Field Trip - Trix Bruce

For my field trip, I went to see Trix Bruce preform on October 24th. She came to the International House for Disability Week. Trix is a deaf performer who tells her story through signing and dramatic art. It was really wonderful! She communicated about how she became deaf: she caught meningitis when she was six months old. Then, she just let us into her life. She showed us her frustrations growing up in a world full of people who can hear when she can't. She had written incredible poetry and beautifully signed about her life. I don't know sign language so thankfully they had a translator there also. Anyways, it was really interesting and eye opening. It really made me want to learn sign language!

Group Differences: Poverty

Two of the Main Topics Descriptions:
This article discusses many topics, starting with the reality of power ideology in schools. We preach to kids that if they succeed in school, they’ll be powerful. This message is given even more to kids without a nice car and new clothes. As educators, we need to understand the reality of power and how it affects our students, especially those who live in poverty. We need to see that poverty is real, but also realize that “People in disadvantaged schools and poor communities do not lack knowledge, they lack ways of putting their knowledge to use.”
One point this article discusses is distributive justice in the form of curriculum justice. This entails teachers teaching correct information to their students and planning our curriculum from the point of view of someone who is “least advantaged”. It also discusses educators taking an educational view on poverty. This will encourage us to look deeper and not just be looking to counteract children’s background by incorporating extra programs for underprivileged children, but to change how we view school activities altogether and come up with something new, something different. We need something that will work.
Commentary:
Coming from the standpoint of a future educator, the points I brought up are a little intimidating. To think about a completely new way of schooling is scary, but I agree that it is necessary. Poverty isn’t something that is likely to go away so we, as educators, need to do something to change the way things are. We need to teach to children, thinking of them, their outlooks, not just ours. This article was convicting of my own egocentrism and how it must be nonexistent in my classroom. I must think of the children and how they see life, not just the way I do.

Post 10

One of your 4th grade female students is very well developed physically and looks as if she is 15 instead of 9 years of age. Today you heard a group of 5th grade boys commenting on her body in a lewd and humiliating manner. Two other teachers also heard these comments but blew them off as "boys will be boys," and "she needs to get used to it." Considering teacher ethics and responsibilities, describe how you might respond to and handle this situation. I would talk to the boys about respect of women. If it continued, I would send a letter home to the parents. I would also talk with the the teachers who disregarded the comments about the importance of respect, because if the boys start to disrespect the girls, they could grow to disrespect all women if they are corrected. I might also have a talk to the entire class about the importance of respecting our peers and how bullying isn't acceptable in any form. We never know what people are going through so there is no excuse for bullying people. Hopefully, this would help stop the problem.

Post 9

What do you think about the events in the film?
I think they were really interesting. It was so cool to see people who are so diversely successful compete to see who is the most intelligent, although impossible. 

Did you learn anything new about intelligence? If so, what?
Honestly this was mostly subject matter we covered last week, so I felt like I knew the information presented in this documentary.

Do you disagree with anything in the film? What supports your difference of opinion?
I didn't think anything was disagreeable. It was a well done, factual documentary.

What conclusions can you draw from the video?
Intelligence isn't as easily calculated as it was viewed in the past. It is more than skin deep and can't be described by a number.

How can information from this video be applied to your practice as a teacher?
Seeing children as more than a number or a description. They are complex individuals and if we ever view them as less than that, we have cheapened them more than we will ever know.

Include any other questions or comments you have about the film and your view on intelligence.
I think intelligence is such an odd subject. I don't feel like the human mind can be summed up by any definition so a number obviously won't do. I don't feel like psychologists are even close to finding a way to measure intelligence. 

Post 8

Lower order thinking:
Who is Benjamin Bloom?

Higher order thinking:
Create some activities that can allow children to develop their higher order thinking skills. Explain how you intend to use help children develop their higher order thinking in your classroom.

Post 7

a) What are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning?  Compare and contrast these skills with the essential skills related to constructivism.

I want my students to be able to build on their prior knowledge. I want them to be able to relate things back to things already know and are comfortable with. I also want them to know important methods for retaining information that may not be familiar to them.

Although, constructivism would also emphasize metacognition (thinking about thinking), they are very different in instruction. Constructivism looks at the mind in a different way than cognitivism. A constructivist would say that my students are not building on their prior knowledge, but that they are just changing their schema, or view of the world, with the new knowledge.

Post 5

A) How would you define successful mastery of your lesson objectives from a behavioral view of learning? From a social cognitive view of learning?

Since behaviorism puts emphasizes reinforcement and punishment, I believe that mastery would look like the good behavior continuing without the positive reinforcement and/or the bad behavior continuing to cease without the threat of punishment. For example, in a classroom, a teacher could say "If you do well on the spelling quiz, you get a special sticker on your paper." Now the children have external motivation to do well on the spelling quiz. However, you know that the children have mastered this if they continue to put effort to succeed in spelling even without the promise of a positive reinforcement. 

From a social cognitive view, if a child saw another child get praised for doing a good job on the spelling quiz, and they want to do the same. What I'm not sure about is if mastery occurs when they continue to try to achieve without the observation or they keep observing and keep trying to achieve. I mean, social cognitive is based on observing behavior. So would mastery entail continuous observations? Any thoughts, ya'll?

Post 4

Learning Environment:
So I've been really thinking about how I should set up my future classroom. The type I like best is a type I saw in an elementary school Special Education class. There were different stations made for specific tasks. There was one for writing, one for working on fine motor skills, one for doing one-on-one instruction with the teacher, one for reading, etc. It was really neat because all the children would make a schedule for the day (so they had some control of their day) and they would follow their schedule as to what stations they would go to and when. It was very organized, kept the students on task, and worked in the classroom very well. However, there would a place for group time where we could all come together. This way, I can give them the one-on-one attention they need while keeping the cohesive group feeling as well. I would like it set up like that, since I will (hopefully) be in a Special needs class.
For the Psychological climate, I would make sure that there is structure, because children need that. But I want to make a climate where they feel freedom in the structure (if that makes sense). I want it to a calming environment, that the children know that because of the structure, they are safe. I want them to feel at peace and like they belong in the class. There would be rules and consequences, but a sense of grace as well. I would make sure that I keep in correspondence with the parents because it is so crucial.

For my case study, I will use the Early Childhood Case study because I'm also getting certified in Early Childhood Education. It is an interesting one. First, I would have a one-on-one time with him and talk about what is going on. I wouldn't accuse him. I would just start by getting to know him. I would ask about his favorite things, games, books, toys, etc. I would try to help him feel comfortable around me, since it has been so soon since the school year started. Once he felt comfortable around me, maybe we could talk about his home life, just to see if there is an explanation there as to why he is so disconnected. Maybe have him draw pictures of his family. I would want to assure him that the classroom is always a safe place for him to be, but that to keep it a safe place, we have to follow certain rules. We would work together on how to act in the classroom. As for him taking other childrens' things, I would ask him to imagine that favorite toy he had told me about earlier and imagine how it would feel if someone took it. I would also show him the classroom schedule and we could go over it one by one, but also incorporate some time for all students to pick what we do, whether it is having a read aloud or playing a learning game. Letting them have a say can help all the students, including Willard, know that their opinions and feelings are important and will not be ignored. Hopefully by addressing it this way, Willard will learn how to interact in a class setting.

Post 3

This is kind of a hard post because I can see some good point in all of the theories. However, I see the Sociocultural theories of motivation to be the most helpful. The Sociocultural theories state that motivation is largely a result of social and cultural factors, like parents, friends, siblings, teachers, etc. The environment a child is living and learning in can really affect the amount of motivation they have. A personal example in my own life is with my good friend. His parents did not go to college and didn't talk about it much, so he wasn't really ever encouraged to further his education. He didn't even think about college until his senior year in high school. However, my parents both went to college and have ALWAYS encouraged and pushed us toward furthering our education. So I was dreaming about what college I was going to go to when I was in Elementary and Middle School. I was always motivated to go on. The environment really does change things.
In my classroom, I want to provide an encouraging environment that shows them that they are more than they think. They can achieve incredible things. Even if they aren't in an encouraging environment at home, they will ALWAYS be encouraged in the classroom. I think that be providing a supportive environment will help them stay motivated because they have the confidence in knowing they can.

Post 2

*Informal Assessment - Since I am going into Special Education, I can see how I would use informal assessment often. I will be monitoring a lot of social skills, so an example of an informal assessment could be as simple as watching their actions. For example, in a behavior class, I worked with a child with a severe anxiety disorder. If anything was out of the ordinary, even something seemingly small as getting a different colored lunch tray, he would have an episode. We worked with him to show him that getting a lunch tray of a different color would not hurt him. In this situation, an informal assessment would look like an observation of his behavior while he is getting his lunch.
vs
Formal Assessment - Since formal assessments are preplanned, an example of a formal assessment would be a run-of-the-mill test. In my classroom, if the children had been learning about shapes or letters, I could announce a few days in advance that on a certain day we will have a time to see how much we've learned. I would continue to announce it and set aside a time (possibly one-on-one) to ask the children to tell me about the shapes or letters. This set aside time would help me get a feel for where they are.

*Traditional Assessment - An example for a Special Education class for traditional assessment, could be a general math test over the skills that had been taught and worked on over a period of time.
vs.
Authentic Assessment - An example for authentic assessment could be something like making a bank. When learning about money, instead of just quizzing the children over how money looks and its worth, you could make a bank for each child. They could design their bank and keep up with the money they earn. This way, they learn about money, but also how to use it in the real world.

*Paper-pencil assessment - In Special education, some paper-pencil assessments can be problematic. If I had a child that had severe dyslexia a paper-pencil assessment could be a huge challenge. However, if I had a child that was autistic who was more confident on paper, a paper-pencil assessment could be wise. An example could be a vocabulary worksheet.
vs.
Performance assessment  - For performance, I could switch the other example around. If the child with autism was shy, a performance example could be difficult. However, a child with dyslexia may be able to show how much vocabulary he has learned by using a vocabulary word in a sentence instead of the worksheet.

*Standardized Assessment - In a Special Education classroom, a standardized test would be extremely illogic. All children in Special Ed have an Individualized Education Plan so there would be no way to standardize the individual plans. Standardized and Individualized are opposites. So I am having a hard time thinking of how to use standardized testing in my future classroom.
vs.
Teacher-developed Assessment - This would be much better for my future classroom. I could make my own tests tailored to each individual student! If I had been teaching certain math skills to a certain student, I could make a test for only him to assess his progression and knowledge.

*Criterion-Referenced Assessment - A criterion-referenced assessment would be as simple as grading a math worksheet given that tests over the skills they had been taught. They would get a grade based on the percentage they got right.
vs.
Norm-Referenced Assessment - A norm-referenced assessment would be taking that same math sheet and the percentage the student got right and comparing it to the other students in the class. This could be tricky in a Special Education classroom considering all the students could be on different levels and comparing them to each other could be unfair and not a reliable source of data.

Post 1

After the first session, I'm excited about all aspects of the class. All of the chapters seem really interesting, especially the one over cognitive and linguistic development. And I love that we're going to be able to hear from a woman living with autism! From this class, I want to gain more knowledge about how children learn, so I can teach them the best way! After looking over the syllabus, I think every topic will be exponentially helpful in my future classroom! I truly believe this will be a great class.