How To Remember What You Read

Here's a clip I found on youtube that I thought was very interesting and relates to what we learnt in class about ho to remember things... here's another way to remember what you read. ENJOY the clip =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVrGNn6IBu4

SQ4R

The SQ4R was new to me today. I've never heard of it before and now I'm wondering why none of my teachers taught me it in high school. It probably one of the greatest things ever thought up. When it comes to reading I get bored after the first two pages and start thinking about something else and have no idea what I just read. The SQ4R breaks reading comprehension up into simple steps: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Relate, and Review. Breaking this up into parts helps me understand the concept a little better. I feel that if I use this technique the next time I have to read a chapter, I'll actually understand what the chapter is about. Let's face it, textbooks are probably the most boring piece of material to read. I would rather read a poster in a bathroom stall than read a chapter in any textbook. The SQ4R brings a new meaning to reading comprehension. It allows me to understand that I can actually think while reading, but thinking about the book not about another topic.

I feel if I use this concept in my future classroom the students will be able to understand the readings in the textbook. I want all my students to have a fair chance in the class and if reading something is not their learning style, the SQ4R will give them a bit of a push to understand what is being read. This concept will definitely be put into play in my classroom!

Cognative Information-Processing Approach

The cognative information-processing approach is an interesting way of relating how we learn. I have to agree with the fact that our minds are somewhat like a computer. We take in new information everyday, some gets stored and some comes in but goes right back out; it's not saved. When we do tests or assignments the information that was stored is then retrieved. Our minds are identical to computers! It's up to you if you want to save or just open the information that you receive. I believe this concept should we told to all students of every age. I feel they will actually try to study the material for tests and you might just receive several good marks from your students. Comparing their knowledge to something they probably use everyday could definitely encourage them to start studying for tests/quizzes. I hope I remember this concept so I can inform my future students about it and even put a poster up in the classroom saying"learning, storage, retrieve" to remind the students everyday what they must to do succeed.

Ideas Grasped from Albert Bandura

The main idea in class today was based on a theorist named Albert Bandura. He was an observational theorist who believed that children learn through observation. I have to agree with his reciprocal determinism model of learning, where everything in the model affects one another. It's true that ones actions affects their behaviour which affects the people surrounding them. For example, which was given by two young ladies in class today, Bill Gates came up with the idea of Microsoft which created word processing which benefited a lot of people. This created a much fast for efficient way of writing which leads to less time anxiety and an increase in a persons behaviour.
His idea of observational learning is one thing I believe mostly about. The only way I truly learn something is if I actually see it happen. For example, my parents told me that when I was younger not to play up on the counters because it's dangerous. Apparently I didn't grasp the idea until one day I actually fell of the counter and ended up with a goose egg on my head. I still laugh today when I see the picture of me at a wedding with a big goose egg. Another example is that I slow down in winter while driving. I use to do fish tails with my friends all the time until one day I was riding with my friend and we fished tailed and the passenger side of the car ran into a welding truck. Scariest time of my life! Even though I wasn't driving I observed what happens when fish tailing.
So in conclusion I believe Bandura's ideas are a powerful way of explaining a way of learning.

A Functional Approach

The other day in class I learned that a functional approach is somewhat connected with operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is a powerful set of ideas for controlling behavior in the classroom while a functional approach  looks more at the behavior and asks why are they behaving like that? I think that using a functional approach will show the students that you respect and understand them. Giving a student detention or some kind of punishment without knowing the story behind the behavior, will not fix the issues that arise in the classroom.
I also learned that there are 5 strategies to using a functional approach. I feel that using strategy #3,"create predictable routines in the classroom", will help control most misbehavior in the class without you even doing anything. For example, if you had a routine that they read 15mins at the begining of class, most students will come in sit down and start reading their books without being asked. You may have to tell a few to start reading but its better than trying to tell the hope class to settle down and open their books.
I will definitely be using functional approach in my future classroom due to the fact that I think it's a great strategy to controlling a classroom. I believe it's a great strategy because I hated getting told not to talk when I was just the listener and my friend was talking to me. I would much rather the teacher realize that the issue is and whose actually in fault in situations. I like to treat others the way I'd like to be treated so with that said I will be the understanding teacher who finds out the problem before giving the punishment.

Classroom Management Thoughts

Personally I am freaked right out about control a classroom especially when I first become a substitute teacher. I remember the things we use to do to subs in high school and it made me realize that those things may happen to me when I'm a sub. We all know what goes through a students mind when they find out they have a sub, either they don't come to class or they act out during class.

The one method that I would use the most out of the four we spoke about in class would be the positive reinforcement. I believe that giving students something for good behaviour is the best way to keep them on the right track. The out of control students might see what they are missing out on and might even change their behavioural ways to be able to gain that reward as well. I think that giving a student something for good behaviour is better than taking something away from them if they are misbehaving. Positive attitudes in my classroom is what I'm going to strive towards. I remember having teachers that just punished students all the time and never gave rewards to the behaved students. Without a reward do you think that many students will want to behave?Personally I don' think they will. So with all this said, positive reinforcement is my mainstream goal for classroom management.

Inclusive Classrooms

The decision of creating inclusive clasrooms, personally, is a bad idea. I don't think it will benifit the learning disabled students besides socialization which that can be done breaks or recess. Putting anyone in an environment in which they don't feel as smart as anyone else will create anxiety and the that person will not want to be there anymore. I've had that feeling and it's not so great I would rather be with my friends and the people I know are at the same level as me. I believe that the learning disabled students will have a very tough time in a regular classroom, the teacher as well. The teacher will need to learn how to teach a learning disabled student and be able to teach the other 30 some students ontop of that. Stress levels for everyone will raise. The regular students might not get as much attention and help they had before because the teacher will be trying to help the learning disabled students. Personally I strongly believe that they should can that idea before it is put into play.

Richard D. Lavoie Video

By watching the video about learning disabled children by Richard D Lavoie, it makes me realize that I've never noticed what goes on in their brain. Even though I'm not physically taking part of the "role play" type thing that they do, I am mentally a part of the situation going on. The video shows and explains a clear understanding of how those children cannot learn with negativity and pressure always directed at them. I found it interesting when he showed how those children take longer to process an answer. I didn't know that they had to process the question first then think of the answer. They take double the process thinking time than what an average student does. I believe that watching this video and taking notes about it will help me understand the learning disabled student(s) in my future classroom. With the facts given in the video I believe I could figure out ways to help those students learn and get rid of the anxiety they have going to class. I recommend this video to anyone who is striving to become teacher or an occupation involved with learning disabled students, it's very helpful.

Sexual Orientation

If there's one thing in society that I hate the most is the discrimination towards homosexuals and trans genders. So many young homosexual boys have committed suicide lately due to bullying. This isn't right at all! I have 2 homosexual friends and I don't treat them any differently than my other friends. I may sound inappropriate but I don't see the difference between two gay men in a bed and two men and a girl in a bed? The "three some" doesn't get bullied but the two gay men do? I don't see the difference but that's my point of view. I'll admit when I was younger I thought it was so gross for anyone to be homosexual but now that I've grown up I've come to realize that it's none of my business what they do and it shouldn't be anyone else's either. I find it fantastic that the ATA gives support to to students and teachers who are homosexual or transgender. I find it gives more of a safe and supportive environment for the students to learn in. I was extremely proud of the young girl who started a facebook group to support the homosexuals who have given up there life due to bullying. I was surprised to the amount of people in the college that actually wore purple on October 20,2010 in remembrance and support towards those individuals. No one should go through the bullying pain they did... bullying needs to stop, it's taking so many lives. I hope that in the future things will change and that my children will live in a safe, inviting environment at school.

Things I Learned

I learned a lot last class that I never knew or even existed. For one I never knew that there was a difference between gender and sex(not the verb). I always through that they were the exact same thing, something that defines if your male or female, your biological status. I never knew that gender was the sociocultural component of sex(not the verb).  Another thing that I never knew existed was gender development and that there are four points within it. The biological is for example your hormones while the social- learning approach is when children learn there gender through observation. The cognative development theory is when the children know that gender is stable and the gender schema theory is a more information learning approach. The points I just listened are things that I knew happened but I didnt know that they were part of a development theory. I have learned a crazy amount of information in this class!

Facts For My Mind

When I first signed up for bachelor of education I never realized what teachers have to put into perspective when they teach. Learning about diversities in education today made me realize that yes teachers do have to think about this on a regular bases while they are in the classroom and even outside the classroom when they're making their planning guide. We as future teachers need to put into perspective that each student comes to school with a different background and home environment. We need to try to relate where the student is coming from and what we need to do to teach them the material. Under cultural capital there was a trait mentioned about language. I never even thought about having a student in my future classroom who can barely speak english. I would need to think of a way to teach the child so he/she also has a fair chance at success. I've learnt that socioeconomic status is based on how much money you make which then ranks you in society. I find that odd that we do that in society. It seems strange to judge someone, I don't know it might just be me but I believe that no one needs to be labelled as the"poor one" or the "rich one", it just doesn't sit right with me. I'll have to accominate this information into my head.

Creative Children

It's very true that in today's society we are "teaching" students out of being creative. Everything is stuctured and planned and most school environments. Without creativity and day dreaming we probably wouldn't have half of the technology we have today. Without creative minds nothing would be invented. Today, if a child can't sit still for very long they usually get misdiagnosed for ADHD which isn't right. It's like the little girl that Sir Ken Robinson described in his video. If someone had put her on medication for ADHD she probably wouldn't have created the amazing dance productions that she did such as "Cats". She was a creative little girl who thought when she danced but the teacher never realized that. Her mother jump started the girls career when she placed her in that school for dance. Think of how many children are probably like that little girl and are put on medication.... would we have more creative things today if most children weren't being misdiagnosed for ADHD? I believe we definately would. Society should have a new way of clearing this up when diagnosing children that don't need to be.

NO IQ TESTS!

IQ tests are a way, in my words, of showing how "smart" you are. Personally I beleive that's a bunch of crap that can easily put down someones self-esteem. I remember when there was "Nexopia" and there was little quizzes you could post that figures out your IQ. People would brag if theirs was higher than someone elses. Even though those tests on "Nexopia" weren't official IQ tests, it still made be think of how stupid the concept of getting your IQ tested was. We all know that everyone learns differently and that everyone has different interests. So, for example, if a young boy was extremely smart in video games but not so much in school.... would he be resulted as someone with a low IQ? That's one thing that bothers me the most. Not everyone has a great interest or "smartness" in math,physics, chemistry etc. most have a great amount of intelligence in something they really like. For me it was figure skating, I could answer any question someone had about figure skating. That was where most of my intelligence went. So as you can see, I believe I have somewhat made a point that IQ tests are pure bullsh*t!

Heinz's Situation

Heinz's was placed in a very difficult decision of choosing between stealing or letting his wife live. Personally I would steal the medicine because the punishment for stealing is nothing compared to loosing your loved spoused. Some people in class made a point that you don't really know if the medicine will work for sure, which is true, but if it was me I would put my own needs away for my loved one. I think going to jail or whatever the penitly is, is much better then living a life without the person you love while having that guilt over your shoulders that you were to selfish to steal the medicine. So in that case..... HEINZ STEAL THE MEDICINE!

Erik Erickson

Learning about Erik Erickson's stages of human development today made me realize that I've made some very good choices in my life. His theory is, I find, much different than the other theorist's theories that I've learned about. His theory is set up in a way of the good life road and the depressing life road. There's a choice you have to make during each stage in your personal development that most people don't even notice what they are choosing.  I find that the theory is set in stages for the staircase you must climb in life. Each stage is a stair. It causes you to think farther down the road of who you really wanna be and how you would like to live your life. So far this theory is one of my favourites due to the fact that it makes me actually stop and think about my life and the good choices I am grateful for making.

How Would I Handle A Student Like Brandon?

With a student like Brandon, who seems to be an angry student, I would be careful with them. In careful I mean that I would try to talk to them about their actions on a day when they don't seem so upset.  I speak for myself when I say this, but when I'm angry I tend to not appreciate it when people argue with me or put me down, in fact when I'm angry I would rather me left alone. I tend to start talking about the problem I had later on when I've cooled down. I believe Brandon would feel the same way.

Another helpful approach is if Brandon doesn't wanna talk I could some how get help through the parents and I don't mean verbally asking them what's going on in Brandon's life. You can usually tell when something is going on in the parents life that may affect the child, just by the way the parent may act during the parent teacher interview. By picking up reactions from the parents I could get a slight hint of the severity of damage that is going on in Brandon's life to understand his behaviour in class.

Piaget / Vygotsky Reflection

Both Piaget and Vygotsky are amazing theoriest but I find that Vygotsky's theory is more my preference for what I would use towards my teaching. The theory is based on social culture which I beleive that communication is the number one aspect in teaching. I agree that learning is situated and colaberative. Myself as a future teacher, would love to have that communication aspect of being able to work together with my students.I beleive that challenging the students is also a great aspect in Vygotsky's theory. Challenging students promotes growth in learning and that's what I'd like to do in my future classroom. Piaget does have some interesting point but the fact is Vygotsky is jsut a few steps ahead of Piaget.

Shyness in Students

When we watched the video called "Shyness" the one boy in it reminded me of myself in way that when I was young I did have friends but most of the time I liked being alone and doing my own thing. Even today I sometimes like being at home alone and having no one around me, it gives me time to just relax. I felt bad for the one girl in the video who almost had the feeling of being left out or different from the other children. It reminded me of when I drove past my home town school and seen a young boy in about grade 2 or 3 sitting in the corner of the field starring at the other kids playing soccer. I don't understand how children won't try to include others in their games at recess. I find it to be somewhat "stuck up" and feel that if they keep doing that they will turn into the "bullies" once they hit middle school and on. I like to treat others the way I would like to be treated, I don't like seeing people feeling like they are being left out. I even notice that in college some people are "stuck up" still. For example when there's partner discussions and everyone quickly finds a partner and there's one person left over,no one even notices. I find it harsh that no one will ask them to be a part of their gorup except me in that one particular class.

Jean Piaget's Stages

I find that Piaget's stages are very interesting to learn about. I never thought of growing up as putting them into stages and now that I actually understand each stage I try to go back in time and remember what it was like. For the most part I can remember my way of thinking except for the first stage where it occurs during birth until 2 years of age. I think that if you were becoming a kindergarten or elementary school teacher those stages would become very effective. You would be able to know and understand what level of learning the students are at during that time of their life. You would be able to understand that for the most part students from kindergarten through elementary would understand most things if it was right in front of them. A more physical aspect of leaning. Piaget's stages would help many people not only for their teaching career but also for when they become a parent. They would be able to somewhat put themselves in their children's shoes and understand what has developed in their mind and how much they can comprehend.

Would I Do That?

A question was brought up in class about whether or not us at future teachers, would put trend mills in our classrooms. I personally would do a little more research on the subject of exercising helpsthe brain. The video we watched on it did make a good, clear point that is does work but I wonder if it worked on all the students in that class. I notcied that they based the main focus on just two of the students from the school that it did work on.
In my classroom I would first suggest to the students to go on a cardio equipment machine and ask if they notice any difference in them being able to concentrate longer. If most say yes, then yea I probably would place exercise time into my course outline. I don't think I would go to the extent of actually putting machines in my classroom but I would definately set up a time where we could go to the school work out room during class for 20-30 minutes.

Exercise Helps the Brain

Today we watched a video from a school in Saskatoon, where a teacher incorporated exercise into the begining of her class and as a result the students got better grades. I believe that exercising does help you concentrate more.  I actually started working out again about 2 weeks ago and I find that my concentration and motivation levels have actually increased. I feel more energized and somewhat "lighter". I didn't exercise when I was in school this past winter and I found that it was hard for me to stay awake and motivated in class, whereas this year it's a little different. I can acutally concentrate and understand what's going on in the classroom. Hopefully this theory of exercise is true and that my grades will increase this semester. Now that I'm back into my workout mode I believe that I can fit in class time, homework, and the gym into each day to keep me going on the right track!

Edpy 200 A- Effective Teaching

I've learnt that effective teaching actually has seven points to it which all adds up to an amazing teacher! Each point involves criteria that helps create an effective learning environment for the students as well as the teacher. I believe that having in depth knowledge on the subject that you're teaching is the number one aspect to being a good teacher. I believe this because throughout my Jr. and Sr. high years I've ran into some teachers that had no clue what they were talking about and just read the textbook half of the time; it's no surprise when half of the class has to re due the subject in the following semester. A teacher needs to have knowledge in the subject they're teaching in order to show passion and enthusiasm towards it. I speak for myself when I say this; teacher's need to show their interest towards the students learning, if not all they're doing is standing in front of the classroom reading to themselves.
A good point attached to effective teaching was that we need to realize that teaching involves a diverse mosaic of students. Not every student will be an A+ student. Each student learns different whether it's listening, reading the textbook/notes, or actually putting the learning into action, us as teachers need to realize that we need to incorporate all learning ways into our teaching.

I've only learnt 4 of the 7 points to effective teaching, but so far it's making me motivated to becoming an awesome teacher in the future!