Final field post at Ignatius

My last observation at Ignatius was a good experience. I really enjoyed doing these observations. However, I think that 10 hours is a bit too long. 8 hours would be good. I think that 10 hours is a bit repetitive of what you will see. Nonetheless, I really did enjoy the experience. My last day was a good day. It was a "blue and gold day" at Ignatius. "Blue and gold days" are done at Ignatius when a team plays for a state championship and that day our football did play in the game, it is too bad that we lost. I was the only person in the classroom that was actually wearing a shirt and tie. I thought that was funny. The day in class was a lecture. He read off of a power point on new information the class was learning, the last new information learned before the final exam. Then, the class was given a worksheet to go over it. Mr. Dybicz said, "the best way to deal with new information is to just start working on it right away, work in groups, use the notes as a guide, or please feel free to ask me for help." I agree 100% with that. It is good to begin work while it is still fresh in your mind. I came into my final day with 9 hours. So I was only there for 1 hour. In that one hour, I did not get to see a whole lot more. In this experience of observing a class, I was able to see things from a teachers perspective a little more. A student can just get by in a class but a teacher can never do that. A teacher must come totally prepared for every single class. There are no "periods off" Mr. Dybicz said to me. I agree with that 100%.

Blog Post #10.

This semester has been a tough one for me. I got good grades, but it was tough for me in deciding what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. After taking this class, I am certain that I do not want to become a teacher. That was tough for me to accept. I always thought that teaching would be something that would want to do. I grew up wanting to be a high school teacher and high school football coach. But after the class i realized that teaching was not in my future. The only reason that I would want to major in education because I wanted to learn really how to teach different people because my dream is to be a football coach in the NFL (National Football League) .  However, I will be switching my major. I did not get the sense of learning to teach people in this class, instead I learned about schools and the issues that they face. That is so important, no doubt, but it is not something that I care about, it is not for me to deal with. What I discovered about myself this semester that I am destined to go into my family business of coaching football. Growing up my dad was a high school football coach, and being able to grow up with my dad in a football locker room at a place as special as St. Ignatius were the best experiences I could have ever had, I thank God every day that my dad raised me a football guy, also my grand-uncle is Don Shula, the winningest coach in the history of the NFL both of his sons went into coaching and his grandchildren, my cousins did as well. I learned that is what I am to do. Football is my passion, not teaching. I did not enjoy this class. No young adult can sit in a classroom for 3 hours straight and not be just completely bored. This needs to be a 2 day class, not one day. I did not learn how to teach people. Instead, we learned more about schools. Again, that is important, but not for me. I love football. I hate when people tell me that do not see the beauty that the game has to offer. I have seen this game do amazing things for people. But, when people tell me they hate school, I almost always agree with them. I could not devote my life to school, I would not be happy, my life is in football. That is where I will be the most happy. That is what I learned about myself in this class.

This I Believe Essay Proposal.

    Standardized testing is a huge topic of discussions in our school systems today. For better or worse, everyone has a different opinion of them. However, I believe that they are bad for schools and even worse for our students. I believe that there is too much emphasize on them. Schools need to do well on them in order to receive a good school rating and for funding purposes. Therefore, schools are teaching to the test, preparing their students for what they believe is on the test, and they are not teaching what they believe is most important information to take out of a lesson. Also, I think that standardized testing puts a lot of pressure on the teachers to teach their students. I believe that real leaning is taking what is learned in the class room, studying for the some sort of examination and the score you get is a measure of how much you know the information that is taught.
    Also, colleges put a lot of information and time into viewing the scores of them. I think that is a bad situation. Kids are spending so much money and time into preparing for these exams. Students worry about them so much and that worrying affects their lives and grades in school. I think that so much emphasize is put on the the tests, such as the ACT and SAT that it decreases the importance of how well you do in school. I think that is unfair to the students who work so hard and earn the grades they get. Because any kid who is "naturally smart" or "God given smart" can take a test and do well on them and have that result over look how they do in the classroom, where I believe is the most important test of knowledge.

Observation post #3 - St. Ignatius

My third day at St. Ignatius was a good experience. Every time I am at Ignatius it is a good time. Today I sat in on a Latin III class and a Latin I class. The Latin III class took a practice midterm exam. The practice midterm was the same format and material (however different questions) as the actually exam itself. Mr. Dybicz thought that it was a good idea to start reviewing for that early, giving the students 3 weeks to prepare for the exam. To give them a good idea of what to expect on the final. After that was completed, there was more group work being done. I asked Mr. Dybicz, "how much is expected to get done each class?" He answered, "it really does not matter how much is done at the end of each class period, all students work at different paces and to rush them to get a certain amount of work done in a 40 minute period does nothing, at the end of the semester I will review all work turned in." I really agree with that idea. I was always a slow worker and did horrible work when I was rushed to get something in. I enjoyed seeing him walk around and observe the groups working. Seeing where students are in the assignment and encouraging them to ask questions. In my time at Ignatius, I always liked how the students were able to treat the teachers like friends. Being able to talk about sports, life, and make jokes with them. I am glad that has not changed since I have been gone. The freshman Latin I class learned a new lesson in a power point. After the power point was over, they had "life lesson talk." Talking about the effects of underage drinking in teens lives. I thought that was really cool. I thought it was important to talk to freshman about that. Freshman because they are still so young and it is important to get through to them and explain why things like that are important and the dangerous of underage drinking. To take time out of class to have a discussion like that I thought was really special. To have life discussions and talk about why things like that matter. It is all so important when forming what Ignatius calls "Men for Others". Most schools do not have discussions like that in the middle of class. It really made me realize how honored I am to be apart of that. How special that school is. This made me realize that if I were to go into teaching that is the type of teacher I would like to be. A teacher and mentor to young men and women. It is so much more than what you do in the class room. What you learn in school is so important, no doubt about that. But, what matters most, what Ignatius stresses and what I believe most, is the type of men you are outside of the classroom. Taking what you learn in school and applying it to your life. The lessons learned in the classroom, the athletic field, and most important religiously there. That is what being a "Man for Others" treating people with respect and knowing how to act is all about. This day at Ignatius really taught me that. It is cool stuff like that Ignatius does. Seeing my dad coach young men at Ignatius for nine years of his life. His former players stilling calling to talk about life and asking for advice is what it is all about. Graduating from Ignatius and being in contact with many former teachers is special. Now, being able to observe it from a teachers stand point was awesome. Such a great experience today.

Observation post #2 - St. Ignatius

The second day that I visited at St. Ignatius was very positive. I enjoyed being there as much as I did the first time. I was there for three hours. Throughout that time, I sat in on 2 Latin III classes, all of juniors. And the third class was a freshman Latin I class. The Latin III classes that I sat in on started off by taking a quiz. The quizzes that are taken in that class are almost daily. Mr. Dybicz believes "having a quiz almost every day that causes you to study for a lit bit every night is more effective than learning new material and being tested on it 3-4 weeks later causing a student to cram it all in and forget what was learned, that I could not agree more with. After the quiz was over, the class did in class group translations. It is all done in group work. The same way it was when I was in that class. He believes that when group work is done correctly, everyone working together it can be very effective. I thought it was interesting seeing him walk around the class making sure everyone is on topic, working hard, and answering questions for students. The Latin I class that I sat in on took a test that day. It was interesting to see him walk around the classroom and observe the students taking their exams. Answering questions and making sure everyone is practicing academic integrity. The students were able to use a note card filled out with information on. He believes that making that note card is a good way to study. Toward the end of the day, I was there for a free period. During that time I was able to talk to Mr. Dybicz one on one. We had a very good talk about school, teaching, and why it is important to be a teacher. He told me believes that teachers are very strong role models in the lives of young men and women. That is something that I completely agree with. You are setting an example on a daily basis of how to conduct yourself as a professional when teaching. The students learn from you, and they observe how you act all the time. The second day (3 hours) was defiantly a good experience to have done.

Observation post #1 - St Ignatius

My first day of observations at St. Ignatius was a good day. I was there for 3 hours. Pulling into the school it did feel a bit awkward to be back at Ignatius. But once I walked in and got going it felt like any other day there. I shadowed Mr. Dybicz, a Latin teacher at Ignatius who taught me. I shadowed 2 of his Latin III classes and a Latin I a class, the same class I took my senior year. In this class, it was full of juniors. Mr. Dybicz introduced me to the class and asked me to speak about my experience in his Latin III class. I was nervous to speak at first, but then once I got going it felt normal to be up there in front of the class. The class started with a prayer and then review of the notes from the previous day to refresh to go over new material for today. I liked how he brought the notes from yesterday back into the lesson to refresh and be ready to expand on what was learned yesterday. After notes were taken a worksheet that reflected the notes taken was passed out to be worked on. They worked on it in groups. I like that because it gives the students a chance to discuss what was learned and they can explain to anyone who does not understand. Mr. Dybicz when explaining the lesson said an interesting quote to the class "it is always best to practice stuff you see the most; nobody spends a  lot of time practicing fake field goals (fake field goals are not run very often)."  I really like how he made that sports reference, relating something interesting to the class. It was a great start to learning more about teaching. I am very happy I chose to shadow Mr. Dybicz, I have a lot of respect for him and the type of teacher he is. I am excited to do the last 7 hours of my field observations with Mr. Dybicz at St. Ignatius.

Blog Post #9... Annotated Bibliography.

1. Armstrong, Thomas. "15 Reasons Why Standardized Tests are Worthless." American Institute For

   Learning and Human Developing, 28 Feb. 2013, institute4learning.com/blog/2013/02/28/    15-reasons-why-standardized-  
tests-are-worthless-2/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2016.
This is an article that I will use in my paper. I will use it because it gives 15 reasons why testing is worthless for our schools. It also goes into details and backs up all 15 reasons. All of which are relevant to my argument of standardized testing being worthless.

2. Berger, Brooke. "Don’t Teach to the Test." US News, 11 Apr. 2013,  

www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2013/04/11/why-excessive-standardized-testing-is-causing-a  
merican-schools-to-fail. Accessed 14 Nov. 2016.

This is a good article that I will reflect on in my final paper. I will use this

   article because it talks about why schools are teaching to the test. It talks about the

   importance of school decreasing. Schools are working too hard to prepare their students for

   standardize tests and not to prepare them for the next level of their life.

3. Fair Tests The National Center for Fair and Open Testing." The Dangerous Consequences of

    High-Stakes Standardized Testing, 17 Dec. 2007, www.fairtest.org/

    dangerous-consequences-highstakes-standardized-tes. Accessed 14 Nov. 2016.

This is a good article because it discusses the impact testing has on students. It goes into the negative effects standardized testing has on the students taking them. It also talks about how it is an unfair way to measure a student’s intelligence. I will use this article while writing my final paper.

4. Jouriles, Greg. "Here's Why We Don't Need Standardized Tests." Education Week, 8 July        

                2014,www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/07/09/36jouriles.h33.html. Accessed 14 Nov.  

                2016.

This is an  article that I will definitely use in my paper. I like the article because it goes into great

   details about why we do not need standardized testing. Specifically, it talks about how

   expensive it is to give these exams to our students.

blog post 7

Chapter 7 of "To Teach" has a lot of good insight of ideas to become a good teacher. The one that really stood out to me the most was number 1 on page 96 "Acting is essentially mechanical." The chapter states "great actors engage an audience, interact and draw energy and inspiration from the relationship (96). That statement really stood out to me. I strongly agree with it because I believe that in teaching it is important to take the material that is supposed to be taught and break it down to the audience of students that you stand before teaching them. Relating to them, explaining to them why this is important and why they need to know this, and encouraging out-side-the-box problem solving and thinking. When a teacher would just read the material and have me memorize something that was never a good way of learning. When the students know why it is important to learn the material, not memorize it, I believe that they want to learn therefore real learning takes place.

field post 3

I enjoyed my experience at Cleveland Heights High School. High School is the area that I would like to teach when I grow up. It was good for me to be in a classroom observing a high school teacher. The class that Carmen and I were in was sign language. That was actually a fun class to observe. It was a very different classroom to be in. At first, it was difficult to observe the class because no one was talking. It was all sign language. But, then I realized that it is just like observing any type of language classroom. Heights offers sign language as a language that can be taken. I have thought about being a language teacher myself. However, the language that I would teach would be Latin, although I am still not sure on that. I watched the teacher run and keep order in the classroom. The teacher seemed like he was friends with his students. They all got along and were able to have mature conversations. That is a big reason that I would like to teach high school, the kids are mature.

post it notes blog

I enjoyed the exercise that we did in reading with the post it notes and the discussions that we had as a class. I have always been a strong believer in teaching students the material and breaking it down about how it relays to what is going on today and why it is important. The worst and most boring classes that I have had are the ones where the teachers just read off of slides and give exams over what is on the slides. I do not believe that learning is taking place in those types of classes. Memorization is the only thing that is taking place. Sure, some of that is useful, however I believe that is not a rewarding and worth while experience. Students need to know why the information is important, and why it is being covered. Students need to be able to break it down in terms that make sense for them. And apply it to how it is important. I believe that is good teaching and even better learning.

blog post 5

In our world today the issue of homophobia is a big deal. People are treating poorly and not given equal chances because of their sexuality. Unfortunately, this is true in schools as well. Kids can be very cruel to other students because of the fact that they are different. It is so sad, every student should be able to go to school and have fun, enjoy their experience. Students bullying other students can truly effect the way they think of school and ultimately learning as well. I went to St. Ignatius High School, thankfully Ignatius did a good job of treating everyone well. The students and teachers did a good job treating everyone with respect. St. Ignatius did have an extra curricular program for gay students and other students who were worried about any types of social injustices. I hope that I teach at a school were everyone is treated fairly and the students very much enjoy coming to school. I hate seeing anybody be treated poorly. Everybody deserves the chance to go to school and be who they are and be comfortable in their own skin.

field post 2

I really enjoyed my experience at Shaker Middle School. I liked it a lot better than Noble Elementary School. Not that the Noble experience was not a good experience, it was. I just enjoyed being around older kids more. I have always to teach high school and middle school is a lot closer to elementary school. The teachers were very good, I thought. They were engaged in what they were teaching their students, asking questions, and allowing their students to do a lot of class discussions. A bridge that I observed at Shaker was the class I was in ending class 15 minutes early to just have a discussion; a discussion about class, what they are learning, and school/feelings in general. I thought that was a good way that the students can connect to each other and to the teacher. I believe that it makes the experience of school and answering questions a lot easier for students.

Blog Post #4

Dear Ohio Supreme Court,
 The state of Ohio has a problem with under financed public schools. Some of the schools in our state are under funded and under appreciated. When schools are under funded, it can be difficult for students to show up and be excited to learn. Also, it can be difficult for teachers to come into the classroom and do their job to the best of their ability. Schools are falling apart from the inside out. Rain water is getting into the building through the ceiling and walls are falling apart. A work and learning environment like this is no place to get work done in. We need a change. We need to find a way to get more money into our public schools that need it. Our schools need to be fixed up to give our students a better chance to learn. I believe that if we do this, we will see better results from our teachers leading to better grades and test scores from out students.

Field Post 1: Noble Elementary School

I really enjoyed our morning at Noble Elementary School. I think that it was a good experience for me to go into a class room and observe how and what the teachers taught. Brandon and I sat in two class rooms: art and Spanish. We liked what the art teacher's philosophy was "you can only fail if you do not do the work" and we also like how engaged the teacher was, walking around the room and looking at each students work. We enjoyed what the Spanish teacher did too, she had the entire sit in a circle and practice the speaking the language to each other. I want to be a high school teacher. That desire was confirmed spending the morning at an elementary school. I got the feeling that being around students that young is moreover babysitting rather than teaching. I would want to teach high schoolers because they are old enough to have real discussions with and that belief was also reinforced after spending the day at Noble.

Post # 3

 I really liked this past class that we had. I liked the class skits that we did. I think that it is a good learning visual. I really took two things from the reading; keeping kids interested in what you are teaching them and not rushing to judgement on kids and categorizing  them with learning disabilities. Taking the time to learn your students and what they think is important. A question that I would have is: What is a good way to take your students passions and incorporate them into what the class is doing?

Blog post 2 - why teach

I want to become a teacher because I know the importance of education. Education is the first step in having a successful career. Teachers are great models to their students. Some of my teachers from high school have been huge in me growing up. The respect that they showed and taught their students always stood out to me. The teachers at St. Ignatius High School do an amazing job in educating the students and developing young men. They give you the tools you need in life to be successful. Having graduated from Ignatius  I now see that I want to teach at Ignatius and be apart of the tradition there that has existed for over 130 years and will continue to exist for 100 more years. I want to be apart of helping the students there achieve their goals.

About Me. Post #1

 My name is Ben Moroz. I usually go by Ben. My hometown is Avon, Ohio. I went to St. Ignatius High School. I would like teach high school Latin, hopefully at St. Ignatius High School. What makes me special is that I have a great sensor of humor and I really love to laugh. My uncle's name is on the football stadium here at John Carroll.  I love football, it is by far my sport. I do not really follow the other sports that much. I do not play for an athletic team here, however I work for the football team here, I am a video assistant for the team. I also play intramural soccer here. Football and family are really important to me. This article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/80954-football-and-family-the-two-are-inseparable.  This article is a good example of both. It is a good example of how the family has come together and bonded being football fans. The family would always gather together to watch the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals play. They always reminisce on their favorite football memories from the NFL and the NCAA.
 What makes me comfortable in a classroom environment is knowing the other people in the class. Knowing their sense of humors and knowing about them. It makes me more comfortable because it does not feel like I am talking to a group of strangers in the classroom. It takes a lot of pressure off of me. Also, knowing that the teacher has a good sense of humor because when I mess up I want him to laugh and not be mad. Finally, being confident in the material that I am learning so in class I can answer questions and participate.
 A formative memory that I have in a classroom was when I was a junior in high school. It was my English class. In the class, I actually fell asleep and was out the entire period. After the class ended, the teacher woke me up. I felt really bad because I really respected the teacher that I had. But, he told me to not worry about it and not to feel bad. He understood that outside of school people go through things and at that time my family was going through a difficult time. As a teacher, I would be worried about forming lessons everyday and keeping kids engaged in the class.
 A question that I would have is: what made you want to get into education?