While watching the video, “Teaching and Learning,” Dr. Alexander includes a sociocultural base in her list of learning theories (Laureate Education, 2010c). This is the first inevitably comes to mind thing when I am asked to reflect on myself as a teacher: the environment of my classroom. Once I made the decision to become a teacher I knew one of my priorities in my classroom would be to make it a friendly, welcoming place where students felt safe to learn and discover new things. My great-grandmother was the type of person who was able to make everyone feel welcome in her home immediately, as a teacher I try to embody her spirit and open my heart to every student I encounter with the hope that I make them feel welcome and at home in my classroom. Part of my MISSION STATEMENT is … The teacher has the biggest impact in a student’s education (Laureate Education, 2010a). Creating a welcoming environment that fosters learning is part of the teacher’s impact and can lead to more effective teaching. Connect to student led rules and meetings/ problem solving? As sociocultural factors? The two main learning theories presented in the video “Research on Learning” are behaviorism and constructivism (Laureate Education, 2010b). Behaviorism focuses on students as a passive learner and uses positive and negative reinforcement to receive a desired outcome (Learning Theories, 2011). While I believe that these practices work very well for classroom management techniques, such as quiet transitions and appropriate classroom behavior. I do not use them to stimulate learning. I believe students need authentic experiences and learn more from practicing skills hands-on and with real-world applications. These practices fall under the idea of constructivism learning (Laureate Education, 2010b). One example of a constructivist learning assignment I completed in my student teaching was my lesson called “Toys in Space,” which was based on a lesson provided by NASA (NASA). At the conclusion of our study of forces in science, students had to apply what we had learned about forces on earth and transfer this knowledge to what might happen on space at the International Space Station. Students were split into groups and were given a toy. They had present to the class how the toy worked on earth and predict how it worked on space. They had time to play with the toy and experiment with different ideas about how it worked. After their presentation, we were able to watch a video called “Toys in Space II” and see if our prediction was correct, as astronauts did our same experiments on the International Space Station (NASA). This lesson was hands-on, used real objects and had students construct ideas on their own based from their observations. All of these elements are also elements of a constructivist learning style. Explain why having a theory or model of learning is an important prerequisite for effective curriculum design Set at least one goal for each KASAB area related to the key responsibilities of a highly effective teacher and what teachers should know and be able to do, as presented in this week’s Learning Resources. One or more of your KASAB goals should address a component of the Instructional Plan Template on which you want to concentrate for continual improvement, such as the incorporation of Bloom’s Taxonomy, collaboration, or differentiation. Knowledge Conceptual understanding of information, theories, principles, and research Attitude beliefs about value of particular info or strategies Skills ability to use strategies and processes to apply knowledge Aspirations desires or internal motivation to engage in a particular practice Behaviors consistent application of knowledge and skills

Distance Education

My family recently enrolled my 17-year-old brother in K-12 virtual online high school. I spoke with my mother and brother about what they thought some of the advantages and disadvantages of this program are as well as researched the websites that were listed in the handout.
For my family, and I know many others, the biggest advantage is that you can stay at home. My brother has several different medical issues that prevent him from attending school regularly, therefore he gets behind, and the Distance Education program fixes this. Even if he is not feeling well, he can still put in a few hours of schoolwork while being home. Another advantage is that you can pick the hours that you work. Research has proven that high schoolers need more sleep than elementary students, however, high schools tend to start earlier. When a student is enrolled in this program, the student can design the hours that work best for their needs. To go along with the idea that the structure is up to the student, for the most part so is how fast the student goes through the curriculum. Some classes prefer the students to stay together so that the teacher can easily help all of them. But the majority of the classes will allow the student to move at their own pace. Since the only communication with students is online; teachers have to post the student’s grades. As any student would claim, having instant access to one’s grades is so helpful and reassuring. However, in physical classrooms many teachers decide not to take advantage of this option. Online, there is no other option. Lastly, because we live in Washington, online high school is free. Though public school is free as well, normally, in order to get any kind of specialized school, you have to pay extra. The online schools for Washington do not require this .
There are also disadvantages to distance education. The first one that stands out is that there is no face-to-face teacher/student interaction. This can make learning difficult sometimes because you might have to wait a little while for the teacher to reply to the email the student. Communication is key in education and the distance education program makes it a little more difficult than normal physical classrooms. Another disadvantage is that students are not being socialized on a day-to-day basis. Children and teenagers need socialization to learn the ways of society, however, there are other opportunities than school to get this, sports and youth organizations can help compensate for the necessary socialization. Currently, our educational world consists of 8 am to 5 pm days generally. Schools start to enforce this kind of pattern for students. However, distance education does not support this at all, so students could easily get into a pattern of sleeping until 12 pm and working until 8 pm. It can affect a student’s sleep cycle. Another disadvantage is that the student has to be able to keep himself or herself motivated. In physical classrooms, students receive several reminders about assignments and what is going on in the classroom. In distance education programs, it is harder for the teachers to keep to the students focused and on track. It is largely up to the student. Finally, the integrity of learning is slightly sacrificed. Although, this happens in physical education as well, students can always cheat. But at physical schools, there are teachers who can watch for it whereas at home, it is up to the students to be honest.
There are many different factors that should be considered when deciding if a student is ready to enroll in a distance education program. According to Morgan, you have to make sure that the student can look at the “deep approach” versus just the “surface approach.” The skills that a student would need to do this would be to focus on what is emphasizes, relate and distinguish between prior knowledge and new information, relate concepts to everyday experience, relate and distinguish evidence and argument, organize the content being present and have an internal focus on the material and how it relates to reality (Morgan 1991). Since students lack face-to-face instruction and peer discussion, it is up to the student to delve deeper and invest in their education. The student has to be committed to their education. The student also needs to be very willing to ask for help when the student needs it, the teacher may not notice right away. Therefore, it is really help to the student to succeed.
The main thing that I would need to be ready to teach in an online environment is a full curriculum. The assignments, syllabus and class notes all have to be posted to the virtual space before the class starts. Therefore, the teacher would need to have everything compiled before the class began. It is also important that you choose the website carefully, since there are advantages and disadvantages to all virtual sites.

Engaging Students with Concept Mapping Activities

First off, I have to admit I had to download the free trial of Kidspiration because I was completely lost and confused while reading the testimonies about how it actually worked. To me, one of the coolest things about this program is that with a push of a button it takes your document in Kidspiration and makes it into a word document. This is caught my attention mainly because most students would not have access to Kidspiration. By being able to transfer a document to word, you would be able to send it home to finish and they would not need this program.

One way that I, thought I could use this is my future classroom was in the math section. There are two shapes, a beige square and a beige circle, that I thought you could use as a “shape bank” and put an “x” amount of different shapes in the bank. The assignment would be to have the students use all of the shapes in the bank to make another shape and be able to identify features of this shape, such as how many sides it has or how many triangles are inside of it. Shapes are great teaching tools and Kidspiration adds elements such as rotation and “perfect” shapes. Students don’t have to worry about tracing shapes out to make them work perfectly or anything like that, it is just a matter of placing the shape on the canvas. You can still easily change it.

Another thing I found while exploring Kidspiration was that you can make cartoons. I know that I am artistically challenged and so to be able to make cartoons on the computer would have been a huge relief to me. They have graphics pre-made and you can attach writing boxes just below them. This also seems like a good idea because it would put more focus on the writing aspect of the project versus the drawing of it. However, it would still be fun because it was on the computer and its not as if you would not be able to alter the graphics, students would just have a base to start with.

One of the lesson plans that they have already made on Kidspiration is to put together the fifty states of the United States of America. This lesson alone is very cool, but also instead of giving a normal map quiz/test you could do something like that for anywhere. To make it easier you could have an outline of where they were supposed to go and just have them place it there with a name. Or for older grades it could be like the lesson plan that is already there and just have all of them jumbled together. I think it would helpful to at least do a smaller set of puzzle pieces because I was struggling with putting the fifty states together just because I did not really know where or how to start. To provide a starting point would be helpful.

As one of the testimonies says on their websites, these students want to learn with technology. If it is as simple as adding a computer and computer program to our lesson that will engage students and keep them interested then I feel that we as teachers should do our best to supply that as much as possible. Just with the limited time that I have explored Kidspiration I can see why kids would think its fun. It is. I enjoyed looking through and trying some of the tasks. For the most part, it seems like it really is just doing a worksheet but instead of using paper and pen it is on the computer. Kidspiration seems to take the boring out of the worksheet teaching style.

Two criteria that I would use to decide whether or not Concept Mapping activities would be a part of a lesson for my students would be whether they would be learning everything that they should be from this map and that it enhances their learning. I think in general concept maps would add something to the lesson. However, it is important that we don't rely on technology to do our job and if a Concept Map doesn't enhance the lesson then there may be better options. It is important to keep the students engaged and interested. It is also really important that there is enough information on the subject that you are making the concept map for. If it has only a few ideas there may be better ways to teach about that particular subject.

Reflections on Using TeacherWeb

1. Describe at least 2 ways that the use of a class web site like TeacherWeb could be used to support your future teaching. Provide some specific details for each example.

The use of a class web site like TeacherWeb could support my future teacher because it gives parents, as well as students, a place they can easily access online to find information about what is going on in the classroom (via class calendars, assignments, handouts, etc). It is also helpful because students could check their grades online and know how they are doing on assignments, projects or tests. This kind of feedback is always helpful to me and I know that students would appreciate this. I really liked that many people posted pages of book ideas, which I think is a great idea. I know that I have trouble finding a good book sometimes and I think it would be very useful for students to be able to go online and get books recommended to them by their teacher, who is someone that they trust.

2. Identify 2 ways students could use a class web site like TeacherWeb to enhance their learning. Provide some details for each way identified.

Two ways that students could use a class web site like TeacherWeb to enhance their learning would be to explore the educational links that teachers can provide. It is important that learning is occurring at multiple times during the day and at home too. Students could log on and explore the links with their parents, instead of watching the same old Monday night sitcoms. Another way that students could use a web site like this is if the teacher opened it up for some sort of collaboration, whether that is a blog, white board or a variety of other things, that students could work on together and add to each others thoughts. This is a great opportunity for students to write or draw back and forth to each other, without any pressure. Opportunities for students to use sites like TeacherWeb to enhance their learning are vast and plentiful.

Blogs and Wikis in Education Project

One of the coolest things about using blogs is that you can insert links into your text that will take the students to what you are talking about. You can just make your words into a link and that way they can explore it whenever they want to. Depending on their learning styles some students may want to read the article then go and explore the links or other students may want to explore the link before they read more about it. Blogs allow the students to choose what makes the most sense to them. It is nice when schools have blogs, this way both the parents and the students can stay easily informed. I know that it is expensive to make paper newsletters and to mail them all out. Blogs would be a way to avoid these extra costs. By having students write their own blogs it makes them feel like their writing is important and significant. It is worth "publishing" online. If blogs can make students want to write and be encouraged to write than why wouldn't we want to support it.

An RSS reader is something that automatically tracks updates on websites. I think it makes sense to be to think about it as the live feed on facebook. Basically it keeps you updated on what is going on, on the websites that you wanted it to watch. Another example of this is ebay when you watch things and then it lets you know if other people have bidded on them. An aggregator is the system that keeps track for you and relies the information. Linux is an example of an aggregator.

A con of using blogs and wikis in education is you have to be careful not only what you post but what your students are posting as well. It would be bad if the students posted inappropriate things on their blogs or wikis. A lot of supervision is needed to make sure that they only serve educational purposes. Another con is that you have to have the resources either inside the classroom or outside for students to be able to use both blogs and wikis.

There are many more pros in blogs and wikis than cons. It gives student the opportunity to write freely and in a comfortable setting. It may also validate their work and make them feel like it is more important. Another pro is that is a jumping stone for more technology. If students feel comfortable blogging then they might shortly feel comfortable making websites, etc. Technology is a big part of our everyday life and all ages should be able to use it. Blogs may be a good first step for our younger students.

Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom

MI Blog Post Project: For the MI Blog Post project, you will create a new post on your blog site and title it “Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom”. Then, within this blog post, discuss your new knowledge and relate it to the following 5 issues:

1.Discuss which of the multiple intelligences you have strengths in and then discuss some of the core characteristics of that (or those) intelligences. Discuss which of the core characteristics best describe you and your learning style.

The intelligences that I was strongest in was linguistic and intrapersonal. For both of these I scored 100 meaning that I agreed with every statement that was on the inventory. Some of the core concepts of being linguistic are that you are able to understand language both verbally and written. Being linguistic means that not only can you understand the rules of language but you can express yourself in both written and verbal language. Intrapersonal traits focus more on feelings and emotions. People who are intrapersonal are always aware of the feelings and thoughts towards something and whether or not what they are participating in is ethical or not. I think that the core characteristic that best describes me and my learning style is in the linguistic category. I have always been able to express myself in all aspects. This has affected how I have learned because I can ask clear questions and express my feelings clearly in written work.

2.Discuss what students with this type of intelligence enjoy, are like, or tend to do within classroom settings.

Students with linguistic intelligence tend to enjoy keeping journals and having oral story time. Show and tell is an example that would fit into this category as well. On the other hand, students with intrapersonal intelligences like the opportunity to explain how they are feeling or their thoughts about a certain subject. They, like linguistic students, enjoy keeping journals.

3.Discuss how you will support this type of intelligence within your classroom and within your teaching.

Looking over many of the intelligences keeping a journal is on the list of a good classroom activity. I would like to have my students keep daily journals. We have learned previously, that this is also a good idea because it lets you into the student's life so that you can see the whole picture of their life. Another important event to incorporate into classrooms is opportunity for public speaking, whether the student is reading a story, talking about his/her feelings or reviewing something they have learned. It is important for students to feel comfortable talking in big groups of people.

4.Discuss what technologies stimulate this type of intelligence.

Some examples of technologies that will stimulate both linguistic and intrapersonal intelligences are pen/pencil and paper. They can use these items to journal write. Linguistic students need opportunities to have pen pals either online or snail mail, it will give them a chance to write and have people read this writing. Intrapersonal students would enjoy things like self-assessments and surveys because it looks to their opinion and they get the chance to voice something.

5.And finally, discuss how you might impact student learning by applying your understanding of learning styles and multiple intelligences within your classroom.

The way that I can impact my students the most by applying my understanding of learning styles and multiple intelligences is putting value in each and every learning style and intelligence. In most classrooms, you will encounter at least one student from every aspect of the different learning styles and it would be an injustice to that student to not teach with their learning style just because it might not be mine. It is important to recognize and work in a way to teach every student and to reach them.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog that I will be using for my T & L 445 class!