When I look back at this course, the main thing that I took from it was how much has changed in education over a relatively short period of time. I looked at the definition of literacy when I went to school compared to the list of new literacies that we need to teach to our students in the future. There is a huge difference. So looking at this, how could we continue to teach the same way that we have in the past. Teachers must be willing to change to prepare our students for the future. This being said, do we just use some new media or technology to continue using the same methods we used in the past, or do we incorporate the use of teaching these new literacies to prepare our students for their lives outside of school. This course has opened my eyes to the skills that will be important to our students and our future students as they leave school. Many of these skills I had been ignoring in my classroom. We fall into a routine in our classrooms. We give our children structure so they know what is expected of them. But much of my classroom structure is repetitive, and I realize that many of my students are not using much researching skills, questioning skills, and problem solving skills in my class. These are the skills that will carry them the furthest in the future. This course has gotten me to begin to develop lessons that will foster these new literacies and give my students repetitions of these literacies that will give them valuable experience that will lead to the mastering of these skills. This will help my students in their jobs and every aspect of their life in the future.
A goal of mine in the future is to research or have some professional development on inquiry based instruction. I feel that inquiry based projects could be very beneficial to my students in the future. I currently have begun to come up with some inquiry based projects, but there are just some things that are still missing in these lessons. I have not used many of these types of lessons in the past, and I am trying to incorporate these into the classroom, but it is hard because I have not done these in the past. I have talked to some of the administration at our school and other teachers, and they have been talking about inquiry based instruction. This leads me to believe that our school will be doing some inquiry based instruction professional development next year during our in-service or early release days. This should lead to more of the teachers in my school experimenting with these types of lessons in the classroom. This should help the teachers collaborate on what they felt worked for them, what did not work, and some problems to look out for. By trying these lessons in my class and making my adjustments from things that I felt the lesson lacked, and by collaborating with my colleagues who are doing the same types of lessons, I hope to develop more inquiry projects that will get my students to use questioning, problem solving, and researching skills that will be important to them in the future. I feel that my students would love these types of lessons, and this should motivate them to work in my class. That would be very important to me, since currently, our students motivation is so low.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Course Reflection
When looking back at my initial personal theory of learning, I realized that if I was going to become an effective teacher, I was going to have to take into account the many different learning styles of my students and try to incorporate as many of them into my lessons to get and keep my students engaged in their work.
During this course I got the chance to examine some different theories about how students learn. The one that caught my attention that most closely goes with my personal theory is Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. In this theory he describes nine different intelligences that every person possesses, only few of which can be measured by IQ tests (Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations, pg.24). Gardner believes that every person possesses some degree of the nine intelligences, but he goes on to describe how usually one or more of the intelligences dominate (Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations, pg.24). Gardner believes that a broader view of the intelligences of your students will change a teacher’s plan of instruction, because they would have to take these differences into account to maximize student learning (Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations, pg.25). This is a belief I closely share. Through my first few years of teaching I have realized that students have different intelligences and learning styles, and to reach each students potential, I must provide them with opportunities to engage them in our activities using a wide variety of intelligences or learning styles that best suite them. I realized that many of my lessons that I have taught in the past were only appealing to a percentage of my students, and the rest desired to learn with some different forms of instruction. When I began to take this into account, my students have responded well and become more involved in my lessons. Instead of only reaching a certain number of students, I now have some sort of activities to grab the attention of most of my students. This is becoming more apparent as I begin to learn to use new technologies in the classroom. Many of the new technologies that can be used in the classroom have been developed to reach the different types of learners we may see in our classes. These technologies provide something for everyone, and this goes a long way in gaining and maintaining the attention of our students. As teachers it is our goal to reach all our students, and to do this we must take into account the different learning styles of our students when preparing lessons and activities to teach them the material we are trying to get a crossed to them. The new technology available to assist teachers in the classroom already does this for us, and is becoming a great tool to teach our students.
Some of the new technologies that I have discovered in this class are concept maps and virtual field trips. Before this course, I had no knowledge of either of these technologies to use in my classroom. I am a social studies teacher and can use concept maps for just about every lesson I teach. I love this because my students get to make connections from prior knowledge and connect to the new information they are learning. They get to see these connections and it gives them a better understanding of the material. Plus, I can put my students in charge in this activity, and this makes the students do the thinking instead of me pushing them to what I want them to say. I also found some great sites from this course for virtual field trips. This gives my students some hand on learning experiences that they would never get anywhere else. Students are not only getting new information, they are also getting visual that will help them retain the information being taught, and this will help more of our students succeed in class. I hope to incorporate these new types of activities into my classroom this year. I feel that this will help keep my students engaged, and since they will be running the class, they will be more invested in their work. I feel that this will make them want to learn in my class, and this is the most important thing when it comes to them retaining the information I am teaching to them.
During this course I got the chance to examine some different theories about how students learn. The one that caught my attention that most closely goes with my personal theory is Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. In this theory he describes nine different intelligences that every person possesses, only few of which can be measured by IQ tests (Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations, pg.24). Gardner believes that every person possesses some degree of the nine intelligences, but he goes on to describe how usually one or more of the intelligences dominate (Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations, pg.24). Gardner believes that a broader view of the intelligences of your students will change a teacher’s plan of instruction, because they would have to take these differences into account to maximize student learning (Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations, pg.25). This is a belief I closely share. Through my first few years of teaching I have realized that students have different intelligences and learning styles, and to reach each students potential, I must provide them with opportunities to engage them in our activities using a wide variety of intelligences or learning styles that best suite them. I realized that many of my lessons that I have taught in the past were only appealing to a percentage of my students, and the rest desired to learn with some different forms of instruction. When I began to take this into account, my students have responded well and become more involved in my lessons. Instead of only reaching a certain number of students, I now have some sort of activities to grab the attention of most of my students. This is becoming more apparent as I begin to learn to use new technologies in the classroom. Many of the new technologies that can be used in the classroom have been developed to reach the different types of learners we may see in our classes. These technologies provide something for everyone, and this goes a long way in gaining and maintaining the attention of our students. As teachers it is our goal to reach all our students, and to do this we must take into account the different learning styles of our students when preparing lessons and activities to teach them the material we are trying to get a crossed to them. The new technology available to assist teachers in the classroom already does this for us, and is becoming a great tool to teach our students.
Some of the new technologies that I have discovered in this class are concept maps and virtual field trips. Before this course, I had no knowledge of either of these technologies to use in my classroom. I am a social studies teacher and can use concept maps for just about every lesson I teach. I love this because my students get to make connections from prior knowledge and connect to the new information they are learning. They get to see these connections and it gives them a better understanding of the material. Plus, I can put my students in charge in this activity, and this makes the students do the thinking instead of me pushing them to what I want them to say. I also found some great sites from this course for virtual field trips. This gives my students some hand on learning experiences that they would never get anywhere else. Students are not only getting new information, they are also getting visual that will help them retain the information being taught, and this will help more of our students succeed in class. I hope to incorporate these new types of activities into my classroom this year. I feel that this will help keep my students engaged, and since they will be running the class, they will be more invested in their work. I feel that this will make them want to learn in my class, and this is the most important thing when it comes to them retaining the information I am teaching to them.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Voice Thread
I had a good time coming up with my voice thread. It took me a while to figure things out, but I think I finally got it. I hope you all enjoy it.
The link to my voice thread is http://voicethread.com/#u426532.b572080.i3055802
Take care,
MS
The link to my voice thread is http://voicethread.com/#u426532.b572080.i3055802
Take care,
MS
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Cooperative Learning
In this weeks resources they talked about cooperative learning. They talked about the importance of cooperative learning activities where knowledge is discovered by students and transferred into concepts to which the students can relate to (Orey, 2001). In this type of learning, learning takes place through dialog among students in a social setting (Orey, 2001). To me this seems to be a very important piece of teaching in the future. When we do cooperative learning activities, we are not only teaching students new material, but we are teaching our students important real world skills that will help them in the future. Students must learn to work with others to research, analyze, and evaluate information while coming up with a final product. When we do these cooperative learning activities, especially ones where each group is to create an artifact to present to the class, the students seem to be engaged in their work, and these are the types of activities and lessons that they will retain information from.
In this weeks DVD chapter on cooperative learning, Dr. Orey talked about using a jigsaw cooperative learning activity in his classroom. I think that most of us have tried a similar activity in our classes in the past. This is a great way to get students more familiar with cooperative learning activities, and it is a great lesson because it forces each group member to teach a portion of the information to their fellow group members, and teaching someone else something is a great way to learn something.
In this weeks required reading from our course textbook on cooperative learning, they gave some examples of technology to use in the classroom that uses cooperative learning activities that correlate with the social learning principles. One that caught my eye was WebQuests. These WebQuests allow students in a class or from multiple locations work together to lean about a particular subject or to tackle a particular project or problem (Pitler, 2007, pg 145). Students can interact with students from other classes or schools in ways similar to things that they often use like facebook or email. I feel that these types of activities would keep my students engaged on the material better than a lecture or worksheet would. My students are very competitive, and I feel that this type of activity would force them to do research on a topic so they could perform well in the WebQuest. This student and peer centered learning helps the learner develop a deeper understanding of the content. These types of activities are activities that I feel would actually make my students want to come to class and do work, and this would increase the learning taking place in my classroom.
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.
Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
In this weeks DVD chapter on cooperative learning, Dr. Orey talked about using a jigsaw cooperative learning activity in his classroom. I think that most of us have tried a similar activity in our classes in the past. This is a great way to get students more familiar with cooperative learning activities, and it is a great lesson because it forces each group member to teach a portion of the information to their fellow group members, and teaching someone else something is a great way to learn something.
In this weeks required reading from our course textbook on cooperative learning, they gave some examples of technology to use in the classroom that uses cooperative learning activities that correlate with the social learning principles. One that caught my eye was WebQuests. These WebQuests allow students in a class or from multiple locations work together to lean about a particular subject or to tackle a particular project or problem (Pitler, 2007, pg 145). Students can interact with students from other classes or schools in ways similar to things that they often use like facebook or email. I feel that these types of activities would keep my students engaged on the material better than a lecture or worksheet would. My students are very competitive, and I feel that this type of activity would force them to do research on a topic so they could perform well in the WebQuest. This student and peer centered learning helps the learner develop a deeper understanding of the content. These types of activities are activities that I feel would actually make my students want to come to class and do work, and this would increase the learning taking place in my classroom.
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.
Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Constructivist and Constructionist Learning Theories
On this weeks assignment for our blog, we were first to look back at the constructivist/constructionist learning theories. From our course DVD, Dr. Orey explained the difference between constructivism and constructionism learning theories. Dr. Orey said that constructivism is a theory of knowledge stating that each individual actively construct his/her own meaning (Laurete, 2008). He went on to say that constructionism is a theory of learning that states people learn best when they build an external artifact or something they can share with others (Laurete, 2008). To me the theory of constructivism is enhanced by the theory of constructionism. All people construct their own meaning to new information being presented to them based on prior knowledge or experiences. When people then get the opportunity to work with this information and construct something with it, they gain a better understanding of the information, and this may affect the way that we construct our own meaning of the information.
Looking back at our course text Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, we got the opportunity to explore the instructional strategy of “Generating and Testing Hypotheses”. When students generate and test hypotheses, they are engaging in complex mental processes, applying content knowledge like facts and vocabulary, and enhancing their overall understanding of the content (Pitler, 2007). This strategy uses a lot of the constructionist learning theories because the students are constructing an artifact in which they are using a higher level of thinking to analyze and problem solve on material they are learning in class. Being a Social Studies teacher, this was something that was interesting to me because for most of the lessons that I teach, we can do some sort of problem solving where we can look at a problem/situations with their given obstacles, and try to come up with some sort of resolution that could have drastically change a major moment in our worlds history. Also, we could also do an historical investigation where students construct hypotheses about historical events for which there is no agreed –upon resolution (Pitler, 2007). I found a project from this weeks resources from the project-based learning site http://pbl-online.org/ called the Magic Bullet where our students would reopen the cold case of the JFK assassination, focusing on ballistic evidence. This activity was modeled after the popular television shows CSI and Cold Case. Students would work in groups and become mock investigators who reopened the Kennedy assassination. This activity to me would be a great activity for my class when it comes to generating and testing hypotheses. For my students, they would get to explore many websites and books presented to them in this project, and they would construct a presentation where they are able to analyze historical forces and create a reasoned explanation for events. This hands on learning and use of higher level of thinking to create the final product would give my students a better understanding of a historical event, one that they would have a better chance of retaining.
Resources:Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Constructivist and Constructionist Learning Theories. [Motion picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. [DVD]Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
http://pbl-online.org/
Looking back at our course text Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, we got the opportunity to explore the instructional strategy of “Generating and Testing Hypotheses”. When students generate and test hypotheses, they are engaging in complex mental processes, applying content knowledge like facts and vocabulary, and enhancing their overall understanding of the content (Pitler, 2007). This strategy uses a lot of the constructionist learning theories because the students are constructing an artifact in which they are using a higher level of thinking to analyze and problem solve on material they are learning in class. Being a Social Studies teacher, this was something that was interesting to me because for most of the lessons that I teach, we can do some sort of problem solving where we can look at a problem/situations with their given obstacles, and try to come up with some sort of resolution that could have drastically change a major moment in our worlds history. Also, we could also do an historical investigation where students construct hypotheses about historical events for which there is no agreed –upon resolution (Pitler, 2007). I found a project from this weeks resources from the project-based learning site http://pbl-online.org/ called the Magic Bullet where our students would reopen the cold case of the JFK assassination, focusing on ballistic evidence. This activity was modeled after the popular television shows CSI and Cold Case. Students would work in groups and become mock investigators who reopened the Kennedy assassination. This activity to me would be a great activity for my class when it comes to generating and testing hypotheses. For my students, they would get to explore many websites and books presented to them in this project, and they would construct a presentation where they are able to analyze historical forces and create a reasoned explanation for events. This hands on learning and use of higher level of thinking to create the final product would give my students a better understanding of a historical event, one that they would have a better chance of retaining.
Resources:Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Constructivist and Constructionist Learning Theories. [Motion picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. [DVD]Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
http://pbl-online.org/
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Cognitive Learning Theory
This weeks resources on the cognitive learning theory stressed the importance of making as many connections as possible to a piece of information so our students can then use these connections to get back at this information (Orey, 2001). This allows students to connect new information to prior knowledge, and these connections help the students retain the information long term. Throughout this weeks resources, they gave us many examples of multimedia advance organizers and how they could be used in the classroom.
In this weeks discussion post we were to look at our course textbook and explore the sections on Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers, and Summarizing and Note Taking. In these sections they gave example of many advance organizers to use in the classroom were our students would use a higher lever of thinking to make as many connections as possible on information being presented to the them. The one that caught my eye that I want to use in my classroom next year was the PowerPoint advance organizer. I teach History so an example of how I would use this in the classroom was where I would have my students try to predict the causes of WWII and how the War started. There my students would brainstorm from prior knowledge the conditions around the world prior to the war, and they would come up with a hypothesis on why they believed the war started. I have pulled up some videos from United Streaming to help with their prior knowledge, and after the activity is done they have a video to watch from United Streaming to see how the war started. We then could see how accurate our predictions were. To end the lesson we could remake our PowerPoint organizer after we realized what the actual causes of the war were, and hopefully this will help my students have long term memory of the condition prior to the war that became actual causes of WWII. I then began to look at concept maps and virtual field trips, and these types of activities are more examples of cognitive learning technologies that will help our students make connections between prior knowledge and new information that they can visually see for themselves. I began to think of how I could use concept maps in my classroom, and then I began to think on how I could use it today. I am a football coach, and we have started our mini camps were we start from scratch to teach everything from stances, to alignment, to schemes. I thought back to yesterday when I worked with the offensive line. In our chalk talk meeting before we went out to the field, I think it would be a great review of what we did yesterday if we had the lineman do a concept map where they could explain the important points of a particular scheme. This activity would be lead by the older, more experienced lineman, and this would help our younger line understand the concept of the scheme. This should help them remember the important coaching points, and hopefully will lead to them remembering this information long term.
Overall, what I got from this weeks resources was ideas of ways to use technology to make our students use a higher level of thinking to take what they already know and make connections to new information, and this should lead to them retaining more of the information. For me in history, instead of just going over the information, I am forcing them to make connections from an action that happened in the past, and how this action lead to other events in history. This has been the most useful class we have taken so far because it has provided us with many examples of activities and technologies that we could use everyday in our classroom that will promote a higher level of thinking from our students and help them retain important information.
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author. “Cognitive Learning Theories”
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Article: Novak, J. D. & Cañas, A. J. (2008). The theory underlying concept maps and how to construct and use them, Technical Report IHMC CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 01-2008. Retrieved from the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition Web site: http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.pdf
In this weeks discussion post we were to look at our course textbook and explore the sections on Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers, and Summarizing and Note Taking. In these sections they gave example of many advance organizers to use in the classroom were our students would use a higher lever of thinking to make as many connections as possible on information being presented to the them. The one that caught my eye that I want to use in my classroom next year was the PowerPoint advance organizer. I teach History so an example of how I would use this in the classroom was where I would have my students try to predict the causes of WWII and how the War started. There my students would brainstorm from prior knowledge the conditions around the world prior to the war, and they would come up with a hypothesis on why they believed the war started. I have pulled up some videos from United Streaming to help with their prior knowledge, and after the activity is done they have a video to watch from United Streaming to see how the war started. We then could see how accurate our predictions were. To end the lesson we could remake our PowerPoint organizer after we realized what the actual causes of the war were, and hopefully this will help my students have long term memory of the condition prior to the war that became actual causes of WWII. I then began to look at concept maps and virtual field trips, and these types of activities are more examples of cognitive learning technologies that will help our students make connections between prior knowledge and new information that they can visually see for themselves. I began to think of how I could use concept maps in my classroom, and then I began to think on how I could use it today. I am a football coach, and we have started our mini camps were we start from scratch to teach everything from stances, to alignment, to schemes. I thought back to yesterday when I worked with the offensive line. In our chalk talk meeting before we went out to the field, I think it would be a great review of what we did yesterday if we had the lineman do a concept map where they could explain the important points of a particular scheme. This activity would be lead by the older, more experienced lineman, and this would help our younger line understand the concept of the scheme. This should help them remember the important coaching points, and hopefully will lead to them remembering this information long term.
Overall, what I got from this weeks resources was ideas of ways to use technology to make our students use a higher level of thinking to take what they already know and make connections to new information, and this should lead to them retaining more of the information. For me in history, instead of just going over the information, I am forcing them to make connections from an action that happened in the past, and how this action lead to other events in history. This has been the most useful class we have taken so far because it has provided us with many examples of activities and technologies that we could use everyday in our classroom that will promote a higher level of thinking from our students and help them retain important information.
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author. “Cognitive Learning Theories”
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Article: Novak, J. D. & Cañas, A. J. (2008). The theory underlying concept maps and how to construct and use them, Technical Report IHMC CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 01-2008. Retrieved from the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition Web site: http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.pdf
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Behaviorist Theory in the Classroom
In looking at this week’s resource in Using Technology With Classroom Instruction That Works, we were to look at the reinforcing effort & homework and practice sections and reflect on the instructional strategies in these sections and how they relate to the behaviorist learning theory. In the reinforcing effort section, they modeled many different activities using technology where students make the connection between effort and achievement by making graphs representing their own effort and achievement. To me this section showed the use of the behaviorist theory to increase a student’s effort in class. The goal of behaviorist techniques in education is to promote behaviors that are desirable in the classroom and discourage those that are not (Orey, 2001). From the examples in this section that is what they are doing. They give examples of activities using spreadsheets and rubrics where the students got to chart their own effort and then see their grades. In most findings, if not all, the more effort that was given, the better the grades were for the student. This tries to promote the idea that giving better effort will give you a better grade, and this will work in promoting desirable behaviors in class. This is a part of observational learning where they use shaping to breakdown a desired behavior and reinforce it as it progresses towards the overall goal (Orey, 2001). The homework and practice section had similar activities that teachers could use to come up with different methods to provide feedback that will help their students practice particular skills until they get the desired outcome (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, pg. 195). This goes along with the behaviorist theory as well.
MS
References
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Pg. 195
Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/
MS
References
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Pg. 195
Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/
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