CED525 Week 3 (strategies)

Since I'm a Social Studies teacher, I was really interested in chapter 6; Summarizing and Note Taking. Note taking is a skill and there is nothing more frustrating than middle school children who don't know the first thing about taking notes. I don't blame the students, but the teachers need to guide them through this process early on. I remember writing as fast as I could when I was in school. I didn't want to miss a thing my teacher said. My hand would hurt and I feel like I missed a great deal of the material. Looking at all the different ways for students to take notes, I don't think any student should have a sore hand. Organizing information and summarizing the main ideas is what is important. I love using KWL charts because they tell me what my students know, want to know and last what they learned. It's simple, but effective. I was excited to see all the different, but effective and engaging sites that were listed in this chapter. I find that my students get bored with the KWL charts. The charts work in favor, but can also hinder my lesson. Students seem to shut down at times when they see me handing them out. On the other hand, they also know the expectation of the sheet and that is a plus. I will definately be trying some new sites that we talked about in class, as well as the ones listed in the book. Another strategy that we talked about was cooperative learning. I could go on and on about cooperative learning. I love it! I think it's the best tool for a teacher to take advantage of. I do a project every year about mummies, tombs, and ancient Egyptians. I choose groups for my students to work in and complete a large project. I like to mix my groups with children with all different talents. I strongly believe in the multiple intelligences, so I base my lessons and groups off of that theory. Some students love the research paper and writing, where as others enjoy putting together a slide show presentation. The artistic students love the part of the project where they use cardboard and tin foil to re-create the cover of a tomb. Last, you always have that student in the group who organizes the flow of everything. It works great and there are many smiles on their faces when I walk around the room. When I let them pick their own groups it's a mess. There is a lot of goofing around and social hour. I'm loving these new tools and hearing what other people do in their classroom.

CED525

CED525 Class 2

The strategies we studied this week are a great reminder of what educators need to focus on. I think at times we find ourselves moving into a routine and not always thinking our lessons through. Why would a student want to do the work, if they don't understand what the objecctives, or what the purpose is? Setting objectives helps the students understand the direction of the learning, along with short and long term accomplishments. I asked my students to answer some Social Studies questions on an online survey I had created. I used survey monkey to poll the students. I wanted to get an idea of what they knew, wanted to know and what they found difficult, about learning history. It worked really well and they took the questions serious. I explained that the answers they gave would dictate what they would learn this year. In a way I actually allowed them to set their own objectives on what they wanted to learn in my class. I put the results of the survey on my Smart-board, so they could all see. I really like my students to be involved in the classroom decisions and taking an active role in their learning. In our book chapter 2 had great ways to give feedback. Communication and feedback also helps build that bridge of respect between the teacher and student. Praising and showing your students recognition is also an important key to building a mutual respect. Without respect your student will not use their potential to the fullest in your class. I don't care how great of a teacher you are.

CED525A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of teaching and learning

The introduction to this article talked about the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. I've had a great deal of mixed emotions about that act for years. The act is placing a new emphasis on research and having evidence based programs for schools. Honestly, my initial thought after reading that sentence was "why". I thought to myself, why would we need all this research and evidence to show that students learn better through technology. I just thought that was common knowledge and didn't require all these fancy case studies. I liked the paragraph that stated technology is dramatically different in schools today, than years ago. Well...... yes I would have to agree and state that evidence is clear, without research. Our cell phones are also our computers, navigational devices, media players and so on. I did think some of the results of the studies were very informative and useful for educators. I strongly believe in group work and one of the results of this article, reinforced the importance of it. It stated " small-group learning had more positive effects than individual learning" when using technology. I think that more and more research will be done and needs to be done on technology and it's effects in schools. We must use the research to make our schools a safe, engaging, and a technologically based environment. So, I understand the need for all the case studies, but I also think that we don't need to do studies on the "obvious". That is strictly my opinion. I know that this type of research is only going to help me be a better educator. Overall, I thought this article was interesting and informative with all the studies that were conducted.

CED525 Principles of Teaching and Learning

This article reinforced the "goal" an educator strives to achieve. Knowing how your students learn and being able to teach based on their needs. Throughout my teaching career thus far, I have strive to focus on the multiple intelligences and how students learn. Meeting our students "needs" in the classroom is the key to their success. I found many statements and facts throughout this article, that made me reevaluate my teaching style.
"Students’ prior knowledge can help, or hinder learning". I found that statement very interesting. The information you present to a child is only relevant if they filter and interpret the information correctly. Sounds self explanatory, but is it really? Every child learns and perceives information differently. " We cannot control the developmental process, we can shape the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical aspects of classroom climate in developmentally appropriate ways". Educators need to focus on direct instruction, feedback, assessment, and other communication tools. Feedback is not only important for students, but for teachers as well. Teachers need to take the feedback their given and adapt and make the appropriate changes, to enhance student learning. Feedback should be used to help a teacher develop and enhance their teaching style.
Effective teaching involves aligning the three major components of instruction: learning objectives, assessments, and instructional activities.