Tim Everson

Synopsis of missed class on Wednesday October 14, 1998

I was out of town on Wednesday October 14, 1998 due to a pre-arranged engagement. I got the tape from Donna Frederickson. The tape was quite short. Approximately 30 minutes in length. The speaker seemed to be very educated in his area. At first I thought that he was from out of the area but he turned out to be from International Falls. The topic that was covered was suicide. The speaker talked about how important it is to take every threat of suicide seriously. Its almost impossible to be sure that a person doesnt mean it when they say that they are going to kill themselves. He said that its important to follow up on threats, even if theyre made to make parents feel bad. The student should be talked with about the threat. Its important that they realize that these types of threats are not all right to say.

I have been lucky enough to have never had a student of mine commit suicide. I did have a situation when I taught at the Winona Middle School where a student confided in me that she was thinking about suicide. I contacted the counselors and we set up a meeting. The three of us met and discussed the reason for her thoughts. She was in 7th grade and was having problems at home and was beginning to experiment with drugs and alcohol. We all decided that it would be productive to set another meeting to talk with her parents. The situation turned out well. I dont know if she was serious about actually following through, but just the idea in her head had to be addressed.

Students in school face many situations that may seem insurmountable at the time. These situations often are not as life threatening as they seem at the time. However, to the student they do. Therefore, the teachers and support staff should treat these situations with sincerity since the student is feeling very upset at the time. I think that it is very important for the adults involved to listen and to not make quick judgments regarding the situation. They should listen and be understanding.

-- Anonymous, January 07, 1999

Answers

Tim Everson

Synopsis of missed class on Wednesday December 9, 1998

I missed the December 9th class due to a doctors appointment I had in Duluth due to my knee surgery that I had on December 2. I watched the videos that were dropped off to me by Timm Ringhofer.

The Judge Dale Wolfe presentation discussed the juvenile and crime. I have taught in both middle and high school settings. I have seen children at the middle school level that start to get into trouble in school and have seen it progress into more serious crime as they go into high school and adulthood. I agree that it is very important to get involved as early as possible with the child. From what Ive seen, most of these cases involved very poor home lives where the parent/parents themselves were getting into trouble with the law. I also feel that many of the children that were getting into trouble were also getting involved with drugs and alcohol. Many times these children were running with a much older crowd that was introducing them to the behaviors.

The second portion of the class was led by David Rigdon who is an engineer for Boise Cascade here in International Falls. He discussed a program in place at Boise called Interaction Management. I agree with the main ideas of the program and have found from teaching experience that these really work. I know from experience that not doing some of these will lead to dissension among the ranks. From a teaching point of view, I feel that it is very important to get the students as involved as possible with their education. This allows them to take ownership in their own education and take more pride in quality work. I also believe that it is important to listen to what the students have to say. Much can be learned from the comments made by students. They know what works and what doesnt.

I talked with a couple of the cohort members in regard to the presentation and they stated that they felt that it would be beneficial to have Dave do workshop for the entire high school. I regret missing this presentation.

-- Anonymous, January 07, 1999

Tim Everson

Synopsis of missed class on Wednesday December 2, 1998

I missed the December 2nd class due to a knee surgery that I had that day in Duluth. I did get the video to view covering the this missed session.

This class involved a presentation that covered learning styles and how instruction should be tailored to meet every students needs, no matter what learning style they possess. I found it very interesting to listen to the ladies describe the different type of learners. I definitely am an ESTJ. I also found it interesting to listen to the description of the classrooms for the different types.

I have made a conscious effort in my computer classes to present information is different ways so that the different learners in my classes can have success. I have even been able to identify some of my students learning styles by observing them in class. It seems to be the easiest to identify the students that learn like I do. I also find it somewhat easy to pick out the students who are complete opposites of me.

I think that it is important for teachers to take these different learning styles into effect if all students are to succeed. I did find that it requires more prep time to try to find other ways of presenting. It is easy to present in the style that you learn, but it is harder to present in a different style.

-- Anonymous, January 07, 1999