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.