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.