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.