BOOK REVIEW

Teaching Boys Who Struggle In School: Strategies That Turn Underachievers Into Successful Learners by Kathleen Palmer Cleveland

The purpose of this book is to explore those responses about underachievement perspectives based mainly on differentiation between boys and girls.  This book also presents every reader a degree of understanding that is profound enough to support change; flexible enough to encompass many variables, and broad enough to serve as a viable framework for practical design decision making.  Cleveland embraces various ideas and techniques from four large-scale studies for educators to explore, which will assists them in this major concern.  The audience for this book is educators who want to take part in solving the problem on “boys and schools.”  One section of this book that shocked me was seeing the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory being used as framework to explain why students learn and respond to instructions in different ways.  Overall, I believe that this is an outstanding resource for educators that are running into this problem daily.  I challenge every educator that is struggling with this issue today to purchase a copy of this book because it will defiantly assist in guiding underachieving boys in the right direction in education.      

 

WHAT IS HAPPINESS?

As most dictionaries will define it, the quality or state of being happy; good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.  HAPPINESS

I believe happiness is more of someone’s state of mind than someone’s external conditions, such as situations and events.  If you are feeling content with the way your lifestyle is or simply feel you have a peace of mind, I believe you are experiencing happiness.  If you find yourself friendly, no matter what kind of circumstances are occurring in your life and happy for no reason, you are experiencing a state of mind that is openness.  HAPPINESS     

Daily Motivation

I receive a daily motivational message from my brother and I would like to share this particular message.

     What would you do, if you could do anything? How would this day be, if you could create it to be just the way you want?

     What would occupy your thoughts, if you did not have to worry about anything? What actions would you take; if you were sure they would bring what you intended?

     What would you say if you were not concerned about what anyone else might think? What would you dream of experiencing, if you were certain the dream would come true?

     How would you live, if you allowed your most treasured inner values to be expressed in your outer world? How would you feel, if you could feel precisely the way you wanted to feel?

     In fact, on this day and in this place, you can. You can do and say and feel and be precisely the way you would like to be.

     Life is entirely what you allow it to be. Imagine, intend and allow your very best vision of life right now, and always.

— Ralph Marston


Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.

Plato

CURRENT NEWS ON AMERICAN STUDENTS PASSING GEOGRAPHY TESTS

When I was in grade school, geography and science was my favorite subjects to learn.  I found these two subjects to be very interesting and I was always enthused about learning more about them.  Learning in a class with teachers who are energetic and creative with their lessons makes learning so much easier.  I am not too surprised to see that only 25 percent of American students passed their geography test.  I was already aware of American students not excelling in math and science, but wasn’t aware of there being an issue in geography.  I do agree with Mr. Edelson, we have to do a better job at educating in general.  If our educators were well educated, there wouldn’t be such a low percentage of passing scores on geography test with American students.  Take a look at this article and tell your thoughts about what’s going on with the low percentage of American students passing geography tests.  Click on the link below to review the article.   

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/only-25-percent-american-students-passed-geography-test-160214355.html 

A MISTAKE THAT I'VE MADE AND WHAT I'VE LEARNED FROM IT

We all have made many mistakes in our lifetime which we have learned from.  I recently made the mistake of informing a coworker about a situation that her name was spoken in.  At this time, my coworker was on vacation, but called me to see how everything was going in the office.  So I informed her of the situation just so she wouldn’t come back to work and be clueless about what was going on and before I knew it, the whole situation was blown out of proportion. She called to the office and was trying to clear her name up in the situation and then I was approached by another coworker who was upset about the whole situation.  This situation has taught me to just stay out of others business, even if I am simply trying to help someone that I have a good relationship with.  You can’t always rescue someone because you are simply taking a chance of hurting yourself. 

MAKE A LIST OF 5 AVAILABLE RESOURCES FOR YOUR SUBJECT/GRADE

I will be teaching 3rd grade through 5th grade math and I think these five resources will be very beneficial to my classroom.

1.     COMPUTER
2.     CALCULATOR
3.     ALGEBRA TILES
4.     VIRTUAL DICE
5.     FRACTION BARS

Even though these resources will be available for students to use, I will continue to conduct a few math lessons without using them.  I don’t want my students to rely completely on these resources because it will make them lazy and not want to think on their own.  These resources are to simply assist students until they are able to perform math problems with only paper and pencil or just by thinking.

A Community I Love

A community that I can honestly say that I love is the military community.  Growing up as a military dependent has truly been a blessing to my life.  I feel like my life is structured well and my mindset is the same as military soldiers, when it relates to lifestyle, morals and goals.  Living on military bases from elementary school to high school gave me the security and the discipline that I needed growing up.  I’ve always felt safe on a military base because I felt like everyone new one another, so it was almost like one big family.  As a youth on the military base, one of the benefits was being able to attend the Youth Activity Center free of charge, which had all types of programs throughout the school year and even the summer to entertain children.  If I wouldn’t have been raised in the communities that I was raised in, I would not be the person that I am today.  So, I would like to say thank you to my parents for placing me in a safe and nurturing community and thank you to the military community for providing a secure environment and excellent benefits to all military families.

Should My School Use Social Media?

Not only should my school use social media, but all schools should use social media.  Social media is basically technology that allows us to network with one another and distribute self-developed and/or pre-existing subject matters with individuals.  These self-developed and pre-existing subject matters are both available for open communication between all internet users.  In today’s society, social media has become more popular than ever.  Just about every classroom in the United States has some kind of internet connection which enables the students to use social media and they all enjoy it.  If the use of social media is not being educated properly to students, then it will be abused in the classroom which may hinder that classroom from being able to utilize it.  Social media improves student’s knowledge a great deal, especially when it used for obtaining information on current events.  I think there should not be any schools without the ability to explore social media and what it has to offer.      

My Topic - Math

Multiplication with Two Digits - Math Lesson for 4th & 5th Grade

I choose to post this video on my blog because I will be teaching math to 3rd grade through 5th grade students.  This is a typical math problem for a 4th or 5th grade student.  Here are a few frequently asked questions about everyday mathematics.

• How does Everyday Mathematics address basic facts? When should students be expected to know their facts?
• How does Everyday Mathematics address computation?
• How and why does Everyday Mathematics encourage the use of calculators?
• How does Everyday Mathematics meet the needs of students at various levels of ability?
• How can I help my child?

I hope this video is able to assist anyone in multiplying two digits.

4thgrade Math/Multiplication

Multiplication with Two Digits - Math Lesson for 4th & 5th Grade

MY FIVE DAILY NEEDS! WHAT ARE YOUR DAILY NEEDS?

1.    Prayer 

  

2.    Organization

3.    Exercise  

4.    Healthy Meals

5.    Family

What’s Your Passion?

I am not a teacher yet, but I can honestly say that every elementary teacher that I have met was passionate about teaching and had a big heart for students.  I began graduate school in the wrong field at one point in time.  Even though I was learning and passing every class that I was taking, I was not enjoying the program that I was in.  I then began to think and I realized that I was in the wrong field of interest, business management.  Although, I have a Bachelors degree in business, getting a Masters degree in business was not where my heart was.  I sat down one day and was wondering why I was not happy in this program and it was the simple thought of not following my heart and passion.  I am now pursuing a Masters in Elementary Education and I am enjoying the process of learning every technique about teaching.  My passion is teaching children, what’s yours?   

Children's Book

The book that was read aloud to me that I have always remembered was Curious George goes to a Costume Party.  I believe this book has impacted my life because I find myself searching for clothes to fit me as if I was looking for a costume like George.  This book is basically about Curious George going to a Halloween Costume party and he searches for a costume.  This book touched me as a kid because I was always told that I would be taller than most girls in my class and I knew it would be a hassle trying to find clothes to fit my size.  

Introduction

Hello,

My name is Tomika R. Lewis and I am from Tacoma, Washington.  I am currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Elementary Education at The University of West Alabama.  I look forward to teaching Math and/or English Language Arts to 3^rd – 5^th grade students.  I choose the teaching as a profession because I have a passion for educating children and the reward that I receive from that is watching them excel.  My long-term goal is initially become a principle at an Elementary School.  Something humorous about me is that when I sneeze, I usually say “Bless Me!” before anyone else can say “God Bless You!”