It is Blog time once again. This week's installment includes the website http://www.educationindex.com. This website is full of links to other quality websites. A person can browse by both subject area and student lifestage. Sample links for history include an online exhibit of the Library of Congress on the year 1492, a site on the American West, and the Civil War home page. There are links for many other subject areas. This is definitely a site to remember for future reference.

After reflecting on the readings, our class time, and a discussion today in Reading in the Content Area, I have come to the conclusion that it is important that we get to know our students individually. While the Woolfolk text talks about learning differences and social class differences on the basis of groups, it is still very important that we learn enough about each student to recognize each individual's gifts and challenges. For example, SES often can be a determining factor in a student's success in school. However, students, even from the beginning will sometimes succeed beyond what research says they should, based on SES. While people often have idealistic notions about raising the achievement for lower-performing groups (i.e. African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans), group improvement will not happen without individual improvement first. It is the individual that is the most important unit in the teaching profession. Mary Jorgensen has a motto that reflects her aspirations and goals as a teacher, "Changing the world, one classroom at a time." However, this motto forgets the fact that we are teaching students, the classroom is merely the context. While the task of teaching students with unique personalities and characters and different challenges and opportunities may appear daunting, a more appropriate motto relieves the stress of this daunting task, "Changing the world, one student at a time."