Parents

As teachers we have to take into consideration which are the parents. Forming a relationship with the parents is as important with forming relationships with your students. The main reason we need to form a relationship is to help their child work better in the classroom. Being able to have this relationship the teacher can tell their parents what their child is struggling with and what they excel in. Not all parents aren't going to form this bond between the teacher. There are a few parenting styles that we can begin to see as a teacher. The four parenting types that I learned are: authoritative, permissive, authoritarian, indulgence, and disengaged. Each of these specific parenting styles has their own attribute. Authoritative is high acceptance and high control, meanwhile authoritarian is low acceptance and high control. The last two they are the complete opposites of each other. Disengaged is low acceptance and low control. While indulgence is high acceptance and low control. As teachers we never know what types of parents we are dealing with. The only way to find out is meeting with the parents and see their attitude toward their child. Stressing the teacher-parent relationship is so important in the classroom.

Teaching Styles - This website gives you a diagram of the different parenting styles. It also goes into depth about each one. I found this sight to be very insightful and an easy way to learn the different parenting styles. Above this link I displayed a graph that you are going to find on this website. This graph can help you understand the concepts. I hope this helped :)

Culture's Within The Classroom

Anita always has insightful pod casts about many aspects that you might face in the classroom. The key idea that she discussed in this podcast was the diverse cultures in a classroom. As a teacher we have to take into consideration about the different cultures. A study was shown that 18% of the United States civilians speak another language at home. Half the population speaks Spanish. These diverse speeches are going to increase as time goes on. We never want to push different cultures on the students, but we want to give the students insight on some cultures. A valid point that Anita brings up is the fact that Chinese people have a hard time learning English in the early grade. They have to start off with the basics like: phonics, phonemes, etc. The one aspect that I really enjoyed about this podcast was the different traditions that were involved with each culture. Anita said that in Columbia it is rude to use the teachers name. Instead they had to call the teacher, "teacher." There are a variety of cultures we are going to face in the classroom. As teachers we have to accommodate them in our lessons plans.

This video shows what diversity is and what it means. The one thing I really like about this YouTube video are the pictures of many students. It also shows many ways to incorporate different cultures within a lesson plan. I really hope you in enjoy it as much as I did.

Intelligence?

I thought that interviewing people would a be a stressful task. While I was doing this activity I found it to be very insightful and fun. The task was to ask five different people what they thought the word intelligence means. To my surprise everyone thought of different meanings. Before I asked anyone I decided to really define intelligence in my own terms. What I came up with is, "the process of learning and developing different ideas to better oneself." While I was conducting these mini interviews, I thought everyone would have the same thought. Well I was completely wrong. Everyone had there own little twist on the word. To fully understand everyone's answer I developed a PowerPoint, What is intelligence? If you are still curious about what intelligence means feel free to look at this PowerPoint. Hopefully you can get a few ideas from this slideshow. Thank you!

Theorists

During this Chapter I pulled out key ideas that were important to me. I found that the important aspects were the different theorists. I am a childhood major and Piaget has been an important theorists, in order to really understand children. These two theorists were very interesting to learn about. The main ideas that I picked out were the stages that Piaget developed and the important ideas that Vygotsky supplied us. I hope you enjoy!

 

Evaluate: 

Piaget's Stages This website supplies the different stages that Piaget developed. The best aspect about this site is there is a recording so if you didn't want to read it you can listen to the digital version.

 

Vygotsky Even though Vygotsky doesn't have stages. This PDF will give you the key ideas and theories that Vygotsky developed. If you flip through it you can see it includes Piaget's stages too.

 

Relate:

I think these two theorists are important to study because they supply you with the development of children. Being able to grasp the concepts will help teachers really understand the development of learning.

 

 

 

 

Wonderful Anita

During this podcast Anita talks about the No Child Left Behind Act and the consequences that schools most face sometimes. In the beginning she begins discussing when teachers discussed the test results from the previous year. If this was my first time sitting with teachers discussing the test results I would be very nervous. I know how serious test scores are in schools. Going over the test results would help me understand what quota I need to meet each year. This will also make me push myself to be a good teacher to my students. Not only trying to get good test scores, but help the students develop their knowledge. If my students don't meet the annual progress then I will try different approaches to teaching. Obviously if my students are continually failing the exams then it must be the way I was teaching it. I would find different ways of teaching whether it be one on one work or spending more time on one subject. Eventually I will begin to see which process works by the test results.  Yes, these tests are annoying and make lesson plans teach to the test. One way I would change the lesson plan is making the subjects fun and appealing. Instead of giving a lecture I would help my students learn by doing more hands on activities. Another way I can help is including the students interest. By incorporating what the students like, this will help them learn better.

NCLB

No Child Left Behind Act was signed by George Bush on January 8, 2002. This act was aiming to improve on education for disadvantaged students. In order to do that Bush designed: annual testing, academic progress, report cards, and teacher qualifications. Overall I think the NCLB Act was a good aspect to add in schools today. The only thing that I am skeptical on is the annual testing. Teachers nowadays "teach to the test." They focus on the content that is going to be on the test so they don't look like failures as teachers. This failure can cause a lot of big problems. According to Anita Wollfolk schools could be shut down if they do not make the expected grades. The one aspect that I would like to know more about this act is the different teacher qualifications. What type of qualifications are exactly looked at when applying for a teaching job. A big issue that is rising up today is, "Should teachers' jobs and salaries depend on how much their students learn?" I think that they shouldn't depend on how much they learn. You can be the best teacher and students will still not understand the material. It's hard to rely on the children, they are still developing and learning a lot during this time. I think the salary should reflect on how well you teach in the classroom. Making sure every student is involved and having creative ideas. If teachers salaries were based on the students, teachers would be more aware. Teachers would try everything to make their students excel in the classroom. Every day in the classroom teachers should always want to help their students. There are too many teacher out their that don't really care about teaching, "It's just another paycheck."

Teachers play a main role in students lives. That's why it is so important to form a relationship with your students. Most students need someone to look up to and most of time it's their teacher. I know there is one teacher that will always be my role model. The reason why I liked him so much is because he showed that he cared. When teachers show that they care about your learning, students will begin to see a purpose. Not only showing that they care but their love for the subject that they are teaching. If you can find different activities that are fun and helpful in the classroom students will begin to retain the information. These are also the different attributes to explaining what qualifies as a good teacher. There will always be some students in the classroom that will be able to retain more information then the others. A way to help students is to do a lot of one on one work with each student. This will help them develop at their own rates and also begin that connection between teacher and student. I personally think that it is possible to be a personable, caring, and effective teacher. Becoming a teacher you have to have a open personality with your students. Also mentioned above you have to care about your students progress. If you do not care about your students they are not going to care about learning. As a teacher you have to become a positive role model to your students. The relationship that your form with your teacher is so important.

What makes a good teacher?

This video gives a good description of what makes a good teacher. The aspect that I really like about this video is getting students perceptions on what qualities they like about teachers. I am hoping to have these qualities when I become a teacher. This video can also be helpful for inspiring and current teachers. 

Progress

 

So far this class has made me develop my technology skills. Taking the pre-test and post-test on chapter one was successful. I really like these two tests because the pre-test gives you a background on knowledge you might already know. The post-test you can see better results because you read the chapter and now know a lot more information. I'm having a hard time looking up my results for my post-test but can't seem to find it. Below are my test results from the pre-test. I am hoping to find my other results very soon.

 

 

 

 

WWYD?

In class Dr. Smirnova gave us a situation about children understanding symbolism. To really understand what this word means you have to know the definition. Although, the students are thinking about their different experiences that they had with symbolism. You can't tell them that they are wrong because they are critically thinking about the ways that they have seen "symbolism." I would begin reading a poem that is clear to have symbolism in the writing. After reading the poem I would explain the definition of symbolism. This will get the students to relate the symbolism found in the poem. Connecting the symbolism and the poem will help the students pick out what is identified. Reading the poem will help them begin to see the underlying idea of the poem. After reading and telling the definition I would write down the different ideas that they came up with. Doing these different activities will help the students to understand what symbolism means. If the students are still not grasping the concept I would not give up, but make a new lesson that might work.

Past Knowledge

History of Psychology

1. There are many roles that are produced in psychology and learning. The one role that psychology partakes is helping measure the probability that an aim is attainable. This may sound complicated, but what this really means is, "Certain writers about education state or imply that the knowledge and skill and habits of behavior which are taught to the children of today..." (Green). Not only is psychology helpful subject it also incorporated education. The main idea that stuck out in this article was, "Psychology contributes to a better understanding of the aims of education by defining them, making them clearer; by limiting them, showing us what can be done and what can not" (Green). Knowing the different aspects of psychology will help us better understand education.

2. So far these different roles that Thorndike supplied us with haven't changed in education. The one aspect that has not changed was psychology shares anatomy, history, anthropology, etc. In classrooms today these subjects are taught on a daily basis. Most of the claims that Thorndike makes can be developed through childhood until adulthood.

Professional Development Plan

1. There are many aspects to a scholarly research. In order to fully understand a research you can either look it up online or in books. This research plan is usually written by a researcher or an expert in the field within a college or university. Most of the research includes illustrations, footnotes, biographies, graphs, etc. The main idea for this scholarly research is experimentation of whatever subject the researchers is interested in.

2. Being able to access the scholarly research is fairly simple. The best way to look up these experimentations is to type the exact research in the Google search bar. Google will also help you develop a scholarly research if you are inquiring about one. Another aspect that might help you is to look at your college website. Each college should have a website for scholarly books and/or journals.

3. A good way to use a scholarly research is if you are doing experiments. Like I said in the beginning this is if a researches is conducting a experiment and he/she wants to write down their hypothesis and the final conclusion. A scholarly research will also help you write down your information about how to teach in a classroom or write a lesson plan. This way it can be saved and aspiring students can take a look at your work.