Lou Anne Johnson is a pop culture teacher played by Michelle Pfeiffer in the movie Dangerous Minds. Dangerous Minds was definitely a Hollywood movie, but still had some important character ideas serving relevance to what 21st century educators should still resemble today. The premise of the movie depicts that inner city schools often have students who are behind, (not exclusively, but primarily minorities), but with true passion, understanding, compassionate effort, these students can rise to astonishing levels of success. “Passion and motivation is the fuel that propels the human spirit and this is at the core of student achievement” (Balls, Eury, & King, 2011).
Witnessed throughout the movie are several instructional strategies for promoting student motivation. The teacher begins the class by informing all students that they are starting with an A; all they have to do is try to keep it. In the book, Tools for Teaching, Barbara Davis, would support this motivational method because of her belief of de-emphasizing grades and promoting learning for learning’s sake. One of her motivational strategies states, “Ensure opportunities for students’ by assigning tasks that are neither too easy nor too difficult.” It is evident in the movie that the students could care less what the teacher knows until they are certain she cares about them. Not only is the teacher extremely patient while waiting to earn the respect of her students, but also maintains a positive and determined attitude toward them.
The teacher’s role as an educator can compare directly to the philosophical aspects of behaviorism. According to the behaviorist, teachers have many rewards or other incentives prepared and ready when the need for motivating students...
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...specially relevant to the outside world! In Dangerous Minds, however; a genuine effort for connection to the students is a powerful agent in helping students recover their desire to learn and excel.
References
Balls, J.D., Eury, D.A., King, J.C. (2011). Rethink, rebuild, rebound. City, State: Pearson Learning Solutions.
Bass, R., (1995) Dangerous Minds. Hollywood, CA: Hollywood Pictures.
Karp, Stan. (2011). Taking teacher quality seriously: A collaborative approach to teacher evaluation. Retrieved xxMonth20xx http://rethinkingschoolsblog.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/taking-teacher-quality-seriously-a-collaborative-approach-to-teacher-evaluation/
Ozmon, H.A. (2012). Philosophical Foundations of Education: Ninth Edition. City, State: Pearson Education, Inc.
If you quote a line from a movie, you must provide the source for it here.
Students are motivated by many different things, for example Carly is motivated by chips. I remember when I was younger and took flute lessons, my teacher would give me candy if I practiced in between classes and improved. It also takes some students longer than others to learn things. It took Carly until she was 10 to really express herself. Even once she started typing she had to learn how to spell the words she wanted to write, she also had to learn to form sentences from those words. Some students might take longer than others to learn, as a future teacher we must be patient with the students and find the best way for them to learn the material. Another part of the book I found upsetting is when the general education teacher said she could not teach Carly anymore. She gave up on her without trying much to help Carly. As a future teacher, we must try to help all our students, even if they have
Webber, Karl. “A Nation Still At Risk.” Waiting for Superman: How We Can Save Save America’s Failing Public Schools. Ed. Carl Weber. New York: PublicAffairs. 2010. 3-10. Print.
Charlotte Danielson, an internationally recognized expert in the area of teacher effectiveness, created The Framework for Teaching, which is comprised of four domains of teaching responsibility (Danielson, 1996). Danielson specializes in the design of teacher evaluation to ensure teacher quality and to promote professional learning. Danielson’s framework is based on large amounts of research, including the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project, supported by the Gates Foundation (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2013). Danielson’s framework also aligns with the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC), which outlines what a beginner teacher should possess in skills. In addition, it is the underlying set of ideas
To be a successful celebrity, staying relevant is vital for job security, this forces stars to up their game every year. Celebrities are always trying to shock their audiences and make big news stories to keep their names in the spotlight. Some have taken it too far, by stripping on stage, using explicit and suggestive language in every song or music video. I think celebrities should continue upping their game but not in an explicit way promoting unrealistic hypersexed images. They should focus on their tours, albums, TV shows, etc. and find another ‘creative’ outlet to express themselves individually. Celebrities should find another way to shock and impress their audiences that is more realistic than showing more and more skin every year.
UHCL Home Page: Behaviorism As A Learning Theory. (1995, June 13) Retrieved on October 29, 1999 from the World Wide Web: http://inst.cl.uh.edu/inst5931/Behaviorism.html
I plan to also use behaviorism in my classroom. Behaviorism asserts that reality can only be defined by what a person can scientifically measure and observe. Also with behaviorism I will use behavior modification and reward students with positive reinforcement for doing good work. Using not only nods, smiles and positive words I will use other methods to reward students. I plan to encourage students to design their own science lab experiments that relate to the material being studied at the time. A science lab experiment that is designed by a student that is appropriate and able to fit into the class time will be performed by the wh...
Toch, T. (n.d.). Membership. educational leadership :expecting excellence: fixing teacher evaluation. Retrieved November 8, 2013, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct08/vol66/num02/Fixing-Teacher-Evaluation.aspx
In order to understand how teacher evaluations can be positive, we need to look at their purpose and how districts do teachers evaluations. According to different articles written by Education Leadership, reformers many times neglect teacher evaluations as a tool to improve student learning, this is because most schools lack credible systems of measuring the quality of
The main instance that I use behaviorism in my classroom is through positive reinforcement. I praise, praise, praise my students all day. Students who are such young learners receive much motivation when they hear praise and specific praise at that. It allows them to be eager to please their teacher and provides a sense of self-accomplishment. In my classroom, I also use a treasure chest, reward coupons and PBIS reward money as major components of positive reinforcement. At the beginning of the year, I teach my students my classroom expectations and that I expect the best from them. This includes all of their daily work, including journal writing, morning work, etc. My students know what my desired outcome is. Student’s behavioral efforts are measured and collected on a weekly basis through a behavior chart. Their assignments are measured on accuracy and completeness in order to help them recognize the importance of their effort in finishing an assignment. I utilize a rubric on many of my assignments in order to help them achieve their best. Their meeting certain standards on their weekly behavior chart allows them to receive
An effective teacher will excite, inspire and motivate students to be active in their learning, investigate new areas of knowledge and make connections to future learning (Whitton et al 2010). When a teacher is successful, their students are motivated, mutually respectful and ready to build on their knowledge and solve real-world problems. To be a teacher of value, one must have many skills and qualities to cater for a diversity of learners and their individual development; this includes many personal traits that are noticed students.
We need to continuously assess and evaluate our students so we can set appropriate goals for each student and individual instructions. Each child learns different, so as a teacher we need to have different styles of teaching for positive reinforcement.
The behavior of the teacher can be detrimental or beneficial to a child’s motivational process. A study conducted by Patrick, Hisley, and Kempler (2000) from Goucher College proved that teacher enthusiasm does affect student intrinsic motivation. In the analysis, the level of teacher eagerness was manipulated to observe the participant’s motivation and interest after a brief lecture. The changes in the address included tone of voice, hand gestures, and facial expressions. Participants that heard the more energetic l...
In many cases, it has become very complex to keep students interested in their education. So the teacher must be creative and find ways to keep pushing the student onward as well as upward. In order to devise the ultimate plan for educating students, a teacher must acknowledge that the “students” are what teaching is all about. The most important factor in the equation is unequivocally the STUDENT! All humans are different in some sort or fashion. But the fact still exists that we all have only this place to function in. So help by putting forth an effort to make it a better place for us all.
...em to look at several elements that affect their student’s motivation and ask why and how this affects them in the first place. After that, I would tell him to arrange a lesson plan utilizing structural factors such as patterns and sequences, with a view to individual application and the group dynamics of the class. By doing so, the teacher can grow in his students a sense of shared motivation guided by these structural factors, so that each interrelated lesson are remembered. These lesson plans must also consider the effective ways of instilling discipline in the students. The teacher must allow for response from the students so that he may understand the students’ perception of reality, value systems, and will, so that he may understand how to motivate his students more. By understanding the motivations of his students, he can bring about a change in their lives.
Our nation’s education system strives through the hard work and dedication of its educators. Often great teachers, principles and supporting staff are drawn to the profession because they possess the desire to empower, inspire, nurture and watch young people grow - not only academically, but also emotionally. These people are there because they want to make an impact upon our society and the lives of whom the reach. Highly effective teachers are those who have taken learning to new heights by accelerating student learning, closing achievement gaps that persisted for decades, and promoting a mindset of change. Moreover, the presence of highly effective teachers in classrooms today continues to manifest as a result of the support from strong school leaders (U.S. Department of Education, 2013).