Chapter+10+Schools

=**﻿APPROACHES TO EDUCATION﻿**= media type="youtube" key="4H7QMy54Keg" height="390" width="480"

In the true-story movie __FREEDOM WRITERS__, Erin Gruwell, a High School English/Literature teacher, shows how a caring teacher can change the lives of her poverty stricken students. Gang-warfare was everywhere, and the the Rodney King Verdict had just been announced, which added to the racial-tensions of the Los Angeles area. Erin came in and showed her students that she cared by purchasing new items which they had never had before, like books, and what became famous, personal journals to write their own stories. The ability of Erin's students to write, and the motivation to please her because she had shown them she cared, what was made this story so incredible. All these students needed was for a teacher to show them she cared. From pages 369 - 371 of our Classroom Text, __Adolescence__ (Santrock), concepts such as //classroom climate and management//, //teachers, parents//, //family management, parental involvement//, and //teacher strategies// are all discussed. This movie depicts ALL of these strategies. Erin's greatest strategy was getting to know her students on a personal level. Completely out of her comfort level, Erin even learned to "rap" to show her students she was willing to do anything to earn their trust, and in turn, they worked hard for her in and out of the classroom. (John)
 * Freedom Writers**

Concept to Classroom- Workshop: Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning
[] This website takes a closer look into the constructivist approach to student learning. There are four main focus points in this workshop. It looks at explanation, demonstration, exploration and implementation. It highlights the definition in the book that “children should be encouraged to explore their world, discover knowledge, reflect, and think “(Santrock 351). It goes on to mention that there should be encouragement from teachers for students to assess how the activity is helping them gain understanding. I thought this was a great tool to learn more about this approach as it demonstrates several constructive classrooms that the readers can compare and helps a teacher get started using this approach in their own classroom. It looks at challenges that they might face, how to assess student progress and implementation of this approach. (Melanie)

Fred Jones
media type="youtube" key="MInPwzg6TiQ" width="425" height="350" Fred Jones is an instruction "guru". His main work is the book __Tools for Teaching.__ Many schools have embraced his systems of positive discipline in their school-wide systems. He is very much of the school of thought that the classroom is teacher centered and direct instruction (Santrock Sel. 1220). He basically believes that the teacher should establish a system in the classroom and the students should be trained to follow this system by practicing and given very specific directions for classroom procedures. This clip is his training on how to make lessons more engaging and not letting students "coast". He, like any other educational expert, has a lot of really positive things, but others would be more difficult to implement in everyday classrooms. (Joel)

**Socratic Seminars**
Socratic seminars are excellent teaching strategies for constructivist education. (p. 351) I have conducted many of these in my honors biology classes. The premise is that a topic is chosen for group of students to discuss. If the topic is revealed to the students prior to the seminar they can then research and prepare to participate in the discussion. Each stuent is given a certain number of opportunities to speak about the topic and every student must have some input. The same rules apply to the instructor. This gives all students an opportunity to discuss without anyone dominating the conversation. Ideally the topic chosen would have a wide variety of viewpoints allowing discussion to travel in many different directions. The students receive an opportunity to learn from each other and form independent thoughts and ideas about a topic that they may or may not have had previous experience. At the end of the seminar it is a good idea to have each student write a reflection in order to determine what was learned. (Mary)
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=TRANSITIONS IN SCHOOLING=

There have been a lot of great television shows about high school, and one of the best was called "Freaks and Geeks." That show was cancelled after one season, but some of its producers went on to create "Undeclared," a show about a group of college freshmen from various backgrounds and their search for identity. The main character, Steven Karp, is listed as "Undeclared" because he hasn't chosen a major yet. Presumably, if the show had continued, he would have eventually chosen something, but we'll never know. The show was created by Judd Apatow, who has written, produced and/or directed pretty much every comedy movie to come out in the last five years. His shows on television were good but short-lived. How does this relate to the Santrock book? Well, Santrock writes about the transition from high school to college on page 357. Transitioning to college can be rewarding in many ways. Students are allowed more freedom, and have the chance to take more control of their own lives. They can make their own decisions without having to worry about their parents' feelings. The freshman year of college is an interesting time, and this show did a good job of illustrating that. (Zak)

It is very interested how adolescents take to different levels of schooling. "A major change from high school to college is reduced contact with parents...going away to college may not only benefit the individual's independence but also improve relationships with parents" (367). Students moving on from High School to College have higher levels of stress then about 20 years ago. I feel that it is due partly to the fact that 20 years ago, students in this situation were still living at home or in dorm rooms going to college, now they are more untraditional and sometimes have families already. Regardless of whether students are living at home or already have lives outside of their parents home, it is still very stressful to juggle all that needs to be accomplished. This concept reminds me of the show "Gilmore Girls". The series followed the main character through high school and ended with her graduating college. In this particular episode all of her life's stresses begin to take a toll on the main character (Rory) and she drops out of college and goes to therapy. [|Rory's Breakdown After Dropping Out of College] (Malinda)

[|Loneliness and depression strike students]

Santrock (p. 354) discusses the phenomenon of "top-dog" which is the transition of elementary students to middle schools. The transition is from the oldest and most powerful in elementary to little and least powerful in middle school. Santrock continues to state that this phenomenon doesn't continue in the high school; but returns in the transition to college. Santrock tends toward emphasizing the positive aspects during the second occurance of the "top-dog". But, in this XSeptember 2010 article from the Benedictine College newspaper (A catholic college in Kansas) the staff writer discusses the "top-dog" phenomenon as a potential reason for the occurances of depression in college. The article isn't a scholarly read; but, does make some interesting connections to the transition from being surrounded with friends that potentially have known "you" since elementary school to a place where you are a tabula rasa able to recreate yourself. For those who participated in defining yourself by your high school persona, that cultural restart can be frightening and quite daunting. (Brad)

[] [|**__Disadvantaged Youth More Likely to Be High-School Dropouts, Young Parents and Poor Adults__**] "Low socioeconomic status continues to be one of the problems that is a constant when other ups-and-downs are factored in," says lead author Lisa A. Serbin, a psychology professor at Concordia University. There are other factors such as family problems, pressure from peers and being suspended or expelled from school. Factors such as individual and environmental can have a lasting influence from childhood into parenthood. Dealing with behavioral and academic problems early in childhood will reduce some but not all might reduce possibilities of economically underprivileged children from parenting in poverty as adults," continues Dr. Serbin.. Parents that are actively involved in the children from elementary through high school have more of a chance of having teens with positive behavior and better success academically. (P. 356) Miranda

The social contexts of school relates to parental involvement (p.361). Parents should create supportive environment for adolescents. Also, adolescents' learning achievement relies on family support. One study shows that there is a connection between family management and adolescent's achievement in school. "Freaky Friday" is a good example. Anna lives with her parents. Most of the time, her mother does not understand her and she works too much. One day, Anna woke up and she found that she was in her mother's body. Later, they got along better and they understood each other better. This movie really shows it is good for parents to understand their children when they walk in their shoes. (Gik)

Classroom management and climate can be very important in terms of student learning. Santrock discusses three classroom management strategies (pg. 359) authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. Research supports the importance of an authoritative teaching style in adolescent development. Similar to parentling styles discussed in Chapter 8, the approach that a teacher may take with a particular class or student can be vital in their learning process. Below is a link to an online resource for teachers that can provide lesson plan ideas, printable materials, professional development, magazines, activities, books, and discussion groups on all things related to classroom management. Please visit The Teacher's Guide at [] (Katie)

=ADOLESCENTS WHO ARE EXCEPTIONAL= media type="youtube" key="iRemAboB9kc" height="390" width="480" [|My Name is Asher Lev]is an exceptional piece of literature by Chaim Potak. The video above is a fan movie trailer. It describes the story of an artistically gifted Jewish boy. Asher is born to a conservative Jewish family. When he is very young, he discovers a talent for art. As he matures he devotes more and more of his time to drawing. It soon consumes him. This is very controversial in the Jewish society in which his parents are heavily involved. Against his father wishes, it is decided by the religious leader than Asher should study art under a famous painter. This book tells Asher's story through his early twenties. This emotional literary work is an excellent example of the trials of gifted students and prodigies as described by Santrock. (Emily Grace)

Squirrel!
media type="youtube" key="cQb84PNxu5A" height="390" width="640" This scene from 2009 Disney Pixar movie, "UP," became my cue to get back on task when I was teaching 8th grade English. Shortly after I started teaching, it became very clear that I struggled maintaining my attention in the classroom. For a teacher who has to maintain some sense of order in his middle school classroom, this was pretty important. After visiting my doctor, I was diagnosed with ADHD with the attentive subtype. The school year after this movie came out was my final year as a teacher. Because my students were well aware of my diagnosis, this was the cue they used to help me realize I was getting off track in our classroom discussions. "Hey Mr. Pickler, 'SQUIRREL!'" As far as treatment goes, I was taking Adderall for 5 years (until my last year in the classroom). During that time, I became acutely aware of the side effects it had on me (loss of appetite, increased heart rate, reduced circulation in my extremities, and some mood alteration). Understanding the seriousness that these medications can have has made me a big advocate for the behavior management treatments that are mentioned on page 373 of Santrock. Adolescence is difficult enough without the __prolonged__ introduction of stimulant-based medications. (Jason)

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One article that caught my attention on Sciencedaily.com was //[|Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Score High in Creativity.]// I thought this article was interesting because Santrock describes those with ADHD as hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive (p.372), however, I usually think of the creative process as one that takes some thought, focus, and sometimes an extended period of time to complete creative projects. Researchers at the University of Michigan and Eckerd College found that young adults with ADHD showed more creativity and enjoy generating creative ideas, however do not excel at completing the tasks. According to one of the researchers, Priti Shah, previous studies focuses on ADHD and creativity showed patterns of divergent thinking but this is study suggests that these patterns may be able to translate into real life achievements. This study supported my previous knowledge and Santrock’s description of ADHD, but also made me realize that the creative process is composed of two different parts, the ideas and carrying those ideas out which made me think of how this process is demonstrated in our classrooms. One way to apply this research to the classroom might be pairing up students with ADHD and those who are more detail oriented and able to focus for classroom projects and assignments. (University of Michigan (2011, March 17). Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder score high in creativity. // ScienceDaily //. Retrieved April 3, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/03/110311153543.htm) (Caitlin)======