CED0525 week 1

This is the first blog for my new course.  This week I had to read two articles and write a brief reflection on each.  The first article is Principles of Teaching and Learning.  I found the article very interesting, but a repeat of some of the other material I’ve read.  With that being said, I don’t think you can be reminded too many times about these principles.  Some of the most important points for a teacher is to be flexible and to assess your own teaching.  As a special education teacher I feel I’m constantly assessing how I’m teaching and how the students are learning, especially through differentiated instruction.  It seems that everything I teach I have to present it in several different ways, which means I have to be quick thinking and very flexible.  I also use strategies all the time.  I feel it’s so important for students to have the tools to find the information, especially as more and more schools are moving into inclusion.  One of the principles mentioned the differences between classrooms.  This is so true.  Even though I teach strategies and allow my students to walk around to use tools, such as dictionaries, posters on the wall, etc. not all teachers do.  I had in instance this year with a team taught teacher who yelled at the students for doing the very thing they were taught to do in our classroom.  I had to tell the other teacher that this method is accepted.  I want the students to become independent and as I constantly tell them, we’re working on life skills as well. 

Flexibility is so important.  I encourage my students to ask questions and sometimes it gets them “off topic” but onto an important topic.  It might be something they’ve seen on the news or in the newspaper, for example the protests and rallies.  If my students ask questions we will change the course of discussion, and I will facilitate a conversation.  I’ve been very careful throughout my teaching career to not infringe my beliefs on my students while trying to get them to think and form opinions about the world around them.  I will facilitate a conversation about what they have seen and ask them what they think about.  I also encourage them to talk to their family, and it makes me feel good when they tell me the next day they did.  As a teacher it is our job to not only educate them on the subject and matter at hand, but to help them prepare for their future.

The teaching and learning principles are inter-connected.  Students bring their prior knowledge and it’s my job to learn what it is and build from there.  It’s also my job to work on making sure they master skills.  If they don’t master the skill, they won’t be able to build onto it; it will be become a lost skill.  I thought the best concept is the climate of the classroom.   My school is moving towards almost 100% inclusion next year, and I’m not in complete agreement with it based on this very concept.  I work with CDB students who I feel will be lost in the “inclusion” classroom.  In my room everyone is expected to do all the same tasks and we as a class are there to support not make fun.  I have students that are at a pre-K level and are in 7^th grade.  The rule in my room is that everyone has to read aloud.  At the beginning it’s a challenge to get the new students to do this.  However, after just a few short weeks all the students are arguing to read aloud first.  This is because of the climate of the classroom, they feel safe, and in the end it helps me to assess their skills.

The second article A theory-based meta-analysis of research on instruction. Aurora, CO: Mid-continent  Research for Education and Learning I didn’t find quite as interesting.  I found it challenging to read.  I find it difficult to read scientific studies.  What I got out of the article was that the use of technology does affect student outcomes, and it’s greater than previously thought.  This doesn’t surprise me.  Students see technology as fun, therefore engaging.  Technology helps to motivate students and today there are so many different types of technology (laptops, Senteos, iPods, SmartBoard, etc.)  If I haven’t used a particular technological tool the students will ask me when we’re going to use it.  For example, I’ll hear “When are we going to use the clickers?”  When technology is used students are actively engaged.  The other advantage to technology is instant feedback for the students and teachers.  This is important and useful in delivering instruction.  As a teacher, do I move on or do we need more practice?  For students, they see their results immediately and therefore they can ask questions if they didn’t get a correct answer.  I’m curious since this was written in 2003, I wonder how different the results would be today, 7 years later with more technology.  Would the results be the same?