TP2000 Chapter 9

This chapter was about involving parents in education.  As I mentioned in an earlier blog posting, I think this is a great idea.  Parents can really help their children learn material while they're at home, and they can help in the classroom too.  I think this chapter was really similar to the one in Meet Me in the Middle, though.  Both covered similar topics. 

TP2000 Chapter 8

This chapter was about creating a healthy school, both in terms of emotional health and physical health.  I loved the section on promoting emotional health in middle schools, and creating healthy learning environments.  Making schools emotionally healthy is something that every teacher and educator should strive for.  The middle school years can be very tough for kids, and making students feel safe at school is very important to their emotional health.  As far as making middle schools a physically healthy place, I also think this is a good idea.  I think health and gym classes are very important to education.  And as for lunches, too often schools serve unhealthy food, just because it is cheaper.  I think if schools served foods, such as fruits, it would go a long way to making students happier.

TP2000 Chapter 4

This chapter was about instruction in middle schools.  The three most important aspects of instruction, according to the book, are: curriculum, assessments, and students.  Reading this chapter, however, I felt like I've already learned a lot of things covered in the chapter through other education classes.  The chapter talked about Differentiated Instruction, WHERETO, and the six facets of understanding, which are all things that I have already learned about.  I think that this was a good chapter, but I think that it was kind of redundant, because I know a lot of what was covered.

Turning Points 2000 Chapter 6

This chapter was about building relationships with students.  I loved it.  When I was in middle school, I didn't really have a teacher that I had a great relationship with.  Well, when I was in 8th grade, I had a pretty good relationship with my Social Studies teacher.  And I really liked that class as a result.  But he was really the only one.  And I think I suffered because of it, because I kind of became shy and scared socially as a result.  But I think if I had more teachers that really tried to get to know me, I would have been happier.  So in my classroom, I'd try to get to know each and every one of my students.  But this chapter itself focused on teams in middle schools.  I personally did not go to a middle school with teams, so I don't know what it would be like to have them.  But through this class, and learning more about the concept, I think that it's a really great concept, and I would like to try it!

Turning Points 2000 Chapter 3

This chapter focused on the Backward Design Model, which we learned about in Practicum.  While I was reading this, I thought it would have been nice to read this chapter while I was in Practicum!  But reading it now, it was nice to have a little more research with the Backward Design Model than we did in Practicum.  Back then, we just put it into practice, but reading about it really reinforced it for me (as it's been a while since I've taken Practicum and my memories of it are a little faded).  But anyway, I really like the Backward Design Model, because it forces teachers to really look at the point of their lessons, and to make sure that with every lesson, students are learning something, and can show what they learned.  I'm more of a fan of the performance task, because I don't really like tests, as I don't think memorizing facts and spitting them back out on a piece of paper really shows you know something.  I think with the performance task, students can really be creative, and show that they really know the material, and can remember it and have actually learned something.

TP 2000 Chapter 2, pgs. 102-105

Chapter 2, Pages 102-105
   In this chapter, I read what changes have been made to the recommendations from Turning Points to Turning Points 2000.  I was a little confused in the beginning, because I was unfamiliar with what the first book presented, but once the chapter started to focus on what was in this book, it became a little clearer. 
    I think that certification for middle school teachers is pretty necessary.  I’ll put it like this: I wouldn’t want a doctor giving me a physical when that doctor wasn’t professionally trained and certified to actually be a doctor.  So I think it’s the same for teachers: I don’t think I’d want someone teaching my children if they didn’t know what they were doing, and they weren’t trained and everything.  So that’s why I think it would be a good idea to have teachers be certified to teach just middle school, instead of being certified to teach middle and high school, for example.  Because there are people that want to teach middle school, and there are people that want to teach high school, so why force the people that want to teach middle school to be certified in teaching high school and vice versa?

TP 2000 Chapter 1

Chapter 1:
    In this chapter, I thought it was pretty interesting to read about how the original Turning Points book helped changed a lot of teachers and schools since it came out.  I’d never heard of the original Turning Points until this class, and it was nice to read about a book I’d never heard of and how it created so much change.  Also, I thought it was that, toward the end of the chapter, it gave kind of a summary of what Turning Points 2000 will be discussing and getting us to learn.  It was nice to get a sense of what I’m going to be reading about in this book, and not have it all come at me at once as a surprise.  I liked getting some background information, and then some idea of what’s new in this book.  So overall, I think this was a pretty helpful chapter to me.