Centaurus P2T 2019-2020

In school, we have rules in order to benefit the community, and the system that we work in. More is achieved through teamwork, but in order to work together there must be some sort of guidelines in place. Without this guidance, things are easily lost in translation and it is hard to get things accomplished. At a young age, we are taught to walk in a line to and from class, listen to instructions and not talk when the teacher is talking. These rules change as we gain experience and independence, but in school there are always certain dos and dontś. Teachers will always expect you to act a certain way while performing schoolwork, because there is considered to be proper classroom etiquette. There are reprimands in place for students who fail to follow these rules, that way people will be scared of the consequences and more likely to cooperate.

There are rules in school in order to keep the students in check. Young people can be destructive and don't always know right from wrong. I believe they should apply to all students as it would feel unfair to some people, causing them to act out. Elementary school and high school have many differences such as were allowed to chew gum, leave off-campus, eat in class, and bring our phones. As in Elementary, they have to walk in straight lines without talking, carry a pass to go to the bathroom, and younger kids aren't allowed to leave without a parent signature. The role of teachers in the behavior of students is to get them to engage in school. To give them a good experience where they actually learned something they will always remember. While students should respect each other, go to school, listen, and learn. Although this doesn't always happen. But everyone's going to realize at some point we need to do these things in order to maintain a job, a steady life. I admi...

I have worked in 3 different classrooms at Ryan and each one has not had the same teaching style. I think that what Dr.Anderson said a lot of things that I now pay attention to and now I'm aware of what they think about when they make choices on how to teach and what to teach. In the kindergarten classroom I don't see much of a achievement gap.

The achievement and opportunity gap is shown in our classrooms every day. Many may not notice but colored individuals feel like a minority in the classroom which makes it harder for them speak up in class and ask questions when theyre afraid of being judged for not knowing the answer. Well at least thats how I feel. This is most shown in advanced classes, such as my LA class, the majority of the class is white and nobody seems to want to talk to me. Because of the achievement gap colored students arent as likely to get into an advanced class, and even if they do theyre still treated as a minority. Making us work harder for our place in the classroom.

Dr. Rob Anderson spoke to our class on Monday and had a lot of insight and advice to offer regarding the opportunity and achievement gaps, as well as education in general. It focused my attention towards what I'm experience in the classroom at Ryan, because an elementary school is generally where these issues first stem from, and it begins to snowball from there on. 

It is easy to get behind especially when workloads seem to be never ending. Most people have the tendency to procrastinate their work, which creates a viscous cycle of underachievement. The best strategies that get me motivated to get up and be productive are; 1) Make a list 2) Meditate 3) Yoga 4) Work out 5) Listen to some dank toons

When im not feeling motivated i always think about the consequences. Bad grades, grades dropping and not feeling satisfied. I strongly dislike my bad grades. It stresses me out to see that i have a bad grade in a class. My mom is always on me as well about my grades. Some strategies that i use are, alarms, set reminders, and its a bad strategy but stress helps pushes me to get my work done. 

For my research topic I chose to study human trafficking and how common it is, yet how it is extremely underestimated and undermined, and little attention is brought to it, especially in classrooms. I think that trafficking awareness should be brought to schools because even though it is a sensitive topic, the majority of targets are young females, meaning that if more of our young females are taught in school what to do in a situation like that, then the number of trafficking causes is likely to go down.

I have a hard time self-motivating myself sometimes, I get tired and all I want to do is watch Netflix. In order to finish the things, I have to get done I remind myself that ill regret not doing them in the future, which is true. I get more stressed not doing what I have to do than actually doing what I have to do. The first strategy that I could use to get more motivation is to get everything done early so I can enjoy the rest of my day without worrying about what I have to get done later which keeps me from enjoying myself. The second thing would be what I said at the beginning, to remind myself that it's more stressing to not get things done. The third thing would be to manage my time better, to use my time wisely and find the right times to mess around and finish homework. The fourth would be to start showing up to school more often as we sometimes get time in class to work on assignments. The fifth and final thing would be to keep me mentally stable as that plays a big part...

I want my research topic to be about the history of education as there has been no real change in it for a long time. This topic will present itself in the classroom as there are many similarities. I hope to find information about other schools doing different things and show the benefits of these changes if any. By doing my research on this topic I could spread awareness about how we can improve our education system. Hopefully, one day we're able to see more students who enjoy school and learning as having smarter, reasonable people will lead us to a better society.

I am researching mental illness. I think that mental illness is a very big factor in how students perform in class. My students all are normal elementary students from what I see. They all are always happy and excited whenever i see them. Every week they all greet me as I walk through the door to help them.  there can always be something going on through closed doors, but from what it looks like they all are just as happy as normal kids should be. They all participate in after school activities and always look forward to doing those activities.

Social-emotional learning is not common in education as teaching it is not required. Students are expected to learn how to deal with their emotions from their parents. Though not all children are fortunate enough to learn this at home which can lead to poor behavior in school. I think my parents did an alright job in teaching me from right and wrong, maybe a little too harsh sometimes but I wouldn't be who I am without those experiences. I believe teachers also play a big part in who we grow to become. At least for me, they were, I never heard anyone say they believed in me until I went to school. Some of my teachers encouraged me to succeed so as I progressed I finally decided to invest in my education freshman year. Though there isn't a class for social-emotional learning I've learned many useful things about dealing with my emotions through all of my classes. Specifically LA class, recently we read an expert named, "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau, which taught ...

I don't really know much about my students. One of my students always talks about her older sister who is in college and that's pretty much all I know about them. That same student sounds like she has a pretty good relationship with her older sister. The students are really sweet, so I assume that they all have a good and stable home. They always have a smile on their face and upbeat.

What do you know of the background lives of the students you work with? Do you know this directly? Or is it something you infer from other details you notice? You can speak about several students. I dont really know anything about most of them other than what their favorite books are, favorite food and animals. I really want to know more about there home life. I know some students directly because I was a coached some of the Lafayette Bobcats and also because my brother is in the same grade as the students that I am helping.There are several students that have a lot of energy and sometimes cant stop from being social and talking with others.

I haven't had the opportunity to get to know the kids I'm working with too well as we usually just play games with them outside the classroom. They got to ask us questions once but they didn't really learn anything about us since they asked pointless questions. Although I learned that most of the kid's oldest siblings are in middle school just like one of my siblings was when I was their age. I found this cool I guess because I was literally them not too long ago. Other than this I honestly don't remember anything else they told me, I tend to not like children but I can manage. When I go out to work with a child I can usually tell if they're going to be shy or outgoing by their body language. Though since I was once (kind of still am) shy I know how it feels to be uncomfortable around older people. Knowing this I try my best to make them as comfortable as I can and try to break the ice with our given amount of time. This can be hard because I get nervous to ta...

I don’t have a strong bond or personal connection with really any of the students in my class, because the fourth graders seem to be shy and a bit nervous around us. However, during the holidays, Jasmine and Gloria and I thought it would be a good idea to ask each student we worked with what their favorite thanksgiving food was. One student responded by saying they didn’t celebrate thanksgiving. Backgrounds are personalized and vary from kid to kid, but you can easily find out more information about a child just by asking them questions about themselves.

The atmosphere in my classroom is very welcoming. I work with a small group of students so I have got to know them pretty well as the year has gone on. I think the student actually really enjoy their teacher. They always come in excited to see her and when she isn't there, they do get pretty upset. They are very respectful to our teacher. They always reply with please and thank you when asked a question. They always greet each other with warm smiles and talk about what they have done in their class. Our teacher always asks what everyone has been up to and what they're excited about over the weekend. The kids seem to always enjoy walking through the doors to see us and our teacher. I'm actually really happy I was put with these 4 students. They really are good kids and I wouldn't want to be with any other students than them.

During this classroom session, there was a debacle involving a fourth grader and a stuffed toy spider, and a faculty member was sent from the office down to Ms. Montoya's classroom. He lectured the kids in an approachable and friendly way, telling them that they didn't have to snitch if they had any information about the toy, but instead, everyone will be given the chance to anonymously write down any known information by giving everyone a pencil and paper and a couple minutes. This gave Jasmine, Gloria and I a good look at how to address a situation that is out of our hands.

Describe the atmosphere of your classroom. What do the students think of the teacher? Do they show respect? Describe. (at least 100 words and a picture). You can/should answer this prompt even in you missed going to Ryan on Thursday. The atmosphere in my classroom(Ms.Villecos) was really cool we were doing a lot of activities having to do with Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. It was really interesting how amazed and open the students were to different topics. All of them were showing respect to Gabe and I but they weren’t really the same way to each other, maybe it’s because they are of the same age and don’t view one another as an authority figure.(I couldn’t get a picture because we can’t have phones in the classroom)

The atmosphere of Mrs. Montoya's 4th-grade class is positive, from what I've seen the students seem to like their teacher. I always see them raising their hands and paying attention to what she has to say. I haven't got the chance to see her actually teach because the time we come in on Thursday is their study time. During this, they're respectful and finish their work in silence with occasional side conversations. Though these students are good to their teacher they're not always as respectful with their peers. Today we had an administrator come into the classroom to talk about a stolen stuffed spider. They were asked to write down anything they knew about the incident, in order to find the thief. Hopefully by next week when we come to visit again the stuffed spider is returned to its original owner.