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Module 4 Reflection - Jarod Rollins

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Teaching Middle School When I think about the possibility of teaching middle school students, I feel pretty good about it. If you had asked me a year ago about teaching middle school students, I would have been very apprehensive, but several things have changed my mind since then. The first thing that influenced me was my wife teaching middle school health for almost a year. Hearing about her experiences shaped my perception in a positive way. She had many great students and very few behavioral problems to deal with. I was surprised by this and maybe even a little unbelieving at first, but then I gained some experience subbing at our middle school and realized she was right. being a substitute is never easy, but overall, I had a great experience too. Everything I have learned in this class has added upon those two experiences. Now I feel like I am prepared for the occasional behavior problem, understanding where students are at in their brain development in maturity. This helps me ha...

EDUC517 Module 3 Reflection: Culturally Responsive Education

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  For me culturally responsive teaching is an important part of classroom learning. We are all part of the melting pot, that is the United States. It is what we are know for around the world. So of course, our classrooms should reflect that. Building relationships with our students is imperative to the learning process and can only be done by learning about each other while showing respect and kindness. The relationships we have with our students are a piece of their learning foundation. Class expectations that are set together as a class can emphasize the need for inclusion and understanding. This could be new for some students, but they will see the importance of valuing each other’s culture by virtue of the class rules that are set. In this way students see how serious it is to mistreat someone and their cultural background. In a student-centered classroom there are many opportunities to learn from and about each other. I plan to have a couple of assignments centered around ...

Module 2 Reflection

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  EDUC 517 – Module 2: Reflection by Jarod Rollins 1.  What stood out to you in the content readings this week?  What was one point that made an impression? This week after watching the video and reading the articles the one thing that stood out to me most from the reading was modeling. Not only does the teacher set the attitude, mood, and expectations for the class, but the teacher is most importantly the model for everything (Allen & Currie, 2012). Students, whether consciously or sub-consciously are doing what the teacher does. If the teacher is sarcastic and rude then that is the behavior that the students will follow and emulate. If the teacher turns a blind eye or is passive to bullying, then that is what is considered acceptable, and the students will follow it. It does not matter what a teacher or any authority figure says to a student if the actions do not match their words. Students are watching actions and they are picking up on the culture and subtext ...

Module 1 My Middle School Reflection

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 As I said in our first class meeting, my middle school experience was rough and it was rough for some other kids I went to school with also. I grew up in Spokane, Washington and attended Chase Middle School on the south hill.  It was a huge school compared to where I had attended grade school and the building and facilities were also new. During my time there my parents got divorced and I feel like that event set a lot of other things in motion in my life. I was impacted by my parent divorce pretty hard and I began to act out. I had always been a super nice kid and never really had any enemies, but one day I decide to punch a kid in the mouth, really for no reason at all. It was the only fight I have ever been in and I felt horrible about it. I also had never had to be disciplined, but I found myself in lunch detention often. I got my first F's and D's in middle school. As I looked around I noticed that other kids were struggling too. I remember one girl that h...