My Contributions to the webquest wiki

• Created a page with Journalistic task examples and linked it to the task taxonomy page
  
• Added to this new page a Grapes of Wrath webquest
• Added a Forrest Gump webquest
• Added journey of the journalist web quest
  

Chapter # 10 Going Beyond the Classroom

Remember that learning does not only occur inside the classroom. In fact if a break down of time is done (kids spending only 30 hours in school a week), it would stand to reason that more learning occurs outside school. A teacher should help facilitate this as Mahogany explains, "In ninth-grade science, two times a week we went out to clean up a park with a pond in it. We learned about fish and their environment."

Learning like this is always fun and rewarding. I remember in elementary school, this guy named Mr. Baco would come in from a wild life and nature foundation and teach us about natural sciences. He would do this once a month and cover topics ranging from astronomy to the dissection of owl pellets. Everybody couldn't wait for his lessons because he really knew how to make the outdoors into a classroom, and it never felt like school as much as it felt like summer camp.

Chapter # 9 When Things go Wrong

One thing in particular stood out in this chapter, even though it was a tiny bit of advice. "Don't judge your success by whether students like you." Short though it is, it is exceedingly important.

It is completely true, being a teacher is not about popularity. In my educational career, I have had many teachers that were absolutely hated by students. The classes these teachers taught were always worth while because no class time was wasted in attempts of being a best friend. These teachers were severe, often older, but always got the best results out of their students. In retrospect I like these teachers a lot more now than I did back them. I also like them more than the teachers that tried to be liked because I learned more in these more traditional classrooms.

Chapter # 8 Teaching Teenagers who are Still Learning English

ESL students can be a challenge in any classroom, but not because they lack knowledge. They are sometimes a challenge because of a language barrier. It is important to remember this and find some way to involve them in classes. Cushman recommends involving them in a lesson through what they know.

I have always been in awe of ESL students because they are able to overcome a huge barrier in language, and in many cases make it seem effortless. At my high school we had an ESL club and every student in it consistently made high honors. This tells me that ESL students, in general, are willing to work much harder than some of the other students in their class. It is the work ethic that gives me so much respect for them, but also if teachers do what Cushman suggests everybody would have a very enriching education.

Chapter # 7 Teaching Difficult Academic Material

Teaching difficult material can be a challenge to the best of teachers. In fact parts of some subjects may seem near impossible to teach, but it is important that we remember it is the students that are doing the learning. As a result an educator should take into consideration the students suggestions on how to teach the material. One such suggestion is to ask questions that motivate student thought.

In past experiences I know that I have always learned better in classes that ask questions that motivate thought. In classes like History or English these questions are all to easy to create. In Math and Sciences the opposite tends to be true. Although I must admit that I have been fortunate enough to have a math teacher that did ask motivating questions. He used to challenge us to come up with as many real life applications as we could, for the material we were learning.

Chapter # 6 Motivation and Boredom

Passion is a key component of good teaching. Students such as Vance recognize this and let us know, "The mark of a good teacher is that no matter how weird or boring you might think their subject is, their love for it is what pushes you to learn something. It could be rat feces or some nasty topic, and the fact that their eyes are glowing when they talk about it makes you want to know something about it."

Students know what helps them to learn best, so it is wise to take into account their thoughts on passionate teachers. In my own experience it helps when a teacher has a love for their subject. All of my history teachers have been completely enraptured by history, and not only did that help me perform better in the class but I am sure that it also sparked my own love for the subject. It is very helpful to see how a subject can be loved, because it gives the sense that by not loving it you are in some way missing out.

Chapter # 5 Teaching to the Individual, Working with the Group

This chapter broke down the class dynamic into different roles. These roles were the eye-roller, the wallflower, the hand-waver,the dreamer, the con artist, the goof-off, and the workhorse. Each class is supposedly made up of these roles.

I think this break down is far to general and it assumes that students are 1 dimensional stock characters, much like the ones found in commedia del arte. Students are far more complex than that, and as I have been working in the field I have been confronted with countless examples of that. The most striking example is a student that doesn't do any work at all. He doesn't goof around, he just sits quietly in the class, pays attention, but doesn't take tests or do class work. This student could fit aspects of multiple roles, but his case gets stranger still. After receiving an ISS he did all of his assigned work, and aced it. Now this student shows aspects of all the roles. That is just one example on why I think that this break down was too generalized.