Teaching+Cases

CASE 1 REFLECTION: This would be a very complicated situation to deal with. If these were my students I would make all of the resources for the class available online for the students to access from outside of the class. Although this sounds like a good idea in theory, it would be essential to keep daily communication with the students in order to keep the students on track. Along with that, students might be required to perform more labs or projects to assess their knowledge since they will not have had the direct instruction that students in class will have had. I would advice students to use other online resources to assist them in learning aside from the online resources I would have provided. CASE 2 REFLECTION: The first thing I would do is request a meeting with the mother to further discuss the conditions and needs of Andrew. I would try and ask Andrew's mother what I could do to best suit Andrew's needs. I would ask Sally if the internet would be a good option for posting work in which Andrew must complete. This might not be the best option, however, so I would offer to make weekly packets for Andrew. This way I would give Andrew his work a week in advance in case he happens to need to be gone for a few days. I would make sure to keep in constant contact--via email--with his mother to monitor Andrew's progress. CASE 3 REFLECTION: Firstly I would have a meeting with the ESL teacher and see what resources are available. Further, I found a website http://www.proz.com/profile/54483 in which a Professor is a translator who also happens to have her PhD in Chemistry. She will translate any documents for you. So I would make that website available for her. In the beginning I would have the important documents translated for her as well as a copy in English so she can begin to make comparisons. As the school year progressed I would start to give her less documents that were translated. This would challenge her to learn English. This is just what I could do with the resources I have. She might also be granted a tutor or something of the like through the ESL program. CASE 4 REFLECTION: As a teacher (whether Gabe was my student or not) I would try and find out who signed off saying the school had adequate resources. In a tactful way I would approach the faculty that signed off and on behalf of the students I would ask what plan of action we are supposed to take to fulfill our duties of having a "physical" lab. If this person fails to take responsibility or action for this situation I would then proceed with plan b. Plan b would be to call other school in (or out) of the district to see if there are resources available that could be or use to this student. All to often I think school districts overlook the gifted and talented students and do not provided the proper resources to further their education. This is something I feel strongly about and would be willing to stand up for the students who are being overlooked. CASE 5 and REFLECTION: Students were going up to the board to do problems for the class. One young lady was going up to the board and a gentleman in the class started making "big booty" comments to her. Nextly, this gentleman, John, was asked to go to the board. As he was trying to do his problem he was trying to squeeze it between two problems on the board when the teacher said, "why don't you just erase Molly's (the young lady that had just been at the board) or I guess you could try and squeeze it between Molly's." John then turns to Molly and said, "well it wouldn't be the first time now would it Molly?" She immediately turns bright red and attempts to defend herself. The teacher is not in the "know" about what has just been announced to the class. After a few minutes the teacher catches on and shouts, "If you do not stop talking about this I am going to give you details about what my husband and I do!" She had completely lost the students from that point on. This situation was handled in a very poor way. Instead of being proactive and diverting attention, the teacher fed the fire and added to the distraction. What might you do in this situation as a teacher? REFLECTION: If this were my classroom I would have handled this situation completely different. I feel like I have been pretty good at being a "with-it" teacher. I am usually in tune to all that chatter with what is going on in the classroom. I would have caught it the moment John made the inappropriate comment and would have stopped it at that point in time before the whole class caught on to the comment that was just made. I would have brought it to John's attention that the comment was inappropriate and would have written him up to go to the office. The reason for this is because my classroom with be a safe environment and behavior of this nature (sexual harassment) will NOT be tolerated. Furthermore, I want students to realize that the displayed behavior is inappropriate and there will be consequences. As for the teachers comments from above. I find this to be extremely inappropriate coming from a teacher, in fact, it is borderline sexual harassment in itself.