week 9 !

“Even more startling is that we hold teachers accountable for student achievement, yet provide them little opportunity to develop rich understandings of how people learn.” Pg 2

I believe that teachers are held accountable for many things that they in reality do not have control over. Teachers are blamed for student failure, however the teachers should not be blamed. I believe that MOST teachers that choose this profession are truly passionate about their job. To prove this is the pay they get for the amount of work they do. They do not get paid nearly as much as they deserve and yet they are blamed for things they do not have control of. Instead of providing these teachers with effective training and resources they are in contrast limited and belittled.

“Need to address the fact that many linguistically and culturally diverse students have fewer opportunities to learn and to participate fully in robust learning communities.” Pg 4

Teachers lack training in dealing with culturally diverse students and this is another area where teacher development is required. Change will come only if there is an equitable distribution of resources in schools and society. Most public schools are labeled “culturally diverse” however; they are in reality segregated from the elite, wealthy, white students who are placed in private and prestigious schools. I believe that this is not really a just placement of diversity in schools. This is another point however, so for now I will talk about how change in schools will come only when resources and the same opportunities rich, white kids receive in their schools is distributed to the “diverse” student populations in all public schools. How are they supposed to overcome and be successful when they are not given the same opportunities and resources for learning as other privileged kids? When the less privileged students are given the resources they need and robust learning environments then this is when they will be successful.

The reading about high-stakes testing discusses how the tests in reality are not helpful in increasing student learning. The tests do not show any improvement in student learning because there is no clear evidence that proves it. The tests result in other consequences such as higher drop out rates, cheating, and less learning and more memorizing. The tests bring stress and a tense learning environment for our students and teachers. I believe that the tests are a systematic way to keep English learners and minority groups who are low social economic status segregated from the wealthy students population.

ch 6-7

progress. Ideas are best introduced when students see a need or a reason for their use—this helps them see relevant uses of knowledge to make sense of what they are learning.” pg139

This quote reminds me of every lesson I teach because I was taught to always find ways to hook the students or buy into the lesson I am teaching. The students are constantly assessed informally and in formal situations. The teacher uses her assessments to see where the students are at and what she needs to do to improve her instruction. In my lesson, I taught my students how to measure using connecting cubes. I constantly walked around giving them feedback. I remember that I made sure to make a connection with measuring and their lives so that they understood why it was important to learn how to measure. I told them that there are many ways to measure and that they can measure objects in order to see how big or small they are. At home their parents probably measure furniture in order to see if it fit in a certain location. I made sure that they were able to fully understand why they had to learn to measure. For this lesson, I think that I would try to have the students be involved in more knowledge-centered activities in order for them to fully go into depth of understanding. During my take over I think that I did not give them enough opportunities to do so. The readings expressed that introducing ideas and concepts in ways that promote deep understanding is really important for learning new skills.

“Opportunities for feedback should occur continuously, but not intrusively, as a part of instruction. Effective teachers continually attempt to learn about their students’ thinking and understanding.” pg 140

As I mentioned before, there were several occasions in which I was giving constant feedback to my students during my take over. There are different ways to give feedback to students, however, kindergarteners are not able to read comments fluently yet. As a result, I was unable to write feedback on their paper work. However, during the times I had the students work in small groups on measuring it was easy for me to walk around to each table group and give feedback orally. The reading also mentions that giving students opportunities to work collaboratively in groups can also increase the quality of the feedback available to students (140). I think that for the assessment part of my lesson I did a good job analyzing the work my students did. I was able to collect their work and evaluate their progress effectively and figure out next steps for those students that did not understand the concepts.

Life long learning

“Preparing students to be productive workers is only one important goal of schools in democratic pluralistic societies. Schools should also prepare students to become effective citizens. Effective citizens in democratic multicultural societies have the knowledge and skills needed to live in a complex and diverse world, to participate in deliberation with other groups, and to take action to create a more just and caring world (pg 11).”

 This quote stuck out to me because as teachers it is essential to not only educate our students academically, however it is also our duty to educate them on being functional people in society. Not only teach them to become effective citizens in society but also teach them to be open minded to other multicultural societies like the quote mentions. The reason I believe I am pretty well rounded and open minded today is because I was raised in a community of predominantly multicultural ethnicities. However, there are students that do not have the opportunity to be raised in such areas. These students only get to see one perspective and view of life and us as teachers should be able to demonstrate different perspectives in our classrooms. Some teachers are afraid of teaching touchy subjects or controversial subjects because the “other perspective” is being revealed and advocated for. I believe that teachers should not be afraid and that they should stand up for the voices that are not heard. The reading discusses how there are many students that are unsuccessful in school due to social contexts that effect them such as social economic status and racial discrimination or stereotypes. These students already are exposed to diverse cultures and language. We need to give them the same opportunities and resources for success just like everyone else.

“Nevertheless, teachers who have been given little instruction on the ways that language varies often have little understanding of the relationship between power and language. This lack of understanding, in turn, leads to restrictions being placed on students’ language use. Students maybe forbidden to speak their primary language in the classroom or be corrected whenever they use nonmainstream grammar or pronunciation (22).”

The reading discusses that our students learn a significant amount outside of school. I believe this is very important for teachers to understand. I chose this quote because language is a important for communication. Our schools are filled with English learners and I am certain that they are being taught at home that learning English is very important. At home they are being taught that English is the power language and the only way they will be successful in this country. Teachers need to help these students by providing the resources for them to be successful in learning English. It is not like they do not want to learn English it is the fact that they are not given the opportunity to learn it in comfortable environments. I strongly believe that schools should educate their staff on how to instruct English learners. This way tests results will be higher and everyone will end up happy in the end. If we disregard English learners by neglecting them we are not going to get far because a high percentage of them exist in our classrooms. We are here to help them not hold them and the rest of the school down. Viewing speaking other languages in a negative way is not providing a positive environment for English learners.

Week 6 blog!

“In short, the belief that intelligence is fixed dampened students motivation to learn, made them afraid of effort, and made them want to quit after set back. This is why so many bright students stop working when schools become hard.” This quote demonstrates that many of our students are having issues dealing with challenge. They are raised to believe that being smart is something you are born with. Therefore, when challenging problems arise in school they feel hopeless and not smart. I can relate to this way of thinking because when I was in jr high school I always struggled in math. This made me feel insecure and I never asked questions because of fear of being looked at as “dumb.” In my class I can tell that my shy students do not raise their hands or shout out answers during discussions. Even when we are working in groups these same students do not ask for help and just sit they’re doing nothing they are supposed to. I feel this ma e due to the way they were raised or fear of being looked at negatively by their peers. Speaking to other student teachers they have told me that during math their students experience the same feelings about intelligence. Some students do not ask for help even thought they need it.

Furthermore, this next quote is related to the praise given to students based upon intelligence. It may seem harmless to praise students for being smart, however this has negative effects on their self-esteem once they start making mistakes because they feel less smart. “Intelligence praise compared to effort praise, put children into a fixed mindset. Instead of giving them confidence, it made them fragile, so much that a brush of difficulty erased their confidence, their enjoyment, and their good performance, and made them ashamed of their work. In my class, I know that I always praise students for being “sooooo smart!” Now that I read the article I am realizing that this may not be the best approach. The article proves that students should be praised on effort more than intelligence. Otherwise our students become ashamed or fear being viewed as less intelligent for low performance. They may feel like maybe they are not as smart as they thought. They start doubting themselves and their potential to try hard. 

Chapter 3

Through my observations and personal experience I can conclude that students do in fact need time to put their skills into practice. Yes, people are more talented than others however, even these students needed to have learned and practice their talents in order to be advanced in the first place. The quote in the reading states, “significant learning takes major investments of time. Although many people believe that “talent” plays a role in who becomes an expert in a particular area, even seemingly talented individuals require a great deal of practice in order to develop their expertise (pg 58).” In my Physical education class we just finished reading a book that talks about this very topic. The book argued that talent can grow and is not born. The myth that people are naturally born with talent is not true because anyone can practice enough and put enough effort in order to learn. With my kindergarteners they need constant repetition and practice of letters and corresponding sounds in order to learn them. This ties into giving students enough time to practice as well other than just practice. As we can see in the reading, “learning cannot be rushed; the complex cognitive activity of information integration requires time (pg 58).” As their teacher I cannot expect them to learn all of the letters and sounds in a few weeks. It takes time and practice for them to fully conceptually understand and learn the letters.

Chapter three talked about learning through background and prior knowledge. I believe that designing lessons in which teachers make the curriculum connect with the student’s prior knowledge is very important. Students have been exposed to so much information before even setting foot on a school grounds. We can use this prior knowledge so that the students make connections and hook them to the learning. The reading mentions, “Prior knowledge is not simply the individual learning that students bring to the classroom, based on their personal and idiosyncratic experiences (pg 71).” Students have traveled, have been taught by educated parents, and have been exposed to many facts based on their upraising. These all relate to prior knowledge and the amount of knowledge our students come in with. Not only do students come in with a range of facts and misconceptions they also come in with different cultural upbringings and teachings. Like the reading states, “Prior knowledge also includes the kind of knowledge that learners acquire because of their social roles, such as those connected with race, class, gender, and their culture and ethnic affiliations (pg 72).” My students are predominantly Latin American native Spanish speakers. There are so many background facts that effect the way they learn and what they already know. My students are daily making transfer from one language to another. 

Theories of Learning

Traditional Learning

            In my kindergarten classroom following the rules is crucial for the students to understand. This structure is based on the Learning as Pursuing Rewards and Avoiding Punishment model. The teacher has her classroom management stated clearly and is constant with it. She rewards students who do what is expected and beyond. She also punishes those students who get more than two warnings by sending them to the thinking chair or keeping them in from playing outside at recess. The students know that there are consequences for their actions and they are molded to formulate responses in this type of environment. I always try to praise my children instead of being negative because the classroom environment that I want my children to learn in is a positive one. Of course, I also follow the traditional model of awards and punishment because I too believe that students should act like well behaved students and the only way to instill this is to reward them or punish them if they are not being obedient. Why should students who are being off task receive the same benefits as everyone else? Then the rest of the students will question and begin to act the same as the disobedient child. I believe that there should be some kind of assertiveness in the classroom or else the teacher loses all control.

Our math curriculum follows Enlightenment ideas because it allows the students to manipulate objects in order to go more into depth of understanding. For example, Locke believed that, “young children should learn from contact with real objects, investi- gating for themselves rather than being given verbal instruction (pg 45).” This is true with our curriculum because it allows students to handle concrete objects rather than just memorizing facts over and over again. In the more traditional ways of teaching the students would have to learn through memorizing. They did not engage in any of the activities and were not given opportunities to explore the skills given to them. As we see in the reading children spent their time memorizing, reciting, and reproducing their lessons to demonstrate that they had acquired knowledge (65).

Contemporary Learning

The Enlightenment movement was the beginning of people trying to understand the meaning of knowledge and learning. It was not so much about going out and finding knowledge it was more about understanding that knowledge was in us all along. It is up to us to explore our own knowledge and all the possibilities of learning that can come from it. In our current curriculum there are times where students have to memorize and recite, however most of the time the students are allowed to practice the skills they are taught. There are activities produced to allow students to explore phonemic awareness and math skills on their own through literacy centers and math centers. This follows the contemporary theory by Piaget, “According to Piaget, children, like "little scientists," investigate and learn pretty much on their own, using the environment as their laboratory. Like real scientists, their explorations are partly self-directed and partly random or unplanned. Throughout childhood, they are curious and Inclined to experiment. They not only take advantage of learning experiences but also create these learning opportunities for themselves (pg 69).” I believe that every student is a little scientist and should be given ample opportunities to act like a scientist. They take in so much information and retain it, however as teachers we should allow them to dig deeper and practice the skills given to them. 

Chapter 2

chapter 2:

I believe that I am an expert at playing soccer. As an expert soccer player I can notice meaningful patterns of information that are not noticed by beginner soccer players. I am able to determine strategic plays and where to position myself facilitate plays in order to score. Where as beginner soccer players have the natural instinct to score alone without making plays or teamwork. For example, the defender the ball and I as an expert know that I am supposed to make myself available to receive a pass from the defender. Then, I should also prepare myself to make a run in order to create another play to get closer to score. Beginner soccer players are not able to see these plays developing during a game and they cannot form plays either. The chapter mentions the example of the master chess player and how he can imagine all possible moves and the counter moves from his opponent. The same applies to soccer because they expert players are able to determine many possibilities to formulate plays and passes. The expert players also can anticipate opponent moves and try to intercept their passes. The beginner players only think of kicking the ball forward or to towards the goal and cannot tell where the opponent is going to make a pass. The second way I believe that I am an expert is that I think about the bigger picture. I organize information about soccer differently than would a beginner soccer player. The beginner or intermediate soccer player thinks about scoring and not so much about teamwork and communication to make goals. The big idea is to create plays using each other and communicating about certain plays, where you want the ball, if there is an opponent coming to defend, and where to go during certain calls. It is harder for beginner players to understand the big idea of passing the ball, or switching the ball to the opposite side of the field to create more plays, or even passing the ball back towards the defense in order to create space and time to control the ball as a team.