Week # 6 Chapter 7

1. Choose 4 bullets from the list on pages 88 & 89 of chapter 7 (repeat them in your posting), and explain why you believe these 4 traits, or beliefs, or mantras are true for you?

• Caring teachers intentionally develop awareness of their students' cultures outside of school. I think this bullet is true for me because unless we see the life our students live and what makes them who they are, we won't be able to connect with them or through material.
• Teacher's enthusiasm for learning and for their subject matter in an important factor in student motivation that, in turn, is closely linked with student achievement. This bullet really speaks to me saying that unless we love the material and show the students that we to are learning they won't find it enjoyable or necessary to learn.
• Effective teachers are more concerned with student understanding of meaning than memorization of facts. This bullet is important to me because students need to make sense of the lesson and concepts and how they relate to what they need to know, instead of memorizing and not knowing the process of how to get to the solution.
• Effective teachers match instruction to learners' achievement needs. This bullet is true for me because in order for your students to progress you need to start teaching where they're at. That is why assessment and doing activities that make connections with students who then share are important to your classroom.

2. Comment on one of the metaphors in this chapter. Explain why it makes sense to you, or why you don’t agree with it.

The metaphor that made sense to me was the man who baked bread and how when he started off he did it just because, but eventually it changed him. He learned to love it and found meaning in it and it shaped who he was until it became his passion. Bread and it being played with in your hands really makes shaping stand out in my mind. I think as a teacher or in anything we do that we aren't sure of, is that we just have to jump in and let ourselves be shaped into a new person per se. This will happen if we're willing to let our guards down and learn from what comes our way.