April 22nd Assignment

A few of the kids in Mr.Corbet's kindergarten class, like Jonathan, appear to have had quite a bit of socialization while some, like Tabitha and Mindy, appear to have had very little. Mindy definitely has many personality traits, especially conscientiousness. For example, when she tries her hardest not to run in the classroom and avoiding causing Mr. Corbet to blow his whistle on the playground she is exhibiting as well as conscientiousness of the rules.It also appears that Mindy is becoming close friends with Tonya, who is the same age and same gender as Mindy. 

Post #6- Chapter 6

I would really like my future students to use cognitive learning theory particularly when they are trying to memorize something specific such as math tables or vocabulary/ spelling words. Math and spelling have very specific right of wrong answers, but in order to actually memorize them students will need to think about them themselves and also learn to understand how they relate with one another.

I think that cognitive theories can work in many different areas as well, but I think that other ways to use it would depend on the specific student and if that is how they best learn.

Group Differences: Rural Populations- Appalachian Culture Article

Eva Thaller wrote Appalachian Culture and Schooling for people to get a better understanding of the conditions of the Appalachian culture and reasons as to why the cycle of poverty and lack of education continues. Thaller states that Caudill said the six main reasons are sense of place, clannishness, childlike trust in others, ignorance of the nature of the land itself, deeply rooted mistrust of government, and a disregard of education (p. 254-255). Thaller also says that sense of place, right-brain orientation of Appalachian culture, Appalachian dialect, cultural stereotyping, and multicultural education are reasons that Appalachian children do not break the cycle (p.255-258). Thaller does a good job of not really choosing a side, and more just explains the reasons why.

I personally somewhat disagreed with the idea that the “…key to understanding Appalachian culture was to understand the pull inside all people between right brain hemisphere and left brain hemisphere processes.” (p. 256). I just am not sure that is the “key” to understanding the culture. I am sure that it is important however, I feel the key to understanding the Appalachian culture, or any culture, is to understand in general what is important to them as a culture.

            In particular the quote “… they have educated students only for the outside world and not for building prosperity at home.” (p. 247), really stood out to me. I personally had never considered that. People were so focused on “fixing” them and encouraging them to leave the Appalachians in order to make a better life for themselves instead of educating the Appalachian people on how to create a better life for themselves without going anywhere. After reading that quote my mind went immediately to common core standards and how they would affect the Appalachian culture. Would the Appalachian students be left in even worse conditions because they would be taught even more so for the general outside world, or will common core help them to get an equal education as the rest of the country?

QTC Post 5 Chapters 9 and 10

Question 1

From a behavioral view of learning I would define successful mastery of my lesson objects by seeing how a child reacts or answers when asked a certain question or given a certain cue. For example, when I was in high school my AP US History teacher drilled into our heads at the beginning of the semester that Olgethorpe found Georgia. She did this by insisting that anytime she said Olgethorpe we had to shout Georgia back at her and vice versa. Even at the end of the semester after we had not discussed Olgethorpe or Georgia for three months she randomly shouted "Olgethorpe!" at the class and the whole class snapped to attention and yelled "Georgia!" back at her.

From a social cognitive view of learning I would define successful mastery of my lesson objects by observing whether or not my students were able to complete a task that I had previously modeled. For example, in the Early Learning Center I did an activity with a group of children where I built a structure out of blocks and then the children were supposed to copy what I had created with their own blocks.


Question 2

I think there are behaviorist views that could encourage productive behaviors and discourage undesirable behaviors applied to my CSEL case study. As I said before, I could use a jar of desirable objects used to encourage and discourage Willard's behavior. Also, self-efficacy and self-regulation both can be used after giving Willard his own personal schedule. Hopefully, allowing him to have his own schedule would get him to figure out the answers the questions he asks and also remind him that he needs to use good behavior while at school.

QTC Post 4 Chapter 13

Creating a learning environment conducive to learning can be accomplished in multiple ways. There is not one right way to set up a classroom. Because I hope to teach young children, I think that I will set up my classroom with centers and a group area. I definitely plan to get to know the children individually and really take an interest in their lives besides what goes on in the classroom. I also really want my classroom to be set up so that children feel comfortable to ask questions and share their ideas and thoughts with one another as well as myself as the teacher. Obviously, there has to be rules and expectations for the classroom in which my main two reasons behind the rules and expectations will be for respectfulness and safety. I know that all children are different and all classroom dynamics are going to be different and I will have to be flexible with the way I do things in the classroom.

To create an intervention continuum for my CSEL case study I would start out with talking one on one with Willard about why he acts this way and point out that leaving the classroom without permission is not safe and that other students do not like it when he goes through their things without permission. In this meeting, I would also provide Willard with a personal schedule of what goes on each day so he can hopefully answer some of the questions himself. Hopefully this would encourage Willard to think about his actions before he acts. I would also make a point of praising him when he did think before he acted.

If the first intervention was not successful the second intervention I would implement would be to move Willard's desk closer to my own desk in order to better keep an eye on him and hopefully be able to step in before he wonders around and redirect him by engaging him in something else.

The third intervention I would implement if the first two were not successful would be to give Willard a jar with a certain number of items in the jar for the week. The items would be things such as small toys, change, or candy. Every time he misbehaved I would ask him to give me one of the objects from the jar, he could also earn the objects back by behaving well. If at the end of the week he ended with more objects than he started with at the beginning of the week he would be allowed to choose an object from the jar to keep.

QTC Post #3 Chapter 11

I think a healthy mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is best for a classroom setting. As a teacher getting good assessment scores and bonus pay would be a great extrinsic motivation as a teacher. Intrinsic motivation would be teaching to the best of my abilities for the joy that comes from watching children learn and thrive at school or in life in general. As a student, extrinsic motivation could be something like a pizza party or pajama day for getting a certain amount of compliments from other teachers or principals. For intrinsic motivation as a student, hopefully as a teacher I could make learning fun so that student's would want to learn and want to do well. This could be through group activities or through games such as bingo.

QTC #2 Chapter 14

Assessment Types

• Informal Assessment- When a student asks a question such as "What do squirrels eat?" because they see a squirrel on the playground,and the teacher explains that a squirrel eats nuts. Then the teacher could play off of their interest and ask the students how they think squirrels get nuts during the winter? This keeps the students interested as well as thinking critically.
• Authentic Assessment- This could be assessing if a child can tie their shoes, tell time, making change or anything that is a "real world" skill. For telling time, not only will students need to be able to tell time in the real world, but it will also asses their ability to count by fives. 
• Norm-Referenced Assessment- An example of this would be the TCAPs in Tennessee. It is a standardized test that compares how a teacher's students, a whole grade, or a whole school's students compare to other students, grades, or schools.
• Teacher-Developed Assessment- An example of this could be a test made by the teacher to see how well students understood the math lessons from a particular unit. This could be helpful because it will show exactly which students need work in specific areas, or if the class as a whole did not understand a particular concept.
• Performance Assessment- An example could be a book report that is acted out in front of the class that must explain the plot of the book. This not only tests students on their comprehension of the book, but also tests them on their understanding of the different aspects of a plot.

I think there are advantages to both criterion-referenced and norm-referenced assessments. It is important to know how well the students know information and what exactly they do not know, but it is also important to make sure that students are doing well in comparison to their peers in order to prepare them for the next step in their academic careers. Ideally, there would be an easy way to combine both.

QTC Post #1- Introduction

I am very excited to be in this class. It is my first real semester of teacher education classes and I am very interested in learning as much as possible.The class itself sounds very interesting and I hope to expand my knowledge about teaching and children in general. I am specifically interested in learning about the differences between teacher-made and standardized assessments. I feel this is a "hot topic" right now in the education world and it is something I have been interested in for a long time. I also am excited to delve deeper into learning about learning theories and development. I think I will be able to use all aspects of this class in my future profession by better understanding aspects of teaching.