Course Reflection

When I wrote my paper on my personal student learning theory, I basically followed the same beliefs as Dr. Patricia Wolfe in her video Brain Research and Learning. She had four main points to make. First, the brain is sculpted through experience, so everything in the classroom impacts the brain. Second, the brain seeks meaningful patterns, by which the brain tries to make sense of new information through concrete experience. Third, emotion is a catalyst for learning which means that when learning is tied in to emotions the lessons will stay with them longer and students who are emotionally happy do better in school. Fourth, there are two types of memory; procedural and declarative. Procedural memory is rote rehearsal or automatic, such as driving. Declarative memory, on the other hand, is elaborate rehearsal. Simulation, hands-on teaching, using visuals and graphics, acting out, and reciprocal teaching are all examples of elaborate rehearsal. Singing songs or using other forms of rhythm, rhyme, and rap also work as elaborate rehearsal for declarative memory. I am a visual learner so I tend to bring in as many visuals as possible. After taking this 8 week course, I stand by what I wrote during week 1. I still believe that following brain research results is the best way to teach. We need students to learn, so the best way to teach them is make sure that their brains will process and retain the information they need to pass our classes in an environment that promotes learning.
However, I did make some adjustments after watching Dr. Wolfe’s video. I talked my grade level out of teaching to procedural memory and instead incorporated more declarative memory instruction. The last few weeks of school were full of songs and rap to teach different skills. That was with my second grade students. I will now be teaching high school sophomores and juniors history and during the first day of class want to incorporate music. I plan to play “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and use that song throughout the year to teach them history. That song is about historical events from the 50s to the 80s. I want my students to create their own lyrics for each decade from the founding fathers through present day as we study each part of our history. I think the best way for them to do this would be through a wiki or Voice Thread so they can collaborate with each other. I would let each class choose the method they would prefer to collaborate with. For their final product, I want them to create a PowerPoint Presentation. I would assign groups to put the class lyrics to pictures for different decades. Creating a project like this would definitely involve them in a constructionist learning project. They would have to agree about which events to include and exclude and argue well enough to have their classmates agree with them. This class project would also serve as a summary of the year so would be a collaborative portfolio for the class.
Moving from an elementary to a high school, my access to technology has become more limited. I will no longer have an ELMO and LCD projector, so will have to show slides via a small TV. One goal I have will be to argue that school funding should be used to purchase technology. I may buy my own LCD projector and use that in conjunction with my personal laptop in order to access the technology I feel would benefit my students. Another goal I have would be to include the use of technology that the students have access to. Looking ahead at the next course, which is research, I believe I may choose to research using cell phones in class. That is a technology the students have and it would capture their attention if I used the technology they are proud of in order to teach. I also plan to use podcasts as a way to engage my students. The best way for me to incorporate student technology into the classroom is by surveying that during the first day of class to find out what they have access to. Incorporating student technology into the classroom environment should help me teach my students.

Voicethread

http://voicethread.com/share/1198258/

My frustrations with testing.

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

All successful classrooms use cooperative learning. When students have the opportunity to work together, their confidence increases and they become motivated to learn so long as it is within their zone of proximal development. Many teachers do not provide much time for group work because group work takes more time than lectures so those teachers who push to "get through" the material are more concerned with covering the information than in students understanding the material. Other teachers are unsure of their ability to facilitate group work, so may try it once and give it up as a failure idea instead of collaborating with those who successfully run their classrooms primarily through the use of group work. Part of the problem with group work is that we need to effectively manage our classrooms and explicitly teach our students how to behave and what to do when working in a group. Once they understand how to behave and what the expectations are, then the teacher can facilitate discussions rather than constantly deal with behavior problems that arise when students are unclear about what they should be doing.

Social learning theory is essentially constructionism learning theory in group work as opposed to individual work. We know that students learn better when they construct something, so working in a group (social learning) to create something (constructionism)is merging social learning with constructionism. Jigsaw learning is a way to dissect a topic into its components and then have students teach each other the material they have become experts on. This student engagement method allows students to connect to the information and recall it beyond the test date.

Social learning can be facilitated through social networking sites as well as online collaboration tools such as wikis and blogs. Technology allows students to collaborate not just with the peers physically in their classroom but with peers in other class periods that the same teacher teaches. That exponentially increases the amount of learning that can occur. After all, the more people there are to bounce ideas off the more discussion can take place! When it comes to teachers conducting SSTs (Student Study Teams) the saying is that is isn't 3 teachers equal 1+1+1, but 3 to the third power since ideas bounced off each other increase exponentially as something someone says triggers another thought that would most likely have not occurred without the input of the other teachers.