1-2-3! Blog Week 7

3 Things I Learned

1.  “Creating the right relationship with my mentor, with my associate, and with the other interns was key to my success and growth in this program. The relationships built with these vital people must be based on trust, compassion, faith, and hope.” I learned lots from this quote, as it shows me that it’s okay to ask questions and one can learn a lot from a mentor or coworker as a new teacher.
2.  Second I learned about child development, and realized how important it is as an educator to understand the different types of child development as these types can greatly affect and influence one another. Physical development, social development, cognitive development and personal development were discussed in the text, and I had never really learned about personal or social development of a child before.
3. Lastly, I learned that British Columbia was the first province to implement the Teachers Profession Act in 1987, giving much freedom and independence to teachers and teacher colleges/faculties.

2 Connections I Made

1. The first connection I made related to the quote above, as I often have a hard time asking questions whether it is a fear of asking a question that I should already know the answer too, or whether it is talking to someone I am not yet comfortable with. However I have learned in education courses specifically that there are no “dumb” questions and how beneficial asking questions is.
2. The second connection I made relates to professionalism, and the concept that teaching is a 24/7 profession. I have seen many of my former teachers in public acting in a non professional way, or even seen photos of them of face book or other social media.

1 Question I Have: 

Do all new teachers get a mentor of some sort, or are new teachers often left on their own in the school?

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3-2-1! Week Three

3 Thing I Learned:

1. The first thing I learned from this reading was about multitasking. I learned that multitasking in general is not a productive thing to do, although this especially applies while doing homework. I learned that when multitasking while doing homework, you significantly get much less work done. This is a result of your “process time” increasing because it takes longer to understand concepts while multitasking. If ones process time is increasing, then their productivity will decrease.
2. The second thing I learned was exactly how important it is for students to be given breaks throughout the day. Just fifteen minutes for recess throughout elementary school can make a significant impact on a child’s behaviour in the classroom. Aside from recess, giving a student frequent breaks during classroom time if needed can also make a difference, as no child is unable to pay attention throughout the entire day.
3. Lastly, I learned a lot about the different parenting styles. While reading, I found myself questioning which style best fit my own parents style. I learned that authoritative parents often produce happy, social children. Authoritarian parents usually raise children who are less popular among their peers, not feeling encouraged to communicate. Next is the passive parenting style, leading to children who do not feel that they have to listen to others, and are often very demanding. Lastly is the neglectful parenting style, which often makes children do poorly in academics. After reading about these styles, I realized how important it is for teachers to recognize, understand, and consider the parenting styles of their children.

2 Connections I Made:

1.  The most significant connection that I made took place while reading about the parenting styles. I found that my self comparing my own parents to these parenting styles, and then comparing the outcomes of these parenting styles to my own personality. I made a connection between these styles and myself, and discovered that my parents have a huge impact on me being the way that I am.

2. The second connection that I made related to students taking breaks. When I was in elementary school I always had a hard time staying on task in the classroom and would fall behind the other students. To help with this, another teacher would take me out of the class some days during the week and allow me to go for a walk around the school, and then come back and be ready to learn.

1 Question I Have:

One question I am left with after the readings and my own connections, is whether or not it would be beneficial to give ALL young students frequent breaks throughout the day, aside from just recess. Or would this become too much for students who are not in need of very frequent breaks?

 

3-2-1! Week Four

3 Things I Learned: 

1. I first found the Self-Determination Theory to be very interesting, as I could apply it to myself. This theory states that ones motivation is driven by their need for competence, control, and autonomy. Humans have a natural tendency to want to behave in efficient and healthy ways. However, this tendency can be altered by the social groups that an individual associates themselves with. Self – Determination can be applied to several things such as healthcare, sports, relationships, or education. When taking a look at the self determination theory in terms of education, it is easy to see that ones motivation to be self determined can change as a result of their friends, family, neighbourhood, and the community. If a student is associated with very determined friends, that student will feel the need to match or progress past their friends. If a student’s friends are not interested in school or do not feel the motivation to try to get good grades, that student may also lose their motivation towards academics.

2. During the reading, I discovered that it is actually more beneficial to add more content to your students assignments than it is to break things down. By adding more content to assignments, the teacher is able to expand the students cognitive and metacognitive part of the brain. Keeping in mind, adding more content does not mean making the assignment more difficult. If the assignment has more related content added to it, students can simultaneously achieve more than one goal.

3. Lastly, I took a lot from reading about the different types of motivation, those being intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation takes place when an individual is motivated to preform or complete a task because it is something that they enjoy doing. If the drive is coming from intrinsic motivation, the task may not even feel like it is a task, but rather an activity not taking up free-time. Extrinsic motivation takes place when an individual is preforming or completing a task because there will be a reward given at once the job is done. This reward could be money, a praise, or a good grade. When the drive to complete a task comes from extrinsic motivation, the task is usually something that the individual is not excited to do.

2 Connections I Made: 

1. I strongly related to the concept of self-regulation in education. I can remember my teachers in elementary school practicing self regulation with us very often. Of course, at the time I did not understand why they did that like I do now. We would be given free periods to either work on whatever we wanted, or we would be given checklists during these periods, and always felt very accomplished once our checklist was complete.

2. The second connection I made related to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. While completing assignments and other tasks, I had never actually thought about why I am doing it.  Until learning about the types of motivation, I realized that I am usually completing a task because there is an award involved… usually my grade. Even as I write this blog, I can admit to myself that this motivation is coming from extrinsic motivation, not intrinsic motivation. However, I as I learned about the types of motivation, i found myself connecting to both at many different times.

1 Question I Have:

One question I have left with me after these readings relates to choice and decisions. The text discusses how leaving choice for students creates more motivation to do the task. As teachers, how do we find a balance between giving our students choice, and making our students complete one task without giving them choice?

3-2-1! Week Two

3 Things Learned:

1. I found the reasoning behind how adolescents are considered adults, but are also not considered adults. This is due to the pre frontal cortex and the limbic system, as these parts of the brain need the most emotional stimulation as they grow. Once these parts of the brain have finished their growth period, they become closer to being considered adults as their emotions are more intact and mature.
2. I also learned much about sleep during the teenage or adolescent years. While I knew that humans need about  hours of sleep each night to be healthy, I did not know that teenagers need more sleep than that, being about 9 hours of sleep each night. Through the ages listed in the text, 12-18, I did not get 9 hours of sleep each night, and noticed that I always had a very hard time waking up in the morning. I have now realized that as I get older, waking up in the the morning is slightly easier, as my brain matures.
3. Lastly, one thing that I learned and was extremely shocked by was the section in the text explaining how a human can still function if half of their brain, being the left side or the right side, is removed. I learned that the remaining part of the brain is able to make up for what is lacking in the absent side of the brain.

2 Connections I Made: 

1. One strong connection I made while reading the text was teenage sleep. While reading about how much sleep a teenager or adolescent needs, I was able to connect this new information to my own teenage years. When reading about how and why it is hard for a teenager to wake up in the morning, I was able to connect as it was a struggle to wake up for school every morning throughout high school.
2. I was also able to connect to the idea that it is much easier for some to understand a concept if they are able to see the concept for physically do the concept or task. I can relate to this as I am a visual learner, and have a hard time learning from just being told.

1 Question I Have

• One question I have is in regards to child development. I am curious to know whether there are some aspects of brain maturity than contribute to child cognitive development more heavily than another aspect.