Reflection #4

            I think that although many teachers try to avoid stereotyping in the classroom it does happen even at the secondary level.  When students reach the high school level they start to show their personalities more and more which sometimes can give teachers the impression that they might not be the best students.  There are some students that dress in a manner that is not traditional and that may give the impression that they will be less than model students.  For example I have one student in my class that came in wearing all black with dark eyeliner and was very quiet.  Sadly I did stereotype her as one of the students that was probably going to be difficult to motivate in class.  However she definitely proved me wrong, she is a great student and a great person which showed me that you can not always just a book by its cover.  But I do believe that whether teachers realize it or not their first impression of students can be stereotypical especially when they have years of experience.  Sometimes when you see students that might fit into a certain “category” it is very hard not to judge the next group of students based on some of the same characteristics.

            We can try not to judge students based on how the present themselves because that obviously has no merit over what they are capable of accomplishing.  What have tried to do this semester is watch each of the students so that I could figure out how much they would be able to perform in the classroom.  When I am teaching a lesson I try to call on different students to answer discussion questions so that I can test the students that I think do not believe that they know the information. I have also let the student’s grades speak for them because there have been many students who have preformed well on a test when I honestly did not think that they would but I have also seen students who I thought would perform well fail.  So I have figured out that the best thing to do is let the students show me what they are capable of on their own. 

Reflection #3

           Inclusion is definitely overwhelming at times, as a student teacher I find myself trying to teach students material at one level and then going back with a lot of the inclusion students so that I break the information down more.  There is a big gap between my general education students and the special education students.  I feel that inclusion is great in theory however in everyday practice it is not practical.  I feel that some of these students need to be in a more restrictive environment than that of a general education classroom.  The students that I see that are lower level often times have trouble dealing with learning all of the material and vocabulary that are necessary to succeed in Biology.  These students have been passed along every year so that when they reach their freshman year of high school they expect that they will again be passed along.  This is not the case so when they get to high school trying to address all of their needs often becomes trying to get the students to work and participate in the lessons. 

            This semester I have tried multiple approaches to try to address the needs of all of the students.  I have tried to draw pictures and charts of the information to give students a visual; I have also had the students redraw some structures within the cell so that they can become more familiar with the image of the organelles and their structures.  I try to walk around the room throughout the period and offer extra help to the students that seem to be having difficulty understanding and I also try to ask the students if the information makes sense to them so that they can succeed on their assignments.