Reflection Paper

As I reflect back on this semester I have several thoughts that come to mind. First, I would like to reflect back on this class in general. When I first got on the computer trying to understand what I was suppose to do, I was shocked at how life has changed since I was in college from 1984-1992. Never had I even emailed someone at that point. On top of emailing, I also had to figure out what I was suppose to do in our new technological world with online classes. This entire process has been an awakening in my mind.
When I look at our discussions concerning IT categorizations. I truly was amazed at how blessed we are as a school, county, and country to have what we have for our students benefits. When we don't have Kleenex or paper towels in the classroom, I can always reflect on what we do have and be thankful.
Affordance analysis was a different tiger to tackle for me. It was so hard to focus on the meaning of the terms because for some reason, the words and meanings don't fit together. This was totally new for me. I understand it now, but I will probably will always use different terms instead of those.
Being a school counselor in my past, looking back at the learning theories was interesting. I never truly enjoyed the psychology part of counseling. I've never thought of myself as a constructivist or social constructivistic teacher. This study truly made me think through all 4 theories that we studied. I know that I would not fall under the other 2 as far as my teaching theory. I want to be the best teacher possible. I want to take the best of all the theories and BECOME who I am to become as a teacher. Studying these theories has definitely made me figure out who I am. I am a teacher who wants to teacher using the environment, the knowledge of others, and all the manipulatives and tools available for my students to love learning. With this, I will show these students love, unconditional love, as their teacher.
Lastly, I want to address the discussion part of the class. This was the difficult part of the class. I think the first difficult part was just figuring out where to go to find all the information. As time went on, I figured out how to navigate my way around. It wasn't anything Dr. Wang could change, it was just my inexperience that played a big part. Actually, the class meetings we had were very beneficial and helped me so very much. I'm sure for those students that have been in college and have learned the workings of posting, threads, blogging, and discussions it wasn't as difficult. Discussions were hard at first. It is difficult to critique other's work when you don't know them. It could have been good to meet my classmates. Also, when we are discussing, it is so important to be sure what you say is said in the appropriate way for others to not take offense. I know if I am offended I have chosen to be offended. It is just critical in discussions that we are careful and follow the guidelines. One hard point about discussions was if you really couldn't find anything that you thought needed to be changed, it was hard to make a suggestion.
Overall, I am so glad I took this class. My reflections are positive. I feel having a professor that is willing to help you figure out the pieces of the puzzle that are missing for you, is critical. I have learned and will be able to use by knowledge in the very near future. It will be incredible to see my learning theory come to life in my classroom.

Last Blog for this class

This week I am blogging about constructivism and social constructivism. At first, I was not looking forward to another week of learning theories, but after I started reading the material, I changed my mind. These two theories are theories that I feel like I will use in my teaching. I seem to work in these 2 theories more than any other. I do not use just one theory, but seem to mix the two together to fit my teaching style. I feel that children need to learn to search out into the environment and find information themselves with me at the side guiding them. I think this is very beneficial for the future where they will have to know how to find information themselves. Yes, this is a very passive way of learning, but I think when mixed with the social constructivistic approach, it can be very beneficial. I feel with children learning in many ways, you can cover tactile, visual, and auditory using both approaches. Therefore, as long as I mix them, all the children can receive and learn the material being covered.
I do fee,l that at some points in my teaching, I will really have to work on implementing both theories and not become lazy. It is so much easier to focus on the constructivistic approach because you aren't doing as much interacting like you would with the social constructivism approach. In my opinion, with the social constructivistic theory, you must organize more thoroughly to incorporate groups and social settings. This could be with partners, groups, and possible other classes involved. Actually, I am going to try to work with a class in Scotland through email, etc... I student taught in Scotland and formed some very good teacher friends. One of my friends is a lady who lives in a small village. She has always taught either 1st grade or kindergarten and is more than willing to work with me. That will be a cool thing for my 1st grade students. This will be a mixture of both theories. Using the internet would be under the constructivistic theory and communicating with and learning from other students would be the social constructivistic theory. I feel that using both will be the best of both worlds for the students.
Reviewing these 2 learning theories has been very beneficial for me because it has been 17 years since I taught school. This has helped me refocus on how I feel I can successfully lead a group of children into learning. I feel that a teacher has to find what is comfortable with her. Then she has to study her students and figure out what works best for each one. That will lead the children to becoming a success in their learning.

My reflection of Behaviorism and Cognitivism - 4

This week I am reflecting on our discussions of behaviorism and cognitivism. I have not really thought about these theories since I took my Guidance and Counseling classes for my Master's degree. There are definitely things that I agree with in each theory. I really think that drill and practice is very important for many skills. Of course, this is a main component of behaviorism. Memorization is also important with multiplication, addition, vocabulary, and many other subjects. I don't particularly agree with the point that as long as a teacher provides a series of stimuli and responses that learning will take place. For some children it takes more than that. I do agree with the process of the learner's mind in the cognitivism theory. I do think that it takes a combination of many theories to actually come up with a good theory. This week I really haven't enjoyed studying these theories. I understand why we have, but I just don't enjoy it!

This past week I have read conflicting sides of the argument of whether or not sports can be a positive influence on children. It was amazing to me some of the arguments that were presented in defense of sports being a negative influence. It stated that in baseball, football, and basketball, kids have a tendency to cheat in school and in the sport itself. They also stated that intimidation and inflicting injury on others are both encouraged. I know our experience with 3 children is that sports have been a positive influence on all our children. It has kept them busy and therefore influenced them to be organized with their schoolwork. They have learned comraderie with members on their teams. They have also made friends with kids all over the Birmingham area, not just in Chelsea. We have had some bad experiences, but bad experiences come in all situations. That builds character in our kids.