Listening to Children

When reading the article by Paley I found that I could make a lot of connections to teaching science even though her article talks mainly about preschool and kindergarteners during play. A particular line that struck me was "It did not occur to me that the distractions might be the sounds of children thinking." This struck me because so often we are concerned with staying on track and coming to the right answer that we lose sight of the different views and knowledge that children have. This applies to science as well because each child come into your science class with different ideas and misconceptions about the world of science. I think we need to be more relaxed and let children share their views. This is the only way in which we are going to be able to build upon their knowledge. I also related to her statement about her own point of view causing children's voice to grow silent. We want to hear what they have to say. I know I am guilty of putting my opinion out there and I think it causes children to fear what they have to say. That is might be wrong in some way because it deviates from the teacher, I want to teach my students to share their ideas openly. I also think that this relates to using the conceptual change model in science because you are listening to what students have to say and then allowing them to figure it out by themselves, you are not providing the "right answer" through lecture. You are simply providing them with evidence to create a view based on science through interaction with evidence, or as Paley would say providing the glue. Therefore I drew many connections to science through this. I wonder why as we grow older we don't allow children voices and views to be heard as much, I'm sure we all remember being students and feeling like the teacher wasn't listening to what you had say, especially when had something very thoughtful to add.

Avoiding the issue?

After reading "Campfire Effect" I found myself wondering why preservice teachers in all states aren't required to receive training to teach English language learners. These children that are the most at risk for falling behind their peers many times are taught by teachers who have no training in strategies that work best for their needs.I do not feel confident in my abilities to reach these students in the ways that work best for them, and am frustrated that I was not provided with classes in order to address this issue. I know that when I look to develop professionally I will look for conferences and training is this particular area. I feel that the reading and the survey really brought my attention to a topic I had previously not been aware. I had not be aware of my lack of education in this area. I was too focused on all the other things that was being thrown my way regarding teaching. I want to be the best teacher for my students that I can be, and until this article never really thought about training as sad as that it. I suppose it is because it isn't on the forefront as much as teaching reading and writing etc. I'm interested to know if this confidence does change once the preservice teachers enter the field, or if they really do find what they learned was helpful in reaching this student population. In schools that have large minority populations and many ESLs perhaps they should try focusing on how we can reach these students rather than just bringing up their scores. It does nothing to shove more intervention down their throats if the instruction itself is what is not working for students. I feel that America doesn't want to address the issue that it has many members who do not speak English since many people are still set on the idea they should speak English and nothing else. This mentality is doing nothing but hurting the future of our country. We are fueling a generation of Americans who will severely lag behind their counterparts because they were not provided with services we KNOW work with these students.