Monday, February 26, 2007
Agriculture in the Classroom
Last week I had an amazing experience in my Elementary Education Science Curriculum and Instruction class. We had a presentation by Tammy Maxey, the Education Program Coordinator, of Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. The Ag in the Classroom homepage gives a great description of what the foundation is all about. It states that "The Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) is an integrated educational teacher training program designed to foster an understanding of how agriculture affects the quality of our lives. The AITC program is aligned with Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOL) and provides lessons and hands-on activities appropriate for incorporation into current classroom curriculum." Tammy came to our 5o minute class and did a wonderful presentation on how to incorporate agriculture into the classroom for a range of grade levels. She gave a bit of history about the program, tested our knowledge of agriculture, and simulated multiple activities that support Ag in the Classroom. All of the activities were very engaging and were tied directly to the SOL's. She provided us with a ton of materials to take back with us. This included two different CD's with multiple lesson plans and activities to use in our own classrooms. We will also now have a lifelong connection to the VA Foundation for Ag in the Classroom through yearly publications that will be sent to our homes that all include lesson plans based around the theme of the newletter. This presentation was absolutely amazing and a great resource for teaching science. I would highly recommend that anyone use this in-service with their teachers.
Monday, February 12, 2007
2nd Blog Entry- George Lucas Site
I read "Fear Factor" by Christina Wood. This article was about the short term and long term effects of bullying on students and how some bullying leads to dead studentsor other violent behavior. The article began by talking about Lakeside Middle School and how it was put on the state's list of "persistently dangerous schools." Everyone at the school and community were surprised by this, but they took this information and put into action a plan to decrease and hopefully eliminate the bullying that did occur in their school. The school already had a program called Peace and Respect Initiative, which provided parties or treats to classes or students for keeping their school fight/bully free.
They decided to be proactive with this new information and they started a program on bullying awareness and prevention and used a Federal grant to implement the Second Step Violence-Prevention Program. Training was provided for staff about bullying intervention and a counselor was hired to work with the students and staff on anger management and behavior issues.
Later in the article there are statistics about the amount of students that have been bullied; 16% of school age children have recently been bullied, 23% threatened, 40% called hurtful names, and 38% hit, kicked or pushed. The article also described a variety of forms of bullying.
Typically bullies choose somebody weaker than them and usually choose to bully them in front of a crowd so they can gain respect and power.It was also emphasized that all prevention programs must work with the school, students, parents and the community because the bullying doesn't stop when the school bell rings at the end of the day.
There are five steps to a successful program:
1. begin with education.
2. move to intervention
3. effort must be vigilant and ongoing
4. a change in the culture of the school
5. maintain this
A separate column within the article described mean girls and what bullying was like for girls. They refer to girl bullying as "relational bullying" because it is social rather than physical. Typically a bully will take action by getting another girl shunned by a large group of girls. This can be really detrimental to a female because the social world is very important to most females and if they don't have it they can feel like they don't have anything.
My Reaction:
I find this article really interesting. It is not unsual to hear about shootings or stabbings in schools because some kid got picked on too much and he/she finally snapped. But I don't typically hear about what the schools are doing to prevent this from occuring. This article has given some light to the types of prevention programs that are out there and how to implement them.
One thing I do not agree with is how this particular Middle School had celebrations or treats for students or classes to help keep the school fight/bully free. I don't think that teaching the kids that if you don't beat someone up or pick on them then you will get some cake or candy is the proper method. I instead think that teaching them about caring and morals or values is a much more valuable lesson. When they leave school there won't be any rewards for keeping your hands to yourself. Another thing I don't agree with is a statement in the section about "Mean Girls." It says that "Bullying by girls-- often called relational bullying-- is social rather than physical" I agree that often it is, but I don't think that we should forget that girls do get physical and we can't assume that it is all verbal just because they are female.
I like the prevention programs because they are a proactive response to the situation...these programs are working to hopfully prevent these problems from occuring instead of waiting to find out about it and then reacting. Another important topic raised in this article is the notion that bullying occurs in multiple forms. I think many people forget that bullying isn't always someone pushing or shoving another person; it can be a gesture, a look, a written note, or showing a weapon. This is especially important for us pre-service teachers to remember because we will have to look out for these signs.
They decided to be proactive with this new information and they started a program on bullying awareness and prevention and used a Federal grant to implement the Second Step Violence-Prevention Program. Training was provided for staff about bullying intervention and a counselor was hired to work with the students and staff on anger management and behavior issues.
Later in the article there are statistics about the amount of students that have been bullied; 16% of school age children have recently been bullied, 23% threatened, 40% called hurtful names, and 38% hit, kicked or pushed. The article also described a variety of forms of bullying.
Typically bullies choose somebody weaker than them and usually choose to bully them in front of a crowd so they can gain respect and power.It was also emphasized that all prevention programs must work with the school, students, parents and the community because the bullying doesn't stop when the school bell rings at the end of the day.
There are five steps to a successful program:
1. begin with education.
2. move to intervention
3. effort must be vigilant and ongoing
4. a change in the culture of the school
5. maintain this
A separate column within the article described mean girls and what bullying was like for girls. They refer to girl bullying as "relational bullying" because it is social rather than physical. Typically a bully will take action by getting another girl shunned by a large group of girls. This can be really detrimental to a female because the social world is very important to most females and if they don't have it they can feel like they don't have anything.
My Reaction:
I find this article really interesting. It is not unsual to hear about shootings or stabbings in schools because some kid got picked on too much and he/she finally snapped. But I don't typically hear about what the schools are doing to prevent this from occuring. This article has given some light to the types of prevention programs that are out there and how to implement them.
One thing I do not agree with is how this particular Middle School had celebrations or treats for students or classes to help keep the school fight/bully free. I don't think that teaching the kids that if you don't beat someone up or pick on them then you will get some cake or candy is the proper method. I instead think that teaching them about caring and morals or values is a much more valuable lesson. When they leave school there won't be any rewards for keeping your hands to yourself. Another thing I don't agree with is a statement in the section about "Mean Girls." It says that "Bullying by girls-- often called relational bullying-- is social rather than physical" I agree that often it is, but I don't think that we should forget that girls do get physical and we can't assume that it is all verbal just because they are female.
I like the prevention programs because they are a proactive response to the situation...these programs are working to hopfully prevent these problems from occuring instead of waiting to find out about it and then reacting. Another important topic raised in this article is the notion that bullying occurs in multiple forms. I think many people forget that bullying isn't always someone pushing or shoving another person; it can be a gesture, a look, a written note, or showing a weapon. This is especially important for us pre-service teachers to remember because we will have to look out for these signs.
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