Weekly Reading Reflection on Chapter 11 for the week of April 9
My goal: To read the news every day
My Objectives:
1. To become more educated on current events
My methods: I get CNN's top news stories on my homepage, and they're updated daily, so it was really a matter of not being lazy and clicking on the links and reading the news stories. The biggest reason I hadn't been doing it up until now is that I felt I didn't have time, but it turns out that clicking the links and reading all the top stories didn't take more than 10 or 15 minutes each day, and, even after a few days, I feel I am much more informed than I was at this time last week.
Assessment: Obviously, I learned more about current events this week, but I think this activity goes deeper than that. I learned that many times, the reasons we find for not doing things that are good for us, from reading the news to exercising to sleeping enough, are not often very good ones. "I don't have time" is really common, but I think that many times, that's just an excuse for us to not push ourselves to do something even though we know we should. Now that I know how little time and effort it takes to inform myself, I'm definitely going to continue.
Reflection: Learning more about current events has definitely been good for the future teacher in me. First (and I know this has nothing to do with the reading, but I thought it was great anyway), CNN.com has a section specifically on education, which is one of the most important things I should be up-to-date on. However, relating the news to creating learning environments was a little tougher than relating it to benefits for educators in general. However, there was one part of the reading that I feel this is quite relevant to. Woolfolk referred to it as "withitness." She talks about it specific to time in the classroom and portraying an air of "eyes in the back of your head" to the students, but I think a teacher's withitness extends beyond that. The more a teacher knows about current events, even beyond current events in education, the better he or she can make connections that may be helpful in classroom management.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Monday, April 09, 2007
Weekly Reading Reflection on Chapter 10 for the week of April 2
My goal: To foster my inner child by playing every day
My Objectives: (Attitudinally based)
a. To help understand children by learning how they learn
b. To break social norms
C. To relax
Methods:
I did this with Stacy this week, and each night we tried to do something fun and kid-like. Although we did have the break and we missed a few nights, I think we took a few things from the experience anyway. The first step was to think of kid things to do. One day, we played in the mud, and one day we colored. Like I mentioned in my entry last week, I learn best by doing, so getting down into the dirt, literally, was a good way for me to begin to understand the perspectives of children.
Assessment:
A lot of people didn't really understand how coloring and watching Beauty and the Beast counted as Ed Psych homework. In this way, I think we did a great job of breaking social norms, and the way people reacted to the mud on our jeans was a good indicator of how thoroughly broken they were. However, it's hard to tell how much better I really understand kids or how much I relaxed. I think this week has made me more creative and will help me come up with a variety of activities to teach the same thing. After all, flexibility is a very important quality of all good teachers. And, after spending an hour or so coloring and not stressing out about what I had to do the next day, I always felt better and less anxious.
Reflection:
This week's chapter in the Woolfolk book was on motivation, and it was interesting to think about what motivated me to do my project this week. Of course, I did it partly because it was a lot of fun. Intrinsic motivation. However, I also did the project, and completed my reading, for that matter, so I could write this blog entry. I wrote this blog entry so I could have my homework done and get a good grade in the class. All of these factors are extrinsic motivators. I think that everything a student does is motivated, at least to some degree, by both of these factors.
My goal: To foster my inner child by playing every day
My Objectives: (Attitudinally based)
a. To help understand children by learning how they learn
b. To break social norms
C. To relax
Methods:
I did this with Stacy this week, and each night we tried to do something fun and kid-like. Although we did have the break and we missed a few nights, I think we took a few things from the experience anyway. The first step was to think of kid things to do. One day, we played in the mud, and one day we colored. Like I mentioned in my entry last week, I learn best by doing, so getting down into the dirt, literally, was a good way for me to begin to understand the perspectives of children.
Assessment:
A lot of people didn't really understand how coloring and watching Beauty and the Beast counted as Ed Psych homework. In this way, I think we did a great job of breaking social norms, and the way people reacted to the mud on our jeans was a good indicator of how thoroughly broken they were. However, it's hard to tell how much better I really understand kids or how much I relaxed. I think this week has made me more creative and will help me come up with a variety of activities to teach the same thing. After all, flexibility is a very important quality of all good teachers. And, after spending an hour or so coloring and not stressing out about what I had to do the next day, I always felt better and less anxious.
Reflection:
This week's chapter in the Woolfolk book was on motivation, and it was interesting to think about what motivated me to do my project this week. Of course, I did it partly because it was a lot of fun. Intrinsic motivation. However, I also did the project, and completed my reading, for that matter, so I could write this blog entry. I wrote this blog entry so I could have my homework done and get a good grade in the class. All of these factors are extrinsic motivators. I think that everything a student does is motivated, at least to some degree, by both of these factors.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Weekly Reading Reflection on Chapter 9 for the week of March 26
My goal: To talk less and listen more.
My Objectives: (Attitudinally based)
a. To really listen to what the other person has to say
b. To make conversations less about me and more about them
My Methods:
I find that when I'm in a conversation with someone, I'm always thinking about how what they're saying relates to my life. This week, I tried to do a lot less of that. I tried to stop selfishly trying to make the conversation about me and make sure I was really listening to what the other person had to say. I tried to ask a lot of open-ended questions and pay close attention to the answer. This reflects my learning style because I learn best by practing how to do things. This week, I practiced how to listen.
Assessment:
I feel that by listening more to people this week, I learned a lot about the people I talked to. Most of the people I practiced listening to were people I felt I knew quite well, and I can think of several examples of friendships that grew stronger this week. Knowing this, I will continue to make a more conscious effort to listen more closely to people when they speak instead of trying to make a conversation more about me.
Reflection:
Woolfolk has a few things to say about keeping lines of communication open. First, on page 321, she gives the example of the student who comes in late to class. This student has many visible tattoos and piercings, and the teacher immediately forms an opinion of him and reacts cooly to his entrance. The student becomes resentful, thinking this school will be just like his last one. If the teacher had only kept an open mind despite the student's tardiness and appearance, perhaps he or she could have provided him with a valuable learning experience. Woolfolk also addresses the importance of teachers listening on page 329, while discussing inquiry and how it aids the learning process. In short, she says that teachers who lecture in their classroom tend to be much less effective than teachers who allow students to learn on their own by asking carefully selected questions and answering any questions the students may have on the subject. It makes sense. I know that I remember things a lot better when someone helps me figure them out than when someone just tells me.
My goal: To talk less and listen more.
My Objectives: (Attitudinally based)
a. To really listen to what the other person has to say
b. To make conversations less about me and more about them
My Methods:
I find that when I'm in a conversation with someone, I'm always thinking about how what they're saying relates to my life. This week, I tried to do a lot less of that. I tried to stop selfishly trying to make the conversation about me and make sure I was really listening to what the other person had to say. I tried to ask a lot of open-ended questions and pay close attention to the answer. This reflects my learning style because I learn best by practing how to do things. This week, I practiced how to listen.
Assessment:
I feel that by listening more to people this week, I learned a lot about the people I talked to. Most of the people I practiced listening to were people I felt I knew quite well, and I can think of several examples of friendships that grew stronger this week. Knowing this, I will continue to make a more conscious effort to listen more closely to people when they speak instead of trying to make a conversation more about me.
Reflection:
Woolfolk has a few things to say about keeping lines of communication open. First, on page 321, she gives the example of the student who comes in late to class. This student has many visible tattoos and piercings, and the teacher immediately forms an opinion of him and reacts cooly to his entrance. The student becomes resentful, thinking this school will be just like his last one. If the teacher had only kept an open mind despite the student's tardiness and appearance, perhaps he or she could have provided him with a valuable learning experience. Woolfolk also addresses the importance of teachers listening on page 329, while discussing inquiry and how it aids the learning process. In short, she says that teachers who lecture in their classroom tend to be much less effective than teachers who allow students to learn on their own by asking carefully selected questions and answering any questions the students may have on the subject. It makes sense. I know that I remember things a lot better when someone helps me figure them out than when someone just tells me.
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