References

• Aldridge J., Goldman R. 2007. Current Issues and Trends in Education (2nd Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

• Ormrod J. 2009. Essentials of Educational Psychology (2nd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill

• Santrock J. W. 2010. Adolescence (13th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill

• Sadker, D. M., Zittleman, K. R. (2009). Teachers, Schools, and Society: A Brief Introduction to Education (2nd Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Grade Retention

Grade Retention is when you hold a student back for not meeting the standards for moving on to the next grade. Opinions regarding grade retention in the past 30 having varied from being good for students and students doing poorly because of getting held back. At least 3.2 Million children are held back a year, costing almost 19 billion dollars (Aldridge and Goodman).

People think that if you retain your child why their young it wont be harmful, but in fact it affects the children in the long run, and they won’t approve academically overtime. Children who are retained feel more poorly about themselves as if they weren’t good enough as the rest of their peers. This can also force them to give up or loose hope that they won’t ever be good enough as the rest of the kids their age. Children who are held back have a higher risk of having discipline problems along with psychological problems. Also, children have a higher risk of dropping out of school if they are retained feeling like they are not smart enough to graduate.

Ethnicity

America is made of up lots of different types of people Whites who make up most of the majority followed by African Americans, Hispanic, Native Americans and also 6% that is remaining is unknown of other racial backgrounds. We have come a far way from racism unfortunately it still is occurring in classrooms today. 

Institutions are responding differently now to racial ethnic diversity in schools. School officials used to expect student achievement among minorities to be lower than that of white students. This caused many minorities to be placed in remedial and/or vocational programs. (Aldridge) Education reforms now are focusing on higher standards for every student no matter what ethnicity. Unfortunately Hispanic students are still lagging behind. Not only is this occurring in our school but also affects job opportunities after finishing college. In 2003, job applicants whose names ‘sounded black’ were 50% less likely than candidates that perceived to have a name that ‘sounded white’ to receive call backs, no matter what their level of previous experience.

We are still trying to keep racism out of classroom and job opportunities and for the 21st century Asian and Latino children and parents in multiethnic schools and districts will shape education and its policies. Asian Americans are currently the best educated group in the United States.

Christina Wasson 

Classroom Management

Classroom Setup

The classroom environment should be academically and age group appropriate. An example of this would be for second grade classrooms tables instead of desks are more appropriate because the attention of the student would be easier to maintain. Classroom decorations should be appropriate as well. In a high school classroom you wouldn’t have an alphabet above the chalkboard. Instead you would have posters, charts, and other objects pertaining to that course. Desk setup will also reflect on the age group. As the student matures, more lecture style seating will become commonplace as the student is expected to maintain focus on their teacher. In younger age groups group seating and floor layout will center on the teacher in the center or at a focal point. This allows for the teacher to easily control the class, and the student’s attention more easily. 

Teacher Practices

There are nine specific teacher practices that aid in classroom management; group alerting, withitness, overlapping, least intervention, fragmentation, teaching eye to eye, availability of supplies, high traffic area control, and procedures and routines.

1. Group alerting is a technique in which teachers ask questions and then call on a student to answer the question. This works because the whole class must stay on their toes.

2. Withitness is literally having eyes in the back of your head. By being aware of what is going on in your classroom better control of the classroom will follow.

3. Overlapping is multitasking without allowing interruption.

4. Least intervention is the practice of intervening in a problem within the classroom without causing disruptions.

5. Fragmentation is when a student must move from one activity to another. Especially when dealing with younger students, this technique helps to break up the day so that the student can focus on each individual activity.

6. Teaching eye to eye is the ability of the teacher to involve every student in the lecture. By moving throughout the classroom, making eye contact with each student, and using visual aids. Even the students in the back of the room have the best seat in the house for part of the day.

7. The availability of supplies in the classroom is going to directly affect the student’s activities. A suggestion would be to set up a self-help area so that the student is responsible for their own material, this frees up the teacher to focus on instruction.

8. High traffic areas should be clear. By doing this certain areas that need to be accessed throughout the day such as cabinets for materials, computers, and book shelves so time will not be wasted by having to get to these things.

9. Procedures and routines should be clearly laid out and taught in the same way material is. By laying down ground rules for proper in class behavior students will be less likely to do undesirable behaviors.

Discipline

Correcting a student’s wrong doing must be approached in an appropriate fashion according to the degree of the mistake. A few examples of this include temporary exclusion, calling a student’s attention to the consequences of his actions, depriving the student of whatever he has abused or misused, and restitution.

Temporary exclusion is the practice of sending the student out of the group until he or she feels they are able and ready to come back. This technique may not be appropriate with certain students as they may not come back.

Calling a student’s attention to the consequences of his actions is a powerful tool when dealing with a student that may not know they are acting wrongly, or when intervention time is limited. If this technique is used the student must weigh their mistake, and will, hopefully, see their mistake.

Depriving the student of whatever he/she has abused or misused is a step taken when the student repeatedly commits an undesired behavior. By removing the object or objects the student can no longer take part in the act.

Restitution is the act of making good that which you have harmed. For a student that has harmed another student in such a way as to damage a student’s property, harm the student, or hinders their learning experience, the wrong-doer is expected to make an effort to correct the wrong. This, of course, must be appropriately applied for certain situations would not make since for this method.

Heteronomous and Automatous Students

To be heteronomous is to be governed by others while to be automatous is to govern one’s self. Both of these are very important when dealing with a child’s future. The ability to be heteronomous allows the student to work within groups and organizations that are set on one goal, while autonomy will allow for the student to succeed on their own; these skills come into play in the classroom when dealing with projects, experiments, and testing. To encourage

heteronomy within the student a teacher can use positive and negative reinforcements, punishment and extinction. 

Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is the act of giving rewards to encourage a behavior. An example of this would be giving food to a student for doing well on a test. There are two different types of positive reinforcement, primary and secondary. Primary reinforcement is giving a need or a want, while secondary reinforcement is giving a student something becomes rewarding. 

Negative Reinforcement

Negative reinforcement brings about the increase of a behavior through the removal of a stimulus. An example of this would be finishing a project early so that you do not have to worry about it. 

Punishment

Punishment decreases the chance a behavior will happen again without any direct connection to the behavior itself. An example of this would be time out or taking away free time. Another example of this would be making a student write “I will not do blank” so many times on the board. 

Extinction

Punishment is the act of taking away certain rewards in the hopes of diminishing certain behaviors. An example of this would be ignoring a classroom clown.

Some Links and Videos for Your Pleasure

The following is a goofy, yet educational video about how to teach effectively in the classroom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWMpgreW0po

What we have here is an interesting site about how to teach students who are easily distracted:

http://www.westfieldacademy.org/adhd/

Here is a great site with links to other sites for students, teachers, and parents:

http://www.teachthechildrenwell.com/

Gender

 
The gender of the student defines their characteristics, and their way of interacting within the classroom. Gender is not the sex of the student; rather the sexuality of the student. It is important to remember that a student that may be male by sex could show characteristics of a female. This, in a nut shell, is the student’s sexuality. To understand how gender plays a role in the classroom one must make known the influences of gender.

 

               The one variable that a person has the least control over would be the genetic makeup of the child. In this sense we will focus on the beginning of puberty, and not the argument that sexuality is determined by genetics. The onset of puberty brings with it hormones that begin to change a person from a child to an adult. Women typically begin puberty earlier than males, and therefore tend to mature faster. This may not always be a positive thing though. The insecurities of puberty and the fact that students can be very cruel bring upon bullying to those that stand out. Because of the lack of control of the onset of puberty, many students find themselves being the center of cruel jokes just because they began maturing faster than the others in their class. With this brings stress and insecurity that can take away from the student’s education.

 

              Another influence of gender is the social side of the child’s life. This includes gender roles and common perceptions of proper behavior for both male and female students. A common gender role would be that males are typically strong and assertive where as women are weaker and more mild mannered. A student that does not fit into these norms may find themselves in an awkward spot. In fact some students may find these norms to be uncomfortable, and unbefitting of their character and self image.

 

                Parents also play a huge role in defining a student’s gender by introducing and reinforcing, through action and example, what may be deemed as gender appropriate practices. In fact parents help to stir on socially accepted gender definitions simply by the actions they take toward their children. For example the majority of sons are given much more independence than of daughters of the same age, and daughters are monitored much more closely. This is due to the common perception of men being strong and women being weak. As the student’s sexuality matures parents tend to believe that daughters will not be able to keep themselves out of harm’s way due to their weakness.

 

                It is important to understand that there are other influences to a student’s gender, but to understand how gender plays a role in the classroom is even more important. Typically, due to the fact that males are more assertive, male students will be more likely to speak out in class. Female students are more affiliative and cooperative so females may not participate in class discussions as often. With this said the above qualities give female students an advantage in group activity where as male students find confrontation in groups.

 

                According to the Education Research Center males have a 66% high school graduation where as females have a 73.6% graduation rate. This is a very strong difference between genders, and there is no simple answer to this. Once one adds in the variables of maturity, socioeconomic status, and intellectual ability there is no clear cut answer. There is an interesting contrast to this statistic though. A recent longitudinal study that followed valedictorians after high school found that there was a, “steady lowering of women’s aspirations and goals, accompanied by a drop in their self-esteem” (Aldridge).  This could be due in part by the effect of gender role and the corporate glass ceiling that is still in place in many professions.

 

                The effect of gender in the classroom can be a murky one because gender is not defined by the sex of the student. Students identify their gender by identifying their characteristics and behaviors. The further various levels of such behaviors can make it confusing even for the student to identify their gender as some may be sexually confused. As the teacher it is important to put these confusions to ease in the classroom by involving all students as often as possible in classroom activities to insure an equal and unbiased education.

Culture

Culture is defined as “a set of learned beliefs, values, symbols, and behaviors, a way of life shared by members of a society. (Sadker and Zittleman 60)” Culture is a broad term that covers a very wide range of things. There is a National Culture and then there are also microcultures or subcultures. Culture can be related to class, religion, or sexual orientation. Each culture or subculture is made up of values and behaviors that make it different from another culture or subculture. A culture can be the same or different in each nation or community. Within a community the population may share some cultures and values but also have completely separate and different cultures in each family.

“The willingness of people to understand and appreciate different cultures, races, and ethnicities is often at the heart of the diversity issue in the United States.” (Sadker and Zittleman 60)

A challenge for educators is to make sure each student in your class understands and appreciates the differences within these races, cultures, and ethnicities. And to make sure each student despite their ethnic background achieves their full potential in learning.

Statistics:

“Hispanic, Native American, and African American students score consistently lower on standardized tests than do their Asian and white classmates.”

“Almost half of the nation’s historically under-resourced populations, Hispanic, African American, and Native American, are not graduating from high school.”

“In Houston, Oakland, Cleveland, and New York, with large populations of poor students and students of color, between 60 and 70 percent of the students do not graduate high school.”

“Students from low-income families are six times more likely to drop out of school than the children of the wealthy.”

All pulled from (Sadker and Zittleman 60)

Teaching culture in your classroom

Three types of cultural literacy

1. Mainstream- Culture from one viewpoint

2. Marginalized- Culture from multi viewpoints

3. Critical- How to evaluate the different viewpoints of culture

In order to teach students to see culture in a marginalized view meaning to view culture from different perspectives we need to teach them how to be critical of it. This means they will know the right questions to ask. Ex: “Who said it? Who is serviced by this perspective? Who is marginalized? Who has been left out in telling their side of the story?” (Aldridge and Goldman 176)

Some Thoughts on Race: An Opinion

The subject of race in unavoidable when considering social inequalities in schools. History has unnecessarily made monsters out of whites, blacks, Asians, and every other ethnicity in the world. It has also provided the masses with stereotypes, preconceived notions, and inaccurate portrayals of these races.

A person is a person, no matter what color he is. However, it is impossible to take this stance, if one views a man as a member of a race and not an individual entity- another man. A human being.

Unfortunately, even in the 21st century, racism is still a major problem in the world, as well as our schools. This brings me to my next point. My personal experience with race in school. I grew up in a middle class neighborhood my whole life. As a child, I was innocent to the politics of race and social segregation. I had black friends and white friends. This continued throughout my twelve years of schooling. I didn't care if you were black or white. As long as you were a legitimately friendly person, I liked you and was proud to have you as a friend, or even an acquaintance.

Now I'd like you to consider the following. Imagine you are an person from, let's say, Germany who is on his or her way to America to visit family. You have never seen a black person face-to-face before. All you know of this race is Michael Jackson (before he went off the deep end), Lil' Wayne, and what you've read on the internet or seen on the news of blacks committing crimes. Then you hop off the plane, arrive at your destination, which happens to be in a lower-middle-class neighborhood, and see black people everywhere; Groups of them loitering on street corners near foreclosed houses with graffiti all over the place. How terrified would you be?

Stop.

Sure, some neighborhoods may look like this. Yeah, it may be scary if you have no experience in dealing with black people. But this is just one of many misleading stigmas that have an effect on how people perceive a specific race of people.

The same goes for whites as well. Have you ever been to a trailer park? Have you ever seen a random white guy walking down the street talking to himself and begging people for change? Do you know anyone who uses crystal methamphetamine for "recreation"? Maybe you have and maybe you haven't. But even if you haven't dealt with any of that, it's out there. And chances are, you have a preconceived notion about people in those circumstances.
"Oh, those people are white trash."
"Just keep walking and avoid eye contact with the crazy man, kids."

We have no idea what these people have been through and how they arrived at their current destination. But that doesn't stop us from discriminating against them.

Now this may have been a depressing read, but I believe that if one doesn't think about race and racism in a realistic light, then he is feigning ignorance out of fear of confronting this important issue.

So I'd like to ask this of you: The next time you see a kid walking around with his ass showing, or a fellow who has scabs on his face and is itching his arm to the point where it's bleeding, stop and acknowledge the fact that, yes this person is different, and he may not be as well of as you. Recognize his differences and try to put yourself in his shoes. Then let any racist or discriminatory ideas evacuate your mind. Finally, accept him as a human being and wish him the best of luck.

Who knows. This guy could be your boss one day.

Inclusion Vs. Full Inclusion

Benefits of Inclusion:

• There are social benefits for students with disabilities who are integrated into general education classrooms. These students can make new friends, develop social skills, and have an overall greater self-confidence.
• Inclusion helps all students realize that each person is different and that everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses.
• Peer teaching and cooperative learning, which would ideally be implemented, would benefit each student equally by giving them a sense of empowerment.

Disadvantages of Inclusion:

•   Some of the resources that included students would be benefiting from might hinder the non-included students' ability to learn
• Many people and children are "afraid" of things they are not familiar with and do not know how to react towards someone who, for instance, has a learning disability. This fear could result in alienation and bullying in extreme cases.
• Time is precious.  There may not be enough time in the day or a class period to educate each individual student to the level he or she requires.
• Pulling out students from the classroom is required when teaching in inclusive settings. This pulling out could have adverse effects on included students.

Advantages of Full Inclusion:

• Students who are included would benefit greatly from learning the necessary curriculum needed to pass all twelve grades of primary school and moving into the work force.
• According to one study, "results indicated that students who have been placed in heterogeneously grouped programs showed significantly more improvement than those who were grouped by ability levels" (Peterson, 1989 as cited in Aldridge & Goldman p. 156").
• Again, socialization is greatly improved for all students in an included classroom.
• "Students without disabilities gain skills and insights that are beneficial to them, such as developing increased tolerance and appreciating human differences (Willis, 1994 as cited in Aldridge & Goldman p. 157).

Disadvantages of Full Inclusion: 

• Teachers are afraid of teaching in inclusive settings because many of them do not feel that they have the necessary training to teach students with disabilities. 
• Again, pulling students out of the classroom could have negative effects on their self-esteem.

For more information on inclusion, visit these sites:

• http://www.weac.org/Issues_Advocacy/Resource_Pages_On_Issues_one/Special_Education/special_education_inclusion.aspx 
• http://nichcy.org/schoolage/placement/inclusion 
• http://www.inclusion.com/inclusiveschools.html 

Inclusion, Full Inclusion, and Mainstreaming. An introduction

Inclusion is the attempt by teachers to educate each student to the fullest extent in the classroom.

Full Inclusion is based on the notion that all students, regardless of intellectual ability, should be educated in the same general education classroom as their same-age peers.

Mainstreaming "is defined as integrating children with special needs into the regular classroom with the understanding that there is a resource room special education class to which they can go receive assistance" (Aldridge & Goldman 149).

Inclusion, full inclusion, and mainstreaming are three different teaching approaches for dealing with students who have different intellectual abilities. There are many different facets that need to be prepared for inclusion. The school systems need to be prepared, as well as teachers, families and students. Different perspectives are needed from each facet to determine the best approach to administering inclusion.

Padagogical Strategies

Direct Teaching is “A model of instruction in which the teacher is a strong leader who structures the classroom and sequences subject matter to reflect a clear academic focus. The model emphasizes the importance of a structured lesson in which presentation of new information is followed by student practice and teacher feedback (Sadker and Zittleman 387).” 

     Within direct teaching there are six principles and they are; Daily Review, New Material, Guided Practice, Specific Feedback, Independent Practice, and Weekly and Monthly Reviews. 

Let us start with Daily Review, this just means before the teacher begins the lesson of the day they will review previously learned material, the teacher will focus a lot on homework and making sure students understand the material before moving on. 

Second is New Material, this is where the teacher focuses a lot on letting students know the objectives that they will be learning as well as breaking down the information that they are learning into smaller pieces in order to learn it quicker. 

Third we have Guided Practice, this is just how it sounds, students learn with teacher supervision using their newly learned skills. 

Fourth we have Specific Feedback; Specific Feedback is where students receive immediate feedback to both their incorrect answers as well as their correct answers. The incorrect answers are corrected immediately so that errors do not become a habit. Frequently wrong answers tell the teacher that her/his students are not yet ready for independent practice. 

Independent Practice is the fifth principle and it is very similar to guided practice besides with independent practice student’s work by themselves at home or at school. 

The sixth and final principle of Direct Teaching is Weekly and Monthly reviews, this is simply where the teacher does regular reviews that give students another chance to practice.

Cooperative Learning is when students work on activities in small groups, and they receive rewards based on the overall group performance (Sadker and Zittleman 388).” Cooperative learning works best when students are learning in groups that are heterogeneous and are small. The students should be in a circle in order to have face-to-face interaction. The rewards are earned only if the entire group reaches the goal this ensures that students work together in order to help each other learn the material. This is used in the classroom simply by letting students work in small groups; this can be used in any subject and any grade level.

Mastery Learning is, “an educational practice in which an individual demonstrates mastery of one task before moving on to the next (Sadker and Zittleman 389).” In this learning process the students do not worry about passing their current grade but rather working at their own pace and rising to their own level of learning. With this model it relies on instructional alignment which is the relation between what the teacher teaches the students and what the students are testing on. This model is great to incorporate technology with because computers allow students to work at their own pace. They also have a self-assessment feature where students can learn and take tests on the computer which would make it easier on both the student and the teacher due to the fact the student will know right away if they have the right answers and the teachers can see if the student understands and is excelling within the program.

Problem-Based Learning is, “An approach that builds a curriculum around intriguing real-life problems and asks students to work cooperatively to develop and demonstrate their solutions (Sadker and Zittleman 391).” The principles of this learning model are, learner cooperation, higher-order thinking, cross-disciplinary work, artifacts and exhibits, and authentic learning. This model gives students real-life situation that they must work together or individually to solve. Such as pollution students are giving the problem of pollution or littering around their school building they must then brain storm ideas in order to solve this problem. Students could come up with the idea to pick up trash or to start a recycling program at their school. Or to try to come up with other ideas to be green within their school and at home.

IA: Sternberg's Triarchic Theory and Nature Vs. Nurture

There is another theory on intelligence called Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory. In this theory, Sternberg labels three separate areas of intelligence: Analytic, creative, and practical.

1. Analytic intelligence- ability to analyze, judge, evaluate, compare and contrast
2. Creative intelligence- ability to create, design, invent, originate, and imagine
3. Practical intelligence- ability to use, apply, implement, and put ideas into practice.

As you may notice many of the 8 intelligences of Gardner’s theory can be categorized under the three intelligences of Sternberg’s. In fact, the analytic intelligence can be paired with linguistic and mathematical intelligences; the creative intelligence can be paired with spatial, body-kinesthetic, and musical intelligences, and the practical with the interpersonal, intrapersonal and emotional intelligences. This does exclude the naturalistic intelligence, but this demonstrates effectively the evolution of our understanding of intelligence. The following pictures are diagrams of Sternberg’s and Gardner’s theories.

   

Now all of these intelligences are very specific, and you may find yourself saying that you have the ability to demonstrate many of these. The question that you should be asking yourself is, “why don’t I have the ability to do all of them?” This question can have multiple answers, but what it all boils down to is the debate between nature vs. nurture. In other words, do your surroundings and genetics influence your intelligence or does your upbringing? 

Your genetic make-up defines what kind of eye and hair color you will have, how tall you will be, and even what your voice will sound like. Your genetics can also decide how fast your brain will develop, and, in the nature argument, even how smart you will be. There are different parts of the brain dedicated to the different types of intelligences explained earlier. If for some reason your genes have predestined one or more of these parts of the brain to develop differently then you may become stronger or weaker in that respective intelligence.

                 

                Your surroundings, nature, also play a key role in your development in the sense that if your surroundings are not healthy (i.e. pollution) then the brain could be adversely effected, and therefore your ability to develop these intellectual skills could be effected.

                

                On the other side of the argument some people attribute a person’s upbringing to being the sole contributor to their intellectual ability. How a person is raised, their nutrition, and the support they get from the community all play a factor in how a person develops cognitively.

                 

                The fact of the matter is that both nature and nurture play an important part in a person’s cognitive advancement. No single factor is more important because they all work together. If, for some reason, there is a weakness in one area then the entire development of the child is effected, and this means that intellectually the child will be affected.

IA: Gardner's Eight Frames of Mind

     There are multiple forms of intelligence a person can display, and in many cases students are strong in multiple categories; in fact there are 8 accepted forms with a 9^th contested intelligence. This theory is known as Gardner’s Eight Frames of Mind. 


    Linguistic Intelligence- a student’s ability of having or pertaining to the use of vocabulary, language, and speech in creative and critical ways.

A student with a strong linguistic intelligence would be strong with creative writing, and in debate with other students as a proper knowledge of word use would benefit their presentation of thoughts and ideas. Students with this strength would find it easier to figure out word meaning in context to a topic. An example of such ability would be like being able to write a short story or write a persuasive speech. 

Logical-mathematic Intelligence- A student’s ability to grasp basic math and science skills, and to further apply such skills effectively.

A student with this strength would find math classes easier, and the material would make more sense to them. The time it would take for a student to figure out key concepts, solve problems, and derive proofs and connections to similar material would be heightened. A student would be able to apply basic scientific approaches to more complex scenarios with ease. An example of this would be considered to be placed in a high math class or solving higher degree of difficulty problems in such subjects with ease. 

Spatial intelligence- A student’s ability to see details in one’s environment, and to apply, effectively, mental imagery and imagination.

A student with this strength would have a heightened imagination, and a strong ability for mental imagery. This student would be able to find differences between similar objects with ease as this person is detail oriented. An example of this ability would be like being able to mentally picture a car and deriving a variation of the same car with an imagination.

Musical Intelligence- A students ability to demonstrate musical talent.

As a musically intelligent person, you would find playing musical instruments to be easy. Reading, writing, and understanding musical literature would also make much sense. An example of a student with this strength would be a person that can play multiple instruments, or someone that could create their own songs.

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence- A students ability to apply oneself athletically

A student with this type of ability would have increased athletic ability, and would show this skill through sports. Students with this ability can also show great dexterity and ability through dancing, pantomime, and ornate hand tricks. 

Interpersonal- A student’s ability to perceive others feelings, perceptions of self and reality, and behaviors.

A student with this strength would find it easy to see another student’s feelings, intentions, and beliefs. This student would find it easy to identify the underlying causes of the student’s emotions. This student can also use other’s moods and thoughts to influence their own.  An example of this would be a person that regularly consoles others due to the fact that they can “see” their pain, or a person that can read character or other forms of emotion.

Intrapersonal- A student’s ability to be self-aware, and in tune with ones thoughts and feelings.

A student with this strength would better understand their thoughts and feelings, and what the root cause is; in other words they would have a good understanding of causality. This person would also be able to better relate to others by being able to put themselves in others shoes. 

Naturalistic- A student’s ability to understand nature by seeing patterns and elements of nature.

A student with this intelligence can easily see patterns in nature between living and non-living entities. Their ability to place or group living and non-living entities would be heightened and classifying natural phenomena would also be heightened. This would mean that a student would be able to identify what type of rock or leaf they were looking at, and be able to match up mammal to mammal. 

Emotional Intelligence- A student’s ability to perceive and express emotion.

This intelligence is very similar to interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences in the sense that it encompasses the two intelligences.

IA: Intellectual Ability

Intellectual Ability is, defined simply, what one is able to do with his or her brain. All students have different intellectual abilities in a number of different fields. For example, some students may excel in mathematics, while others are astounding writers. Also, some students may be able to think creatively, while others think logically. It is important for educators to identify and cater to different intellectual abilities in their students.




 Intelligence Quotient (IQ): This little thing is a score derived from a number of different standardized tests. It, in a sense, is a measure of intellectual ability with the average IQ for Americans being between 70 and 130. Interestingly enough, a person's IQ score can be linked to Socioeconomic Status, which was discussed in our previous blog. You can take an IQ test at http://www.iqtest.com/ and find out your IQ score for free. After completing the test, the site will ask if you want to buy something. You do not need to buy anything to find out your score.

Socioeconomic Status

Socioeconomic Status (SES) is defined as an individual's or group's position within a hierarchical social structure. It depends on a combination of variables, including occupation, education, income, wealth, and place of residence. We believe that this section will help teachers understand that socioeconomic status is vital to interpreting the different influences on an individual in the classroom.

  

• Poverty: Poverty is defined as a substandard existence that just meets or fails to meet the basic needs of the individual/s involved. “One out of every five children is poor during the first three years of life the time of greatest brain development.”(Aldridge) This fact creates an environment in which the future student has to play catch up in the early years of education into secondary education. The parents of these students may hold several jobs or be unemployed, meaning that these parents may or may not be home on a regular basis. This could lead to a lack of family support, which causes the student to look for alternate means of support. This could include relying on school and the teachers for support, after school programs, or even in the worst case scenario illegal means.According to Aldridge, “the number of Americans living below the poverty level in the United States has continued to increase during the past three decades.” The cycle of poverty is not isolated to a single household. Poverty can be found on the neighborhood or even city level.

 

• Place of Residence:Students who live in financially underprivileged homes find it very difficult to afford adequate necessities required to receive a proper education. In fact, the ability to go to college is severely restricted by the fact that college is very expensive. Even with the available grants, loans and scholarships there is a large portion of able bodied and sound minded individuals who cannot afford to attend higher education tracks. 

Now, The creation of new buildings and businesses are always a great lift to a locations economy; bringing in new jobs and growth that can increase tax revenue that will in the end increase revenue to the schools. This in turn can cause the schools to supply the students with better means to educate themselves, and have access to new and better technology. This influx in revenue can also cause the schools to lose sight of the primary goal of a school by spending poorly, and then having to either dip into reserve funds or asking for more revenue through higher taxes or levies. This effect can put a strain on the region by causing those living within the region to pay higher taxes or levies to said schools. 

As the urban and suburban areas are beginning to see issues with funding and maintaining the schools, the rural areas have to deal with issues that are of a different nature. To take an example that is happening in a school district just north of Cincinnati, The Little Miami School District has had to cut large amounts of money out of the budget due to a lack of revenue from property taxes along with revenue from state funds. In other words, due to the school’s location, the issue has arrived that the school can no longer afford to operate at its given capacity. These topics tended to focus on the effects on the school, but this all boils down to the fact that if we are going to allow our students to have a free and equal education, then we must understand that it is not cheap. The reallocation of priorities both at home and school will take us a long way. the finding finding of a better way to fund schools that takes into account each districts needs will alleviate funding issues. Furthermore, the need for investment in the infrastructure of our schools will guarantee more time for those buildings to continue to create the next leaders of our country. 

 

• Social Class: The psychological toll of living in impoverished conditions is also very important to mention. Many of us find ourselves comparing ourselves to one another. This behavior is equally true of students, and this comparison can lead to some very damaging and incorrect conclusions. A student may find that their family’s financial situation uncomfortable and embarrassing leading them to feel insecure, inferior, or even isolated from their peers. This lack of a sufficient home environment could lead to a lack of interest in school, and, “In fact, many student from lower socioeconomic areas have not stayed in school long enough to graduate” (Aldridge).

•  Crime: Crime is the breach of rules and laws ultimately leading to a conviction. Crime rates are closely correlated to gang activity. In fact, the total number of gangs in the US has risen from 270 to about 3000 in the last past 30 years.Gang activities include, but are not limited to defending neighborhood turf, extortion, armed robbery, alien smuggling, and drugs and arms trafficking. As gangs form, recruiters look for disadvantage children, pulling these kids out of the classrooms away from their school life to be affiliated with the gangs.

  

- Here's some tips when dealing with potential crime-associated children in your classroom:

          * If you believe one of your students is involved in gang activity, tell someone, such as administration.

          *  Try to talk to the child after class to understand the child better.

          * Recommend a crime prevention seminar for the students to administration.

•  Disabilities: A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, or developmental or some combination of these. As an educator we have to prepare ourselves to teach these children who may enter our classrooms with some sort of disability, whether it is mental or physical. In the classroom we have to decide whether the child should be included in a classroom or if it would be beneficial for them to have extra help in the classroom or to be in a special education classroom.

- Tips when dealing with children with disabilities can be viewed at the following site:

http://dsp.berkeley.edu/TeachStudentsWithDisab.html 

 

• Religion: Religion holds many different meanings to many different people. In addition to this, there are over twenty religions in the world. Some of these religious backgrounds may find their way into your classroom and it is important to be conscious of them when dealing with students from a religious minority.

- Some possible scenarios where religion may be a factor are as follows:

     *  Some children may be required to dress in a different way because their religion requires it.

     *  These children are susceptible to bullying from other students who do not understand the religion.

     *  Certain behaviors are taboo in some religious sects and not in others.

     *  It is important to be mindful of these behaviors and act in a way as to not offend any child.

     *  More information on this can be found in this PDF file: You'll Need a PDF reader to see this.

Here's a video on the importance of all of these factors at work and a very good way to help these factors be minor in a child's life: