Cognitivism in Practice

 This week we have learned about the cognitive learning theory. The cognitive learning theory revolves around information processing. There are three stages of information processing: sensory, short term memory, and long term memory. (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.). In the classroom, our ultimate goal is to store our content into the students long term memory. In order to successfully complete this goal, we have to make sure we are integrating multiple senses. When you integrate multiple senses you improve the chances of students be able to recall the knowledge on a long term basis (Laureate Education, n.d.). This week we learned about two different teaching methods that I believe are successful cognitive learning strategies.

The first strategy is cues, questions and advanced organizers. The main purpose of this strategy is to help students organize information so that they can more easily retrieve it and use it at a later date (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007). Cues and questioning allow students to take their current understanding and reinforce it by connecting it to questions being asked. This method can also challenge students to dig deeper and learn more about the topic. The advanced organizers are a great tool for students to use to make a visual of their understanding of the topic. It takes the words they are processing in their head and outlines it in a visual that explains their individual understanding.

The second strategy is summarizing and note taking. Summarizing and note taking focuses on enhancing students' ability to synthesize information and distill it into a concise new form (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007). When taking notes or summarizing my hope as a teacher is that my students are putting the information in a useful format that will help them recall it at a later date. The data can be used as a trigger to help students quickly recall what they had learned. I have used summarizing in my classroom through journaling and blogging. This has been productive because it gives students a condensed version of what they learned. I feel that the advanced organizers can be a powerful tool to enhance note taking and give a quick visual to trigger the information. This coming up school year I plan on using a lot more organizers in place of long written notes.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.). Cognitive Learning Theories. [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Behaviorism in Practice

 This week we have studied the behaviorist theory and the instructional strategies reinforcing effort, and homework and practice. After learning about the instructional strategies, I feel that they share a lot of commonality with the behaviorist theory. The behaviorist learning theory is made up of three parts, operant conditioning, programmed instruction, and behavior management (Laureate Education, n.d.). Both of the instructional strategies can fall under at least one of the three parts of the theory.

The first instructional strategy is reinforcing effort. This strategy reinforces the students understanding of the relationship between effort and achievement by addressing their attitudes and beliefs about learning (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, 2007). This strategy in the classroom involves teachers stress the importance of effort and students tracking their efforts. Students take charge of their efforts and look at the data to see what they achieve with the amount of effort they give. I feel that this strategy can fall under the behaviorist theory of operant conditioning the only difference is the students are the ones setting the boundaries. Through this strategy, students will learn that the reward to positive behavior and effort is a better final product. Students may even make the connection that the more effort they give not only the better final product but they may also complete it in less time. Another positive outcome is with students keeping track of the data it will be very simple for the teacher to sit down and discuss efforts and behavior with the students. If a student is not doing what is expected, the teacher can talk with them about the data and discuss the punishment or actions that will be taken. This shows that not only does reinforcing effort fall under operant condition it also falls under behavior management.

The second instructional strategy is homework and practice. In this strategy, students are given the chance to complete meaningful tasks at home and also given time to practice new understandings. Multiple exposures to material help students deepen their understanding of content and become proficient with skills (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, 2007). This strategy clearly falls under the programmed instruction part of the behaviorism theory. Dr. Orey discusses that programmed instruction involves students getting multiple experiences to reinforce the material (Laureate Education, n.d.). Homework and practice does just this; it gives students multiple opportunities to practice their learning and clear up misconceptions.

The behaviorism theory is present in education today. Teachers may not even realize they are using parts of it, but I guarantee it is present in some form. The two strategies that we discussed this week are just two of several that have adopted parts of the theory.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (n.d.). Behaviorist Learning Theory. [Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/Walden/EDUC/6711/02/downloads/WAL_EDUC6711_02_A_EN-CC.zip

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Reflection

This course has excited me about teaching again. After last school year, I had hit a point where I felt like I needed to come up with new ideas and strategies. The methods I was using were working, but I felt like I needed to continue to bring in more technology. Throughout this class, I have gained several new methods to use technology to enhance my lessons. I am excited to try them out in the classroom and start seeing the results.

Going into this school year the challenge they have presented us is to start trying to podcast our lessons a few times, they call this flipping the instruction. In order to flip the instruction, I am going to need to incorporate a blog and podcasting. I have worked with blogging throughout the past couple years but had very little experience with podcasting. This course helped introduce me to many free resources that can help me in creating and editing podcasts. At first creating the podcast was a bit of a struggle, but after numerous attempts I little by little got better. I feel that being the student and learning how to podcast was extremely beneficial because now I truly know what the students will go through.

In this class, I learned a lot about how the teaching and learning process has changed. Students learn in complete different ways than they did in the past. They come into the classroom with a vast knowledge of technology and the ability to do reasearch online to find answers to their questions. The day of lecturing is gone, and teachers have to change their style to fit student needs. Instead of lecturing, students benefit from hands on investigative experiences. I have found in my classroom that students are much more engaged when the activities get them involved and connect to their lives.

Instead of teaching to the students I will become a facilitator of their learning. My focus will be on providing students meaningful experiences that teach them select skills. In my experience students retain the material when they have worked through projects or hands on experiences. When they work to discover a solution it is much more meaningful to them. So my goal for my classroom is not to lecture or teach to the students, but to be there as a tour guide to helping them discover the answers.

The thing that students and lots of adults do not understand about the teaching profession is that to be successful you have to be a life time learner. To continue to expand my knowledge, I will continue my learning through Walden University and keep an eye out for conferences involving technology in education. I will continue to join professional learning communities to collaborate with fellow teachers to keep up with current strategies of integrating technology into the classroom.

My first long term goal is to within two years max podcast each lesson that I do and post them to a blog. I want students to be able to go online anywhere and see what we are working on and get help. This will also give parents somewhere to go see what is happening in the classroom and get help if they are trying to assist their child with homework. To accomplish this, I plan on practicing this year and posting as many podcasts as I can. I also will work with other teachers that have had success making podcasts. The obstacles I will have to overcome is technology working in my school building and students having access to the materials at home. The technology at my building is something that get better each year; I will continue to work with the technology department to help them improve our setup. Student access will be solved by next year because every student will have a macbook to take home with them. If they do not have internet, I will upload the information to their computers through Itunes prior to them leaving school.

My second long term goal is to improve my parent contact through using technology. I will start out by creating a blog in which parents can communicate with myself and each other. On this blog, I will continuously post classroom information and daily homework assignments. I hope that this goal can be setup the start of next year and continue to be tweaked through collaboration with parents to become a valuable resource. Hopefully after year one I will have a full understanding of what information is most valuable to parents and what features they use the most and by the start of year two have a successful parent blog. The issue I could run into is parents that do not have computer access. To solve this, I would suggest that they borrow their students macbook to visit the blog daily.

When doing the checklist the first time the area that I set myself low in was enabling students to take control of their learning. Towards the end of the year, I became much more comfortable in providing activities that were student led. I was quite pleased with the results compared to where I directly taught them. The other area I was low in was seeking out help from other professionals. Throughout this class, I have become much more comfortable in seeking out advice from colleagues in my building and collaborating online with other fellow teachers. I have learned that I have lots of ideas to share and that I can gain a vast knowledge from others.

As I said, teachers have to be life long learners. The education field is constantly changing. It has changes so much from when I was a kid and in my short teaching career. This class has continued to improve my knowledge of incorporating technology, but I understand the process does not stop today. I have to constantly be on the look out for new ideas and willing to change my ways and learn something new. This is the only way I can guarantee that I am doing everything in my power to do what is best for my students.

Classroom Demographics Podcast

I did my podcast on the technology available to my students at home and on their feelings about technology in the school. The recording process went smoothly, but I have been having some problems getting it published so that I can post a link. Hopefully this works, let me know if you have problems getting to it. http://podcastmachine.com/podcasts/13493/episodes/69131 If that does not work, you should be able to download it using this link http://podcastmachine.com/podcasts/13493/episodes/69131/media_files/163090/download/3/file_128kb.mp3

21st Century Skills

 Like it or not, technology is a major component of our every day lives. People that are not knowledgeable in using various forms of technology are falling more behind each day. Almost every job involves at least one form of technology if not various forms. As teachers, it is our job to form our students into savvy technology users that are ready to be successful members of the workforce.

The website Partnership for 21st Century Skills was very informative to me. I would suggest it to any teacher that is looking to learn more about what 21st-century skills are and how they can be incorporated into a classroom. The website does a wonderful job of allowing us to look beyond the technology and see what other skills are needed, as well. In the past when I would think of 21st-century skills I would only think technology. The website discusses that technology is just a tool to teaching students the skills. Students need to leave our room with life skills, learning and thinking skills, and information and media skills. All of these skills can and need to be blended into our daily core subject lessons.

The information that surprised me the most was that not all states are members. My home state, Indiana, is all about changing education right now. I would have thought we would be a member, but were nowhere to be found. The idea that Indiana is not on the list scares me; I fear we are falling behind the states that already are working to improve their 21st century skills. Young people who leave high school today with skills to succeed in post secondary education and training are able to get high wage jobs and face a bright future. Those students who do not leave high school with the skills to farther their education will be faced with taking lower paying jobs in most cases and struggle to support families (Levy and Murnane, 2006). I do not want students from Indiana to fall into the second category of students struggling to find jobs that will allow them to support themselves and their families.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills states, in a digital world, no organization can achieve results without incorporating technology into every aspect of its everyday practices. It is time for schools to maximize the impact of technology as well...". For the most part, I agree with this statement, I just do not want students to completely have to rely on technology to find answers. Throughout the years in my building, I have watched math transition from paper pencil to almost all digital. I love the technology and am excited to teach it to the kids, but I do feel they still need to understand the process and how to work out the problems on paper.

As contemporary educators our job no longer is to just teach our core subject. Our job is to prepare students to go on and farther their education and become successful members of society. This website is a source that can be beneficial in helping us set up our classrooms to be successful. If you have not checked it out you can at http://www.p21.org.

References:

The partnership for 21st century skills. (2011).

http://www.p21.org/

Levy, F., & Murnane, R. (2006). Why the changing American economy calls for twenty-first century learning: Answers to educators' questions. New Directions for Youth Development, 2006(110), 53–62.

Utilizing Blogs in the Classroom

6^th Grade Math

Story Problem Practice

Story problems tend to be a struggle for my 6th grade students. In class, I asked them to develop 3 story problems involving different operations. After they created the problems, I simply had them pick their favorite and post it onto the class blog. The students homework was to go home and read their classmates problems and try to solve them. After they had solved the problems, they were to respond to 3 classmates with their answer and back it up with reasoning and the process they took. The results were absolutely amazing! I had kids that responded to every single question even though they only had to do 3. Each question would have a long list of conversations under it. During the conversations students would collaborate and discuss mistakes they had spotted in each others work and then come to a final answer. The blog activity worked better than I ever could have imagined. I actually got responses from students that never want to talk in class. This is a process I will use again.

Before letting the students go:

Prior to starting this project I went over the process with students with a practice blog on the front screen. We discussed that I would be monitoring all conversations and they were to be things that would be allowed in the classroom. With the practice blog, we went through a step by step where they would go and how to get there and then did a practice dialogue. I also typed up a direction sheet to take home, so that if they or their parents needed guidance they would have it. I also did an internet survey prior to assigning the blog activity to make sure students would have the resources needed. I made a plan B for students who did not have access to internet by making my classroom open an extra hour after school.

Blogging can make a boring lesson engaging and get all students involved. If anybody has ideas on lessons or how I can improve the blogging process in my classroom, please let me know.

Welcome to my blog. I am a 6th grade Math teacher and am blessed to have lots of technology in my classroom. I am currently taking classes at Walden University to obtain my masters in Integrating Technology in the Classroom. Throughout the semester, I will continue to add information, methods, and ideas on successful ways to integrate technology in the classroom.