Tag Archive: students
I wrote these three essays over the past few days for my Intro to Teaching course. I’ve decided not to go into the education field (I would like to do something with computers instead), but enjoyed writing these essays on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, my philosophy of education, and creating a positive learning environment in schools.
Professor John Connor, Student Richard X. Thripp
Course EDF 1005 Spring 2011, DSC, 2011 April 25
Three Personal Essays (15%) (Introduction to Teaching 3rd edition, Kauchak/Eggen)
6.) What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? Why should teachers know Maslow’s theory? What are the implications for good teaching?
Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a categorization of the needs which Maslow considers most basic to humanity to most abstract, organized into five categories, which are, from most basic to most complex, physiological needs, safety, needs of love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. The physiological level includes needs that will result in quick death if not met, i.e. inhalation of oxygen, ingestion of food and water, and excretion thereof. This level also includes sleep, sex, and homeostasis. The safety level includes security of life, family, liberty, and property; the love/belonging level includes friendship, family, and sexual intimacy; the esteem level consists of self-esteem, confidence and achievement, and bidirectional respect; and finally, the self-actualization level involves morality, creativity, spontaneity, the search for truth, just behavior, and problem-solving. Like a pyramid, all the levels build on each other and the higher levels rely on the lower levels. Maslow has an optimistic view of humanity and says that once a human’s deficiency needs (D-needs) are met, he/she can focus on B-needs (being needs), which could be the high-level pursuit of personal growth. By this definition, people in third-world countries may have a hard time reaching …
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Take that, Bethune-Cookman!
Below are five summaries of podcasts by Dr. Anita Woolfolk on Education Psychology I wrote today for a class I am taking in the same subject.
Educational psychology is a very prevalent and helpful field in today’s society. It can be the cornerstone of understanding the rationale and mindset of students within an educational system. A degree in educational psychology and a masters in educational technology can complement each other in the classroom.
Podcast Summary 1 (3%): Podcast #1 – The Importance of Teachers
According to Ms. Anita, “Teacher involvement and caring is the most significant predictor of student engagement in school,” at all grade levels, because as Abraham Maslow noted, people need to belong and feel safe, so supportive teachers give higher self-esteem, more motivation, less chance of dropping out, and help facilitate a better understanding of the course materials, lifelong learning, and understanding, trust, and respect at all levels, even when having to discipline students for misbehavior, missed days, or not turning in assignments on time.
A study that followed students from 3rd grade through 5th grade found that the average mathematics achievement score from students who had the most effective teachers through all three grades was in the 96th percentile, which is to say it was in the top 4%. Students who had the least effective teachers through all three grades were in the 44th percentile, which is to say they were below 56% of the other students. Teachers are the most important influence on students in the classroom.
Podcast Summary 2 (3%): Podcast #3 – No Child Left Behind
According to Ms. Anita Woolfolk, while states have some say in defining standards for adequate yearly progress (AYP), test scores, and proficiency among students, all schools must reach proficiency at the end of …
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Below are five essays I wrote over the past few days for my Educational Psychology course at Daytona State College. All references to the textbook reference this book (PDF, 3MB, 365 pg.).
E-Journal 1 (4%): What is the role of educational psychology in understanding teaching and learning? How can we use research to understand and improve teaching?
Educational psychology is the study of how students learn and develop, so understanding it helps teachers adapt their lesson plans and teaching strategies to promote independent learning, cooperation, caring, collaboration, metacognition and psychological development, while demoting frustration, fears of helplessness, dependency, and apathy.
One example of a theory that may help with understanding learning is the chart on page 69 of our textbook (Golobuk & Fivush, 1994), which says that teachers often give praise to boys for correct knowledge and to girls for compliant behavior, overlook compliant behavior with incorrect knowledge in boys and misbehavior with correct knowledge in girls, and criticize misbehavior in boys and incorrect knowledge in girls. This means that teachers will often praise boys just for behaving, even when they are misinformed, whereas girls are praised for good behavior, with inappropriate behavior and the core lesson plan being overlooked. Knowing this, a new teacher or a veteran teacher can adapt his/her lesson plan to avoid such pitfalls, while being careful not to overcompensate in the opposite direction.
Research helps us to understand and improve teaching by giving us a deeper example of learning. For example, it has been shown that fluent bilingualism gives a definite cognitive advantage by allowing students to understand that languages assign words to objects or concepts which can be manipulated and changed (pg. 72). Therefore, teaching students English and Spanish or another language can help them write stories and essays with more …
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I wish I could go back and change the past, but I can’t, so this is where we stand. At least we have memories.
All photos and editing herein by Richard X. Thripp, Aug-Dec 2008.
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I took these 70 photos on April 16, 2008 at the awards ceremony at the (then) Daytona Beach College gym, for my Photography I class, using Kodak PX125 B&W 35mm film.
I saved these negatives for the past three years, and finally bought a good scanner to scan them. Sorry for the dust spots.
There are a lot of photos of ex-president Kent Sharples, administrators, and faculty in this archive.
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An Analysis of the Culture of India
Richard X. Thripp
Daytona State College
For Dr. Natalie D. Rooney
EDF 2085 Introduction to Diversity for Educators
Culture Paper, 15%
Sunday, 2011 February 6
Final First Draft
Abstract
The culture of India is very unique and goes back thousands of years. In this essay, I will focus only on modern India, particularly on Mohandus K. Gandhi’s influence on the formation of the 20th century Indian government and culture, but also on religion and language. However, I will be ignoring movies, music, and postsecondary education.
Additionally, I will list major American institutions, advice for Indian American parents and children immigrating to the United States, academic citations, and personal commentary.
Finally, I will include a lot of relevant metrics, subjective summarizations, and statistics.
Note: I did not use proper A.P.A. style or proper citations in this paper.
India has both a rich cultural history spanning multiple millenniums, and is the 2nd most populated country on earth with a population of 1,155 million (C1), trailing China’s population of 1,331 million but leading the 3rd most populated country on earth by a whopping 275% — the United States, which has 308 million people. (All statistics as of 2009.)
However, many people in India are very poor and under-nourished, lacking proper food, water, shelter, infrastructure, education,
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Dr. Frank Lombardo’s message at the theater at Daytona State College on Wed., Jan. 5, 2011 at 1pm. I got lumped in with the international students because I was sitting next to Bruno Blazevic, so I told the president that I’m from China and Ireland because my mom is Chinese and my great grandfather immigrated from Ireland. We were in the front row and got a standing ovation from all the faculty and staff, though I wasn’t supposed to be there. It was fun and they used Star Wars and Star Trek music in the presentation! Daytona State College is growing at an unbelievable pace and I am looking forward to getting my Bachelor of Science degree here.
I have made this album public on Facebook, but you must log in to Facebook to see the photos. Please go there to tag people or read my comments on individual photos. I know some people don’t want to use Facebook, but I think it’s the best social networking tool, if only because of market penetration. 80% of my friends are on Facebook.
While former president Dr. Kent Sharples wasn’t mentioned much, Dr. Lombardo did say that he led the college through an incredible period of growth and that he was very good at getting things done. Dr. Lombardo hopes to be out of a job by July 2011, because he hopes the agency the college has hired for $65,000 will have found the next president by May, and then it will take about two months to train him or her.
Dr. Lombardo can be first seen in the 9th and 10th photos below. There are 71 photos divided into pages of 30, so make sure to click the next page links at the bottom. The man at the podium is Evan Rivers, Chair …
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This was a fun event organized by Nikki Sfraga, current president of Phi Theta Kappa, at Daytona State College on Monday, December 6, 2010. From 11 A.M. to 2 P.M. we had free food, music, dancing, and games in and around the clock tower at the Daytona Beach campus.
The free food included hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, nachos with cheese, hot chocolate, and bottled water. There was an inflatable basketball hoop and a dance contest. I enjoyed this a lot and hope we do this next year!
Below are 244 photos I took at the event. I installed a new gallery plugin which makes posting photos easier, so this is a different format from most of my posts and because of the large number of photos, I am not making the ten-megapixel high-resolution versions available to download.
You can just browse through the thumbnails and click one to enlarge, or click “View with PicLens” below for an interactive display that you can enlarge to full-screen or browse through with your keyboard’s arrow keys. Please make sure you have JavaScript and Adobe Flash enabled.
Enjoy the photos. 
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In September 2010, Daytona State President Kent Sharples lent nearly $1.5 million to the Community Cultural Foundation for the “American Music Festival,” with approval of the previous Board of Trustees. The festival was a money-loser and the foundation owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to many local businesses in addition to the college, which has now cut ties with both the Foundation and Sharples, and the new board ousted Sharples.
Sharples’ attorney negotiated a $1.2 million severance package for the retiring president and he will also be receiving over $0.5 million in accrued benefits. This puts his entire package at six years salary at his current rate of $290,000.
In other news, Vice President Rand Spiwak is retiring in January and Frank Lombardo, Acdemics VP, is becoming the Interim President on Monday, Nov. 22, 2010. Sharples’ last day as president is Friday, Nov. 19.
READER COMMENT BY DONALD ON THE DAYTONA SUN:
“We lost a builder for education and a true force of growth in our community with Kent Sharples resignation from Daytona State College. When will we receive the resignation of Ms Hosseini and her blonde puppet, Ms Haas? Maybe the pocket stuffer of our former Governor…Mori Hosseini will text them with instructions!”
I think it’s disgraceful that Forough Hosseini has led this crusade against Sharples for no good reason, and to much negative publicity. If he remains president, he won’t be able to do anything anyway, since she basically owns the Board of Trustees. Under Sharples’ 11-year tenure, the college has seen unprecedented growth. I sincerely hope this growth continues under Lombardo and the future DSC president.
Sources:
2010-11-18: DAYTONA SUN: Sharples Out
2010-11-18: DAYTONA BEACH NEWS-JOURNAL: Sharples out as Daytona State president; $1.2 million buyout
2010-11-11: DAYTONA BEACH …
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