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.

9/15

It is important in our classrooms to create a strong bond of unity. In order to do so all students need to feel secure. They need to have a good sense of self. As teachers we need to boost our students. In our classrooms we need to eliminate cliques. Everyone is everyones friend at least while at school. I really enjoyed how we learned the different stages of Erikson's model of social development. I have used the peg system in the past to memorize lists of information and it works well. I will be using that on the test for sure.

Child Testing

For my testing I did the experiments on my nephew. He his five, turning six in March. I did three of the experiments that you showed us in class last Wednesday and he failed all three tests.
First I placed two glasses of water that were the same size with the same amount of water in them. I asked him which one had more water. He told me they were the same. He then watched me as I dumped one of the glasses of water into a taller, thinner glass. I asked him the same question and he said the taller glass had more.
For my second experiment I placed to pencils parallel pointing towards him. I asked him which pencil appeared to be longer. Once again he told me they were equal. I then moved one pencil a couple of inches towards him and repeated the question. He told me the one closer to him was longer.
For my third and final experiment I placed two equal round balls of clay in front of him and asked him which one had more clay. He told me they were the same. I then smashed one of the balls in front of him and once again asked him which one had more clay. He told me the smashed ball contained more clay. I asked him why and he told me because it looked wider and fatter.
I was not surprised with his reasoning because he does fall into his age group although I would have expected him to find the round ball bigger than the flat ball. It was very normal to jump to the conclusions that he did but I still find it very interesting that a child can watch you change the shape and automatically assume you have added or removed matter.

Fertile Minds

In the article it relates a baby, after the first few weeks of conception, to teenagers and cellphones. Even at such a young age of development the brain is already up and working at a pace I can't even comprehend. Little shock wave messages are running across the brain and making a lot of noise. Something interesting I learned is the brain is not something that is turned on at birth. It is always working even from the beginning.
Infants need toys and they need interaction. Development will be decreased if they do not have the mental stimulation that they need. It is a crucial time period for the brain and in order for children to have fertile minds they need to have the essentials. Nature vs Nurture? We need both to reach our full potential.
The develop of the brain is very interesting. I like in the article when they said that scientist are surprised that so often everything in the brain goes right. There are so many things that have to link up in order for our brain to act accordingly. They related the axons to a bowl of spaghetti. It is the neural activity that puts everything in it's place.
The motor functions of an infant become stronger and stronger as the brain develops. The movements become more refined and the dim knowledge that was before has now brightened as the baby keeps learning. When these senses don't develop or have another reaction that could be the early signs of autism or another learning disability. Even those exposed to danger feel threatened and develop differently.
The part of the article that I found interesting was that it is easiest to learn a new language from birth to the age of 6. I knew it was easier for children but I didn't realize the essential gap began at child birth. We discussed this in class and I found it very interesting. I totally agree with foreign languages being taught in our classrooms. If it prepares your mind to make adjustments and adapt to learning then why not do it in our classrooms if we can.