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!