Final Learning Log

I think children learn in a variety of ways. I know that might sound generic but after taking this class this semester I don't think that any one theorist is completely correct. They all have their strong points and I think if they all blended together it would be the perfect theory. Erikson's learning styles are essential in my mind. It is so important as a teacher to understand that not everyone learns the same way. In teaching we need to have a variety of styles and that is one thing I have learned from this class. As our teacher you modeled everything correctly. You have set the bar high for us. We need to include those essential activities to make our classrooms successful.
I don't know if it is because these are the most recent chapters we have studied but I also really enjoyed behaviorism and social constructivism. I know I will use punishment and reinforcement in my classroom. Using reinforcement is a good way guide your students. I loved learning about self monitoring, self evaluation, and self regulation. These will be so useful to apply them in our classrooms. And in my mind this fits right in to modeling because you have to show your students how they can be effective in demonstrating these things.
This will all affect my teaching because I know I will adopt several of these theories when I am a teacher. I will use these theories to help my students learn and I will model appropriately for them so they can be successful.

Social Cognitivism

This week was very enjoyable. I loved spliting up into the groups and presenting the information. My favorite thing we learned about was modeling. Modeling is so important to use in the classroom. I didn't know there were so many parts that went with modeling. It plays such a large role in everyones live. In my classroom I think it is essential that I use only positive modeling. I will encourage my students to act the same and be positive. When students act up it is important that the other students understand that that behavior is not acceptable. Modeling can be bad if the modeled act is inappropriate. When students use bad language around other students it is very popular for others to catch on and repeat those words.

Behaviorism

This week we talked about behaviorism. I loved the office clip! I was really confused with the difference from reinforcement and punishment and then it talked more about it in chapter 10. I remember learning about it in high school and it started to come back to me. The visuals on the board we much appreciated.
In class today we discussed how all the chapters are related and I discovered that a lot in reading the next chapter. One you understand behaviorism observational learning fits right in. They tie veru well together and work hand in hand in the classroom.
I think this will be very helpful in the future. Understanding how students react to reinforcement and punishment will make a world of difference in classroom management and in meeting the needs of each student.

Knowledge Construction

Today's lesson was easy to understand if you didn't look too deep. Yesterday when I was making my review sheet I thought I understood the concepts and had an understanding of how everything fit together. When I came to class this morning I found that everything was a little deeper than I thought. I didn't actually realize how the process worked and the involvement that occurred through everything else. The concept of social construction was confusing in my mind but after we went through it again in class I was able to understand.
The five steps that you placed on the board helped me relate this to the classroom. Because our students are often hardheaded it may be difficult relaying new information that conflicts with a previous schema they have made. We need to convince them that new information is okay and have our students explore new ideas.
The group presentation today introduced a lot of different knowledge construction strategies. We need to do more social construction projects and draw from distributed intelligences. Something I would like to use in my classroom is authentic activities. The check book idea would work well in the other classrooms. Students are always asking "when am I ever going to have to use this" and authentic activities provide solid proof. Having our students explore new situations to solve the problem may not always be the best way to teach but it works in a lot of different situations. It is important to know when to apply this.
Everything we have learned this semester is really starting to click together. We have to be open minded and include a variety of resources in our classrooms to make our teaching effective. We need to build off of other lessons to introduce new material through scaffolding.

Study Strategy

For my goal I choose to review notes within a few hours after taking them and then within 24 hours after that. I applied this to math 2020 because that is that class that I am struggling most in at the moment. I have tried reviewing with in a few hours. This is really good because the information is still fairly fresh but you have had a chance to digest it. So when you do your homework in this time period everything clicks. The problem is we have class every other day so I then go for basically two says without studying and the homework that seemed easy is now foggy and confusing. I have also tried studying with in 24 hours and this is okay but the notes are not as clear and stuff is fairly confusing.
I have found from my experience that it is most beneficial if you study within a few hours and then do your homework and then review again sometime after you have completed the assignment but before returning to class. Often just glancing over it when it is convenient worked well for me. And I know from past experiences that if you review notes before sleeping it helps process the information into long term.

Cognitive Process

In our class we learned about memory. We reviewed long term and short term and the process that it takes to go from one form to the other. We also discussed different learning styles and how we can connect information to make it more solid. Scaffolding was something that we focused on that was a little new for me. I have been hearing this word a lot lately and it has new meaning now.
Something that I found very interesting was how we processed information. I enjoyed discussing this different types of study. I had no idea I was studying incorrectly was wrong. About 90% of my study habits are ineffective and this is important for me to know. I have thought about this the last week and have tried to apply new study skills. It is actually very hard. Our memory works it such an intricate way. We need repetition in order for it to stick. And not just memorization but learning the same thing in a variety of ways. So as teachers how to we help ourselves and our students process information into long term memory?
Something that was said in our creative arts class that I found applicable was if you teach something in a creative way and take the time to mold it into the minds of your students it will actually save you in the long run because that will process it into their long term memory. They will be able to look back on activities and if your involving several different types of learning strategies it will make a difference. Everyone studies and memorizes in a different way. Some people like to listen to music and can handle watching a football game while doing their math yet at the same time their are people who have to have complete silence and absolutely no distractions.
In my class I need to be aware of how to apply what we are learning and use the different types of study strategies. Everyone learns in a different way so applying it several times in unique ways will make a difference.

September 24th

We learned about individual differences. The part I think will be more difficult is adapting them all into your classroom. If every student has their own personality and you have 25+ students how can you plan a lesson where everyone learns? I enjoyed all the suggestions that we reviewed in class. It is imporant to remember that the child is adapting just as much as you are. It's important to remember everyone has a different intelligence. Gardener's theory of mulitple intelligences will help in the classroom. Each student has their own strengths and weaknesses and if we use linguistic, logical, musical, ect to teach we will be successful.