Critics say top-rated Chinese education system has a flaw

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2011-02-01-asia_education01_ST_N.htm

This article is a very good article but it actually challenges the one of the previous article i had read that said China had top rated education system to it actually having some flaws. China still out does the United states and half the world in math and science testing and it would take the United States some time to actually catch up with them. However what China doesnt do is produce creative and innovative students. In fact the students are flying over to the United States to attend our colleges to learn to be more creative some that American students do very well.

Feb 23 My First Field Experience

Today I had my first field experience at Oxbow Elementry School with Mr. Eerdmans Second Grade Class. Starting yesterday and into last night i became incredbly nervous so much so that i didnt get much sleep. My mind kept racing on things i needed to say and do. Well i went to today and was still just as nervous right up until i entered the classroom and then all that went away as soon as i saw the teacher and the students. I had a great time learning along with the students and watching them get excited over learning. When they split into two groups half came with me and worked on probability and it was funny because they all swarmed toward me and kept asking if they were doing it right. It defently felt a little weird to be back in my elementry school and i tried to remember my past experiences. I really had a fun time today and cant wait till next week to do it again, and dont know why i was so nervous.

Recuiting In China Pays Off for US Colleges!

Recuiting In China Pays Off for US Colleges!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/education/12college.html?_r=1&ref=internationaleducation
This article I read was very interesting and very unexpecting. I was unaware of what China parents do for their children to get into college over here and how truly many colleges there are in America that are really expanding their doors to so many international students. I found it interesting that the Chinese make these brochures with pictures and information about themselves and send them along with their applications as well as hire individuals to write their entrance exams. I also found out that most of these students pay their full tution right away because of how a successfull economy they have over their.

Reflection from Tueday Feb 15

Today we learned about the Intercultural Development Inventory. To really learn about we had to take a long test that had about 75 questions in it. I felt that the test itself wasnt to hard however for some of the question you found you can fit multiple answers as well as the more you though about which one you fit in too the more challenging they were to answer. I felt that was more willing to learn new cultures and to help students with different cultures, i didnt let diversity stand in my way to helping a student or fellow students. I think every students needs to take this inventory because i bet we would be suprised with the answers we found out. Feb 22 Today i got my results back from Intercultural Development Inventory test... I guess i wasnt as developed as i thought. The results were a little complicated to read and figure out what they all meant. My score was more toward minimization but just slightly lower which i come to understand is average for most teachers. This result doesnt make a lot of sense because i grew up in a city with different cultures and my high school had many different cultures in it as well.

District 11 fine tunes Bullying policy

http://abcnewspapers.com/2010/10/26/district-11-fine-tunes-bullying-policy/

After reading this article i was very impressed with the steps taken by District 11 to changing its policy on bullying. They have put into actions certain steps that teachers and adminstrators must follow to educate their students on bullying and putting to stop these harrassments. I felt it was very important for the policys to change for the saftey of these students. I see that videos are being shown at the beginning of the school year, might i suggest that they show a video every semester so it would stick in the student mind more and also that instead of just any video that they should show Bullied because it really puts in into prospective how it can effect a persons life and will impact them better.

Reflections from Tuesday Feb 8 "Bullied"

After watching the DVD Bullied, as a teacher, I felt sickened by the lack of help given to Jamie by his teacher who are there to protect their students and did no such thing and by doing so encouraged the students to act more because there was no fear of consequence. It really was hard to watch students behave this way and feel no remorse for what they did. I felt more compelled to help my students in anyway they needed. As wanting to become a teacher i felt more connected with the one teacher that opened her room up to him during lunch time and tried to help him.  I feel that as a teacher we are supposed to help are students no matter what and after watching the horrible things that can come from bulling and how it can really wreck someones life i am anxious to stop bullying.

Reflection on Thur Feb 3

Today we read an excerpt from The Nation by Linda Darling-Hammond. What i really came away from this article was that we had set all these goals prior to the No Child Left behind in 1989 and were to accomplish them all by the year 2000 and as of yet havent accomplished any and its 2011. This tells us that No child Left Behind has failed and not worked the way we thought. We also today watched a presentation from Dr. Wagner. I though that the presentation was done very well and he had a good way of connecting with the students. I thought the 7 points that he brought across are very important for students today to follow to be successful.

Chapter 1 Education Nation

I started reading Education Nation by Milton Chen this week. After reading the first chapter i find very interesting so far and it has many examples that make the points im reading very clear.
The five keys points I learned from chapter one are:
1. We need to think how education is beening perceived by students and change it.
2.  We need to get parents and community involved more in schools.
3. We need to continue more with project based learning.
4. We need to stop teaching to the tests.
5. We need to change the curriculim.

St. Cloud schools see mixture of spoken languages

http://www.sctimes.com/article/20110129/NEWS01/101290019/St-Cloud-schools-see-mixture-of-spoken-languages


I Felt that this article was a very good article and explained quite a bit of information to me that i didnt not know before i had read it. I feel what these teachers are doing with pulling the kids into smaller groups to help them understand English as a language is very inportant, i also agree with the teachers telling the parents to still read to the children in the native language so they can learn punctionals. I thought with all the cultures i see on campus that the number of languages spoken at St Cloud State University would be more than the number given.

Reflections on class Tuesday Feb 1

Today we did mind maps of chapters 1 and 2. For all of you who dont know what a mind map is... well its a main topic that is connected to little smaller topics connected to more sub topics. I thought this was a very fun activity because we were able to get to know our group better as well as the other group we presented too. It was also a blast even though i dont have the best handwriting and coloring skills( i think i ended up with more marker on my hands than on the paper) the mind map still turned out great.

Reflection of class on thursday 1-31-11

I thought that the instruction we recieved today was very informative and very interesting. I had never used a Mac so was a little confused at first, but once i started to play around with it i got the hang of it. I felt that using atomic learning was very easy and very helpful and look forward to using it more in the future. I also thought edutopia was a very good source and looked very helpful for our upcoming presentation. Im glad i also got introduced into the room nextdoor to the computer lab that had a lot of childrens books and a smartboard and other resources for lesson plans and such that will be very helpful when i do my field expierence especially since i am older now and dont have any childrens books like i used to have.