Your 2nd Grade Teacher's Thoughts

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W8.A2 - Blog #3 - Reflection, Synthesis, and Professional Growth Inventory

As a cautious and sometimes skeptical person, I entered this class with a critical eye when it comes to changing my current educational teaching practices and view of the US education system as a whole. However, through the readings, projects, and reflections I have come to see learning and teaching from a different perspective. One of the overarching conclusions I have come to is that as James Gee said “humans + tools are a winning combination” (pg. 83) Human capacity to think deeply and learn new things is not its best natural function. However, tools, like computers and the internet, can make that process more efficient and effective. If we separate the two, particularly in education, we are not allowing all the potential learning and creation to come about. So what does that mean as a teacher? Well, our education system currently does not do a very good job of training our students to use the tools nationwide. There are many inequalities when it comes to access to tools, classes o

W3.A2 - Blog #2 - The Power and Limitations of Tools

In Willingham’s chapters 2 and 3 he mainly discussed two major concepts, first that students must have background knowledge in order to think critically about a concept and second how human memory systems work and how that relates to making meaning. Both concepts have major implications for teachers and students when it comes to learning. Background knowledge is essential for learning for a few reasons. First, background knowledge is essential for critical thinking because in order for students to practice skills they must first have factual knowledge about a topic and an understanding of the vocabulary surrounding it. Additionally, students need background knowledge because it allows for new information to be connected to new concepts and for content to be chunked into manageable parts that your working memory can make meaning from. Background knowledge also serves to help clarify details of a story, problem, or concept that might be “ambiguous and confusing” (Willingham, pg 12).

Blog #1 - The Heavy Burden of Knowledge

From the readings this week one overarching concept stood out to me: humans’ capacity to think deeply is not its strongest function and because of that humans have created tools that help them accomplish tasks that can be done quicker or more efficiently with tools. According to Daniel Willingham, “People are naturally curious, but we are not naturally good thinkers; unless the cognitive conditions are right, we will avoid thinking.” (pg. 1) While, thinking is not necessarily humans’ greatest strength, humans gain pleasure when solving problems (Willingham, 2009, pg 9). One the biggest conditions Willingham suggests in getting people to think then is curiosity and interest. Other conditions Willingham suggests in producing successful thought relate directly to your brain's “information from the environment, room in working memory, and the required facts and procedures in long-term memory” (pg. 17). All of these conditions are hard to achieve at once however, they can ultimat

Assessing Classroom Transitions

My design problem I chose to study was How might I make classroom transitions more efficient? I choose this issue because this year because of our schedules we have a very short transition time between lunch and reading enrichment and specials and dismissal. While I have tried my best to assure my students lunch time and specials time is not taken up by transitions it is a struggle to not be late to lunch and specials. This problem was both very relevant to me, my students, and my co teachers. Since I simply couldn’t create more time for students to pack-up because they are not in my classroom before these transitions I worked on finding different ways to make them more efficient. I think the most meaningful part of the project was brainstorming possible solutions and discussing with other teachers how they conduct transitions. I was able to conduct several observations of a third grade classroom and first grade classroom instructed students to get back up. I also spoke with two fift

W7/8.A3 - Learning Journal Blog - Teacher Reflection

A strength of mine that I have recognized from this week’s readings is that I am always willing to embrace change when it comes to incorporating technology into the classroom. Due to the nature of technology, it is always changing, evolving, and sometimes can be unpredictable. However, I see the academic value it can have if incorporated correctly. According to Saumell in Principles for Meaningful Technology Integration, “Meaningful technology integration focuses on the learning task and not the technology.” (pg 2) To me this means that as an educator we need to come up with the tasks first and then find technology that makes that learning possible. Finding different technology tools or websites is something I enjoy doing. Teaching my students how to use those tools to enrich their learning experiences I also love doing. Some technology tools I’ve used with my students this last year are Wevideo, Math Learning Center Apps, Book Composer, SeeSaw and NearPod. The challenge that I face

W5/6.A3 - Learning Journal Blog - Teacher Reflection

One of the overarching ideas from this week’s readings that I think I am already doing as an educator is formatively assess student learning in a lot of different ways. While I feel like sometimes, my school might over-assess student learning I do think as a teacher I do collect a lot of meaningful data on my students. Some of the ways I currently formative assess student learning are through student interviews, student conferences, observation notes, and student portfolios. One of the big ideas from Wiggins & McTighe’s readings this week explained how “Effective teacher-assessors gather lots of evidence along the way, using a variety of methods and formats.” (2005, pg 152) Generally, within a unit, I already build several forms of formative assessment and take observation notes on all my students daily. While these formative assessments are not perfect, I feel like most of the data we collect (that isn’t state or district required) is “descriptive and narrative not just scored a