Wood working vs. Multimedia

This week I visited two very different classrooms, and both interestingly enough are part of my major and areas that I am really intersted in. First I started the day with a ninth grade woodshop. Their teacher started the class with one of Harry Wong's "bellwork" assignments. Here it was called question of the day. "What has a mouth, doesn't chew, and runs?" He would have the students come in and write the answer quietly in their planner (I believe in support of the school policy to always have it for every class). He would go arround at the beginning of class and check off the students who got the answer right. If they didn't have their planner they couldn't get points for answering the question. There was a quick review of previous assigments and then they headed into the shop (ladies first of course). Today they worked on boomarangs and turning pens. The student set right to work. His way to teach was to teach a piece at a time and then teach the next step when someone reached that point. The shop is just a fun environment for learning because it is where you do more hands on, tangible creating which is something that I love.
After the first hour I headed over to the classroom across the hall for the multimedia side of things. Again it was a ninth grade class and the class was started with a "bellwork" problem. These were more of a puzzle to be solved rather than a riddle but none the less a great way to get the students thought processes going at the wee hours of the morning. We helped with some basic drafting and then video editing. I don't know why but I just really enjoy working with video and seeing the creative possibilities that the students can come up with.
Jr. High is really a cool time to each technology because depending on the situation you may be teaching it all. I am really excited to go to the high schools and get a better feel for what it is like for a teacher there.

In the Classroom

We made our first visit to a Jr. High this week. It was very interesting to learn that public schools are still making class sizes bigger and bigger. There were thirty to fourty students per class on adverage at the school we visited and that is still the same with even a wood shop class. The crazy thing is they dont increase the number of teachers per class which leaves one person to keep an eye on thirty to fourty different students at a time all using very powerfull and potentially very dangerous machinary.
The teacher we visited was glad to have us and to put us to work. It was there first work day on their project of a hanging wall shelf and it would be impossible for him to watch every student at all the machines and have them get anything done. So he took his station at the table saw and I took another for a little bit then headed to the router table when more students became ready for that step of the project. It was crazy. If I hadn't been there it is possible that several of the students would have ran their hands through the router blade with out even thinking about it. It's like the schools expect these teachers to be super heros because they over pack their classes with students then expect them to cover all there curriculum requirements as well as supervise everyone to make sure there are no accidents. In my oppionion it is just a trip to the hospital waiting to happen.
The huge class sizes seems to be the majority of parents complaints about the public school system. It's not the amount of text books they have or if their computers are the latest model it is that their children aren't getting the attention they need to learn because it is phisically impossible for the teachers to get arround and give that much needed time to everyone in their classes. The problem is the only ways to shrink class sizes is to have more class periods in a day, lessen the number of students attending the school, or just hire more teachers.
We were told while we were at the school that finding placement at any school for a teacher is very difficult right now. There just arn't jobs. But if there is such a demand for teachers to fullfill the need of smaller class sizes how can this be. There is no money to pay for more teachers.

The Beginning

Okay here it goes. I have never had a blog before and Geoff I know this is late but it has taken a little to figure all this out and get caught up.
This class has made me really think about why I want to become a teacher and how I can make it work. I first started thinking about it when I was in high school. Of all the people it was my drivers-ed teacher that had the largest effect on me. He was a man who understood why he became a teacher and a coach it wasn't because he loved the subject matter or for the love of the game it was because he saw it as an opportunity to help his students reach their fullest potential. He was always spending extra time to help a student; working late hours and even comming in on Saturdays so that we could finish all our testing and preparation. He taught us manners. He made sure that we respected the ladies in our class and in our school. He showed us the power of synergy and teamwork and how to use it to better the lives of all those arround us. I really took what he taught to heart and tried to apply it to my life.
That following summer the news of his death was spread throughout the community. It was a hard blow to all the students and faculty. Not only had we lost a great teacher but also a friend. I think about what he taught me daily and with the added examples of many teachers who have followed, good and bad, have helped my desire to do the same grow.