which was set up with all sorts of booths in which vendors showcased math curriculum, math games, math T-shirts, and all sorts of other things, as well as attending several seminars. There was a wide selection of seminars available based on your interests and grade level.

The first seminar that we went to "Digital Imaging in the Mathematics Classroom" might have been right up someone's alley, but it wasn't for me. For someone who is supposed to be an educator, the presenter certainly did not do a good job of engaging her audience. She talked about using a particular computer program in combination with a digital camera to help students explore functions that are found in real life, like the line of a roof or the parabola created by a pencil point. It might be interesting for a few lessons, but I did not see an application beyond that of an exploratory activity.

The second seminar that I attended was a new and pre-service teacher workshop. Most people were just like me, anticipating student teaching, only a few had taught for extended periods of time. Each of us was given a blank chart with titles like "motivating students" or "online resources" and we were instructed to collaborate with the rest of the people in the workshop to fill up this chart with tips that fit in each category. Following our discussion and large-group sharing, the presenter went through areas that we were struggling with and essentially suggested ways that NCTM could help new teachers in those areas. While it was interactive and helpful to talk to other people who are in a similar position to me, I found myself wishing that the presenter had more actual content and suggestions for us as new teachers.

The seminar that I was least sure about, but ended up being most glad that I attended was entitled "Making Algebra SWELL: Success with English Language Learners." For one thing, the woman presenting was certainly the best of the lecturers in the seminars that I attended. Her perspective was also much different than I anticipated: initially, she had been a Calculus teacher who was against using funding for ELL students; currently, she is pushing for more funding and advancements in the ELL field. Though I am not specifically studying to work with ELL students, her seminar did provide lots of hands-on approaches for teaching math. The seminar was also interesting because she actually had us do several of the activities that she uses with her students. Some her work reminded me of Goshen Middle School's push to incorporate vocabulary. Even when students understand math, they often don't know the vocabulary, so she has short daily activities that have students interacting with mathematical words. She also has students make a lot of graphic organizers and foldables in order to group similar information. One example that she showed us was a game in which students grouped all terms that mean "add" together, everything that means "greater than" together, and so on. I thought that she had a lot of great suggestions both for making class more interesting for students, but also for working with students who may be struggling.

Take your education seriously - part a

This semester I have begun tutoring two college students in Calculus I through Goshen's Academic Support Center. One year in high school, through our NHS, I was able to tutor a third-grader once a week through the whole year. Though it was extremely frustrating at times, it was definitely a formative experience as I considered entering the teaching profession. While tutoring is something that I had always been interested in doing during college, it had never worked out for one reason or another. This year, I had one night a week that was open for me to tutor and luckily it was also available for these two students.

Initially I was quite nervous about the experience because I was not sure how much of the material that I remembered since I took Calculus during my senior year of high school. After my first meeting with just one of the students, I was elated. They were currently studying a section that I remembered quite well and the student and I actually knew each other from choir. Subsequent meetings have been quite erratic. There are weeks where I can recall with great clarity exactly what they are studying, but there are others that I have no recollection of the particulars of that topic. The latter case has led to a great deal of frustration on my part and it certainly doesn't help the students either. I have worked to make sure that I know what they are studying before any given session, which has helped, though has certainly not eliminated all of my frustration.

Though I do not intend on teaching Calculus, I am a math and secondary education major, so this activity feels quite applicable to my major. Through tutoring I have begun to deal with a few of the issues that it seems that teachers often face. One of these has been trying to help students who seemingly do not want to be helped. I have also been forced to think about how to explain things in more than one way. Just because something makes sense to me, doesn't mean that it will make sense to them that way. I have also learned simply from hearing them talk about their frustrations with their professor and his teaching style. I anticipate upcoming meetings with the hope that I can constantly improve how I help them with Calculus, but also how I can help them find strategies that will help them to help themselves. That has been the hardest part - helping them work through a problem, but when we approach a similar one, they sometimes seem to be right back where they started. I'm always trying to build off of the skills that they already have with the hopes that they at least might have an idea of where to start. Though frustrations are rampant at times, if the opportunity presents itself, I would certainly like to tutor again.

Recharging your batteries - part c

This year over Fall Break, I went up to Brunk's cabin with a few friends for a lovely time. I originally wasn't sure that I should go because I more just felt like staying at home and trying to relax rather than feeling like I needed to go somewhere and organize something. I definitely made the right decision though. I think that if I had stayed home, I would have felt pressure to do homework rather than take time to relax. In addition to having lovely, low-key company, our activities were very informal and relaxing.

For dinner, soon after we got there, we made hobo dinners over the fire. Rather than have one or two people cooking, hobo dinners require each person to put together their own meal, package it in tinfoil, then throw it into the coals. So after each person put theirs on the fire, we just sat around and talked until dinner was done. After eating and more conversation, s'mores, of course, were a necessary component of the evening. The rest of the evening included putting a puzzle together, listening to several friends singing and playing piano and just sitting around talking and relaxing.

After sleeping all next to our wood fire and eating breakfast outside, we took a walk through the woods. Thankfully it was a beautiful day and the trees were just beginning to change. After exploring the woods around the cabin, we returned to campus. Though I initially wasn't sure about going, I am very glad that I did. It is always a nice change of pace just to be off campus for a little while. I certainly was much more relaxed for my upcoming homework than I would have been otherwise.

Recharging your batteries - part b

I have always been a huge fan of intramurals here at Goshen. I grew up in an active family and have always had active friends, so joining impromptu games of soccer or volleyball is just second nature. While I am athletic to a certain degree, I don't have the dedication or desire to play a collegiate sport; intramurals seem like the perfect solution. Unfortunately, during my freshman year of college, I was not able to participate in any intramurals until after Christmas break. I was recovering from knee surgery and had not been cleared by my doctor to participate in anything that was remotely competitive.

Since that point I have participated on two indoor soccer teams, two indoor volleyball teams, two basketball teams, and one outdoor Frisbee team. Currently, we are wrapping up an indoor volleyball season. While the beginning of the season was a bit rough, we are actually doing quite well. My experience on this team exemplifies one of the reasons that I enjoy intramurals so much: getting to know new people and interacting with others in a different manner than usual. I didn't even know everyone on my team at first, though we have some friends in common. It has been fun to get to know them both while we are playing, but then also seeing them around campus.

Another reason that intramurals are important to me is because of the physical release that participating in sports provides. Volleyball isn't this way so much, but playing basketball or soccer and then coming back to my room tired and sweaty is a feeling that directly contrasts and counters the sleepy-eyed exhaustion experienced after spending too many hours studying in the library.

Recharging your batteries - part a

Many of my housemates would not agree, but one way that I have found this semester to recharge has been cooking for my housemates. I live in Kenwood, right on 8th St, with eight other people. We decided at the beginning of the year to try to have four meals a week and thus far have been pretty successful. Each Sunday night we decide who is cooking with who and on what night, then we frantically attempt to decide what to cook so that we can form a grocery list for the shopper of the week. My least favorite part of cooking is deciding what to make. We also have two vegetarians our house, so it has been interesting trying to figure out how to create interesting, filing meals that will either not contain any meat or will contain meat in an optional way.

One meal that I recently cooked that I felt went particularly well was called "Pakistani Kima," which is basically a hamburger curry served over rice. To accommodate my vegetarian housemates, I made a smaller amount that contained more vegetables and no meat. We get many of our recipes out of the World Community Cookbooks: More With Less, Extending the Table, and Simply in Season, which are produced by the Mennonite Central Committee. This meal was no exception. One of the reasons that I enjoyed cooking this meal so much was because it led to exclamations from my housemates about how this meal reminded them of their moms and different variations of kima that they have in their homes. I was surprised at how well it turned out.

While at times cooking for the house can be stressful because of time constraints on when the meal needs to be ready or simply because of the time that I am taking away from homework to do the cooking, overall it has been a positive thing for me. Because of the way that we schedule when we cook, I have mostly been able to pick times that are convenient for me. Also, I am someone who has a hard time just taking a break and completely relaxing, so while cooking is not something that typically requires a lot of brainpower, it still feels like I am doing something productive. Meals have been a nice time to reconnect with my housemates and eat some very good food.

Audioblog

Gabcast! Audioblog for 10 Actions Assignment #1

Volunteer in or join an organization or get involved in a group comprised of people who are significantly different than you

The other afternoon I was able to spend some time at the Goshen Public Library. I generally enjoy people watching, whether it's in a mall or another public location, I find it fascinating to watch how people interact with their family and friends. In this circumstance, I thought it would be most beneficial for me to go to the children's section to watch how parents interact with their children. I discovered pretty quickly that I felt kind of creepy doing this, even though I had a perfectly good explanation if anyone were to ask me, it felt a little strange to be watching little kids.

At this point in my life, I feel very disconnected from anyone who isn't of college age. Approximately 95% of my interactions take place with other college students with the other 5% taking place with my professors and family members. Going to the library and observing families was a good way for me to connect with that demographic, but also to think about how I will need to interact with my students.

One of the first interactions that caught my eye was between a father and son. There is a giant chess board and this boy who was probably 6 years old, wanted to play chess. He is obviously too young to understand the complexities of the game, but his father went along with it. His father remained pretty detached for the whole game, helping his son as necessary, but not really seeming to enjoy the interaction at all. I wondered how this interaction would be different if it were between a father and a daughter or between a mother and one of her children. Even if it's not intentional, we treat boys and girls in different ways; this is something that is crucial for teachers to be aware of.

I also noticed a mother with a baby in a sling around her with at least two other children. In the period that I was down in the children's wing of the library, there were also at least two fathers with their children. Overall, I would say that I noticed lots of families with only one parent present. I wonder if that indicates a rise in the number of single parent households or if families simply tend to divide tasks, such as going to the library. Growing up, I always went to the library with my mom, never with my dad.

As I was sitting there, I realized that libraries are a place where everyone can come together. Perhaps I am naive, but I do not perceive any racial or class overtones regarding who comes to a library. People of any age, any class, and any ethnicity have an equal opportunity to make use of a library, providing there is one in their community. However, I did notice that all employees of the library were white, female, and probably over 55. However, the clientele of the library represented a much larger range. I would estimate that of the people I saw, 60-70% were white, but age and gender were fairly equally represented. I looked up some data on the demographics of Goshen and found that about 75% of the population is white and almost 20% are Latino/a. That data seems to correspond with what I observed at the Goshen Library.

Several questions were raised in my mind as I was observing. The first question was what is the primary motivation for coming to a library for most people? The two most obvious reasons would seem to be for either education or entertainment. Also the children were seemed to be at ease in this environment. Do children interact with their siblings differently in the library than they do in other public areas or at home? I also wondered how such a study at the library at my home in Pennsylvania would differ.

I think that such observation is helpful as I think about how students interact when they are with their parents versus being alone and how they behave at home versus how they behave in public. There are many aspects of behavior that could be studied by simple observation. Also, libraries can help nurture students in many different ways. They can provide a safe place to go after school, technology that may not be available at home, additional resources for papers and projects, and books to be read for pleasure. If there is a good library in the vicinity of your school, it would be to the teacher's benefit to make sure that all of the families are aware of that resource.

Website consulted:
http://www.muninetguide.com/states/indiana/municipality/Goshen.php

Practice democratic principles

In my Women's Studies class, we recently spent time discussing how many typical ways of conversing tend to exclude the participation of women. I decided to look at the differences between how men and women tend to interact in group settings.

One interesting idea is that women are more likely to use various linguistic devices to lessen the degree of their statements. For example: "I would probably like to leave soon," rather than saying "I would like to leave." In a study done by the University of Texas-Austin reported on by U.S. News and World Report in July 2007 stated that while men and women typically use the same number of words each day, women are more likely to use pronouns while men use more articles. This agrees with the notion that women are more likely to talk about people, while men talk more about things.

Men are more likely to promote hierarchal relationships and talk about what they done. While women tend to form support networks and talk in encouraging ways. The contrast between these styles is where communication between men and women tends to fall apart. We can see that in a classroom discussion, while women would tend to build off of each other's ideas in order to move the conversation along, men often express more critical ideas and explain why they disagree with particular points.

I think that this is an important topic for all teachers. Most of us will end up in coed schools, since there are very few all-girl or all-boy schools. We need to know how to moderate between the genders and show that each gender is valued for their communication methods. Since the female method of communication tends to be less dominant, males are often blamed for their own actions, which isn't fair either. Communication with our students is a two-way street; it's not only about how our students interact with each other, we need to be conscious of how each gender responds to a male or female teacher.


Websites consulted:
http://www.eioba.com/a70155/relationships_and_communication_styles
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070708/16talk.htm
http://feminism.eserver.org/gender-differences.txt

Get political

Through my Oral Communications class, I recently became aware of a series of Presidential debates that would air on CNN, in collaboration with YouTube. Since they are available on YouTube, I was able to watch the whole Democratic Debate that took place in Nevada on November 15. This year they also gave the unique opportunity for YouTube users to download a video of them presenting a question to the candidates. This past July, there was a debate in South Carolina during which a select number of those questions were presented to the Democratic Candidates. On November 28, there will be a Republican debate that follows the same format.


I think that this is an insightful idea. It's certainly not perfect because of all the editing that needs to occur. All of the questions cannot possibly be answered due to time constraints, however, it might a step in the right direction. Even the idea of making the debates available on YouTube makes them more readily available. For debates that are only televised, if you have a conflict, you totally miss the debate unless you have TiVo or other such technology. I think it's also a good way to get the younger generation involved and to help us stay informed.

In this debate, one question about education was posed. One of the moderators asked why teachers' unions make it difficult to reward great teachers with pay raises. I really liked Chris Dodd's response to the question. In his opinion, it depends on how you measure a great teacher. Some teachers go into inner-city schools and are able to make a difference in lives on their students, but other teachers stick to middle-class schools that often receive very good test scores. By what standard can you measure a great teacher? Click here to watch that segment of the debate (the question begins at time 3:37)

There are so many facets of each candidate to consider, which makes voting for a candidate very difficult. As a college student studying to be a teacher, I pay particular attention to questions about education, but education is not covered to the degree of the war in Iraq, immigration, or other such topics. Do I vote for the candidate who represents my views on education or do I vote for a candidate who deals with other issues in ways that I agree with? After watching this debate with several of my friends, we questioned the effectiveness of our system. The primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire essentially determine the fate of the candidates, well, why don't all of the states have their primaries on the same day?

By beginning my knowledge about the candidates with this debate, I will be able to stay better informed regarding the candidates for the 2008 elections. This will be the first presidential election that I will be eligible to vote in, so I hope to be able to make an informed decision. I like pieces of what each candidate had to say, but not all of each candidate's position. It comes down to weighing the issues which are most important to me. Personally, a candidate needs to be committed to ending the war in Iraq very quickly; that is something that I feel very strongly about. Oftentimes, the candidates use such elaborate wording that it is often hard to figure out exactly where each candidate stands on any particular issue. If you listen to them on another day, they might have altered their position ever so slightly. I'm glad that I had the chance to watch this debate because it helped to get me interested in this election. I am planning on watching the debate on November 28 as well, although with convenience of the Internet and YouTube, I will not necessarily have to watch it on the 28th.

Become aware that you are a role model and act accordingly

To me, there are very few good reasons not to recycle. This year I am daily reminded of it; I live right on the end of the hallway, so the recycling bins are basically right outside my door. After becoming more conscious of our throw-away society from one of my summer jobs, I realized that the clear cups that Java Junction uses for its smoothies and other such products are recyclable. While I don't purchase very many things from Java, that is one small way that all of us here at Goshen College can reduce our garbage footprint.

Recycling is not the only important thing to teach our children, the other steps of the process are just as crucial: reduce and reuse. People often chuckle about the thriftiness of Mennonites, but there is something to be said for it. My grandmother and my mom both wash and reuse plastic Ziploc bags. It's not a hard and fast rule; if they store raw chicken in it, they'll just throw it out, but if you're just storing pretzels in the bag, why not wash it? Growing up, my small school did not have a cafeteria, so my brother and I packed our lunch each day. Rather than buying individual packs of cookies or Lunchables, buying in larger quantities tends to be more cost effective and reduces the amount of unnecessary packing materials.

Another way that I have become conscious about being a role model has to do with how I spend my weekends. I have made the decision not to drink until I am of legal age at 21. While there are quite a lot of reasons behind my decision, part of it is a simple awareness of how I am viewed by my younger brother and cousins. To varying degrees, they imitate my behavior. When two of my cousins were younger, they wanted to dress like me and wear glasses like me and just generally do whatever I was doing. I do not want to be responsible for encouraging them to drink. Also, I am aware of the consequences. If I were to be arrested for illegal alcohol consumption, there would be ramifications on my ability to get a job in a school.

Get experience with all types of learners and their families

Early this month I was able to attend Goshen's mainstage play Step on a Crack, which highlights how Ellie, a ten year old girl transitions after her father remarried. I have grown up in a household where both of my parents were always present; this play presented a way for me to think about how children deal with the death of a parent, parents' separation, divorce, or other circumstances that seem to be so common in our society today. As a teacher, I will need to be aware of the family background of my students because I think that it will often affect how they interact with persons in authority, such as the teacher and how they treat their classmates. A child who lives with both of their parents and has no siblings will respond very differently to me than a student who has lots of siblings and has been abandoned by one of their parents.

During high school I had the opportunity to tutor a third grade girl who came from a single parent household and lived in low-income housing. She often had trouble getting her work done and would sometimes simply refuse to answer any of my questions or do anything at all. What do you do with a student who refuses to look at you, listen to you, and just wants to stare off into space? She helped me develop patience among other things, but I enjoyed working with her. That was one of the first times in my life that I thought about teaching as a career because I realized that I really wanted to help her. I wanted her to succeed in school so that she would have a greater chance breaking out of the cycle of poverty.

Learning to Identify Allies

Several times in the past week I have perused the Math Forum at Drexel University website. On their homepage, they describe themselves to be "the leading online resource for improving math learning, teaching, and communication." This will be a helpful resource as I move into teaching for several reasons. First of all, it provides an authoritative resource for students to access outside of their textbook. Another instance when it might be helpful is if I am looking for additional problems to challenge more advanced students. There are also resources specifically for teachers in each age range. The section for high school math teachers includes lesson plans, interactive websites to use with your students, and advice from other high school math teachers.

On October 15, I subscribed to the Math Forum Internet News, which is an e-newsletter that is sent weekly. I have gotten two issues thus far and even though I'm not even teaching, I have already found relevant information. In the October 26th edition, there was a link to "Mathematical Moments," which are a series of flyers produced by the American Mathematical Society that describe how math is relevant in our daily lives. Examples that I chose to look at dealt with seeing how math aids the graphics in video games, that matrices help airplanes be boarded faster, and how music is stored on CDs using only the numbers 0 and 1. Even more relevant was a flyer on traffic, describing how mathematical models using partial differential equations and chaos theory are showing that building new roads may not help alleviate traffic. When I say that I am a math major, people often tell me that they don't like math because it seems like just a bunch of numbers and it doesn't impact their real life at all. Now I have a resource to help me refute those arguments.

On the Math Forum, there is also Teacher2Teacher and the Teachers' Lounge, which is are places for teachers and others who are interested in math education to discuss curriculum, specific teaching strategies, and other issues in education. One post that I read that was of particular interest to me was "factors that affect girls in math." Other helpful posts include "motivating secondary students" and "homework teams and classroom groups." I also looked for other teachers opinions on the CPM (College Preparatory Mathematics) curriculum, which was criticized in Teaching to Change the World by Jeannie Oakes and Martin Lipton. My school used the CPM curriculum from when I was in Algebra I to my Calculus course (grades 8-12). However, I was disappointed to not find any resources on this topic except as a link in the Internet Math Library to a short review of the curriculum on a website off of the Math Forum.


Another resource that I located within our very own Good Library is the book Tips for the Mathematics Teacher by Alfred Posamentier, Hope Hartman, and Constanze Kaiser. This text offers 89 tips for math teachers within the categories of instructional techniques, social aspects of the classroom, beyond the classroom, and developing positive attitudes about mathematics. Some tips are fairly obvious, but each tip includes research to support it, applications of the tip, and things to consider as you implement the tip in your classroom. Here is one tip that I found to be quite interesting: "Teachers should be tactical in their use of questions." (58) Then it went on to show that research has shown that it is helpful to address the whole class about half the time and to call on particular students the other half. I would imagine that I will be conscious of the manner in which I will call on students; however, I would not have realized that it actually might make a difference in how the students learn.

Study effective teachers

For the past several weeks, I have been spending around three hours each Tuesday in two different classrooms at West Noble High School. Each teacher implements different strategies in order for their teaching to be most beneficial to their students. I have paid particular attention to how the classrooms are set up and how each teacher deals with discipline. I have also spent sometime thinking about how my classes here on campus are set up.

At West Noble High School, both of the classrooms that I am in have all of the chairs in rows facing the front of the room. One teacher allows his students to move into groups when doing their homework or even work on the floor. That room has a much different environment than the other teacher who has his students work on their homework alone and would rather that they remain quiet. Even after completing almost 11 hours of observation, I have not seen many students misbehaving. The most serious infraction has been talking in class, which was simply solved by a simple intervention by the teacher.

Inclusive Schooling is set up in a semicircle which is appropriate for the interactive, discussion-driven class that it is, but the semi-circle still directs attention to the front of the room, generally towards our professor. Introduction to Women's Studies is set up in a similar manner, but we actually manipulate the tables and chairs into a full circle for most class periods. Class discussion is led by a group of students each week; therefore, our direction doesn't need to be directed to a centralized authority at the front of the room. A circle also just seems more conducive to sharing our thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Both of my math classes are set up with rows of tables and chairs facing the front of the room, focusing on the professor, the chalkboards, and the pull-down screen. In high school, my math classes were set up with desks grouped into four; this promoted group work and made it hard just to ignore the influence of our peers. I generally prefer math classes that are set up in that manner. My Oral Communications class is set up with columns of chairs all facing the presenter, although in this class, the professor does not play as big of a role because we are all presenters at various points in the class.

In talking to others about what kinds of things make a teacher effective, I have heard that teachers need to relate the material to something practical and show students that they are confident in their knowledge of the material. A good teacher should be flexible and have presence in the classroom that indicates a balance of concern for the students' well-being and authority over the classroom. An effective teacher is also able to exhibit connection with their students. In a study of characteristics of bad teachers, one resounding answer was when teachers are not prepared for class, which is most apparent when they read directly off of Power points and exhibit a poor knowledge of the material covered in that class period. Other answers included when teachers do not return assignments for a long time and those who are poor lecturers.

I also interviewed my mother, who taught eighth grade for several years before moving on to teach high school, and now is the Director of Curriculum at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School. I wondered what kinds of things she concentrated on in order to be an effective teacher when she was teaching and if those things changed when she began to do more teacher observation in her current administrative role. She responded that she focused on knowing the subject material and one way that she increased her confidence in her knowledge base was to take graduate classes towards her masters' degree. Another thing that she still feels is important is to build relationships with students; she strove to find ways to engage students in dialogue both in and out of class. This made it easier to view students as a whole person rather than just a high school student and to respect their life journey. Now that her role includes more teacher observation, she has found that students respond well to teachers who are passionate about their subject material. She gave the example of a teacher who mainly lectures, but students can sense his passion, which in turn causes them to be more passionate about the class.

From the combination of my observation of classroom dynamics in my classes here and in my field placement and receiving input from peers and my mother on effective teachers, I am looking forward to being an effective teacher. I strive to set up my classroom so that students can learn most effectively and my expectations for them are clearly set out. I feel that I will be able to utilize the tools available to me so that I can be confident in my subject material and that I will be able to use my interest for math to show students how it is relevant in their lives.