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.

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.

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.

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.

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.