>Workout; Regular bicep day at 35 lbs- didn’t feel very pushed by it, will have to modify tricep dips on the bench to make that extra strain there.
Diet– okay today I kind of cheated at lunch- but my justification was that my father made this really good pasta that I couldn’t eat yesterday night, and it was better to eat it during lunch- and it was like a bit more than half the serving portion yesterday. The problem is that I also ate a steamed bun my father made, and I couldn’t resist- steamed buns with bbq pork make me soooo hungry. And then I had carrot soup and two bananas prior.

Onto my first education read- Teaching from the Inside out– Chapter 1 asks why do I want to teach and lists several answers- I believe mine is a mixture of a few of them.

First off, I like working with children- I am given the ability to help and work with them in their problems and this provides me immense satisfaction. The constant struggle and challenge each day provides meaning for me, and a sense of accomplishment- in short, it makes me feel like I am going forward. I might not be making astronauts out of “failures”, but certainly a smile from them is all I’m asking for. Today we had a professor guest speaker come in for a talk on evolutionary vs creationism in today’s biology classes. Get this- he has 3 doctorates- A Doctoral in Dental Surgery, PhD in Evolutionary biology and a PhD in Christian Theology. Wow. Anyways, one of his stories included a local high school, where the teachers pet frogs eventually prevented a student from committing suicide. It was a very inspirational story, and indicative of the power that teachers can place over the lives of troubled youth.

I also want to remain in the school setting and subject area. Although I wouldn’t say that science itself is strong enough of a reason to be a teacher, it certainly is a factor. I love that the intrinsic details will be something I can focus on, and spend another how many years looking at. Of course this has limits, otherwise I would have happily continued into graduate school in entomology. But perhaps more interesting to me is the dynamics of growing up- all the emotional drama and entanglement of social strife experienced in the classroom. I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum and it is of great intrigue to me. Just how does one solve all these problems of becoming an adult? I love it, and perhaps that is why my humor and maturity is about on par with a freshman in Jr. High.

As well, teaching is a position of moral worth, to be of service to a fellow human being. Its something that I think is important in my life, to provide a dedication to others. I do not believe I was placed here to lead a successful life for my own benefit, and I certainly feel that on my deathbed, I would have contributed to the well being of others, almost as my own way of a lasting legacy. This forgoes the issue that the end brings a release of all that one has gained. Certainly material goods will be lost, but I will be satisfied in that I have been able to do something with my life other than purchase whatever Nikon has to offer.

Finally I wont lie that the holidays are killer sweet too. The first few years will be a toil- preparing lesson plans for the coming year and marking, but afterwards, its just a matter of tweaking your resources. And what better timage to have your holidays than when your kids have holidays? Yeah that’s definitely the win right there.

The need to achieve in students- concerns for the teacher to reflect on

With that in mind, lets go onto the next topic- the need to achieve in students- there are 4 types of students. The first two are those that are the problems that teachers are most worried about- those that don’t care about anything at all, and those that care for the wrong things, such as a sense of belonging, that overrules the need to achieve academically. The last two are those that don’t care, but don’t want to make an issue about it, and without a serious conviction, can still get by the program, and those that recognize an intrinsic need to succeed in school.

There are three ways to help those that do not fall in the last two groups. 1) if you work at it, you can actually make a difference- simply saying you don’t have time is not an excuse. 2)it is our job as teachers to do so. 3)Maslows hierarchy of motivation to work holds the highest level to serve. In case you were interested the hierarchy from highest to lowest is 1) to serve, 2)to achieve, 3)to belong, 4)to be secure and 5)to survive. Fortunately for students, the need to achieve is the focus of the school and so it is our priority to see it done so.

Finally lets end this on the note- why does low achievement even happen?
1) due to differences in culture between the teacher and the student, the teacher does not recognize achievement in the manner that the student does.

2) Self-fulfilling prophecy in action- teachers may continue to view their students as inadequate vessels which need to be filled with knowledge, which is entirely untrue. However if that is what they believe, it will happen, that students will eventually end up the way the teacher shapes them. This is wrong for several reasons- there are now clear indications of psychological stages in child development- i.e. Piaget, where specific teaching methodologies will work ideally in specific age groups. Furthermore, the importance of individualism states that each students individual needs prevents a mass blanket approach to teaching everyone.

3)low standards of achievement- if students do not feel any real challenge or success because of trivial notions of work, they will not be intrinsically motivated to push themselves beyond that what is expected from the teacher.

4) and 5) are grouped together because I don’t really understand much more than what can be applied in literal terms- poor grouping with others students and learning environments that are terrible. These seem obvious, but I suppose they are issues that many teachers may simply not be aware of. But really if you were teaching in a classroom where the lights were broken, what did you expect? I suppose this may come into play with personal requirements for study spaces, like how I detest fluorescent lighting and prefer incandescent indirect lighting.

Blog off. Next topic- how to interact with various demographics.