Final Blog
My learning philosophy is based on my grading philosophy. Students learn better when the teacher relives stress of grades and uses the good teaching strategies to help encourage students learning.  
Grading Scale:
100% - 90% = A
89% - 80% = B
79% - 65% = C
64% - 51% = D
50% or Below = F

Late Work: Every assignment is due by the end of the semester. Each assignment has a due date, but the student has the option of handing it in by the end of the semester. If the student hands an assignment in by the due date or early, they will receive 5 pts extra credit to go on that assignment. There are certain assignments that need to be done on time; these assignments are in preparation for the day of class. Therefore the student must do the homework assignment in order to get credit for that day of class.  

Redoing assignments and tests: There is no redoing or retaking of tests. Your scores are your scores. However there are some exceptions. If you are sick the day of the tests, have an excused school activity, or you tell me before you go out of town then I will work with you. If you do not talk to me then you are out of luck. If after receiving an assignment or test back and you do not like your grade, come talk with me. If you can prove your point on why you should get a higher grade, with evidence, I will raise your grade from 0-10 point. 

Extra Credit: Besides handing your assignments in on time for 5 pts extra credit; I do offer extra credit assignments. These assignments are on a talk to the teacher basis. In other words if you feel that you need extra credit, come and talk to me and we can work things out. 

Cheating/Plagiarizing: Cheating of any kind will not be tolerated, if you are caught cheating once you will receive a warning, if you are caught cheating twice you will be kicked out of the class and sent to the office for disciplinary action. This goes for plagiarizing anything also. 

Effort: If you put in the effort you will have a good performance. The lack of effort will show and you will be docked points for it on each assignment.

Alternative assignments: your lowest assignment score will be dropped. Every assignment will be out of 100 % possible and I will not give lower than 50% unless you did not do the assignment. If you are having issues with any assignment come and talk with me and we will work things out. 

Incomplete: The only way you can get an incomplete is to not hand something in. in this case it will be the end of the semester and too late. You will receive an incomplete if you do not do the work, or at least attempt to do the work. 

1. What? Chapter 4 talks about groups and the cultures people develop while in a group. It discusses the different type of groups students are associated with, whether it is from culture, sexual preferences, or socioeconomic status. The chapter gives examples of some different cultural behaviors that we might do while we are in groups, which are interpreted differently by different cultures. For example, eye contact in some cultures is a sign of respect while in others it is rude.  

2. So What? The diversity of America’s classrooms is growing. Teachers are seeing more and more cultures that were not there a few years ago. That is what makes learning about different cultures as a teacher so important. We need to know about these things so we do not get ourselves into trouble. One needs to be careful so not to step on any toes or offend anyone.

3. Now What? I hope to use this knowledge in my classroom. I hope to learn as much about different cultures as I can, not only to be aware of the different culture but simply to learn about them. It may sound Klee shaded but knowledge is power. This is more so in this case if you want to keep your job as a teacher you need to watch what you say about others and their culture.  

We talked about two different things today in class. The first half we talked about students with special needs. We discussed IDEA, which is Individual with Disabilities Education Act. This is a law that states that schools must provide student with disabilities with the proper accommodations to be successful in school. To do this the schools write up an IEP or Individualized Education Plan. From there we talked about what it meant to be retarded and gifted. Being retarded just means you are slow in mental and social processes. Gifted means a student is more advanced in a certain subject or many subjects. This led the discussion to skipping students and holding them back, which I disagree with I think there is a better solution, I am not sure of what is it but there must be one out there. The next topic we talk about in class was 5 different intelligence theories. This we did in groups.
1. Spearman’s g = General Intelligence
2. Catell’s Fluid and Crystallized = Fluid intelligence changes or evolves and crystallized does not change but it can be added to.
3. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory = 3 Factors of intelligence, environmental context, Prior evidence, and cognitive Processes.  
4. Distributed Intelligence = thinking is facilitated by objects, technology, and symbols of ones culture.
5. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences = there are 8 intelligences, most important is interpersonal.  

This topic must be one of the most significant topics we have discussed. We are going to need to now how to teach are students since all are at a different level of intelligence. Also they all learn differently, we can incorporate Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences to help each one of our students learn. Since teaching is all about the success of your students, you are going to want you student to learn the most amount they can from your teaching. As a teacher I will need to change things up a bit to get them to understand at their own individual levels.