definitely agree that a zero doesn't reflect student learning

In this scene, Billy is in a class spelling bee against another student. As the student is spelling her word, she gets a letter wrong, and Billy interjects letting her know she is wrong. As we have learned, students learn through social constructivism. In our future classroom, we will have students who, like Billy, interrupt class and even make comments that can hurt another student's learning environment. How would you cater to both students in a case like this, where you know you have a student who constantly makes inappropriate remarks? Yes, there should be discipline for that student, but also like we've talked about in class, if you discipline a student so much then it can turn them away from learning. How can you manage a classroom to make it an optimal environment that encourages learning for those who make outbursts and those who comply with rules and routines?

In this scene, Miss Vaughn admits that she likes Billy. Although Bill is no longer her student, is it appropriate for Miss Vaughn to engage in a relationship with him? There have been many instances where a student graduates and then marries one of his or her teachers, as what happened at a Catholic high school I attended. Is it right to engage in a relationship with your student once he or she is has graduated?

Billy is older than the rest of the students he is in class with, therefore his sense of humor is intended for an older audience. Thinking about the comments Billy makes and how the students around him do not understand it, it made me think of my own school experience. Sometimes peers would make comments that I wouldn't understand, and I would go home and ask my parents about it. Majority of the time, it would be something inappropriate that my parents did not want me knowing until I was older, yet it was ruined because of the comments students made at school. Some of the inappropriate comments peers would make would be in front of the teacher, and the teacher wouldn't say anything. As a future teacher, how can we try our best to keep the innocence of our children? How would you handle a situation if parents came to you telling you that their child was exposed to something inappropriate in your class?

This scene is another reinforcement of how fast Billy is going through the grades in order to graduate. Having only two weeks per grade, Billy has to pass every grade before June 15th. Billy is following what Albert Bandura calls self-efficiancy. In order to make the deadline, Billy has to organize and set goals in order to accomplish the task of graduating on the time set. Billy had to be persistent in order to learn all he did in the few short weeks he had. For example, he went from having recess and having story time, to two weeks later having to take exams and no recess. A student should be eased into each new environment, but Billy had to set goals and be persistent about sticking to them.

In this scene, Ernie calls Miss Vaughn for Billy to find out if she would ever consider dating one of her students. Johnston talks about building relationships with students, but to what extent? You want your children to be comfortable with you, but where do you draw the line? How would you respond if you were in this type of situation, as many times students do have crushes on their teachers.

In this scene, Miss Vaughn seems as if she is trying to help Billy to pass the third grade in the two weeks he is there. While it seems that she tries to challenge him to master his cursive skills, she actually used what could have been a learning experience to instead tear Billy down. As Johnston says to do, Miss Vaughn did ask Billy if he wanted to write on the board--this allowed Billy to have a choice. Miss Vaughn did also tap into Billy's ZPD, as discovered by Lev Vygotsky, however she did it in a wrong manner. Billy spelt the first word, "dugout" correctly, and Miss Vaughn then challenged him with another word, "bunt." This word Billy also was able to spell on his own without any assistance. Miss Vaughn then told Billy to spell "Rizzuto," a challenging word for Billy as he did not know how to write a 'z' in cursive. Miss Vaughn could tell that Billy did not know how to write his z's on his own, yet she still made him perform a task he was incapable of without her help, thus causing him to get so frustrated that he never wanted to go back. Spelling the word, "Rizzuto" should have been done with the help of the teacher--the middle part of the ZPD, because it was a task that Billy could have completed with the help of Miss Vaughn showing him how to write a 'z' in cursive.

As a future teacher, I understand that I will also be a student; I'll be a student because I will learn from my children just as they learn from me. My future students will teach me how to become a better teacher as I interact with them on a daily basis. They will teach me how to form relationships, and what it means to form a true and wholesome relationship with my students. I will learn how to think through the perspective of someone other than myself by learning through my students. Not only will I learn from my students, but I will also be learning from my colleagues. They will serve as models for me in my classroom, or even in some cases, models of how I do not want to manage my classroom. Everyday is a learning experience, and just because I will have the future title of being a teacher in the classroom, it does not mean that I stop learning like a student as well.

When talking about cooperative learning, Ronald E. Riggio states that "teams are assembled as if they are made up of interchangeable parts." When selecting groups, it's important to make note of which students can be grouped together so that they can each support one another's strengths and weaknesses to work for the success of the group.