Weel 10 PLE

The most important thing that I have learned by watching these videos is that it is entirely possible to use technology even with very young students. I realized that there are many ways to incorporate technology and some of the programs that children already like to play around with, such as Kidpix, can be a valuable learning tool. I also have come to realize that even younger children can use the internet for communication and research purposes if someone is there to monitor. The Spider video showed the class communicating with another class in another state and I think that this would not only be a great learning experience for the students but they would also be excited about sharing what they are learning and see what another class is discovering. I can also see in these videos that it is possible for students to learn to use a lot of the different technologies on their own such as the cameras and different computer programs. Two of the videos showed the classes sharing their products with their parents and families. I think that this is an important use of technology because it is a great way to try and get the parents involved in what the students are studying. I can see that there are many different uses for technology even with very young students.

Week 9 PLE

Week 9 PLE

My initial thoughts were that it would be nice to have more technology available to my teacher. On the other hand, I didn’t see a whole ton of technology being used by the lower grade teachers in my hallway so I don’t know if they would really use the additional resources if they had them. The school has enough technology to share as long as teachers who wish to use these items plan ahead and sign up for the things that they need. One thing that I would have liked to use more and I wish was more readily available would be a projector for powerpoints and other things I would like to show the students from the computer. The school does have enough technology to use for a variety of different lessons. I also talked to a 5^th grade teacher who really liked using the Elmo for many of her lessons and so she was permitted to keep one of the school Elmos in her classroom so it seems that if you actually use the technology, you will have access to it.

I completed the survey and the informed consent.

IPT 301 Week 9

1. I think that the students in my cohort classroom are more extrinsically motivated. Some evidence of this is that they want to show the teacher their work as soon as they are done and be praised for it. They also read with the intent of earning minutes towards a free pizza or kids meal at Applebees and they turn in their homework folders to get a piece of candy. I am sure that there are some lessons where they are intrinsically motivated but I think right now, they are usually externally motivated.
2. Intrinsic motivation is decreased by rewards and praise because then those students who were otherwise motivated by a desire to learn and discover will start to attribute their efforts to gaining said reward rather than just learning and discovering. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation will be increased by rewards and praise because those people who expect rewards for their efforts and perform merely to receive those rewards will continue to perform just to get those rewards and will not learn to be intrinsically motivated until said rewards are removed.
3. Expectancies and values influence student motivation because students lose any motivation to try a task if they have the expectancy that they will fail. They also lose motivation if they do not think that there is a real value in the task they are completing. On the other hand, students will have more motivation if they believe they will succeed and will be especially more intrinsically motivated if they believe that what they are doing is of real worth and something that they will need or want to know in the future. Expectancy and value also effects students’ motivation because they will think about what the cost of a certain task is and if it is worth them taking time away from other things in order to complete.
4. I noticed that my mentor teacher did not praise the students for things that she already expected them to know how to do. This made her praise more real because then if she praised the students it was more likely that they actually deserved if for their efforts. She also kept high expectations for all of the students and put a big emphasis on their own responsibility to learn. I think that this view helped increase their motivation because it focused on the effort that the students put forth and put success on controllable causes. She wouldn’t help the students with things she knew they could do themselves which also helps increase motivation and increases their expectancy.
5. I agree with the behavioral theory because it makes sense that some people are motivated to learn by the outward rewards, the need to please others, or the desire to learn. I have seen all of these things at some point in my life and could agree that these explanations are accurate. On the other hand, I also think that the self-worth theory has a very convincing argument because I can also see instances where people may have been fearing failure or accepting failure and these are the things that affected their performance.

IPT 301 Teaching Reflection

We tried to incorporate the same principles of teaching and learning that we were discussing into our lesson. This included constructivism: both individual and social, disequilibrium, and methods adaptation. We hope that by using a lot of class participation, the ideas would be more likely to be processed into long term memory.

One main focus of our presentation was constructivism and comparing and contrasting individual and social constructivism. In order to incorporate this principle into our presentation we divided the class in half and game them a math problem. We had half of the class try to figure out the problem in groups so that they were participating in social constructivism and the other half had to work independently to solve the problem to demonstrate individual constructivism. We then had the class talk about the advantages and disadvantages that they came across while working in groups or independently.

We also implemented disequilibrium into our lesson by asking the class a couple of questions that are commonly answered incorrectly. Sure enough, the class answered these based on the common misconceptions and we then told them that they were incorrect which made them want to learn what the answers really were. By making the class think they were correct about something and then telling them otherwise, they were driven to discover the real information. This demonstrated to everyone that they could use this same principle with their elementary students.

Adaptation was also implemented into our lesson as we gave the class the animal sorting task. We were then able to discuss the methods the class used to sort the animals and find out who used assimilation, accommodation, or avoidance. Seeing this in a real life situation made it easier to see how these would look in a child.

I think that one of our strong points in our teaching was that we used a lot of class participation. By asking the class to participate and truly experience some of the principles we were teaching, they were able to get involved and understand. We also spent a lot of time preparing and had planned what we were going to talk about.

We had a weakness in the area of time management. We obviously spent too much time in the earlier parts of our lesson because we were already running out of time before we got to the assessment. Another area where we were weak is we could have discovered more about schemes and operations because we were still a little shaky in these areas. Next time we could definitely be better managers of time and be better prepared to answer any questions that the class may have.

IPT 301 week 8

From my experience I support the view that constructivism is a better way to learn new things than through lectures. I definitely have noticed that when I personally get to explore and experiment with something, it is easier for me to understand. Also, the things that I have done and seen in action are far easier for me to internalize and keep in my long term memory than the things that I have merely heard or seen someone else show me.

I definitely think that there is a place for both individual and social constructivism in education. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages but with both you can have a balanced education. I have seen kids work together and share their knowledge to create a joint project where every member of the group benefited and learned. I have also seen groups where they divided up the work or one person did everything. This is where individual constructivism might be a good alternative. In this method, the student is forced to learn all parts of the task and gather enough knowledge to finish on their own. However, this also limits the amount of knowledge they can gain because they don’t have others to share with them.

I also can see why we would want to bring our students cognition into disequilibrium. When I am sure I am right about something and someone tells me I am wrong, I hurry to go research the topic and learn what the correct answer is. If I was indeed wrong, I now have the correct information I need and will probably never forget it. By sending our students into disequilibrium, they too will want to find the knowledge they need to get back into equilibrium and this will cause them to go find new information and learn.

I also think that the zone of proximal development is a very important concept for teachers to know about. We want our students to be able to complete tasks that push and stretch them but that they are also able to complete within reason. We need to be able to scaffold learning for our students so that it is at just the right level for them to learn and progress.

IPT 301 Week 7

1. I can’t remember that much about cooperative learning in elementary school, although I am sure we did it. I have seen cooperative learning in schools I have worked at schools that have used a lot of this type of learning in their centers. In college, I have experienced a great deal of cooperative learning. I have many classes where a lot of our projects are based on these methods; we often have to make presentations or lessons as a group.

2. I think that cooperative learning has a place in the classroom just like any other method. For certain subjects, such as science, where an experiment needs to be done and discussed as a group, cooperative learning would promote learning because the students could all input their strengths and they could get a variety of input in the discussion.

3. Reciprocal questioning: method of reinforcing new concepts, information, or procedures that students have learned in class, encourages structured conversations among students.

Instructional Conversation: assumes that teaching involves conversation, the students have something important to say and their input is valued, is between the teacher and students.

4. Ability grouping is good for math and reading because it is much easier to taylor instruction to the heterogeneous group. This type of grouping is also better for the higher achieving students to give them some enrichment rather than having them work on things that they have already mastered.

Mixed grouping would be appropriate for activities where you want groups of different ability levels. This way, you can get different input from people with different interests and levels. The lower kids will benefit from having the help of the higher levels and the higher kids can help teach the lower kids.

Week 6 PLE

These are the google earth tours that I watched:

Rebecca Ferguson's

Sarah Peterson's

Keri Wooten's

I think that all of these would be really great learning activities for students. However, I also recognize the amount of time that it took me to make my google earth tour and I just don't know how practical it would be for me to make very many of these for my class. Maybe it would be easier once you have done it a few times and really have the hang of all the tools available. Also, I sometimes had a hard time viewing all the parts of the tours and knowing everything I needed to access to get the full effect of the tour and so we would probably have to walk younger children through a lot of the tour. I do however agree that these are all great instructional activities that the kids could really be engaged in and learn from.