Ejournal Prompt #7
Shanels.mov
My topic for today is
Motivation. My teacher/mentor motivates her students to
want to learn and participate in learning activities using
both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. Examples of intrinsic
motivators include praising the children for good behavior
and acknowledging the students' achievements. She will verbally
say "Good job!" or "That's good..." to the students that
exert desired behavior. In this way she builds the self-confidence
of her students and they listen better and complete their
work.
Extrinsic motivators
include a good behavior point system and rewards of special
treats for those that follow directions or complete their
"seatwork". These methods of motivation set the standard
for what the teacher expects of the students in a simple
way in which they can understand. The students know in advance
that if they do what they're supposed to do, whether it
is good behavior or completing their work, they'll be rewarded
as a result. Thus, the students are motivated to take care
of their business.
Instructional time is
maximized by going through the directions of assignments
or teaching the new lesson quickly but simply, ignoring
small discipline problems if they're not too distracting.
The teacher makes the effort to point out to the other students
that are misbehaving how the others are listening and paying
attention. Also, to maximize reading and math instructional
time, the students are divided into groups according to
their learning capacity or speed. During transition from
one activity to another, the transition is done quickly
and the next activity begins immediately.
My teacher/mentor's
methods of motivation are good methods because they prove
to be successful and the children are interested in learning
and getting involved. I agree with the way she handles motivating
the kids, and I myself would use those methods in my own
classroom.
kindergarten class at
Parham Elementary. I can say that I learned all kinds of
things about myself being here the past week and a half.
For example, I learned that I have the patience and tolerance
it takes to work in the classroom setting. I realized that
it takes a lot of time and energy on the teacher's part
to deal with as well as instruct a group of children, and
I now know that I have what it takes. Before I came to Parham
I knew I worked well with kids but I didn't know how I'd
do when the going got tough.
Teachers have to be
able to discipline their students if they demonstrate undesired
behavior no matter how much they may not want to. I learned
how to be firm with the children and not let them run over
me, at the same time showing them that I am not the "bad
guy". I learned that it can be hard for a teacher to keep
control over their own emotions when dealing with misbehaving
children, and I kept that in mind when a child got out of
control. Self- control is one of the main characteristics
to being a good teacher. Lastly, I learned that if teaching
is really something I want to do, then I have what it takes!
I got many encouraging words from Ms. Kissel, and she always
let me take the class by the reins if she needed to run
an errand or go on a break. With the proper college education,
I'd then know how to actually teach lessons, the rest of
the traits I already posses.
The specific career
in education that I would choose would be a Preschool-Kindergarten
teacher because my passion is for the younger children.
I feel that I can relate with them, and I can communicate
with them in a way that is positive, strictly for their
well being. I believe that in those grades, the children
are at a fragile, critical point in their lives where they
can be made or broken. I want to be able to contribute to
"making" children, not just another teacher along the way.
I would also be a school counselor for the same reasons.
I really enjoyed my
time at Parham. I've been inspired in a way in which I cannot
fully describe to join the league of people who work together
to educate the future leaders and workers of the world.
I still want to be a psychologist, but in my heart of hearts,
I feel that I could still achieve my dream to help children
by being a loving teacher.
Chris.mov
Students in the High
School for Teaching and Technology have served as peer mediators
for all five schools within Hughes (highlighted
by channel 9 on Friday, April 20, 2001).
To Avoid School Violence
Web produced by: Liz
Foreman
4/20/01 6:27:03
PM
It's been two years
since two Columbine High School students opened fire on
their classmates leaving 15 dead in Littleton, Colorado.
Since that shooting,
Tri-state educators have taken steps to keep your kids safe
at their schools.
One of the school violence
prevention programs takes place at Hughes High School, where
faculty and students work together in a preventative effort.
Princess Hedges and
Steven Troyell helped two of their classmates resolve a
problem during a recent mock conflict session.
"What you see here,
what you hear here - stays here," Hedges said to another
classmate during a mock peer mediation session.
"They stop a lot of
conflicts in our schools that can escalate into bigger problems,
like if someone starts out arguing, we can stop it before
it escalates into a fight," Hedges explained.
For more than twenty
years The Center For Peace Education has been working with
Tri-state schools to help prevent the kind of violence like
what happened at Columbine High.
Earlier this year, Branden
Thomas almost came to blows with another student. Instead
of fighting, they went to peer mediation.
"I literally hated the
person," Thomas admitted.
"We worked out the problem
and now we're like - I wouldn't say we're friends but we
don't have that confrontations no more. We're able to talk
and get along," Thomas said.
Jennifer Smith, Executive
Director at The Center For Peace Education said she thinks
peer mediation "prevents the kind of things that we saw
in columbine because it addresses the problem before it
can escalate to violence."
The Center For Peace
Education's peer mediation program has been in place at
Hughes High School for several years and although there
are security guards on every floor, faculty members credit
peer mediation for preventing school violence.
"I really think it is
working. I know even though we don't have any exact statistics
on it, the amount of suspensions have been lowered because
of that. The problems are solved and students don't get
into trouble," Marypat Key, a teacher at Hughes High said.
The Center For Peace
Education is currently working with about thirty schools
in the Tri-state to prevent school violence and teach conflict
management.
Anticoli. D. J. (1997).
School violence intervention: the role of peer mediation
in diminishing disputant recidivism. Dissertation: Temple
University.
The focus of this study
was to evaluate the impact of the Peer Mediation Process
at Melville High School. This secondary school was located
in Pennsylvania and had 3,000 students in attendance during
the 1994 - 1995 school year, when the study took place.
Peer mediation was implemented on a daily basis with the
aim of reducing student conflict and helping to prevent
students from engaging in repeat conflicts. This process
allowed a vehicle for students to resolve their disputes
before they reached a violent stage where detention or suspension
would be imposed by the school administration.
The Peer mediation process
put responsibility on the students to attempt to resolve
their own conflicts in a controlled, non-violent atmosphere.
The peer mediators were trained by Education Mediation Services
and the students were credited with resolving 92% of the
student conflicts, without the need to engage adult administrators
or disciplinarians.
The sample consisted
of sixteen disputants. Eight completed the peer mediation
and eight did not. They were randomly selected from the
148 disputants who were offered peer mediation in the second
semester of the 1994 - 1995 school year. They all completed
assessment instruments: the Piers Harris Children's Self
Concept Scale, and the Brown and Hammill Behavior Rating
Profile for Teachers. The analysis covered the difference
between the two groups on the dependant variables, disputant
self-concept and disputant aberrant behavior
The results showed significant
differences between the control and experimental groups.
The peer mediation disputants fared better that the non-peer
mediation disputants.
Davenport, K. A.
(1997),
The Relationship between conflict resolution / Peer mediation
and school climate as evidenced by selected critical incidents.
Dissertation: Florida Atlantic University.
This research study
investigates the relationship between a conflict resolution
/ peer mediation program and the school climate selecting
critical disciplinary incidents and climate surveys. Variables
investigated were survey participants status: faculty or
student.
The subjects of this
study were 225 students and 129 faculty - members of Port
St. Lucie High School in Florida. Two schools in the area
were used in order to examine the differences in results.
Both schools had comprehensive programs and were similar
in their environment and student population. Mediation programs
had not been a part of the curriculum in either school prior
to the study. Administrative staff tried the conflict resolution
peer mediation program as a way of starting to empower the
youths of these high schools in order to make the environment
less violent.
The critical incidents
that were being examined included attempts at fighting,
fighting, and striking another student. The findings showed
two major results: (1) although there were some increases
in positive perception about school climate after the implementation
of the of the conflict resolution / peer mediation program,
it was not significant and (2) there was a decline in the
rate of the three critical incidents that were being measured
by the study. The rates of the three, attempting to fight,
fighting and striking another student were less than expected.
Disrespect for others did not decrease
Kmitta, D. M. (1997).
Peaceful Possibilities: Three years of evaluative research
of school based conflict resolution programs. Dissertation:
University of Cincinnati.
Three years of evaluative
research of school based resolution programs comprise the
nature of this study. Two literature reviews were conducted
to provide a theoretical review and an empirical view to
conflict resolution / peer mediation programs. Three school
based conflict resolution programs were studied. The Student's
Creative Response to Conflict. Cooperative Discipline and
Peer Mediation were evaluated in twelve public schools over
a three-year period of time from 1992- 1995. The programs
were delivered by the Center for Peace Education in Cincinnati.
Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in the evaluations.
Data analysis, coupled triangulation of key statistical
data answered research questions that are relevant to a
wide audience. What theories informed the CPE's school based
conflict resolution programs? How should the CPS's conflict
resolution programs be evaluated? Did the CPE's conflict
resolution programs reduce classroom discipline problems?
Did the CPE's conflict resolution programs prevent or reduce
violence. Were the conflict resolution skills integrated
into the day to day academic curriculum? What did the CPS's
conflict resolution program teach? Life skills to help people
resolve their differences nonviolently, or a new form of
obedience training?
Results of the research
indicate resolution programs do have limited but positive
effects. Such effects are dependent upon the quality and
type of the conflict resolution training.
Nims, C. A. (1997).
"You and Me Babe": an inquiry into applications of rhetoric
to mediation and empowerment (peer mediation) intervention.
Dissertation: New Mexico State University.
This dissertation examines
the concepts, literature, training, and practice of mediation.
It centers on the fact that current practice is mediator-driven
rather than disputant-centered. This examination defines
mediation as an alternative dispute resolution process through
which a neutral third party helps others to resolve a dispute.
This dissertation explores allowing the potential for inappropriate
intervention by mediators.
This dissertation advocates
an expended framework for mediation, one that requires not
simple adjustments in the practice, but examining the concepts
of mediation and what it needs to be accomplished. Mediation
is multi-faceted and complex, and is sometimes projected
as being unidimensional, reducing the work of mediation
to a singular concern with problem solving. It argues that
unless mediation becomes more than a one-shot solution to
solving problems, conflict will never decrease because disputants
will continue to rely on the mediators to resolve their
conflicts. Disputants need to be empowered to handle their
own problems with skills taught by the trainers for such
programs. This dissertation presents new ideas for mediator
training and disputant education. Ideas that will focus
on the issues of empowerment and recognition as well as
problem solving techniques.
The Mayerson Research
on the effectiveness of Service learning:
Myers-Lipton, S.
J. (1994).
The Effects of Service Learning on College Students' Attitudes
toward civic responsibility, international understanding,
and racial prejudice. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of
Colorado.
This study examines
the effects of a service learning program on college students'
attitudes toward civic responsibility, international understanding,
and racial prejudice. Included in the study is an examination
of the practical, theoretical, and empirical issues of service
learning. Students from a 1993 and a 1994 service learning
class represent the experimental group. Two control groups
were used in order to track each of the responses. One was
composed of students from a volunteer program and the other
was from the general population of the University.
The results of the data
support the hypotheses of the study, stating that service
learning students will show larger increases in civic responsibility
than those not exposed to the service learning climate.
Secondly, students showed an increased international understanding
over the students that have no experience in the service
learning arena. Thirdly, the students' showed decreases
in racial prejudice than students with no training or educational
background in diversity.
The results also provided
some support for attitude changes occur when a service learning
project is not only intensive, but extensive also. This
study examined a program that had been in existence for
two years. The transformations of ideas through discussion,
reflection, and examination of the cultural norms changed
the students' values by questioning the power relationships
that exist in our world.
The analysis of the
data supports the theory that educational institutions can
have a dramatic impact on students' values and be an agency
of social change if they opt to implement theory and action
in their educational process. The results are also significant
when supporting the educational reformers who are arguing
for the adoption of service learning programs as a way to
increase students' civic responsibility, international understanding,
and reduce racial prejudice.
Limitations of this
study include several areas. Improving the reliability of
the scales is an important interest to strengthen the reliabilities
and there will be less error in the regression equations.
Independent research at other institutions would strengthen
the results of this study, and provide for additional data
from other Universities. A larger sample size would be useful
in examining the results of this study in order to have
more date and therefore reduce the impact that one student
can have on the whole study.
