Guest speaker 3/30/09

The guest speaker we had tonight really brought in a culture that most people sitting in our room tonight have never been introduced to. The surveys shown tonight really helped myself shape how the students think. Would I say its so different over there, we both value education and family and those where the two main points of each survey. Obviously the traditions that Vietnam had were slightly different from what we are used to but I think the whole idea of arranged marriage is kind of a scary thought to most people. I honestly think though that the most frightening thing that was said tonight was how the divorce rate has been going up and how fast it has been spiking in the last century.
The question was brought up if we thought it was possible to be like Vietnam. I think all things are possible when brought up in a strong family and if education is one of the top priorities in the family I think most anything can be done. It just has to start from somewhere.
I did also think that it was hard to understand what our guest speaker was saying, I know for a fact that has done a better job talking to us then I could ever to do anyone in his country but I had to really piece together what he was trying to say and sometimes I didn't quite get the point of some of the things he was saying. That was frustrating because it was interesting to hear what he had to say but its just sad I couldn't fully understand him. I myself have been put in a situation when I was in Germany I could not hardly order anything or even ask directions so I understand how hard it is to communicate when there are language conflicts but I thought he did a very good job trying to say things as well as he did.

Chalk 2X

Our class finally finished up the movie Chalk and the end of the movie really brought the craziness down to reality. The question that was brought up the very first time was, "Is this your high school" and in many ways it is. This movie really stresses and focuses in on things that can go wrong or the things that teachers don't want to be involved with. This is not something that will be seen in a normal high school from day to day but eventually there will be days when something will happen that your not ready for.
This movie even though its main purpose is to entertain it really does portray a good message in the end, that this could be you and what would you do in their shoes? This movie did cover some things that will not be so stressed in a text book but is still just as dangerous in the working world. This movie shows that you will be put into situations everyday and you need to make a choice, sometimes the choices made are wrong but you can always bounce back from poor choices.
At the end of the video the first year teacher is having a hard time if he really wants to continue teaching or not. I don't blame him for thinking about it, in the movie he said something about how this job was a lot harder then what he thought. So I can totally see him really thinking this through because he was way over his head when he first started. You don't usually see weakness in teachers but in this video it really showed how this first year teacher reacted to the pressure and how he almost cracked. I thought this movie was well thought out, not quite what i thought it was going to be but still a very good movie and I think it had some very important lessons in it.

Chalk

I watched this movie clip of this movie called Chalk, the "Office" of teachers. Before I even saw any of the movie I was already excited to see how they planned on making a movie on the daily life of a teacher.
Was the movie far fetched?? I don't think so, that school reminded me a correctional facility. I personally think no one that goes to Luther college went to a school like that but I think their out there. I can personally say I've had classmates that are as disruptive as some of the students in that classroom but not all the students in this movie were disruptive.
To the new teacher in the movie, I think that is one of my worst fears is to not have control of my class. What would you do if you had a student or two confront you? It is not something you want, I've seen some pretty ugly stand offs in my day at school and I knew I would not want to be in the teachers shoes that had to stand up to a kid that does not want to do their work and only wants to yell at you.
This movie really does cover a lot of issues I feel about the working day of a teacher but covers up its seriousness with humor. Issues of what people think of you, having a family, fights, lesson plans, and getting out of your comfort zone.

Guest Speaker.

So I thought it was nice that we were able to hear from a teacher that is not starting out. Someone that has been in the teaching field and is still going.
When he talked about how he student taught in the elementary level and then was placed anywhere he was needed I'm sure it was quite frightening. It was also nice that he wasn't just placed in rural Northern Iowa. He got out there and experienced a lot of different things that Northern Iowa doesn't have to offer. Though it was nice that he did admit that anywhere you go there will be a problem and it probably won't be the same as Northeast Iowa but they will have something and you will have to deal with that.
I thought it was frightening to think about how he said to keep from burning out switch your job up. Move from grade to grade and at times subjects. Some schools don't offer you to move around so much. Sometimes your family keeps you at a certain job because your spouse is also working in the same area. It is not that easy to just move your job around like that and he made it seam like it was nothing. I mean there might be the chance that I could switch from high school to middle school but what if I'm already teaching both.......what then?
Just something I thought about, even though this man had great job experience I don't his experience can help me out too much when it comes to music.