Final

What?... Cognitivism is the theory that I think children learn best. It is the particular way of mentally responding to or thinking about information or an event. It is the way that the learner mentally interprets or remembers what they see, hear, and study. Self talk is a major part of this theory, because the learner has to be able to talk themselves through a certain task. I believe that self talk helps the information to encode, thus making it better to store in you memory. This is evident in my own life because I do a lot of self talk, specially when I am doing something for the first time. A good example of that is when I started to learn how to wake board. When I started getting brave enough to go over the wake, I had to hear my husbands mental process of getting over the wake. When I was getting pulled behind the boat, I was able to use that same self talk to get me through that situation. In the classroom, students need to encode information and store it in their memory as schema. The schema makes it possible that there is a continual learning happening in the brain. Even though I scored highest on the cognitive, I was pretty close with the behaviorism too, which I think plays a role in learning as well. If there is a bad attitude towards learning, it is not going to happen.

So What? ... One of the biggest processes I will use in the classroom is self talk. I want the students to hear me verbally express what I am going through in my mind to solve even a simple math problem. I want my students to verbally say out loud the process that they go through to get to a certain mile stone in a problem. The toughest problems I feel in math are the story problems; I want students to self talk themselves through the problem to help them get to the end result. I wish I had a teacher that did that for me in elementary school because I was not good at story problems because I didn't have self talk. I think that once you self talk yourself through a problem, you make the problem your own. Once you are the "owner" of your problem it is easier for you to encode the information and store in your memory. Also, with self talk I think comes self regulation. That is dipping into the behavior part of psychology, however, I do feel that it is important for students to learn self regulation. In the classroom I want students to be engaged in activities and be able to know how to regulate how they will do a certain project. I will facilitate this by giving the students tasks that they will need scaffolding with and help them make a timeline to get the job done. I think that learning self talk and self regulation are one of the best things a student could learn. Not only as a student these skills are essential but also for life. Students will feel success long after the classroom setting is not a constant for them and they are in the workforce.

Now What?... Now, as I am learning how to implement my goals for the classroom with self talk and self regulation, I need to practice them more to become a master of those skills. I first need to be able to recognize good situations where I am able to use self talk efficiently. Second, I need to find different ways to present self talk, because one size does not fit all in education. Third, I need to come up with a measurable way to see if my plan of implementing self talk is effective in the classroom. Finally, I need to constantly reflect on how I am introducing, practicing, and implementing self talk in the classroom and change anything that isn't effective.
I would like to know more about the brain. I wish that we could have a class on how the brain develops not only through elementary years but after as well. I think that it is so interesting that we are such intricate people. I think that our brain is what sets us apart from other animals on our planet. You don't see a tiger that has just eaten it's prey think to it's self "Now, how could I have executed that better?" That is our brain that makes us reflect and be better intricate human beings. I am fascinated by the development of the brain, I wish that we could have talked about the brain more when we looked in different texts that were brought in.
I need to learn more about behavioral psychology, I understand the experiments that we studied, however, I wish I knew more about actually implementing them in the classroom effectively. I want to know what works and what doesn't work. I know that I will find that out on my own as I am in a classroom. I really think that behavior is a major concern and sometimes an issue in the classroom, I wish I was more of an expert.

Chapter 10

What?... Chapter 10 focuses on Social Cognitive Views of Learning. In this chapter, there was a lot of information about modeling. One of the sections of the book that helped me with modeling the most was the steps of how students learn from modeling. Attention, the learner must pay attention to the model in order to be able to learn the skill that is being acquired. Retention, the learner must remember what the model does. Motor reproduction, the learner must be physically capable of reproducing the modeled behavior. Motivation, the learner must be motivated to demonstrate the modeled behavior. This is the section that made the most sense to me as far as learning a certain skill. When I am trying to pronounce a hard word, or learn another language, modeling is the best that works for me.

So What?... So, taking these new found steps and incorporating them in my study as a student and in my planning as a teacher will be important. I think that modeling is one of the best was to scaffold a hard skill or assignment. The students will be able to work better in their zone of proximal development because they will have the modeling. The teacher needs to break down the steps to the student so that they will be able to recognize that there is a model available for help when they are struggling. Also, I think that modeling is effective in the classroom because students will be able to model for other students. In that exchange, both students will be able to learn from the experience. I feel that it will be effective, because students learn well from other students. There are aspects in teaching that I think the teacher needs to teach, however, there are portions that the students can take over and become self regulated, which will help them in their daily lives.

Now What?... Now as I am a student learning of different strategies to help students learn, I will keep modeling in mind. I want to use modeling in the two different examples as I stated before. There are many different ways of learning, and when something is being learned for the first time, I think that for me, modeling is the best way that I would be able to acquire the skill I desire to master. When there is a student that is accelerated in my classroom, I want to try modeling to help them work in their zone of proximal development. I feel that modeling for other students will be able to enhance their knowledge, and social skills as they are in a regular education classroom. I think that the students learning from another student will make them feel like they have a safe community of learning.

Chapter 9

What?...
In chapter 9 we learned about the behaviorists views of learning. I thought that this chapter, even though I have learned these concepts many times had a different view to me. I never looked at it in a teachers mind. Also, being creatures of habit, I think that from this chapter I understand that habit can be helpful and hurtful to learning. It can be helpful to show order and be operant, the response is usually voluntary, the learner can control whether or not they are going to make it. It can be hurtful when it is classical conditioning because the answer is involuntary and in my personal opinion this is the worst type because learning doesn't happen because they don't make the choice to learn. In my classroom, I want to have routine and order, however, I want the students in my classes to learn to make the decision to learn.

So What?...

So now as I am thinking of ways to manage my classroom in learning and behavior I will have these views to help me. I will have order, and have choices to be made by the students so they can start to take charge of their own education. I think that it is important for students to learn that they are willing and able to made decisions. I feel that elementary years are almost like classical conditioning because we are so automatic to respond. I want the students to make the choice to respond. I think that the ability to make choices will help them socially, even if it is a choice of a side dish. Even something as simple as a decision I think is closely related to behavior. Making decisions creates a behavior and I feel that it is important for students to realize that as soon as they are ready for that. I wish that in my own life, I would have learned this sooner before I said or did that certain something.

Now What?...

Now as I go through life, and preparation for a classroom I am going to keep B.F. Skinner in mind about conditioning. I want to be able to condition myself and classroom to be able to make decisions voluntarily. I want my classroom to be a place where students can decided to make answers and decide to not to answer questions. I think that making a safe learning environment will help students find the appropriate behaviors for the situation. I want to continue to make my study of being a teacher based upon the learning environment I am going to have in my classroom. I want to have a place where children feel that they are safe and their comments are safe. I think that learning these experiments again, even though I have prior knowledge of them really opened my eyes to the importance of behavior.

Field Experience III

It was interesting being in a fifth and sixth grade combined classroom. The students were well aware of the grade that they were in, however, were able to interact with each other equally. The only time I ever saw any difference was sort of like gender bias when the teacher is calling on students. It was instead a grade bias. One time the students we reading a passage on a projector and one student rose her hand and said, "You are only calling on sixth graders!" to our cooperating teacher. So, not only does she deal with the gender bias, she deals with the "grade bias." I found also in some journal entries that the students are now forming attitudes and personal fables. We went on a field trip with the students to the Space Center in Pleasant Grove. On of the students accounts of his experience was this. "We went to the space center and I had already been there a few times before. I had the same job (they are assigned jobs on a space ship) as last time and it was really boring. If I would have known that John was going to be the captain of our ship I would have just blown the ship up and ruined it for everyone." It was major attitude coming from is journal entry. Our cooperating teacher was not impressed by his attitude and when we were teaching social studies she asked me to keep a good watch on time to make sure he wasn't off task talking about his horrible time. One other thing I noticed about this student is that everything "sucked" our end of unit project was a lot of fun, well all the other students were engaged with it. So I asked him to say atleast three things that sucked about it and he couldn't come up with anything. I would consider it a personal fable, because everything "sucks." I can remember being in that stage, it is just interesting to see how the negative attitude of one studetn can spread. In a lesson with our cooperating teacher he just said to the experiement "this sucks" and would refuse to help his team do their science observations with bending light. One thing for sure that I have learned about this whole experiment is that there always has to be a plan B and nothing goes according to plan. I learned a lot but one thing I learned is that nothing is more constant than change.

Field Experience II

I had my students do a webquest this week on ancient civilizations and it was very difficult to find sites that were modest. It was the strict request of our cooperating teacher to have modest art. It is very difficult to have an Ancient Greece webquest that doesn't have a naked statue or something like that. Anyway I finally make a webquest for the five ancient civilizations that I am doing and the whole time even though I knew that the sites were "kid friendly" my heart was racing that they would navigate to something and I would be the one to blame. Even when I knew they were good sites. It is interesting to be in an area that is very conservative. I remember when I was in 6th grade that we looked at picture after picture because our teacher explained. I don't think harmful, however, I am complying with my teacher and area of students. I also had a glitch with technology this week when I was trying to put my rubric for a presentation on the Elmo. Our teacher has a very disorganized station where she keeps her technology like laptop, elmo, remotes and it also has piles of paper etc... So I felt like I was invading personal space when I was clearing off some of the papers because I couldn't get the paper to lay straight. Needless to say I love of the technology our teacher has in the classroom, I would just set things up different.
In my class the students are very boy/girl shy, a girl didn't even want to sit in a boy's desk! It was interesting because the teacher said, "call me when you get asked out on a date." and the student said"NOT IN A MILLION YEARS!" I had a good personal laugh at that. I remember being boy crazy because my mom made me dump my sixth grade boyfriend. Something that our teacher was talking to us about make me feel really said for two students in my class. Last year they had a teacher that did not treat these two boys very well. They both are very hyper and are loud, which shouldn't be put down. Unfortunately the teacher did not handle the situation very well and the boy's now have a poor sense of self. One of the boys drew a very good picture and I complimented him about his picture and he just deflected it and said he was "dumb." It makes me feel bad that other people feel the need to put down others, especially a student. I like that our teacher can find the good thing in every student. She said you have to do that or it doesn't make teaching worth it. I agree with her fully.

FIELD

I touched a smart board for the first time in my life at it was AMAZING!!! I want one so so so bad there are so many things you can do with one. We drew pie graphs of the election on the smart board and they students are able to save the work they do on one. Also, it was interesting to hear what the students had to say about the canidates. I thought that a lot of their ideas came from their parents. Unlike a real board that once it is wiped it is gone for ever, no with the smart board. You can save the work you did on the board as an image and then add to it later. It is amazing. Also, not to mention the marker doesn't run out or you can have any color you image as a marker. Also, with our technology rich lesson we were able to pull up a website on indigenous people, which is the unit we are teaching. It was great to be able to pull up the definition on the projector and compare the sites definition with the definition we made up. I loved using the smart board because you can do so many things with it. It took me a little getting use to the tools of the smart board. The kids really think it is cool. When you call someone up to use it you can see the excitement in their eyes. If I were to have a smart board in my classroom I would have it in a different position in my classroom. The way our teacher has it now it is kind of in the way, and not all the students can really see what is going on. So either, she needs to move her seating or the board. I am sure it is easier to move the seating, but anyway that is my opinion. I really liked being able to do a power point in our lesson because we were able to show things to the whole class at once. That is also like the Elmo that is in our classroom. The teacher is able to show the whole class a student who did a good job on an assignment and make things clear to the whole class on the spot instead of having to make a transparency. I have taught two times and it is going really well. The kids are really smart and they are good at taking instructions which is great. Being in this classroom has taught me some things that I know for sure I will not have. Our teacher is a MESS. She has piles of papers all across the room and in order for me to even use the Elmo, I had to clear a space for me to even lay something under it flat. Needless to say she is disorganized, but it has taught me a lot of things just being there for one week.

Contract

My contract is to read Chapter 7 and every couple of paragraphs summarize and think about what I just read. Also, I am going to write a couple words or a sentence that will become my summary of the chapter.


I did this, and it was effective for me. It really helped me keep my focus on the chapter and really think about what I just read. I have a tendency to just skim and let my mind wonder, if I don't have something keeping my attention. I really liked that we were give some strategies to think about and were able to use them to our advantage. Summarizing is something that worked for me because I am able to keep focus, things like making flash cards and memorizing does not. Keeping it summarized and elaborating on my summary is the most efficient way for me.

Chapter 6

What?...
We learned about memory, storage, and encoding information. We learned about ways to study better such as summarizing and chuncking information. We made a contract to decide on study strategies that work best for us. Chapter six also learned about the process of storing memory, and we did a moving activity to show how different bits of information are stored they are, declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, explitict and implicit knowledge. We learned that cramming is not a good way to study, which is what I think most people do. We also learned how to have meaningful learning, which I felt were the good study strategies we learned such as organization, elaboration, and visual imagery.

So What?....
So we know ways to teach our students and how to introduce new material so that it stays in the long term memory, verses just staying in short term for getting a grade on a test. I am amazed by the way that the human brain works, it is so amazing that the peice of information is in the sensory register for about 2-3 seconds. That is crazy, something we do everyday that we don't even know that we are doing, such as breathing. So we know that attention is more important than ever, we really need to keep attention of our students so that better learning and linking can take place.

Now What?...
Now, I know better ways to study my self, and the summerizing worked best for me. I really like that we get to know these facts about the brain to better our students understanding. Now I need to find out what individually works for the students I teach. I am glad that we are able to learn this development because that makes teaching that much more interesting and effective. I think that with this concept of memory, we have the tools and now we have to quess and check what works best.

Extra Credit- John Ratey

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-19970501-000032.html

I read a conversation with John Ratey and he is one cool guy. He has a very compassionate point of view that isn't what I think, when I think science. He talks about in the article about categories and how we are making categories smaller to seem like we are doing science. He explains that this is hard because what happens to different people who have more than one category? He talks about the self esteem that adults with ADD have, and it is low. One of his patients wanted to go back to college to finish his degree to prove that he was smart because he failed college, but IBM wanted to buy one of his products!!! He says that you need to "know thy brain" and not use it as an escape but be responsible for your brain and how you are. This is my favorite part, the interviewer says "The brain scares people." John Ratey says, "Because it is so damn complicated." and isn't that true? I really feel that that statement sings to my heart. It is really complicated in my eyes, just the slightest thing can go wrong and it is game over. He says that one of his best discoveries is just helping his patients find out their biology. I think it is great that he doesn't boast about his findings, he seems like a down to earth guy who really is interested in the brain and helping people. I really like him, I enjoyed his article and I want to find some of his works to read further. He seems like the type of writer that I could totally connect with based on his interview, he had a really good way of making things easier to the common civilian.

Moral Development

What?... Today it was my groups turn to give the presentation, I really enjoyed the topic I signed up for because I really haven't thought about where morals come from. I thought that they were just something that is already there, I couldn't think back to the times in my life where I thought I learned "morals" when actually I now know that we can learn and observe them everyday. I once saw a Panda Express cashier get robbed. Not the guns and "put your hands up!" you see in the movies. This man was holding an envelope that he said had a gift certificates in it for 500 dollars to Panda Express, the woman was hesitant and didn't speak much English. People behind the man in line said that he was lying and were getting frustrated with the cashier for accepting his garbage. So the woman gave him the money, and she ripped open the envelope after the man left and it was a stack of napkins. I sort of flashed back to this when I was thinking about where morals come from and it was really thought provoking, because now I wonder what that man would fit under in Kolhbergs stages. I know that is probably impossible for me to judge by only seeing this man for a few minutes but still it makes you wonder. I also think that it is interesting to reflect on what your own stages are.

So What?... So I am consistently thinking of ways that morals are implemented, yeah they are preached to everyone, but still how do people posses the desire to be rule followers. I guess that this is what makes us be the head of the pack in our world. As in the times article blog I referred to an animal doesn't think back about how it could have killed it's prey better, it just eats at the carcass and moves on. I understand that this is what makes us human, I am just finding it hard to understand where we posses the ability to have morals. I like morals, I believe in morals it is interesting to see the different stages we all go through and the ones that we may never get to. I really thought it was interesting that the people we learned briefly about were letters from prison or someone who stood up for something so much they would die for it. To me I never understood that as morals. It is really seeing the world through your own eyes.

Now What?... Now I am able to understand the different stages students will be at. It is interesting the walks of life that are going to be put in my way. I really have unfortunately just stayed in my little busy world (sort of), I am excited to see the differences in students. I really feel like I have a little grasp, I know that life experiences gives you more of an advantage in things like morals, however, I like the role play idea to get students wheels turning and really generating their own ideals and concepts. It is going to be interesting the situations that will turn up that we will be able to address by just understanding stages. I also like what Kohlberg said about correcting a stage higher to get their moral understanding higher, it just goes back to ZPD.

Times Article

OKAY, this article was awesome, the analogies really put aspects of the brain to life for me. This was very helpful to me and interesting is an understatement. A reference I liked was the comparison between the 100 billion neurons at birth to the stars of the milky way. You can sort of imagine how many stars are in the milky way, I mean, it is something that we can sort of see in the sky. As we learn of the milky way, to us we only see what is visible. I think this is a very comparable thing to our own brain and the billions of neurons we don't use/see. Something else I thought was interesting is the statistic that the brain of a neglected person is 20%-30% smaller than a child who is nurtured. How does this statistic stand with "nature" theorists I wonder? It seems like a pretty blunt statistic to not believe that nature has something to do with our development. Something that I thought was probably one of the best analogies for me was the brain is like a tadpole, as the tadpole develops into a frog, it looses its tail. Just as we are have temporary structures in our brain to help lay down connection like the neural tube, it falls off like a tail. The thing that is amazing to me is that we have more connections when we are two years old then when we are adults. That is sort of something that is harder to understand because when we are adults, we have more stimulation, more experiences, more knowledge... how come we don't have more connections? I understand the pruning, and the riding of all the excess, it is just hard to accept. Some day I want to be an adult bird that feeds my hatch lings with morsels of richness towards verbalizing words. It is interesting to me that just my talking to a child there connectivity are enhanced and even their heart beat raises. I agree with what they said about language, I wish I had some type of immersion class where we had a foreign language in my elementary because it was even hard for me to learn simple hello and goodbye in high school. Also, I think that having a second language is a big advantage in the world, there are so many opportunities for better jobs and of course more connections in the brain! So the main thing that I wonder about my own brain after reading this article is, how did my brain make it? It seems there are so many thing that can go wrong. It is just a miracle, but still even though people are just the same as I, it is still amazing that our brains are so intricate. Our brains really set us apart from any other mammal and that is pretty cool. Except the only draw back is, for instance when a tiger kills its prey, it doesn't think back after it is chomping on the meat, how could I have done that better? Did I look okay? ... it's just our way of life, but I think it is great!

Piaget-Tasks

I chose my sister Abby, she is the youngest in our family and she is just barely eight years old. I did three tasks with her. First I did the task of the dough. I rolled the balls to be equal and smashed one after asking the first question. With out hesitation she got it right. She said something to the effect of, "Duh, Porsh, you just smashed it. That was easy!" So, she was really confident with her answer I'd say. Some back round on Abby, is that she is the youngest by seven years, she was a straggler in our family and she participates in games and conversations the older children have and can keep up with us. She is really good at games and concepts that I remember struggling with when I was her age. I think that since she hasn't really had younger children to be associated with, she has grown up faster then our other siblings and I. The second task I did with Abby was the pennies, I had two rows of pennies that had ten in each row. I asked the first question and she got it right. I asked the second question and she still counted out each row. She didn't count the pennies by touching them, she also counted in her head. I thought that was pretty advanced for her because not so long ago she was counting out loud. The third task I used identical pens, I lined them up and asked the first question and she got it right. I asked the second question and she got it right and also thought I was asking her a "duh" question. It was interesting to see how you could see her almost thinking with the pennies and I would have liked to have done these with her on an annual basis because I thought this was very interesting. She thought that the tasks were easy but she had fun with it because I let her keep the pennies. After doing this experiment, I can't wait to have kids so I can do this with them and see how the stages progress and the answers that are given. I really enjoyed doing this, it really caught my interest. I think for fun I am just going to go through some of the tasks with my little cousins around Thanksgiving.

IEP/REVIEW

What?... Today we had a great review! We had a relay race, we shared key terms we chose, and played Hollywood Squares!

So What?... So now I feel more prepared for the test and know what I am looking for towards the format of the test. I really found this helpful because I get a little of test anxiety, the bad kind. I sort of freak out and I have a hard time pulling the knowledge out of my brain. Taking the entire three hours of class really helped me focus on what I need to study. I really need to go over each individual concept and go over and learn key terms and use some of my multiple intelligences to aid me in studying for this test.

Now What? ...Now I know what to look for in the future and what the tests will be like in this class. Now I know how I learn best because of our multiple intelligences and I will be more prepared because of the test preparation we had in class. Also, I really like we did Hollywood Squares because I can use it for my own class. That was a fun way to learn information and it really helped me focus on the questions and the type of questions we are to expect. Now I need to take the initiative and really apply myself to learn and relearn the information so I can do my very best on this test.

Portia's IEP

Where I am now... I feel at this time I am at a place where I am understanding what is said in class and participating in class. I do the homework assigned and grasp the concepts.

Where I need to be... I need to be more engaged in the reading and really learn to focus on the text we are assigned. I need to remember strategies we have learned about the keep my attention. I need to break up the text and not try to do it all at once, so I can have better attention.

Inplicit Association

WOW! This test was hard in the coordination department. I found that I favored men and woman in their traditional roles, however, I plan on being a careered woman and a mother... so I don't know how totally accurate that is. I also favored African Americans slightly over European Americans. I thought that I loved both races equally, or that is what I tell my self. I have a lot of friends back east who are African American that I keep in contact with but I wouldn't favor them over my husband or family. I thought that the test was based more on coordination verses recognizing a word or picture and classifying, because when the left category switched with the right, I had the hardest time switching my brain to match the action of my hands. I also thought it was weird that there were right and wrong answers. When you would categorize the world Love under BAD it would X you. What if you thought love was bad? I just thought it was a little interesting that you were supposed to play to the test. What if that effects your score because you are more focused on the what the test wants you to say because they red X you when ever you get an answer "wrong." I thought that It was interesting the facial expressions that they had pictures of. None of them were smiling, they all looked like they were in pain. I think that could have an effect if younger children did this test. With the word sad they would see that the person was sad looking and maybe they were supposed to categorize them under the GOOD because it says European American or Good but the person looks like they are sad. I thought that the gender was more geared towards beliefs, I think that I can have a career and be a mom, however, it is just a fact that woman make .75 cents to every 1.00 a man makes, thus I would prefer my husband to be the breadwinner. Plus, he can't clean or even think about changing a diaper, so I fill in that piece. It's nothing to do religiously, it has to do with strengths.

IQ and Multiple Intelligences

Taking my IQ test was very interesting, I really thought that the questions were of all difficulty levels. I was expecting it to be some beyond hard test that would be impossible to get any questions right. However, I got some right, and I was really surprised by my score, even though I was about average and what surprised me even more was that I scored highest on the math portion. I don't consider myself as being strong in math. I was expecting to be a lot less then I did, I guess because of my surroundings. I had a lot of commotion going on around me and it was hard for me to focus. I should have taken the test in a solitary place because I have a hard time focusing with others around. I really thought that taking the test was a confidence booster. I am going to take the test again in better surroundings and see if I could even do better than before. My husband took the test and of course scored about 30 points higher than me however, when he took the test, the neighbors didn't knock on the door and want to visit, the dog didn't come and want him to come play, he didn't get a call from his mom, he had total bliss while taking the test and that is unequal I say. I really liked this test, I thought that the questions were moderate to difficult, they had some easy ones to butter you up and then started on harder questions. I really think that I should do this type of test every day because I feel like it got the juices flowing. If they had one for lower grades I would only do it for interest only because I think that intelligence is present at any age, however, it is not something I think should be branded on a child. For a teacher it is good to know, but you could not change the students learning immensely by a simple test. I do not think it is fair to IQ test a child and tell them their score, it could immediately drop self esteem in learning and the attitudes towards learning in general. Or you could have an opposite effect, the child could become over confident and not think that they need to learn anything.



In our curriculum test we did a multiple intelligence test before we did this one, so I knew pretty well what my strengths were. My very highest is Music, second was language and third highest was social. It was interesting when I heard of others taking the test that they scored different, mine remained the same. It was still a lesson for me because I really need to incorporate my strengths towards how I study. I really think that this would benefit a classroom setting because you naturally want to teach to the masses, however, everyone has their own strengths. I would use this as an advantage in my classroom because I would want students to do projects and learn how to do take their strengths to the highest benefit for them. I liked this test better because I was able to see a pie graph of my results and I like when information is displayed that way unlike a list, you can see all the results at the same time. I really like how you can use all of intelligences to aid in your class. One day you could teach on a more visual level, musical one day, and then learn to incorporate them together. Still keeping in mind that everyone is different, so teaching needs to be different. I think that this will also help in improving yourself. I think also with improving you can also use your intelligences to your advantage as teaching. For example, I play the guitar and I am going to incorporate music to learn math. I like using songs to learn the multiplication tables. All in all I liked this test over the intelligence test because I thought it would be more of an aid, verses a label of a score.

Group Differences

What?... We learned about gender bias and watched studies about how a school that has all girl classes, all boy classes and mixed gender classes. We talked in depth about that in class and I really liked how we were a class divided equally we were split down the middle. We had a presentation on Gender Bias and some strategies for eliminating bias, however one of the best examples to me was in the book, a teacher calls on a boy and then the next answer he looks for a girl to answer. We looked and evaluated pictures of different children of all different back rounds, gender, and SES. We talked briefly about SES and I personally was the most interested in this topic, I was waiting for us to talk about it because of some lingering questions I had before taking this course.

So what?... Reading this chapter and doing the study guide really opened my mind. One of the thinking questions asked what type of group different biases do we have? Before I really thought about my answer I asked him, and he said "that is hard to answer because it could all sound really negative." Which is what I initially thought, but besides being embarrassed I put mine down. One of my sigmas was that schools with more money get higher test scores. So I need to realize that there are different stigmas with every situation and one size does not fit all. I really liked going through all of the pictures and I was amazed by all of our predictions, we didn't even know these people.

Now what?... Now I will have to do a daily check in with myself, now as a student and wife to future when I have students and kids. Now I will have to realize when I am a teacher avoiding gender biases, having equality in the classroom and being aware of SES. Now I will be more aware and that is probably the best thing to be in this type of situation. If I am aware that there is a student is struggling financially then I can make the requirements different for that student and that is okay. Now I have more of an understanding that I will be able to help the student by evaluating a situation and tweaking the requirements and not feel like I am having to treat every situation as a fixes all method. At first I thought that gender differences meant gender equality to the highest degree. However, I now know that if a girl is struggling in my class, it is not favoring her if I have an IEP or if I have to make an assignment different. So now I will be more aware to have models breaking gender roles in society and I will let all students help with tasks.

Schools focus on integrating technology

Kurutz, D. (2008) Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Schools Focus on Integrating Technology,
Monday August 25,2008 Accessed: September 08,2008 http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleyindependent/teenscene/s_584724.html

This article was of interest to me because of the things that we are particularly doing in our class we are using blogs to communicate our assignments and we are using technology in other classes to submit assignments and keep in contact with our professors. The girl interviewed in the article said "It (technology) has changed how I study, how I research, everything. I feel much better prepared to go to college... I couldn't imagine life without a laptop at this point." The article talks about the school district the girl is from and they indicate that they received a grant to have the wonderful ability to use laptops in their classrooms (72,000 laptops!!). One activity that blew me away is that in the elementary school got to teleconference with a story teller and author! That is what totally hooked me to this article and really I thought that could be an amazing experience in my class. They are starting to use blogs like we are in class and the teacher relates technology to rock 'n' roll "...it was like, ' oh my God the world is going to fall apart!' " He later on explains, we need to teach them how to utilize it so they can use it to engage and benefit.

RESEARCH!

What? ... We learned in detail about different research styles. Correlation, Descriptive, Action and Experimental. It was really helpful that we broke down in groups and really got to define what the different research methods were. I really liked how we got up, walked around and had some really in depth experiences. Such as taking the verbal memory quiz and taking the visual quiz.

So What?!... So now I feel like I can put a name with a face. I thought about reflecting on my class and really trying analyze my students and now I know what that is called. I also have more ideas about what each of the different methods mean and how I can use them. I really think that everyone will use descriptive study everyday and use correlation in their planning. I also think that action study will take a big part in the classroom. I feel that is really being there, practicing it, and really living it.

Now What?... Now as a teacher/student I feel the importance to be the best me. To really take these types of study and make them my own study. To always continually be learning and really take into account what is going on in my own education. Now I feel like I can really put my research skills to practice with my own learning. Like really evaluate what is going on with me, for example, study practices and my test scores. I really am intersted to see where I excell in lesson planning. I know that things aren't going to work out 100 percent of the time but I really want to use the research skills we have learned about this week to really put my skills to the test.

Motivation

1. I am here because I believe that Education Is Power. With an education you can do anything. I also think that school betters your life by learning new things and making your mind reach new bounds. Thus, I want to give others the power of an education by being an educator.
2. This is a good question! I have thought about this a lot and have decided that I motivate myself when I set goals and make them. I am a super goal oriented person and when I set goals I really am out to get them. I love the feeling of making certain goals and reaching them.
3. I succeed when I put my mind to it. I really need to focus on what I am doing and use my time wisely. I succeed when I am in a solitary place to study. I succeed when I am under a little pressure to get something done. I succeed when I get things done before a due date.
4. I fail when I leave everything for the last second and let stress and anxiety get the best of me. I fail when I over think things. I fail when I can't relax and see the big picture and focus on the little things.
5. For my success in the program I need to use my time to my advantage to get things done. I need to look beyond the classroom and really put myself in real life situations and try my ideas out. I need to realize that I will have some ideas that are not successful and some that work great. I really need to dive into the reading and assignments that need to be accomplished. I need to use my goal making with caution because not everyone has the same goals as I do and not every child will have the same goals at the same time even in same situations. So basically I need to not make a mountain out of a mole hill and remember that change is constant.