Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Reflection 9

What I learned about the process of instructional delivery is that every student recieves information differantly. So teachers need to offer a wide variety of delivery of the information.
There are many factors that go into how you choose to delivery information. For example age and location are two of the factors that contribute to the kind of delivery used by the teachers. Offering a wide variety of instructional delivery also makes the lesson plan more enjoyable and less androginous. A wide variety will allow a teacher/instructor to reach more students address all the differant ways that a student recieves information.
One of the kinds of learning is peer to peer learning this method allows a instructor to focus on the students in need. Also peer to peer learning lets the student learn and not be as intimidated as with a teacher. It also allows for the student doing the teaching to solitify the information and make it a perminant in their mind. So it has benefits but does not work for every student everytime, which leads me to continue explaining the other methods that can be used in instructional delivery.
Technology contributes a large amount to instructional delivery, it allows a teacher access to tools that were not ubtainable before. Technology is always advancing so it only makes sense that teachers utilize things as they become available to them. Technology can play a huge part as far as how information is recieved. Testing differant methods will allow us to enhance how people react to differant delivery methods. It takes time and many differant attempts to figure out which way of delivery of information works best for the students. It does not happen in a second, you can not tell a student look at this now tell me if you learned anything. It takes repition and trail and error, education is not black and white. There is many differant ways and technology allows us to reach a higher level of class room experiance.
To close how technology afffects delivery is massive, in actuality the variety of delivery would not be possible without technology. A technique must be developed and techonolgy helps that become a possibilty and reality. Technology allows more doors to open and leads the way in our education it surronds us in and outside of the classroom, so why not incorperate it in how we recieve information.

Reflection 10

I have learned in this class that education is a qaladiscope. It has many dimensions much like the human physic. People look at teachers from a students stand point and you always sit in a classroom as a student and think, if I was a teacher I would teach this way. But you are in that moment only thinking about how you would like to teach yourself. When in reality teachers have to teach over 20 students at a time, not just you individually. The things I have learned in this class have been invaluable to me and have forced me question myself as faras what o believe.
All of these students retain and recieve information differantly, and you have to make sure they all recieve the knowledge equally. There is alot of preperation and personal time that is in involved in teaching. It is your job to educated and build a generation. People look at teaching on a small scale but now I realise is not that way. The deeper I go and the longer I study what it takes to be a teacher I realise, where would anyone be without them? what would we be? we could not be lawyer, doctors, and nurses or anything for that matter if we are not taught.
If we had no education we would not be able to survive, not knowing our history would force us to repeat it. Not evolving would force us to become extinct and would ultimately take away our ability to adapt. This class has taught me there is not one right way to teach there are many ways, and just as our society grows so does the way in which we teach. Teaching in a challanging profession because the information may not change often but how we deliver that information does.
My most valuable experiance in this class is learning what kind of teacher im going to be. How to plan a lesson, and all of the work that goes into it. It has gave me a deep understanding and appreciation and I am grateful that I have learned one of the many apsects of teaching. I find it a ashame that only the people who seek out this perfession are able to fully grasp the hardest job out there. Learning what kind of teacher im going to be and focusing on what my views has been the most valuable because this is the bases for my teaching career.

Reflection 8

My educational philospohy is progressive which means that I believe people learn better from real life situations and with interaction with other people. We take advantage of the new and innovative ways of teaching and apply in our classrooms. Learning must change with the times and the challanges. Students are more receptive if they can understand and relate to what their learning and how it relates to their lives. People learn better by interacting with other people we are social creatures and need to realise that fact.
Educational progressivisim is the theory that people and animals recieve the best learning through actual interactions with other people rather than a typical teaching method. Inidividuals who believe in the theory called progressivist educators believe that people at a young age learn things as if they were scientist. They conduct a process that resembles a model developed by Jhon Dewey illustrating a five step learning process which includes awareness of the problem or situation, developing a hypothesis to create a solution presented and test the most likely solution to the problem. The ideal teaching tool for an educator who is a progrssivist, aside from acquiring and applying information based on a given subject or skill, is to provide their pupils with a real life simulation to provide hand on experiance in the skill or lesson being taught, which essentially describes a common philosophy that is embraced by practioners of this theory which is "learn by doing".
Humans learn by doing and do because they have learned. This is a basic principle and one that I strongly agree with. My test scores on show what I feel is one of the basic things that need to be considered when making a lesson plan for a class. My educational philosophy is based on the fact that humans learn better by relating to the subject and seeing how that applys to their real life situations. In the late nineteenth century educators pedaga Gogy become to be more progressive and initated a movement that persisted into todays times. No child left behind policy is an example of that movement. A classroom is also a neccasity this philosophy is courrently conducted in many secondary educational mediums such as technical instatutes and hand on training for begining employees and in corperate america.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Reflection 7

Digital story telling is a modern teaching technique that incorporates images, music, narrative and voice together to illustrate experiences, situations, characters, and insight. Digital story telling goes back to the ancient art of story telling when the listener would paint their own vivd picters of the owrds that were being spoken to them. This form of story telling makes listening so much more easier for the listener. Visual story telling allows a story and its character to have more depth and to me described in every aspect.
Digital story telling is such a usefull tool to use in any situaation exspecially if it is done with the right amount of effort and if it is done properly. Digital story telling is work really well in my opinion with retaining information that has been said in the story because of the images in the digital story. Most people are visual and auditory earners so for both elements to be used at the same time the listener/ learner will be able to retain more information without the stress of reading it though a textbook or hearing it as if it was a lexture in a classroom.
Digital story tellin is also looked at as a movement to some people because it presents change and because so many voices and stories are heard. This movent has alot to do with technology, we are always trying to advance in how we recieve stories and how we store them as well. Digital story telling takes out the chance of a story being misinterpreted and retold inproperly. Assisting a story with pictures just makes listening much easier, because most of the human race responds to visuals, and tend not to listen as much as look. So visual story telling will be an attempt to heighten both.
Not only is digitlal story telling a new innovative way to tell a story, but it also can be a tool in studying. Many student leaving high school and entering collage are not familair or do not know how to studyon their own. It is a process in it sellf for people to figure out what way they best recieve innformation. Weither its visually or through listening, sometimes it is both. Visual story telling addresses all the channels that humans recieve and retain information. It provides you with images to referance when talking about a subject or story, or writing about it.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Reflection 6

Telecollaborative lessons are basically a project that involes sharing infromation with another person or a group of people over the internet. This kind of lesson is a conducted in a collabortive manner. Telecollaborative lessons are very curret with todays society and because of that it is very effective.
Telecollaborative lessons teaches students so many things at once. For example students become computer savy. They learn how to work the internet, certain websites, and they are more likely to be online and using these same skills for the rest of their lives even after the assignment takes place.
Students also get to work with other people; they get to network all over the globe and share information with one another. This lesson give student the opportunity to veiw things in different perspective as well such as other students culture, live style, and customes. Even more intresting students get to see how much they have in common with eachother.
Although students main objective is complete the assignment at hand they benifit from the telecollaboartive lesson in so many other things. The basically get an experience of a lifetime. These skills required to complete this assignment will be timeless and usefull. It has been recorded that students lives have been changed just by relating and communicating to other students in different parts of the world. This gets students interested in their assignments they biuld up an appetite to learn and share information with other people their same age groups with similar values.
Their are many different lessons to use when teaching students but in my beliefs i feel that this particular lesson is more dinamic and inovative than them all. This lesson helps students prepare for life. Students get to multitask, network, and in a sense play all at once and what could be a better sigt than a student learning while at play? Teachers also learn from the students experience because every student is different and learn in different ways teachers get a chance to sit back and observe how their students learn and share information that they've learned with onther people.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Reflection 5

Cooperative and collaborative learning are very useful learning styles. These learning style will not just help you in a classroom but they will also help you with task in everday life. These two learning styles help you prepare for working with other people for places like a big cooperation, a job/career, and also college projects,or business functions.
Collaborative learing is when a method of teaching and learning in which students team together and to explore the significant question or create a meaningful project. Students can excersise collaborative learning though discussing a lecture or joining other students from different schools on the world wide web on shared assignments. Cooperative learning is basically a specific kind of collaborative lesson plan. With coorperative learning student work on a structured activity however they are all individually responsible for their own work and the group work also. This encourages responsibility and teamwork.
Within these learning styles students learn well together. It has been argued on both sides about the specific pro's and con's with collaboartive learning. Certain teachers believe that students work well in mixed groups that it is better for more advanced students to work with lower level students becuase all students will benifit from the experience. The advanced student will benifit from the tutoring experience and the lower level students will learn from their peers. However on the other side you have teachers that believe that placing the more advance students with lower level students is harmful becuase they won't really be learning and progressing... That eventually they will get bored or either fall behind. But going of that perspective all students will have different levels of progress as opposed to the whole class understanding the lesson or assignment at hand as a whole. These are very strong points and based on the teachers objective they will be grouped accordingly. My personal opinion is that we as teacher should do both. We shouldnt group the same for every assignment. We should test our objectives and see which one works more effectively in our classes. I do believe more that the advance students should be pared together because if they are pared with lower level student they will be forced to b a lower level student in a way.

Reflection 4

There are many different ways of learning... But they type of learning style that we were pretty much born with is inquiry based learning. Inquiry based learning is based our instinctual since of curiosity the urge to ask why. However this way of learning is not that affective, especially not in the classroom. Which makes plenty of since.
In a classroom there's is suppose to be a certain structure and students are suppose to learn certain subjects at certain levels at a designated time. In the early stages inquiry based learning and spirits are high but as the grade levels go's up it is highly discourage because the material that i being taught to the students really doesn't leave mch space or time for the "why" question students are jus expected to absorb the information and repitition is highly enforced. To a certain extent I support the way our teaching environment opperates because I was taught this way but it is sommewhat unfair to the student.
For example if a student has a question they should never be affraid or discourage to ask a teacher for the answer or to even ask why something is what it is. Isn't it our jobs as teachers to answer students questions and to provide them with knowledge? I am aware that some question may be off topic and that if a student constantly ask why a proper lesson may never be completed but if we discurage students then they will eventually lose their thurst for knowledge and if a teacher doesnt have a challenge and is just teaching in front of a numb audience and or deaf ears they will lose their interest as a teacher.
Inquiry based learning should take place in every classroom no make what grade level. However to be effective for the teacher to teacher a lesson and for the sake of student learning there should be a short time frame towards the end of class for students to reflect and ask questions for the teacher to answer. It would honestly be rewarding experience for the teacher and the students if this took place in the classroom as apposed to the classic "i teach you listen" approach. It is proven that students learn more effectively when they participate and also when they can relate their lives or realo situations to what they are learning.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Reflection 3

The word constructivist come from the word constructivism which is a theory of knowledge that argues humans generate knowlegde and meaning through experiences. The relavence of this statement is to inform about a Constructivist lesson plan. A constructivist lesson plan is a way of teaching which consist of six important elements: situation, grouping, bridge, questions, exibit, and reflections.
These six steps have been broken down in detail to be able effectively teach the students so that they will have a prper understanding of the materials or the tasks tat are being taught. A constuctivist lesson plan is a highly effective way of teaching because students learn best by things t that they can actually visualize or see happening, something that they can see themselves doing in every day life. This lesson planning includes ploblem solving skills, answering questions, creating metaphors, desicion making, and many other skills needed to live everyday life. The grouping aspects allows students to expand their minds either by themselves or with other students to learn a few vocabukary and presenting skills in front of people when they have physically model their experiences in front of the classroom.
The brigding method is what i believe is the strongest method because that is when the student actually uses prior knowledge befor the class room and make connections, which is scientifically proven that you learn more when you familiarize yourself with things you have already encountered in your previous experiences to retain information. Once briding has accured that's when the questioning come into plang. As a teacher using the constructivist lesson plan you want to always keep thinking going. Ask questions to make student prior information pop up and make students explain. The second to last step is to exibit when the student has to give a verbal presentation with models and thing that will motivate the student to illustrate their peers to understand their reasoning and decision making sking skills.
The last step is reflections which is basically self explanitory but as a teacher a teacher you want to see what did the students retain from the lesson. how the do the students feel. has their spirit changed, what will they take with them outside of the classroom.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Reflection 2

As a teacher in everyday teaching we needs all the proper tools to be able to teach and inform our students properly. One tools that is very impoertanrt are lesson plans. Two types of lesson plans afe behaviorist lesson plans and Constructivisit lesson. Even though they are both lesson plans they differ from one another.
Both of these lesson plans are similar because they are basically strategies on how to keep your teaching organized and and keep everyminute that you have with your students occpupied with the current task at hand to be able to progress to the tsk that comes after what you have learned that day or period that you are teaching your students.
With the behaviorist lesson plan no matter what your teaching style my be you can use this lesson plan. Thi slesson plan only has eight steps and within these eight steps it gives the teacher time to pesent the objective and the subject matter. The behaviorist lesson plan also gives the teacher time to teach, preactice with the student, let the student work indepently, and notify the student about what the next class time will be about.
Constructivist lesson planning has six import elements which consist of situation, grouping, bridge, questions, exibit, and reflections. This particular lesson plan makes the teacher anticpate everymove including their students. I find this lesson planning to be a little more difficult because how would you know what questions your students will ask and how can you be completely sure that they will grasp all the infornation in the giving time.
I feel that the reflections is a good way to measure the students comprehension but if they dont grasp the information in the first place they will have nothing to write when the time comes for the reflections. Constructivists lesson plan should be used in a classroom room for older students where comprehesion levels are higher. I feel that the behaviorists kesson plans are more benificial for younger students and teachers. Constructivists lesson planning has undergone manny changes I think that there shoud be a few more changes or maybe if we could combine bothe teaching styles to make them both better for the teacher and the students.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Reflection 1

What is a lesson plan? What is my perception of a lesson plan? How do they differ?
What i percieved to be a lesson plan to be was just a simple outline done by the teacher of what they were going to discuss in the class period. I believed that he only reason that teachers did this was just to provide the principle with evidence that you know exactly what your teaching your students and to try and help you have good time management in the classroom. I also9 beleieved that it oonyl took a few minutes to create one of these lesson plans.
What i percieved and what i kno now are not completely different but there is deffinately more to a lesson plan that meets the eye. A lot of hard work, time, and effort goes in these lesson plans. A lesson plan is basically like robbong a bank in my eyes. If you rob a bank you must have a strong team and you must anticiapte every move that may or may not happen or else you have a high risk getting caught and not havng a successful robbery. Believe it or not the classroom works the same way. The teachers comes up with a very strateagic lesson plan so that their students can grasp the material sucessfully.
These teachers accomplish this by making sure that there lessoin plans consists of developing situation for students to have the opportunity to explain, grouping materials for students to grasp, building a bridge for students to connect what they already know and what trhey're about to learn, anticipaiting questions for students to ask and answer, and reflections and or feedback from the student so the teacher can see the efeectiveness of their teaching and the lesson plan. This particuler method is commonly used amongst the constructivism method. which i believe is the most effective way of creating a lesson plan.
The only thing that i somewhat disagree with is that it is almost impossible to anticipate alnost everything that will occur in the classroom and how will you know how your students minds think let aloine what kind of questions their goin to ask and have an preconcieved answer. But I do see how they are needed they are like test but with out so much pressure on the student.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

intro to eme2040

This semester i intend to learn more than i did last semester. I plan on taking teaching a lot more seriously. My instructor has proven to me that he is willing to have his students learn beyonf the textbook and i truely do admire that aspect of teaching. My goal is to become a complete sponge.
For the time being i may change the school i want to teach i want to teach. I wanted to teach high school first becaus e i feel that i would be able to conect with them better than middle schoolers or elemnetary students. However what i would like to do and what is in demand appear to be too different things. Currently it seems that elementary teachers are in more demand then highschool.
I have heard the there are alll kinds of budget cuts going on in the school system especially in the electives and my goal was to become a highschool art teacher. I may have to consult with my instructor to see what option would be best for me. I am positive that I doint want to teach children in middle school because based on society today middle school students are somewhat allready in a highschool stage when they are "finding themselves". Hormones are raging and they get these bright ideas when they want to test authority.
I will have patience for all my students but i just feel that middle school is just not the place for my tolerence for disrespect as an adult. In the course i must say thet I'm looking forward to learning how to create a lesson plan. I am yearning to know exactly what my teachers went through for me to learn in highshool. I believethat this would make me very appreciative of the knowledge that I learned and will learn from my teachers past and teachers present. I also want to become a more efficiant students. This semester isn't just about learning how to teacher but how I can become a better student to my teacher. I beleieve that i am reaching a turning point in this whole procees of teaching. I see it as a beautiful understanding now between teacher and pupil. I am ready to learn this semester.
I hope your ready Mr. McNair...