Team 1 ELL Reflection

I really enjoyed this presentation because of how we broke into small groups and participated in activities that made us feel like ELL learners. I thought there were some great examples used to confuse us and not give us all the information necessary just as an ELL learner may not be able to understand all the information needed to complete a task.
I also liked how after each station's activity was completed, we took a couple minutes to discuss what was difficult about our task and what we could do as future teachers to make tasks like those more accessible for ELL learners.
Overall I enjoyed how engaged we were in the presentation and the relevance that it brought to our futures as teachers.

Educational Issues: Alternative Schools

I really enjoyed this presentation, I didn't realize there were so many different types of alternative schools. I really enjoyed the video of that school in Vermont, I think a school like that would be very beneficial for many students out there. One of my favorite parts of the presentation was that they actually gave some schools in New England that are alternative schools which was cool to see.
I think another important point that the group brought up was that alternative schools are great, but they certainly are not for everybody. Some students are going to thrive best in public schools, and that's okay. I also enjoyed the activity where we got to design our own school for the student that we received.

Educational Issues: Poverty

Riley Chickering

Educational Issues: Poverty

First of all I really enjoyed this presentation because there was no lecturing involved. Even though they were going over something completely new to us, they found a way to make it completely engaging by moving us around the room and running us through different activities.

On the note of poverty, there were a couple things that really stood out to me. The first was how difficult it is to live on off a minimum wage salary. A lot of the time, these people have to choose to not pay for something each month. Stemming off that, I can't imagine being a kid and living like that, having to worry about having the power shut off on you. I completely understand why a student living in poverty like this would come to class without their homework done and not motivated to do work in class. You can't be motivated to do school work when you're always worried about being hungry. As teachers we have to understand what some of these kids go though everyday and try to help to the best of our abilities.