Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Course Contract Review # 2

1. I felt like I gave myself enough time to study for this test. I went through all of the notes and the study guides. I also went through the resources on the class website as well. I felt like i knew all of the material that i needd to know.

2. I am not understanding the application of the material in the test questions. I know what the question is asking but i am not focusing enough onwhat it is truly asking and i am not allowing myself enough time to htik about the answer. I get scared thati am going to get it wrong. I need to relax and trust that i know what the answer is. Trust my brain.

3. I am making progress, but as much as I would like. I am understanding the importance of the class, and how as a treacher it can help me. All of the information is very interesting to me. I need to spend more time reading through the book and gaining the knowledge that i need.

4. I need to gove myself everynight to study what we have gone over in class, so that i can gain fully the concepts. I need to trust mysself and be positive about my learning. I get negative when things get hard or when I get stressed.

5. At this time i am just trying to get everything done for the class that I need to. I am focusing on performance goals. I did not do as well as I thought I was going to do on the test. I felt good about it going into it, i studied so I thought I was okay. I just need to be more positive and trusy myself. My motivatioj is still learn as much as i can, and be able to hlep my students as they need it.

Feild Response Journal part 1

Question 4:
I noticed Kohlberg’s theory when I am teaching dance. I feel that most of the students in the classes that I teach were functioning at a level that was consistent with Kohlberg’s interpersonal conformity stage. However, some of the students were very much still in the obedience and punishment stage. I first noticed that a student was in the interpersonal conformity stage when I ask the students to be quiet while I am teaching movement, and when I asked a student to stop talking another student. The student replied with an explanation that she was simply explaining the movement to the other student who was having trouble understanding the movement that I was teaching. Even though the student was talking out of turn she was only doing what she felt was expected of her as a member of the class. This Student had taken upon herself a responsibility that was not vocally assigned to her, and even though she was “breaking a rule” all of the other students seemed to understand and accept that what she was doing was right. Some students however, as previously stated would not have talked under any circumstance for fear of being called out in front of the class and being scolded or punished. These students obeyed the class rule only because they were scared of what punishment might befall them. I believe that the best way in which a teacher can help students attain higher levels is to allow the class to create their own rules to live by. In this way they are creating their own moral code which will clearly dictate what is and isn’t acceptable in the society which they create. It would also be effective for a teacher to allow a student to talk quietly on occasion to another student who may be struggling even if it is a class rule to not talk. This would allow the students to see that there is not always a clear and definitive moral right and wrong when it comes to following pre-set rules. Kohlberg’s law and order stage is not always the most effective in the classroom in regards to working with a community of learners. Sometimes I have to watch how I approach the students so I don’t hurt their feelings; so that they are not getting embarrassed in front of the other students.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Field Response Journal, Part I

Question 9:
My exspeicence with how long a teacher waits to give the answer toa question or to call on someone to comment is usually not enough time. Research shows that a teacher should wait 3 seconds after asking the question to go on with the answer or comments. The average teacher usually dose not wait, and just continues to answer the question. By gving the time in btween lets the students think about the question and trying to figure out an answer. In my classes that i have had if the teacher waits just the enough amount of time, i start thinking about what the subject is and i want to know the answer becasue I want to be called on so i can give the answer. If the teacher waits to long then there is an akard silence, but sometimes that is what teacher wants. They want us to really think and want us to form an answer or an opinnon. I feel like this is all apart of geting our brain going and ready to learn.

Field Response Journal, Part I

Question 8: A Token Economy is a technique in which desired behaviors are reinforced by a token that learners can use to "purchase" a variety of other enforcers. The way that i see using this in my dacne class is that the main points in my dance class is participation points. So being in class is very important and there is no way to make up points if you miss a day of class. You lose those participation points for that day. So I would have coupons that I would reward the students for being on time to class, for being the first one in their dance clothes, or even just having a good attitude. This way they can use these coupons to buy back thier participation points if they have to miss class, or they just don't receive thier full points one day. If the student is using to get points for a day they missed it has to be excused, (they cant just miss to miss). and there will be a max of how may points that they can buy back. This is something that I wish my dance compnay teacher would have done. Somedays you have to miss or you are sick, and that can bring your grade down lower then you would like. I think that having a token in a positive way will allow the students to act in good behavior. The students also be learning in a positive environment, and be able to succeed in what they need to be learning.

Multiple Intelligence

The results of this test didnt surprise me that much. The Top ways that I learn are Kinaesthetic, Linguistic and Interpersonal. Interpersonal scored the highest, and I thought the kinaesthetic would have because of the dancer in me. However I do like being around people. I like talking to people and helping them whenever I can. I understnad people and I enjoy getting to know anyone that will give me the opprotunity. I would use this information to help study for classes by studying with other poeple and undestand what they know will help me better understand what I need to know. I would use this for my future stundetns. I think that it is a good idea for everyone to know what areas they are stronger in, if they dont already know where they stand. This could help them be more successful in their education.

Educational Neuroscience Blog

What:
I researched Judy Willis and about what she is researching currently is RAD teaching. RAD is a way that as teachers we can get the attention of our students. The R in RAD stand for Reticular Activating System (RAS), this is the part of the brain that is the fight or flight. So as teachers we need to create a low stress enviornment and try to engage our students in new ways. By using tiggers that are exciting to our students. A in RAD stands for Amygdala. This is the part of the brain that acts as a switch to let us know if we are stressed or not. We need to make sure that our students are not stressed and are happy. And the D in RAD stands for Dopamine. This is a chemical neurotransmitter, that if we have a high dosage of this our brain is receiving inforamtion all over. When this is high we are happy and engaged.

So What:
So from what i understnad about RAD teaching is that our students learn the best when they are engaged and not stressed out about what they are learning. So as an educator I need to be abvle to provide this envornment for my students. The classroom needs to be a place for enjoyment and for interaction with other students. I beleive that if the students are enjoying what they are learning they will remenber it and do well in the calss. So by knowing all of the ways to get are studetns attention will help us as teachers. There are a lot of educators that know the content area but lack in the engaging thier studentes part. I highly agree with Willis with this research as a way to look at teaching.

Now what:
I understand what RAD teaching is, but i dont know if i could fully implement this into my teaching. I need to understand more about the human brain and how it works to be able to fully use the ideas of RAD teaching in my classroom. I agree that this is a great way to have the classroom. I know that I would have improoved if my classes in high school if they would have been set up this way. I think that it is important to know how to have a relaxing climate in the classroom. As i get into the schools I am going to try and use RAD teaching in my teaching. Also as I am already teaching at a studio level i can bring this into the Dance room. In dacne there are so many ways i could use this, i could bring images and have the dancers make up dances about that image. I need to brainstorm and come up with lessons that I can use RAD teaching.

Field Response Journal, Part I

Question 3: The stage that the students were in that I observed were in the Identity v. Role Confusion - Adolesence stage. As I was observing I noticed that the students were able to make thier own decisions about what kind of acvtivies they wanted to do. I didnt notice the teacher behavior that much that was heping the students decide thier identity. I saw that their was opprotunities to learn in diffrent ways that and had turns in group work to have different roles in the group. I feel at this stage the teacher needs to be givng as much options that they can, so that the students can try and figure out what they want to be and find that sense of identity. To help tranistion the students in this stage I feel can be hard, but if we do it right then this stage can and will be sucessfull.