Ch. 7 learning log

What?
This chapter is on knowledge construction. It starts off asking you to think back to a time when you tried to carry on a conversation with someone in a noisy room. You weren’t probably able to hear everything they were saying, but you were able to get the gist of the message by combining what you did hear with things you could see and things you already knew about the topic under discussion. We have the constructive processes in learning and memory. Within that we have construction in storage. Construction in retrieval, and knowledge construction as a social process.
From there you are then using the organizing knowledge. You use it by concepts, schemas and scripts, theories, and worldviews. In order to promote effective knowledge construction we need to provide opportunities for experimentation, present experts’ perspectives, emphasize conceptual understanding, promoting classroom dialogue, assigning authentic activities, scaffolding theory construction and creating a community of learners.
However there are many challenges with conceptual change. We need to be careful with confirmation bias. We need to have diversity in constructive processes. We can do this by accommodating students with special needs.

So What?
It is important to know about how your brain organizes things and the different ways it does it. You do this with your different concepts, schemas and scripts. As you teach you need to help the students engage in the different ways of learning and have them be constantly relating their new information with the old information. They learn things by having it repeated and put into their daily scripts. They will soon know things and remember it just as easy as they know how to ride a bike.


Now What?
After knowing about the importance oh how students learn. We need to make sure that as we are teaching our students that we relate things to their previous knowledge so that they have the schema to go with it. That will help them in remembering things better. They can see how this new subject can relate to their old background. We want all the information and learning the students do to become part of their script. I hope to have my students remember all the information the learn and have it come to them as easy as riding a bike is for them. I hope to have the information easily learned and able to retrieve easily!

Ch. 6 Learning Log

What?
In class today we learned about learning and cognitive processes. In this chapter we learned about your memory and how you remember things. We use a model of Human Memory which is:

Sensory Register-
Working (short-term) Memory
Long-term Memory

Your memory goes in through your brain and goes to the thalamus. From there it goes out to the certain lobes that the memory pertains too. It goes back and forth multiple times between the hippocampus and amygdale. You retain memory into either your short-term or long-term memory. Its important to remember this like a filing cabinet. It is very important to retain this information and file it away into the certain areas. That way it is easier to pull the information back out.

So What?
This is very important to know about how your memory is stored in helping you to remember things better. Different people remember things differently and in better ways than others. We don’t all remember things the same way. When knowing these other ways that students learn it will help us in being a better teacher.

Now What?
From knowing these different ways it will help us in teaching our future students. We want our students to not just remember things in the short-term memory. We can help to improve their memory but teaching certain different ways. Not just by teaching with having the students write things down, we need to have the read, write and actually visualize what they are learning. The more ways we teach a concept the more the students will remember.

Temple Grandin-Guest Speaker

It was very interesting to listen to Temple Grandin. I have never listened to a speaker who has Autism. I have only ever known little kids who have had autism. It was very interesting to see how smart she was and how she has used her problems to come up with all these new inventions by visually picturing them in her head and then putting them into action. She amazes me at how smart she is. It was still very noticeable that she had some mental/brain problems. Especially when people would ask her questions and she would answer them, she would kind of go off topic and would have to get back on topic. Its great how she helps other people with the same type of problems and how she is putting her problems to good use. It also amazes me at how she can write all these amazing books. It does make me wonder if when she writes her books if she goes off topic at all.

Ch. 3 Learning Log

What?
I learned about Erickson's psychosocial stages. It was very interesting to learn about his different stages that he put all the students in. I liked how we were taught how to memorize them. That made it easy to learn the stages and apply them to the certain ways the students are in. I need to learn how to memorize all the things I need to know. I actually learn different material and memorize it by relating it to something so that it will help me in always remembering what it is. We also learned about Kohlberg and his three levels. Which are preconventional, conventional and postconventional. And in these levels their are 6 stages. However, with these different levels I don't think that these are all accurate with the age because I can see myself in the preconventional level with some of the certain things I do and try to avoid.

So What?
It is very important to know about Erickson’s and Kohlberg’s levels and stages because as teachers we will be having all types of students in our class. With knowing these levels we are able to understand our students better in knowing why they might act a certain way they do. We will be able to know how to tolerant those certain students better and not let us get upset at them for acting a certain way.

Now What?
By knowing these stages and levels I will need to remember them always so that when I am a teacher I can know why my students might act a certain way. I will also know what level my students will be at when I start a new year of teaching depending on the grade I teach. I can also use this knowledge with my nieces and nephews. I think it is cool to be able to do certain little experiments on them to see what level they are at. I especially want to try the marshmallow test on them to see how they might possibly be when they are older.

Guest Speaker- Kim Peek (Rain Man)

It was so interesting to see and hear Kim Peek speak with his dad. I was not very familiar with the movie rain man so it was all very interesting for me to hear about him. It made me want to watch the movie and learn more about him. So I couldn’t learn everything about him in an hour. It was cool to see Kim talking with his father in the beginning about himself. Crazy how they didn’t know what was wrong with for many years since they did not have the technology needed. It amazes me how Kim can walk and sees to me that he would be able to do a lot of things to take care of himself. It surprised me in knowing that he cannot bath, shave, and sometimes feed himself. I was impressed with his speaking ability. He is differently different from other mentally retarded people. He has so many numerous talents it is unbelievable. I could not believe that he knew whom someone was by his name and his accent of where he was from. It completely blew me away at everything he knew about the man.
His memory is unbelievable with all the books, numbers, places, historic events that he can remember. I love his saying, “You don’t have to be handicap to be different, everybody is different.” I think that is so true, we all are different in our own ways. I enjoyed the part where anyone could ask questions and he could pretty much know every answer they asked.

Ch. 2 learning log

What?

This chapter is really the big foundation since it is on the cognitive development and the relations to learning and memory. We learned about the differences between Piaget and Vygotsky. They both have their perspectives on cognitive development. Piaget sees that there are 4 stages. The 1st being sensorimotor stage which is from birth to two. This is where your schemes are based largely on behaviors and perceptions. The 2nd is preoperational (2-7 years) and this is where children can think about objects and events beyond their immediate view but do not yet reason in logic. The 3rd is concrete operations (7-11 years) at this stage the adult like logic appears, but is limited to concrete reality. And the final stage is formal operations (12 +) at this stage you separate their own abstract logic from the perspectives of others and from practical considerations.
Vygotsky’s theory deals with the social constrctivism, role of culture, interaction with adults, and theory derived from observation. His biggest role was the society. With the society there was socio-cultural learning, guided participations (adult helps), apprenticeship (adult thinking), peer interaction and power to play. Most of his studies were based off of his own children.

So What?

This weeks topic is very important as a teacher because these are the cognitive developments that our students will be going through. As elementary teachers we will be dealing with the concrete operations stage, which is ages 7-11. This stage the students are differentiation of one’s own perspective from the perspectives of others, deductive reasoning, and class inclusion. If we know the different ways our students are reacting to certain things it will help us in making sure we can accommodate and help each student in any way they need it. We will know why certain students act up and respond the way some might.

Now What?

I will use this as a future teaching in knowing what most stages my students will be in when I teach them. I can be better prepared for the stages I will see and know how I need to teach the material to my students. By knowing how they learn and respond it will help me to be the most effective to my students.
I still need to learn the different stages better. I don’t know all of the certain ways that the students will learn the best. I need to learn more in depth of the ways the learn certain materials and how they work with other students. I need to make sure I know at what age they work well with others in groups and make sure that I know the best projects to do with groups. Some projects might not be the best because many students have different views on things.