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This class has taught me a lot about how my students will think, feel, and learn throughout the time they spend in my classroom. I have learned that their development will be especially important in planning lessons. Their development also plays a key role in their behavior in class, and the best way to teach and manage these students. My lessons need to be tailored to help them grow and learn, not only educationally, but socially and physically.

I have also learned more about myself as a prospective teacher. After studying the different learning theories, I realized that I follow the Constructivist approach. I value the ideas of group learning, engaging inquiry lessons, and student responsibility for their own learning. I think using these methods, no matter what age, will provide the best experiences for my students. This class has given me some wonderful ideas for future lesson plans that will accomplish these goals.

I was able to integrate new technologies I have never worked with into projects. I particularly enjoyed used Glogster and Prezi. They are creative programs that would be great for classroom presentations, as well as teaching older students how to use for their own projects. One technology I was not thrilled with was the eText. I would have much rather preferred having the physical text in front of me, instead of paying the same price for a text book that expires at the end of the summer session.

One of the other technologies we got to use was LiveBinders. My eFolio is available here and includes my reflections on the major projects, podcasts, and my philosophy of education based on the course content.

Culture in the Classroom

Anita Woolfolk's podcast on culture diversity in the classroom was particularly interesting. It didn't include a lot of tips for teachers, but it was full of quick facts about other cultures.

Students tend to respect a teacher more if they are aware of their cultural beliefs. 18% of the United States population speaks a language other than English, and half of these people speak Spanish. In fact, some teachers have said they have more than ten languages represented in their classroom at one time. By 2020, it is estimated that over 66% of school-aged children will be African American, Asian, Hispanic, or Native American; many of these will be the children of new immigrants.

Some of the cultural quick facts Woolfolk discusses are:

• The Chinese language has no sign/symbol correspondence, thus they have trouble with decoding and phonics in English.
• In Columbia, they believe it is rude to use a teacher's name. Instead they simply use "Teacher" as a title.
• It is common for Middle Eastern boys to touch during play. However, in America, boys only touch during sports or fights. This can cause arguments in class.
•  In Argentina it is considered rude for children to look directly at adults. Even if a teacher says, "Look in my eyes," these children may be uncomfortable.
• Somalian children may have trouble sitting still, as they may have never been in school or sat in chairs for long periods of time.
• Saudi Arabian boys can find working with girls to be insulting, as their culture believes boys and girls should not be together.
• Buddhists may feel insulted if you pat them on the head because they believe your soul is housed in your head.
• Other Asian cultures may nod yes, even if they do not agree, because nodding shows that you are listening carefully.
• In Korea, it is rude to open a gift in front of the giver. If you are unsure, you can politely ask if it's okay to open the gift now.
• Many cultures may find notes written in red pen offensive, as they believe red is the color of death.

Some of these cultural beliefs I had heard before, but many I was unaware of. A good way to identify different cultures in a classroom would be to take a class survey at the beginning of the year. You can ask students where their families are from. Then any countries you are unsure of you can look up information on. Woolfolk suggests using this website for more information about being sensitive to different cultures in the classroom.

Using Cooperative Learning

After doing my project on Maria Montessori, as well as the group project on the Constructivist theory, I have become really interested in using group work in my classroom. Anita Woolfolk's podcast on cooperative learning gives more benefits to this set up, as well as some ideas.

Cooperative learning truly occurs when students need to depend on each other to complete a task, and build on each other's knowledge. It must be a team effort, where everyone chips in. The teacher needs to make sure they chose a model that fits the goal of the lesson, and provide direction and support when needed. They also need to make sure they monitor students while they are working on the project to make sure they are on the right track and learning the material correctly.

The benefits to cooperative learning are plentiful if it is accomplished correctly. Students are motivated to complete their work because they know their partners are counting on them. They are required to explain their thinking to their group members. Some theorists believe this is the most successful way to learn, as you are thinking about the information internally and deciding how to best present it to your peers. Students engage in productive dialogue; this is talk where students need to interpret and explain information, not just name and describe something Another benefit is that disequilibrium may occur in some students, making them wonder if the way they have been thinking is really correct. They will then strive to learn the right information to adjust their knowledge. Students not only become responsible for their own learning, but as well as teaching. They are required to find examples of a topic, or figure out how to present the information another way. This again gets them thinking critically.

Woolfolk provided examples of ways to find experts in your classroom to help create cooperative groups. Her daughter is an elementary school teacher and on the first day of school devises interview questions for her students that will relate to topics they will discuss that year. Students will ask each other questions like "Can you speak another language?" or "Do you know how to cook?" and find a student who fits each category. Each student would be made an expert in one area, so when that topic is discussed students have a peer to turn to for extra help.

I have said before that I think group work and cooperative learning is extremely important, especially in elementary school. Students need to have these social interactions and foster an ability to work as a team. These are skills that will not only increase their learning, but help them later in life beyond the classroom.

Classroom Management: Teacher vs. Student Perspectives

In her twelfth podcast, Anita Woolfolk discusses different views of classroom management. It is obvious to say that a classroom with good management offers an orderly environment with fewer distractions, where more learning can occur. To get a better idea of why some classrooms had better classroom management, researchers began to observe classrooms on the first day of school. Then they returned to the classrooms throughout the year to see how each was progressing. They noticed one common thread between classes that were succeeding: planned and taught rules and procedures. These procedures were introduced on the first day of class and were modeled, practiced, and retaught by the teachers.

One issue researchers noticed was a difference in belief between students and teachers. Students feel that good teachers: 1) care about their students, 2) exercise authority fairly, 3) are creative. If they believe they have a good teacher students are more motivated and less likely to drop out. They want fair rules that protect and respect the students. They don't want teachers to be excessively harsh, and expect differentiation between students.

The problem lies in how respect should be earned and given. Students feel that they need to see that a teacher cares about them before the will give that teacher respect. However, teachers feel that students need to earn respect and caring. Many teachers believe that they need to be mean at the beginning of the year to command respect for their students, operating under the idea "Don't smile until Christmas." When this method is used, students feel the teachers become more rigid and less creative. This disconnect creates what Woolfolk calls, the downward spiral of mistrust. Students hold out on cooperation until the teacher earns, while the teacher becomes more stern because the students aren't responding. In situations where students have been let down by teachers before, it is particularly difficult to break this cycle because they are expecting to be treated unfairly. Students will be even more defiant, and in turn teachers off more punishment, pushing the student further away.

I will need to be aware of this balance in my classroom. It will be important to make sure my students feel respected and comfortable, while making sure they also respect me. Starting the school year with a specific set of rules and procedures to uphold in the classroom is the first step in creating this balance.

Test Taking Strategies

I have never felt like I was a bad test taker; I usually feel confident going into tests. This is because I take detailed notes, do required homework, and study accordingly. However, I know this is not always the case, and I should expect test anxiety among my future students. Test anxiety makes it tough for students to focus on a test because they're minds are full of worry about the material. It is important to instill in my students test taking tips. Anita Woolfolk talks about some simple and effective strategies to use in podcast #14.

Before the test:

• Attend class, do the readings, and complete the assignments; especially attend the classes right before the test in case there are hints about the test.
• Pay attention during review sessions - take notes and ask questions about the content of the test
• Create your own review sheet with the major concepts
• Prepare at home - get a good night's sleep, set an alarm and a back-up alarm, eat a good breakfast

During the test:

• Keep a positive attitude, avoid telling yourself you aren't going to do well
• Use your time wisely - look over the test before you start, look for questions with higher point values, don't dwell on a question you can't remember, use the whole testing time
• Ask for clarification if you need one
• Avoid leaving blanks - if you are unsure, guess; don't leave essays blank
• Read the whole question
• Don't make questions harder then they are; often your first instinct is the right answer
• ALWAYS be sure to double check for your name

After test:

• Double check the teacher's grading - everyone makes mistakes
• Analyze questions you got wrong - maybe you are making the same mistake that can easily be corrected
• Make notes on the test if the teacher reviews it
• Ask the teacher for extra credit or a make-up exam
• Save the test to study from later

Some these strategies may only be useful for older students, but many of them are applicable no matter the age. As a teacher, I can also remember some of these tips and use them in my classroom. For example, I can provide students with my own study sheet highlighting the important concepts that will be on a test. I can instill a positive attitude in my class by encouraging them and saying I know they will do well. I can also take time to review with my students, and allow them to know the format of the test. In my future classroom, these are definitely ideas I will practice to help students cope with test anxiety.

I Must Confess, I am a Procrastinator.

(I procrastinated writing this post by searching for the right picture)

Anita Woolfolk's tenth podcast is about procrastination. I have to admit that I have been a terrible procrastinator as long as I have been in charge of my own learning. Once high school rolled around and I started receiving more long-term projects instead of daily homework, I began putting off the work until the last minute.

According to the podcast, I am not alone. In fact, 80 to 90 percent of college students engage in procrastinating, and 75 percent of them are aware they are procrastinating. Some students may spend up to one third of their day procrastinating. Some things we do daily, like texting or going online, become the easiest ways to procrastinate, and the hardest habits to break.

Woolfolk talked about why these students procrastinate. Some claim they work better under pressure, and then proceed to save an important paper until the night before it is due. However, this work tends to be of a lower quality, included more errors, and is less original than what a student would have written if they started earlier. If a student has low self-efficacy, they may delay starting a project because they feel like they won't do good on it anyway. They use the excuse, "I'm going to fail anyway, so why waste my time?" Students may be victims of self-handicapping; they are unable to manage the emotions that come with failing an important assignment. These students use the excuse, "Well I didn't have enough time to do well," even though the assignment had been given out three months before. Depression can be another cause of procrastination that unfortunately gets the student stuck in a vicious circle. They are depressed so they don't start their project; they do poor on the project so they feel more depressed. Also, rebellion can come into play, especially in adolescents. These are the students that don't want to follow anyone else's rules or listen to a deadline. Finally, some procrastinators may simply be perfectionists. Their inability to start or complete a project comes from their desire for it to be perfect. They may decide it is never going to be as good as they want it to be, so why bother?

So what can I do as a teacher to help my students break their procrastinating ways? First, Woolfolk suggest raising students' self-efficacy. She offered the following ideas:

• Mastery - point out other projects students have completed well
• Modeling - show examples of past students' work so current students see it can be done
• Social Persuasion - use basic encouragement (e.g. "You can do this!")
• Anxiety - allow students to turn in an ungraded outline so you can give feedback

She also suggests behaviors to encourage among your students. I can tell my students to work on one piece at a time instead of looking at the big picture. Taking small bites out of a project tends to make you feel more accomplished and helps encourage you to keep working. She suggests working for ten minutes and then taking a small break. Another idea is creating a study group and set firm meeting times. This way, students will feel obligated to attend because they made a commitment to a friend.

In this class, I have personally used the last two options for self-management. When I looked at everything that needed to be accomplished in only five weeks, I would go into full on panic mode, shut down, and not be able to work at all. Instead, I decided to focus on one task at a time and get it done. Especially when it came to tying up loose ends at the end of the week. I scheduled what I would work on each day and made sure I completed those tasks. We also formed a study group and met every Tuesday on campus (sometimes more). Knowing that my peers were counting on me showing up, and the promise of coffee, made me show up and get work done.

I like to think as I get older, I get better at managing my procrastinating, and I hope that I will be able to help my students avoid becoming like me. I guess this is one case where only time will tell.

Fieldwork (Cluster 2): Planning for Student Development

For observations I have been following a kindergarten class. Students are typically five or six years old. Tailoring lessons to where students are developmentally is very important. A teacher shouldn't be asking too much of his or her students, nor should they be making activities too easy. The teacher I am observing seems to find that perfect balance.

According to Piaget's model, these students would be in preoperational phase of development. This means that the students are developing language, have trouble identifying past or future (they think solely in the present), can think through operations logically in one direction, and has difficulty understanding another person's perspective (Woolfolk, 2014). Children begin this stage by using gestures or symbols to represent what they want to say, such as drinking from an empty cup when they are thirsty or rubbing their stomachs when they are hungry. The students I observed are now at the end of this stage and are able to verbalize their needs. Not only do these students have trouble identifying past and future, they have trouble conceptualizing time. A student was trying to tell me a story about a lesson they had done the week before and instead said, "Yesterday, we did a math problem..." Children at this age have trouble understanding conservation. For example, during snack one student snapped his pretzel rod in half and said, "Look! Now I have two pretzels!" This started a chain of everyone doubling their pretzels this way so they could all have two pretzels.

Vygotsky believes the most important element to a child's development is verbal interaction to solve a problem. He also focused on the use of cultural tools, including technological and psychological tools played a large part in the educational process. Technological tools today include calculators, the internet, cell phones, and assistive technology for students with learning disabilities. Examples of psychological tools are Brail and sign language, maps, works of art, and language (Woolfolk, 2014). Thus, under this theory of development, children will learn better through engaging activities with their peers. By working together to solve a problem, they will be voicing their opinions and justifying them.

The teacher I observed plans lessons where her students participate in turn and talks, work on writing pieces where they explain a previous lesson or experience, and use tools such as a rekenrek for math. After group readings, the teacher would pose a question to the class, usually asking if the story reminded them of a time in their life. She would then let the students pair up to share their thoughts. After a minute or two, the students would turn back to the teacher who would call on three children to share out. They would have to say what they talked about, as well as their turn and talk partner to ensure they were listening. Students had journals they would write in once a week after a particularly exciting lesson or experience in school. For example, after the students planted their flowers, they were given time to journal about the experience, the steps in planting, or what they thought their flower would look like when it grew. This gave them a chance to practice conceptualizing time. They would have to say "Today we..." or "Next week my flower will..." Finally, the teacher tries to use tools in the classroom that reinforces student learning. When the students were working on subtraction, the teacher gathered the students on the meeting rug and gave them each a rekenrek to work with. They would slide the beads back and forth to show a math problem. They were able to visualize the problem, as well as experience it through touch.

Here is some information about child development provided by Princeton.

Sources:
Woolfolk, A. (2014). Educational psychology (12th ed.). Pearson Education.

Ugh, testing....

If I never look at another MyLab assessment it will be too soon...

I won't argue that assessing throughout a course is extremely important. I also think it was great that we were given a chance to self-assess in this manner. Using traditional multiple choice tests as the only form of assessment is a dated approach and, as we have learned in this course, rarely gives an accurate representation of what a student really knows. Thus, it was a useful tool to check on our own to see if we were mastering the skills of a cluster.

I tried two different methods when I took the tests. At first, I was trying to get 100% on both the pre- and posttest. Then I realized, that this method wasn't giving me an accurate representation of what I was really learning. Instead, I began only taking the pretest once and keeping that score. Then on the posttest, I would retake it correcting any errors, so I could accurately understand how the concepts were applied.

The questions themselves were actually interesting. I especially liked when they presented us with possible classroom situations and asked a question relating to the context of the situation. I think I enjoyed the clusters that really focused on learning theories for this reason. The questions tended to be more applicable.

However, the overall experience using the MyLab tests was a very frustrating one. The format was very off-putting. The e-text site that housed the tests would constantly freeze or slow down to a crawl. Loading the test could take upwards of two minutes (it doesn't sound slow, I know, but in a technological world of fast internet and instant web-surfing gratification it was painful). Then the site would freeze as I was submitting my questions, and I would have to refresh the page and answer the questions all over again.Since I was going back through correcting answers, not having the questions numbered also was an inconvenience. It was impossible to keep track of which question I checked my response to and which ones still needed to be reviewed.

I believe it was Laura who pointed out early on that it felt like we were being punished for doing poorly on a pretest. The amount of remedial work that needed to be accomplished to be able to take the posttest was sometimes unreal. Six learning outcomes with two activities each quickly began to make the tests seem no longer practical (see below).

I think it would have been more appropriate to offer the outcomes and adjacent readings, but not make them mandatory. Having the outcomes available would have provided me enough guidance when reading that I would have been able to focus my studies.

All in all, I think the concept of pre- and posttests for self-assessment is a great idea. I blame MyLab for my negative experience with them. A link to a table of my results is available here.

Fieldwork (Cluster 9): Evaluating Learning

I have to say, I have been blown away by how much these kindergartners know. They are able to write complete sentences, complete addition and subtraction in their heads, remember scientific terms like "extinct" and "evaporate," and read tough words. I fully admit that I was not expecting these students to do as much as they can.

One day in particular, I watched the students read a "Time For Kids" magazine on the meeting rug as a whole class. The magazine was about what we can do to save lions from extinction. It talked about what was happening to the lions' environment, as well as hunting. The teacher paused throughout the magazine to allow for group discussions about what was going in the text. This allowed for me to observe numerous instances of learning:

1. using context clues to define "habitat"
2. understood that people were cutting down trees for paper and wood
3. concluded that we should plant a new tree every time we cut one down
4. connected lions dying off to dinosaurs
5. used knowledge of dinosaurs to say lions would be extinct
6. identified Africa on a map
7. identified that an ocean separates Africa from America
8. used the map key to say that there were few lions remaining in Africa
9. concluded that you can only get to Africa by boat or plane
10. decided that hunters are targeting lions for their fur
11. understood that using fake fur would eliminate need for lion's fur
12. concluded that the main reason for lions becoming extinct is human interference

The most impressive part of this lesson for me was that students had these instances of learning because of their group discussion. The magazine itself played only a small role in guiding where their conversation went. The teacher would ask probing questions, as well as follow student ideas to help the students reach these conclusions. She made sure to praise students individually as they inputted their ideas and then praise the class as a whole at the end for the wonderful thoughts they had.

When I asked the teacher I have been observing what she thought the students learn the fastest, she thought for a few minutes and then said, "Wow, that's hard to answer... I didn't think that would be so tough!" After giving it some thought, she decided that any topic where the students can use rhythm or rhyme to remember it was something they picked up easily. For example, learning the ABC song, or the linking chart chant. Anything where they can chant is easy for them to learn because they remember the inflection they are supposed to use and the order the information goes in. She suggested I use modeling as much as possible. This not only helps them learn, but shows them what is expected of them. She uses modeling in every lesson. For math she always completes a sample problem for them and explains her thought process. When the class is doing a read aloud, the teacher verbalizes what she is thinking as she is reading.

I then asked the kindergartners what subject they though they learned the fastest. I asked them when they were at round tables, which unfortunately, I think allowed some students to be influenced by their peers responses. However, I think most of the were authentic. The results are displayed in the table below:

Some responses I thought were interesting. For example, traditionally, girls feel like that aren't as successful in math and science classes. However, in this class, the only student that said they learned science quickly was a girl. Overall, nine boys and four girls felt they succeed in math centered topics, which is a more expected result. I did find it surprising that more students believed they were better at math based topics than literacy based. After observing the class for six hours, I was able to get an idea of which students excelled in certain areas. Some students who felt they learned counting better actually require extra support for math, I thought it was interesting to see students may feel confident in an area where in reality they are better at another topic.

I think it's fantastic to see how confident students are in their abilities. Especially at this age, students are eager and excited to show what they know. Their ideas and thoughts should be encouraged in the classroom, even if they begin to move off topic. As long as learning is occurring, their ideas are wonderfully relevant.

Fieldwork (Cluster 5): A Discussion of Intelligence

The kindergartners I have been observing are in the pre-operational stage of development. This means they are fairly egocentric, developing their fine motor skills, and beginning to socially interact. Because it is the end of the school year, most of the students are already six years old and are getting close to moving out of this stage.

Physically, they are all able to correctly grip a pencil or crayon. They are now using normal-sized pencils, as opposed to the large ones they began the year with. This shows that they have developed their fine motor skills. They are also very active at this age; they need to take breaks to get up and move around often. If the teacher feels like they have been sitting for too long, she will give them a chance to play "Silent Leader," which is a game where one student leads the class in a series of silent stretches. She also staggers activities between the meeting rug and group tables, so between tasks students are able to get up and walk around. She makes sure that they do not spend too much time in one place to keep them from getting bored and fidgety.

The teacher set simple goals for her classroom, such as each student counting to one hundred, recognizing 26 letters, and recognizing 54 letter sounds. These are appropriate cognitive goals for where the students are now. They should be able to recite the alphabet and identify long and short letter sounds. Some students are also able to identify sounds of blends and digraphs, such as "th" and "ch." Most students are able to count to one hundred, with only about three struggling.

The students are now used to interacting with their peers. They are eager to work in groups and are agreeable when the teacher decides who will work together. There is rarely any bickering between the students; they take turns with little argument and work together successfully. Emotionally, the students are still very eager to demonstrate what they know or to help out around the classroom. I noticed that when the teacher asks a question, particularly about a reading they did as a whole class, most students raise their hand, even if they don't know the answer right away. They are excited and want the attention and praise from the teacher.

I decided that I wanted to collect a random assortment for interviewing people on their view of intelligence, so I posed the question on Facebook. I ended up with three responses from three very different people. However, I think they are all related to each other. I believe if you ask a child to tell you about an intelligent person, they would tell you the person would get 100's on everything, they do really good in school, and they're really smart. As a person matures, they are able to recognize that intelligence has many levels. I think I would describe an intelligent person as focused, a critical thinker, and creative. Here is a screenshot of the Glog I created to share my results.

Intelligence grows and forms as we mature. Because there are so many different types of intelligences, it is easy to expect different answers from anyone you ask. One person may picture a traditional "nerd" when they think of an intelligent person, while someone else may picture an artist or musician. None of these ideas are wrong, which is what makes this topic so interesting.

Fieldwork (Clusters 3-4): A Classroom of Variety

The students in this kindergarten class are an extremely diverse mix, not just ethnically, but educationally. They all have individual needs outside of the needs of a whole class. This class has one student was just classified with multiple disabilities, two ESL students, and a mix of students who need support in different fields throughout the day.

The student with multiple disabilities was classified in the middle of the year. Instead of changing his classroom, he was assigned a paraprofessional to help him throughout the day and remains in normal instruction. This student requires extra attention to stay on task no matter what the class is working on. The teacher and para provide reminders to redirect his attention. The para also pulls him aside for one-on-one lessons where she reinforces concepts taught in class, or spends extra time working on sight words. He is also prone to emotional extremes: when he is upset, he is inconsolable, and when he is excited he jumps around and dances. This students educational and emotional needs are met by all teachers and paras in the room.

There are two English language learners, one whose first language is Chinese, the other Spanish. These two students receive speech therapy twice a day and are out of the classroom for thirty minutes at a time. When the students return, the teacher always makes sure they catch up on any work they may have missed while they were out. When group work is assigned, these two students tend to flock to each other. However, the teacher does try to split them up so they are able to interact with other students and practice language use with their peers. She also provides additional support for directions, such as modeling and picture ques.

Some students require extra help with math or writing. The teacher and class para make sure they take extra time with these students during the appropriate times. One student in particular requires a lot of educational support; she has a hard time remaining focused on a task. For example, when doing addition, she understands the concept, but would prefer to continue counting instead of completing the task correctly. The teacher always makes sure she reminds the student to focus on the task at hand and then allows her to write her numbers as high as possible on the back, so she is still able to count.

Another boy has a speech impediment and is very emotional. He tends to be very quiet, shy, and reserved. If another student upsets him, or if he gets in trouble for something, he immediately breaks down into tears and cannot express how he feels. The teacher has noticed that it has become a technique he uses to get out of trouble or get his way. She has had to learn to identify when the student needs support and when he is using crying to his advantage.

This is absolutely a mix of students I can expect in a future classroom. I need to learn how to balance my time with each student as my cooperating teacher has.

Fieldwork (Cluster 1): Interview With a Teacher

For this fieldwork assignment, I interviewed a kindergarten teacher in Valley Central School District. She has many years experience with children in this age range, and in my opinion, is wonderful at what she does. The students have a wonderful relationship with her and seem to grow and learn every day. My time in her classroom has been an enlightening experience to say the least.


Q: What effective teaching principles do you use to reach every child in your class?

A: I am continuously assessing the students in different ways, including daily observations. I keep strong records for the assessments so I can look back and use them to guide and support teaching. I also like to make sure I am teaching to different modalities: verbal, auditory, kinesthetic, visual. I give the students opportunities to do do hands-on interactive instruction whenever I can. I also really like to use a lot of group or partner work. I encourage them to discuss a topic between themselves, and then with me; I use turn-and-talks after almost every read aloud. Students are given time daily to work in centers. These are organized around the room and designed in a way for me to guide them in their choices. I like to keep a positive learning environment; positive redirection, positive problem solving. The schedule is posted daily for the students to see so they know what to anticipate through the day.


Q: What latest research are you referring to in your teaching design?

A: For ELA, the school district follows the Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Framework for instruction in:

• guided reading instruction
• shared reading
• shared writing
• interactive writing
• writing workshop
• work board centers

We refer to the Continuum of Literacy Learning to observe and plan for the "Behaviors to Notice, Teach, and Support" in order to plan for: Writing, reading, listening, and speaking. The K-5 staff are trained by Literacy Collaborative Trainers from Lesley University in the Literacy Collaborative Model. At the training, the staff was provided with over 15 resource books to utilize in planning and to guide instruction.

As for the New York State Modules, I don't feel that these modules are highly research based - I believe they were done in a hasty manner.While the concepts are mostly developmentally appropriate, the lessons and skill sheets are done in a manner that is so standardized it does not allow for any creative teaching or teaching in a way where math is integrated with literacy, science, or social studies. Also, the skill sheets are not supportive of a four, five, or six year old's way of thinking: there are many problems on a page, small counters to work with, and switch concepts on the same page.


Q: In what ways has the research on effective teaching empowered your continued learning process?

A: No matter how many trainings I attend, I feel like there is always something left to learn. We were provided with over twenty hours of initial training and coaching; currently we receive forty-eight hours of annual training and coaching as needed. I do believe the Common Core Standards can be taught in a more appropriate way, with more hands on and thoughtful way, which I try to interpret into my lesson plans.


As the teacher started talking about the effective teaching principles she uses in her classroom, I noticed many similarities to our book. She believes that children should be allowed to work together to learn in an engaging environment. Their class discussions were always so fun to watch; it was incredible to see what kind of connections the students made to what they had previously learned. She always keeps a calm and kind tone when talking to the students, even when someone was misbehaving. Students respond positively to this because, they don't feel like they are really being yelled at. She reasons with them and explains everything going on. The students never feel like they are left in a lurch or have no guidance; her directions are clear, concise, and easy to follow.

I thought it was interesting to have a teacher directly challenge the Common Core standards she was following, and agree to have me use it for class. After she showed me one of the worksheets she was using for a more or less math lesson, I could see where her concerns fell. The sheet was crowded and jumbled. She had to bring the students back to the meeting rug after every two problems so they understood what the sheet was asking for them. The next day when she went to review the same topic, she created her own activity where the accompanying worksheet was clean and simple. Students were able to complete the sheet after only one set of instructions.

I think the time I spent in this classroom has easily been the most influential and beneficial observation time I have spent in a school. Her methods for teaching students proved to be working as I watched the success of her students in each lesson.

Fieldwork (Clusters 10-15): A Constructivist Classroom

My fieldwork observations have been taking place in a kindergarten classroom at Berea Elementary in Montgomery, NY. The teacher I am working with uses constructivist methods throughout the day.

The teacher follows a morning routine every day: Do Now task, calendar time, Writer's Workshop, and then Work Board. For Work Board, students are paired up into groups of 5 or 6. They are given 4 different centers to complete each day. Centers can include: ABC's, 123's, Reading the Room, Writing Words, Classroom Library, Browsing Boxes, Highlight Words, sketchbook, and practice printing. The activities for each center are organized and labeled around the room. For some centers students have different activities to choose from and are permitted to make that choice themselves. If the teacher has a specific task she would like a child to complete she gently suggests, "Maybe you should try the patterning box today, Derek." In this case, some students may break off into groups of 2 or 3. The set-up of her classroom is similar to the one below:

As students complete a center, the teacher will check in on them to see how they are progressing and to make sure they don't spend too much time on one task. She allots about 10-15 minutes for each activity. She also makes sure students stay within their groups.

At the end of the day, if students have completed their work for the day, or if it is a special occasion, they have classroom choice time. The idea is similar in that students work within groups of 3-5. However, they are not completing an educational task. They can participate in things such as dramatic play, creating books, water colors, classroom library, and Play-doh. She offers different activities every day so students aren't always doing the same thing. She also encourages students to try new activities so they aren't working with the same children everyday.

The teacher uses 5E lesson plans as often as she can. One lesson I was lucky to observe was planting. She told me that the students had been reading fiction and non-fiction books about the life-cycle of plants. From these texts, they had put the life-cycle of a plant in the correct order using a felt board and also constructed their own model of a plant. On the last day of the unit, students planted their own seeds in a plastic cup to keep in the classroom for a week and tend to. Students had to decide where the plants should be kept to receive optimal sun light, as well as decide when to water them. The students observed the plants for a week, noting any changes, and then got to take them home to plant in their own gardens.

I personally think that constructivist methods are a great addition to any classroom and love the way this teacher uses them.

Maria Montessori? I barely know her!

That was my reaction when I first signed up to do my Education Contributors project on Maria Montessori. I knew the name "Montessori Schools" only from hearing snow closing delays on the radio as a kid. Now that I have read about her and her work, I am certainly happy that I chose her.

Maria Montessori was born in Chiaravalle, Italy in 1870, and spent her early childhood growing up in Rome. Her mother valued education, and therefore made sure Maria received a good one. Maria enrolled in an all boys technical institute at the age of 13 to persue engineering, but for college chose medical school. After becoming one of Italy's first female physicians, she quickly turned her studies towards educational psychology. Maria made strides in special education as early as 1910, and by 1930 her methods had already spread worldwide.

Maria Montessori would be considered a constructivist, and developed her own method of teaching, the Montessori Method. This method uses group work, mixed age groups, and large class sizes. Students engage in activities where they are in charge of their own learning. A teacher would guide them in making center choices that are appropriate for them, but then would allow them to complete the task. By mixing the age groups in the classroom, younger students are able to learn from older peers, while the older students are practicing what they have already learned. Also, working in groups like this bolsters students social skills. They are able to interact with their peers in an education setting that prepares them for the real-world.

Maria believed children passed through  four sensitive periods, shown below, where they were more susceptible to different types of learning. For example, in early childhood, students would use sensory-motor materials, and would participate in activities that engaged all of their senses (hearing, touching, tasting, seeing, smelling and motion).

I think the Montessori is definitely something I would use in my classroom. I love the idea of making sure students are actively participating in a lesson, and are experiencing the material. I know that in some cases, direct instruction will happen, but exploratory learning is so important for students to apply their knowledge. Finding ways to make topics applicable to real-life situations is the best method for making learning meaningful, and memorable for students.

Here are links for my full PowerPoint and emaze presentations on Montessori so you can read more and find out how to become a fully trained Montessori teacher!

Skills Happen

Some skills just happen, whether you realize it or not. These are called automated basic skills; they happen without having to consciously think about them. An example of this is writing letters. When you first learn the alphabet, you have to really think about how to form each letter. "Okay, I'm writing an 'a.' Pull back, around, and down." Now, without even thinking about it, if you need to write an "a" your brain knows what to do.

Most psychologists agree that there are three stages in the development of an automated skill: cognitive, associative, and autonomous. The cognitive stage is when we are first learning a skill. We are relying on declarative knowledge and general problem-solving strategies to accomplish a task. This load is heavy for our working memory to handle, and may require a lot of trial-and error until the task is completed (Woolfolk, 2014).

The second stage, associative, we begin to chunk parts of a procedure. By practicing this, we move into the autonomous where the entire process can be completed without thinking about it (Woolfolk, 2014). For example, consider learning how to ride a bike. The first time you take your training wheels off, you have to really think about how to pedal, balance, and steer all at the same time. As you practice, pedaling and steering begin to flow together, you can do them without concentrating. Finally, you are able to balance, as well as control your bike without having to focus. This process has now become an autonomous skill for you.

This video explains how your brain is able to automatically learn these skills.

The idea of working through these stages is important to classroom learning, especially when a teacher is showing his or class a skill that they will use through their educational career. When the skill is first presented, it is important to make sure students have ample practice with it. The teacher should describe when it is appropriate to use the skill and why they are using it. Also, as teachers we need to remember that all students will not have the same level of prior knowledge. Students will master these skills at different times and should be given the opportunity to continue working with them unit the skill is mastered. Practice should include simplified versions of the whole process as they apply to real life scenarios (Woolfolk, 2014). Putting the process, and really any lesson, into real life context makes it meaningful for students, thus showing them the value in what they are learning.

Sources:
Woolfolk, A. (2014). Educational psychology (12th ed.). Pearson Education.

Analyzing My Own Intelligence

After completing the pretest for Cluster 4, one of the activities it suggested I complete was on thinking styles. The activity presented a situation in which I had a student, Rupali, who analyzed her own thinking and I was to describe her personality and chose a career that was best suited for her. Rupali's answers to the self-assessment show that she is autonomous and free-thinking, this suggests that she would be best suited in an artistic career or somewhere where she can be her own boss.

This activity made me think about what my own responses would be to a similar assessment. If I am answering honestly and truly considering how I think and learn, I would say I am a structured thinker; I like to keep my thought process in order. I tend to make charts and organize my learning so each new topic flows together and build on each other. I am autonomous and a self-starter. I like to make my own decisions, and have the confidence to do so. When needed, I can take my learning into my own hands. I would say, much Rupali, my need for complexity varies by situation. For instance, when I am solving a math equation, I most enjoy problems that are layered and require multiple skills and steps to solve.

But here's the catch... If I was younger, even just a few years younger as a high school student, I don't think I would make this honest assessment. How I think and learn, and how I wanted to do these were two very different things. I always wanted to be a creative person; I took a variety of art, photography, and creative writing class through high school and undergrad because, that was the person I wanted to be. In elementary school I was in band and chorus, I "sketched" fashion designs, and I started an all girls pop group with my best friends. We were going to be famous! I didn't think about the fact that I was completely tone deaf, couldn't draw, and had a terrible singing voice (I can prove it).

I should mention now that I was a math major, something very analytical and certain, not at all creative. I was always a strong math student, even in elementary school. I appreciated that there was one right answer and a specific chain of events that you needed to follow to get there. I could remember the steps needed to solve complicated algebra problems and I would do it quickly. Even when I started college, I was on the fence about being an English major. I wanted that creative lifestyle.

So where am I going with all of this?... It took me until I was 20 years old to accept that I was a very analytical thinker and learner. As a future elementary school teacher, I will be working with students from ages 5 to 12. There is such a slim chance that these students will be able to honestly tell me how they think and learn. Thus, it is nearly impossible to get an authentic self-assessment from them. I think a large percent of the students will be like me and answer the questions based on what kind of minds they want to have, not how their minds really process information. I am not complete discarding the validity of an activity like this. In fact, I do think it would be interesting to do maybe halfway through the year when I have had a chance to work with students and see how they learn best. I would already have an idea of the group going into the assessment and could see how accurately students perceive their learning.

Here is a quick quiz you can take to see what learning style you fall under. Answer honestly! And if you complete it, please comment and let me know what style you got and how accurate you think it is.

Assessment Anxiety

When I think about my career as a student, I remember a lot of conventional testing. At the end of every unit we faced multiple choice and short answer questions from third grade right through high school. I like to think I was a good student, my grades were always good, but no matter how confident I was in the material, when test time rolled around, I would get nervous and stressed.

Conventional assessment tends to create a high stress level in students because they are more aware of what is expected of them. Consider a multiple choice question... Your student, Gabby, knows there is only one right answer and will spend more time reading and rereading the answers to make sure she has selected the correct one. By the time Gabby makes it through five questions, she is out of time and didn't finish the test. What if Gabby has to complete short response questions? She will spend so much time contemplating her responses and choosing words she thinks are just right, and again, she will run out of time.

A way to avoid this kind of situation is offering authentic assessments throughout the year as a more comfortable way to gauge student understanding. Let's use Gabby again; she has demonstrated that is a very careful and analytical thinker. Instead of making her sit for a multiple choice math test on measurement, have Gabby help measure a poster that needs to be framed and hung in class. If she can measure the dimensions of the poster accurately, you know that she mastered the skill. Creative students may be better off building a diorama, for example tell students that have to create a model of a park but it can only fit within certain dimensions. The students' grade would be heavily based on whether or not they measured their model correctly. You could also go a step further and say each area in their park had to fit within certain dimensions. Students would then be using spacial reasoning skills as well as simple measurement to make sure their park fit together perfectly.

There are many ways authentic assessment can play a role in the classroom, but unfortunately for teachers, they are time consuming. Consider assignment the model park diorama to your fourth grade class. You then have to take time to create a rubric and explain the project clearly with set expectations. A chunk of class time may be devoted to presenting the dioramas. Finally, countless will be spent grading them. For a teacher, it may seem overwhelming, but the pay off for your students in the end is what makes a project like this seem worthwhile. Easier forms of authentic assessment, like journaling, can be used every day and may not require grading. A teacher can give students thirty minutes to an hour of free write time every day. Then at the teacher's convenience, he or she can read the journals to see how the students are progressing.

I think if I was given more authentic assessment opportunities I would have enjoyed school more than I did. Especially as I got older and was capable of more complex thinking, simple multiple choice and true/false questions didn't seem to really determine whether or not I understood what I learned in US History that month. 

My first attempt at testing

Well, I attempted, and somewhat conquered, the Cluster 1 pre-test and post-test. I decided for this one that I wanted to keep my pre-test results to see what kind of growth occurred I read. I realized after, that the whole three questions they asked probably wouldn't be a good way to reflect on my growth... but I made a decision and I stuck to it! I did attempt the post-test a few times until I got it correct. Any questions I struggled with I went back into the text and reread the content to make sure I understood the material. Here are screenshots of my pre- and post-test results.

My brain does this!?

Any time I learn more about how the human brain works, I am truly amazed. To think about how hard my brain is working right now just to be able to type this blog post is astounding.

One of the things I enjoyed learning about was how the brain develops as we age. The brain is composed of neurons and synapses that allows it to process and hold information. These are the pieces that process everything we are taking in (like sight and sound) and what put information out (like making my fingers type this sentence). One of these neurons has the information processing capacity of a small computer. When we're born, our brain has 100 to 200 billion neurons, and 2,500 synapses. By age 2 or 3, we have 15,000 synapses.

As we get older, our brain begins to prune away synapses and neurons that we aren't using. There are two different versions of pruning: experience-expectant and experience-dependent, Experience-expectant pruning occurs when our brain produces neurons because they expect to use them, then as we age realizes we are not using them at all and prunes them away. An example of this occurs in Japanese infants. They are born with the ability to differentiate between the letters r and l, but because this isn't necessary in their language, they lose this ability. Experience-dependent pruning happens when connections are made based on an individual's experiences. Suppose a child is born without the ability to hear - the brain already has the neurons and synapses needed to decode sound, but because the child isn't using them, the pruning occurs. In place of these, the brain will produce more synapses and neurons needed for vision.

This is an interesting video that shows how neurons and synapses work to understand a new idea, as well as prune what is no longer needed.

I think what I find most interesting is how our brain does this all on its own. Our brain is able to adapt and change based on what it realizes we need.

Here is a link to the slides I created for the Cluter 2 PowerPoint.

Our first virtual class...

I am now a few days out of our first virtual class, and I can honestly say I hadn't fully decided if I liked it util now. I think it is much more convenient then having to drive to campus to meet, plus I can do it in my pajamas from my bed if I decide to.

My biggest concern was whether or not I would be able to keep focused or retain any information from, essentially, a video chat. The way it was organized (presenting an idea and then going round robin to talk about it) definitely helped solve that problem. I was interested in hearing what everyone had to say about Cluster 1. I think using the Google doc PowerPoint is a great way to share and present information. I am able to see what was important or exciting for my peers, as well as describe why something was important to me.

All in all, I am excited to see how next week's session pans out. By then we will be fully immersed in the class and the information.

The craziness begins...

My first blog post; learning how to do this successfully.

Here is a link to a great website for elementary school learning.