Monday, December 6, 2010

Wrapping up the semester

It's here all ready. The end of another semester, and unfortunately, the end of this class. I can never believe how fast it goes, and this time, I'm really going to be sad to be leaving these classes behind. But, the show must go on. But what have I learned? I felt the need to do the Course overview, to really finish things off and give it my final stamp before I can move on for the semester. So, I'll give my answers, as well as one more question I think needed to be asked.


What was my most significant take away learning from this class?
I've mentioned it before, but I have been thoroughly revolutionized by the ideas of Sugata Mitra, Gardener's Multiple Intelligences, and Differentiating Instruction. I know it was supposed to be the main one take away, but these three things have become a basis for a teacher that I want to be. I see the benefit of broadening myself up, of taking those steps to not be a conventional teacher. The world is going to be such a different place for the children that I teacher. I feel I'd be letting them down if I followed the same methods that were used on me. I'll be preparing kids for a world that is going to be so unimaginable, that if I don't learn how to expand myself to unseen levels, and give them all a fair chance to show off the skills that they have, to embrace the unique talents of every child, then the future will only suffer. We're moving forward, and they've these concepts have helped make me want to move along with the future.

Has my thinking changed in any way? How?
Inclusive education was the most controversial thing for me in this class. I really am afraid, simply because I don't know what to expect out of my future. The first time I heard about the idea, I could only see faults in the reasoning. But with every class, I have begun to understand that the Alberta Government may have the right idea in pushing the school system in this direction, or at least by trying to get it to a better level. I haven't changed my goals in my future, but, I really think that I've become a lot more open to the idea. I still have my reservations, but who knows, by the time I'm teaching, that may be the norm, and that's all I'll be used too.


What about implications for my planned professional practice? 
I may be getting a bit ahead of myself, but I've really been making a model in my head throughout the entire class. I've been looking at the different theorists and models, and piecing together a classroom that I'd want to teach. It's idealistic at this point, and it may change in the future, but I think everything in this class has been an introduction into techniques that I have to use in teaching, and things that I want to do. It'd be impossible to narrow it down, because I think that the implication was that it opened my eyes to what I can do.

Now, it wasn't one of the three questions given out in class, but I had to think about it. How did the blog affect me? What have I taken away from it? And I have to be honest. I did neglect my blog. Why? There are excuses of course, mostly due to procrastination and other responsibilities with a more imminent deadline, but I think I was suffering a writing block. Writing is something that I love to do, but for months I haven't even written for my own pleasure. It effected my motivation to complete blog entries. Little did I know, that by doing these, I have suddenly pushed past any writing problems I had a week ago.

Would I continue my blog? Probably not. It was incredibly useful I think to do at the end of the semester, because I've had a chance to review everything that we've gone over in the year. But...I find that I'm exposing myself by having an online blog. Most of the thoughts that I've written down here were ones that were going through my head the entire time, and by the time I go to write them down, they've lost the passion that they had. It would have been nice to be able to discuss everything as we go through it, but that is never possible. But it has done something for me. It's forced my to really commit to my opinions, and look at the material we've gone over in class. I've even got to be more creative and passionate than I would in any essay. So no, I may not continue this blog onto the future, but I'm glad we got the chance to do it here. I only wish I'd been more dilegent to complete it throughout the year.

So...that's all folks. A semester over, and a lot learned. I don't know how my opinions will continue to change, but, this has certainly been one of my favourite classes. I'm excited to teach, and to take the steps to put in place the framework I've begun to build here.

Problems....What Do We Do When Things Go Bad

We've all had problems

Whether it's been with our family, friends, or even in the situations where we've been teaching.

Problems though, take on a delicate balance in a classroom. This isn't just a child that may be misbehaving that you can personally take the time to deal with as it could be in a personal situation. When the management and control of the class is on the line, problems can become something that could destroy control over students.

I thought about what my first step would be to reduce the number of problems in my classroom. And, the first thing was the first thing that had to happen. There had to be rules. I recently talked to my cousin about a class that he had, and how he hated how on the first day they got a huge list of things that they were not allowed to do. He felt like they were being told all of these things they couldn't do, and that sets a rather negative mood. I want to have rules in my class, but I want them to feel more like precautions and agreements with students and myself on how we all want behaviour to be in the classroom. So I decided that I would want to set up a list of rules, a few that I find to be very important, and then on the first day ask kids what kinds of things they want to see in the classroom, ask them what they don't like to happen. It's a bit risky, to see if they would participate in this, but I think that if you give them the opportunity to be heard, and if they all agree on the rules, then its a contract between all of us, and less of something I'm telling them to do.

Outside of that, I've learned a few tricks here and there. The PLAS program I took part in this semester through my KPED class really gave me the perfect chance to try out a few of these techniques. There is nothing like energetic kids acting up to make you think on your feet of how to deal with the problems. I've had to employ minor and moderate interventions, though thank goodness nothing far enough to take it to the level of serious interventions. I'll try to illustrate a few scenarios where I had to use skills in those two areas, of course, changing the names of the kids.

Minor Interventions
There were two brothers who seemed to constantly be causing a disturbance and building off of each other to the point that they interrupted the class and often took things to a stand still. My group and I had to employ a lot of techniques, each hoping to get them to stop. We often used a proximity technique of standing directly behind them, or a silence technique of falling quiet and pointedly waiting for them to stop their behaviour. It was always easier to handle when we had our instructions clearly planned out, and every kid was actively involved in the event. Eye contact didn't seem to work, though there were times when it seemed like they were waiting to see if you noticed their behaviour. So yes, most of our interventions in the class were minor, though it seemed as if it took calling out behaviour in some cases...or worse...

Moderate Interventions
Unfortunately, there was more need for moderate intervention that I thought. There were cases when a child would refuse to move from a gymnast mat where he was at risk of getting hurt, and creating a time out of exclusion of the next activity was the only way that they would stop their current behaviour. There was also some cases of ownership problems that had to be sorted out through the involvement of bringing in the Principal to deal with the matter.

Sugata Mitra



I mentioned earlier that finding Sugata Mitra has probably been the most inspiring thing for me in this class. He is, a man who's idea has infected my brain, and has set something in place that I continue to go back to, and relate everything in class to his ideas. I was lucky enough to find him at the beginning of the term, and have watching his speech above, which delves further into his research. And, I'll be the first to say, I was flabbergasted and amazed by the level of capability that the children showed in his study.

Ever since then, I've been thinking about this. Thinking about how we can harness what children naturally possess. How can we help them to become so self motivated. What kinds of wonders can we create in the human mind with the introduction of technology? Can we use this to get knowledge to children everywhere?

I think that if I was going to take one thing away from this class, it would be a great respect for this man and the study he is doing. And a further desire to search things out to try to enlighten myself with the wonderful work that people are doing in the world. TED is a fantastic site, and I wish I could spend a year simply educating myself on the things that people have been able to learn and share with the world. I truly am motivated, and inspired by this, and it is just one of thousands of talks that exist by men and women just as innovative as Sugata Mitra.

I started to think, about what I could use from this mans lecture, and how I could transport it into a regular classroom. I really like the idea of creating 'pods' or at least arranging a seating plan like that. Especially when he does his experiment in the school in Italy, it made me think about cooperative learning, and what the effects would be if children were able to share one computer through four, and if they could walk over and examine other peoples work. Because, isn't that a much more real world situation? We are not individual in our learning in real life, and there's always google to look to if we get stuck. Important discoveries are not made with out inspiration of the ideas of others. Could that really be used as a regular feature of a classroom?

Sugata Mitra's learner driven education is a program that I think could really help communities where teachers are not as available, but it also exists in a world of more technology, and the ability to access it. Situations like this would be great for schools in Nunavut, where there is very little outside interest in going to teach. It could even work in a regular classroom, and could be used as a great way to get the community involved by having volunteers able to come in to the school and ask the children questions, to comment on their progress. It's a world of teaching I wish was available to more people, it reminds me almost of a Vulcun school system as seen in the recent Star Trek movie. Maybe it is the future.

Motivation

What motivates you? It's something that, I think some people don't really think about. I know I usually don't, though a very large deadline looming ahead seems to always do the trick. But, is that really a motivator we should be depending upon? School gives up a set of deadlines, the consequences being failure and the rewards being good grades. We motivate ourselves mainly, with the idea that we want to avoid the consequences. We want to do good, or, we need to do good if we want to get into something else. That doesn't always work. And it doesn't feel as good. It's the difference between performance and mastery. One is rewarding, the other other, is simply a goal to achieve.

If I am going to be honest, I need to set a goal for myself. I need to be more motivated to get things done ahead of time, to beat my horrible tendency to procrastinate (getting started is half the job). I need to motivate myself, to do better than what I've been depending on before. Yes, I have through the graces that shouldn't be so lenient, had little consequences for my procrastination, and have met my performance orientation needs to motivation. I've gotten my marks, I've handing things in on time. But...I've mastered nothing. If I am smart, I can only image how truly intelligent I would be if I gave myself the opportunity, the time, the practice, that comes with spanning things out and working on them throughout a long set of time. That is what I want to master, my own ability to take control of my learning and responsibilities, instead of waiting until my time is running out before paying attention to them.

The reward for my motivation, I can see it clearly. Less stress and a feeling that I am in control of myself. Those are rewards outweigh any mark that I could get, even though they may lead to more success. Dan Pink, in his TED video, talking about the kind of motivation that people need. He talked about how rewards can often sidetrack true motivation. If that is true in a business model, it would also be true in kids. Gold stars, toys, even grades...are these rewards helping kids, or are we narrowing their creative abilities.

It would be almost impossible to give children 20% of free work time a day. It's hard enough to fit in physical education around all of the educational requirements that must be made. But maybe, we should be motivating them with the opportunity to do better. We should be giving kids more chance to show their own talents. Maybe we can have assignments that are due sometime during the year, give them more freedom to decide what kind of way they are going to show their knowledge. It could play in with differentiating instruction, to see what kids can produce when there is less of a constraint placed upon them. The idea is unrefined, and I do worry about how children would react to a system like that. Maybe it should be restricted to a business scenario. Maybe a classroom should stick with their motivations of grades, and try to raise children up to a general interest in mastering the content. Some of these things I can only assume about, until I get a chance to dive in headfirst with the concepts.

But...I can see the idea of pushing kids towards the higher levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Deficiency needs are things that kids need to develop, but if the higher into the growth needs they can go, the more they have actually achieved.

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It may not be easy, or even possible for teachers to take children's minds to the level of self-transcendence. That seems like something that needs to be an actual step that a child takes through meta-cognition, an active choice to push themselves on to a higher level. But...if we expect children to self actualize, then we are using Vygotsky's theory of scaffolding to raise them up to that level. Kids won't go beyond what we think of them. If we expect them to be the very best that they can be, and strive for only that, then kids will begin to see that as a possibility. There is nothing worse than a child who is lead to believe by their instructors that they are unable of reaching certain goals. Perhaps our greatest tool of motivation is that; an expectation that they will reach those higher limits.

Working together

One of the things that I have come to relate to very strongly in this class, is the idea of student centred learning. My mind slowly started creating my ideal classroom, how I would want to run things when I am a teacher. And one of the things that has always interested me was the idea of group learning. I stumbled upon the Sugatra Mirtra video earlier on in the semester, and it really inspired me. Kids have an incredibly thirst for knowledge, and they can adapt themselves to any situation and method of learning. Why are we not harnessing this, and allowing them to develop their own knowledge, with only the helping hands and instruction needed to start them.

I tie the group learning in with student centred learning, Gardener's multiple intelligence, differentiating instruction, and Vygotsky. All of these processes to me, concreted my belief that I want to push for children working in more of a group setting. Yes, there could be problems with plagiarizing, or kids passing on their responsibilities to the group, but that is a very individualistic viewpoint. Maybe the other cultures have it correct; maybe we should start to turn our viewpoint into one of a community, and promote collaboration and the self and peer guiding that can happen when two minds come together to work on something.

Looking back on my own education, I won't lie, I could have used a lot more group work. All of my report cards said that Brittany needs to learn to work better with others, Brittany needs to learn to share responsibilities instead of doing things by herself. And they were right. By focusing so much on myself, I took on a lot of pressure, and I often times can remember shutting out possibly amazing ideas simply because I refused that anyone could do something as good as I could. What does that kind of viewpoint do for the world? Yes, we want to increase a child's intelligence, their strengths, and make them self sufficient people. So while there is time for kids to work on their own, I think that there is a vast, incredibly source to be used by allowing children the chance to help each other. Push boundaries by having them support each other, be introduced to new viewpoints, use their own curiosities to motivate each other.

Group learning has so many benefits, socially and mentally, that I think is lost in a class where kids sit in individual roles and listen to the teacher. Even if the teacher is trained, motivated, and interested in getting children to learn, there is a severe underestimating of exactly what a child can do. Give them the reigns, some power, and see what they can do. The purpose of a teacher is to help lead them to this amazing world of knowledge, but once they're out of the doors, we can't do that anymore. If we can help push them to look for themselves, to talk with others, to brainstorm ideas and actively take part in things, then we're teaching them more than arithmetic and reading. Those are skills that will benefit a child in any situation at life. And there is a disservice done to children who are boxed in to the idea of only one way to learn, or who feel inactive in their own education.

How do our Brains work?

How could anyone not be amazed at the understanding we have begun to get of our own mind. Through all of the scientific breakthroughs and discoveries that have, I think teachers today are much better equipped at understanding exactly what may be happening inside the minds of the children we are trying to teach. And with that knowledge, maybe we can begin to be a lot more prepared on how to help them achieve their maximum potential.

I can distinctively remember staring down at a list of pre-human ancestors, their Latin names and approximated time of existence seeming a daunting mountain of information. There are times in our schooling when we've had to try to feed our brains a lot of knowledge, where small details and precise data is truly important. Memory, and our ability to master it, is something that everyone needs. In fact, some people can simply be smart with very little effort because they are born with a natural ability to just pick things up and remember them. My mother mentioned a girl who slept during class, but seemed to absorb the information while she slept on her textbooks. She had a photographing memory, and there was very little she could not remember, whether it be a paragraph in text books, or a complete list of dates.

Andy Bell, however, is a man that proves that it isn't always the natural ability that can help us. His technique for memorizing anything, even ten full decks of shuffled cards, is one that does not depend upon your IQ, but on your plan. The true brilliance of that, is that as teachers, we can pass things like this on to our students. Especially in younger years, the earlier we introduce them to these strong concepts that can bring out the best in their brains internal workings, the better they will be able to adapt them into their brains hardware. It's in a post secondary classroom that we're taught about reading strategies, and go over systems of memory encoding, storage, and retrieval, but I would like to find ways to get these into kids subconsciously. I don't think a grade three class could follow this curriculum yet, but they can certainly be guided to use good techniques to make sure that they are storing things in their long term memory banks.

Looking at the five types of encoding in memory we went over, rehearsal, deep processing, elaboration, constructing images, and organization, there are things in each that I want to use as a way to direct class discussions. Make it something that we start off as doing as an in class assignment, thinking deeply, associating the information, helping them relate it to a jingle or by relating the information to looking at your hands while you concentrate on it. Getting those things hardwired into us, having them start that young, is opening the doors for them to adopt those techniques themselves .Eventually, if kids find that these steps help them, it becomes part of their schema, the tools that they learn to depend upon to help them achieve better mental success.

The brain is a powerful tool, and children have the amazing ability to twist and shape theirs much more freely than we do now. If I could help some kid realize a little helpful hint that much earlier, it would be an accomplishment I wish I had learned.

Social Cognitive Theory

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Albert Bandura relates back to Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory very strongly for me, though I like the direct look Bandura takes into the interconnected relationships of the factors in a persons life surrounding an issue. It gives power to everything in life, which is something that I think is true, and that even something in the environment that we think is beyond our control can be changed by our behaviours.

The fact that it is seen as a snapshot of an ever continuing cycle also is important to me. I can relate to the fact that things do not stay the same, or that things cannot be changed at a later date. It could only take a small change in one area to spawn a complete resynthesis of the system, which is a powerful idea. It could go either for the good or the bad, but in either case demonstrates the balance of control of things in a persons life. Imagining that all it could take is a child deciding that they don't agree with their parents dismissal of school to slowly reshape their cognitive system gives hope that behaviours are not set in stone, and that a child can have hope no matter where they are now.

In class, we mapped out our example of Bandura's social cognitive theory based on that very idea, of parents having a negative viewpoint of school. This is what we came up with :

Environment- Parents who look down on school as being something that you just have to put up with till you can quit.
Environment -> Personal: the child begins to be indoctrinated by their parents belief and agree with them
Environment -> Behaviour: Parents let the child get away with not attending school.


Personal- Child see's school as being a waste of his time, looks at his parents as examples of why you don't need it.
Personal ->Behaviour: The child stops going to school or caring about their studies.
Personal -> Environment: Parents support the child and school becomes less welcoming.


Behaviour- The child does not interact or participate in school and shows a lack of interest.
Behaviour -> Environment: Teachers punish the child for their lack of good behaviour.
Behaviour -> Personal: The child sees more negative sides of the school system.

Operant Conditiong

The thing about operant conditioning is, it's only good for the way you think of approaching something. If you twist something around, most of the the four times of conditioning are the same thing, just worded differently. If you give a detention, you take free time away. If you give a gold star, you take away stress. So instead of taking it quite so literally, I find that it really helps to look at it as the way that you choose to support or punish behaviour, and how you do so.

I see myself favouring the act of rewarding children, though, I personally stray from the concept of giving them a physical reward. We want to support them, and give them encouragement, but by handing out gold stars and rewards for every behaviour, it makes me question whether the child will learn to carry the behaviour out of the classroom and the sight of someone who will reward them. This ties in with the hidden curriculum of helping children learn and grow in the world, and there is all ready too much of people assuming that they'll only do something if there is a reward in it for them. I think everyone needs to look at the Hindu view of Dharma, and do good things simply for the sake of doing good. I think that we should instead award children with comments to reassure them that they are on the right path, a smile, the natural assurance between two people that they should be proud of themselves.

But, on the opposite side, I also believe that negative punishment and positive punishment are too close together to distinguish the two of them. If you give a detention, you lose free time. If you take away their distraction, you're giving them an ultimatum to behave to get their toy back. Since the two are so hand in hand, I would simply have to decide on my wording. And I think that a lose is more effective than a gain. Especially if it is losing something that I look forward too. It's more poignant, because it's removing something that they all ready know about, so it works for people who have never gotten in trouble before, and repeat offenders.

In class, we were given an activity to make an example of each of the time of concepts. I'd like to finish by sharing the four that I came up with in class, and expand upon them a bit.

Positive Reinforcement- Give the class more free reading time to reward good English marks. This is good, because while it is a reward, the reward is something that will directly benefit them in what they are doing. It promotes a continuation of the behaviour, and maybe helps them do even better on their next English assignment.


Negative Reinforcement- Due to such good works on the smaller tests in a subject, take off a question on their final and make it a bonus question instead. If this is a goal that kids are given as an incentive, it becomes something that could motivate studying for each earlier quiz, which will create more general knowledge, instead of a final rush to study at the final.

Positive Punishment- Give a student more questions from the textbook they have to answer in the homework for not doing their work in the assigned time. This will make the child manage time better to get the extra questions done, as well as give them more practice in the subject.

Negative Punishment- Take away group time if a child doesn't do his own work first and make him finish his individual work. This is a tricky one, for even though it could get him to finish his individual work, there would need to be care taken that the child would not miss out on important lessons learned during group time.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Differentiating Instruction

This blog is differentiating instruction. It's the first example that popped into my mind. We were all assigned a blog, with no other guidelines. So, everything that we post here, is a perfect example of our individual choices, a chance for us to exhibit the way that we would choose the complete a task. These blogs would fit into the category of a differentiating instruction product, rather than content or process.

But, what are other examples of Differentiation Instruction? The best way that I thought to approach this was to come up with different examples in content, process, and product. As a teacher, I'm going to need to embrace these techniques to broaden my teaching skills, so why not create a wide variety of ideas now.

Content- What and the Materials of learning 
 It would be difficult to change the content we are learning, so I focuses on the different ways that we could present the materials
  • Lecture
  • Power Points
  • Guest Speakers
  • Field Trips
  • Hands on Experiance
  • Displays
  • relating the content to modern, or popular media similarities
  • Textbook readings
Process- The things students due by which they learn
  • Taking Notes
  • Debating
  • Doing lab work
  • constructing scientific procedures
  • Learning memorization songs and games
  • In class activities 
  • Guided studying and knowledge exploring
  • In class discussions
Product- The thing that the student produces and becomes the means for assessment
  • Spelling tests
  • Essays
  • Posters
  • Blogs
  • Stories
  • Poetry
  • Scrap Books
  • Diaramas
  • Art work
  • Plays
  • Interpretive Dance
  • Photo Diary
  • Models
  • Flow Charts
  • Tests
  • Role Play Diaries
  • Scientific Experiments
  • Surveys

Inclusive Education- Am I ready?

● Problem Ownership ● Distraction vs. Attention Span ● No Risk Taking ● Blaming the Victim ● Reading Competence ● Effect on Perception of Behaviour ● Visual Motor Coordination ● Oral Expression ● Reading and Decoding ● Fairness ●

The topics above were all brought up in Richard Lavoie's F.A.T. City Workshop. Even looking at them now, they're daunting things to consider. I'm glad that I got a chance to see that video, and get a second hand experience of his presentation. I didn't think I would be able to step into the shoes of a child with a learning disability so easily, and understand their frustration. A frustrations that they did not sign up for, or have an easy way out of.

Just a small look at that frustrating world, and I know that I would not be able to be where I am if I had those problems in school. Not in the system I went through. My step sister experienced a learning disability with reading, one that she still struggles with, but has been helped through a withdraw method. And now, we are faced with a future in which inclusive classrooms is quickly becoming the path teachers are going to need to deal with. And I am, in the least bit, torn.

My worries aren't unique, I'm sure anyone who thinks about the possibility is a bit terrified of the prospect, in one way or another. There are a lot of questions to be raised. Can a teacher meet the needs of children with learning disabilities in a regular class setting? With growing class sizes, is this putting more strain on teachers all ready? Can children without learning disabilities have their needs met if a teacher has to give special aid to those that do have learning disabilities? What kind of training are we going to get to prepare us for the task of including these kids? If we get rid of other programs, will children with learning disabilities lose an option in ways to help them gain an education?

The questions make my head spin. They may eventually become less confusing when I actually get a chance to teach, and am given a chance to experience how a classroom will run with me at it's head. But it is a lot that needs to be answered. It plays to my fear of letting kids down, whether they're the ones with a learning disability or not.

But...I can see the benefit of an inclusive classroom. These kids need a different style of teaching, perhaps a littler bit more attention to learn, but they are still kids. Most of them are the same in every other aspect to those their own age. Having an inclusive classroom will probably not only increase a child's social strengths, but make other students more accepting of them. Children can be cruel, and it may lead to teasing on the playground if they will pick on the kids that aren't doing as well in class, but I've seen so many cases of children having a blind or sensory deprived kid in their class, and doing their best to accept them as any other kid. That is the side I would like to see, and one I hope would occur with inclusion. Other emotional problems may also help be resolved if a kid is never taken away from his classmates, and not made to feel more different than he all ready does.

I want to be given the chance to try this, and see how well it can work. I want to expect the best out of myself as a teacher, and give the best to the students. So, despite my reservations and fears, I just want to be given the best education that I can, so that I can take part in an inclusive educational system with the most confidence.

Gender

There has been a question that has been plaguing me, one that deals with my own opinions, as well as social acceptance. As a teacher, should I do what I think is right, and help teach kids to accept everyone and promote them to be themselves even if that definition does not conform to normal gender roles, or do I try to promote the views of the general community, to help children blend in and meet the regulations of society? It is a fine line, one that has more effect on the child than it does on me, which means making the right decision is even more important.

I personally believe that there is nothing wrong for living out side of a gender stereotype. Let men be as emotionally expressive, or girls as withdrawn as possible. Let them have no bias' when they make their life decision, because there is no real reason why they cannot do anything that they are capable of doing. In fact, they're excel when they are given the freedom to express themselves freely. All it takes is one experience of being told that you cannot do something because of your gender to know that those rules don't make sense, and they hurt you. Society places these restrictions, and traps developing minds within a position that may not fit them.

But...the world isn't perfect. As much as I speak for the freedom of the individuals, there is also a heavy burden that goes along with that. Their will always be people who have not expanded their realm of thinking, and to someone who is stepping out of societies comfort zones, it puts them at risk for those willing to take action against things they disagree with. It doesn't take much to look at the gay teen suicides in the past few months to realize that being yourself sometimes comes with pain. As a teacher, do I have a responsibility to try to protect kids from that fate?

I mentioned this problem to a friend of mine who is gay. I wanted to know what their opinion was, to see if they had a preference for what they would have wanted. While he said that he would have loved to have a teacher that had told him that it was okay to be himself, he also hesitated. He admitted that things would probably be easier things were kept quiet, focusing more on fitting in than coming in to himself at that young age. My answer was still unclear.

Perhaps, there will be no real answer. Social Learning, Cognitive Development Theory, and Gender Schema theory all look at different ways that the world shapes the mind of the child, and how it teaches them to behave. It doesn't always create those behaviours, it sometimes creates shame that they do not follow those behaviours. So what part of that social learning system should a teacher be? Should I follow my morals, or, do I have a responsibility to the community and to that child? What is my responsibility to that child?

If there is an answer, I doubt it's black and white. All it takes is a quick look to see that there are many viewpoints, and it takes so much to move people from their positions.

Diversity

I wish I could say that I have a rich history of dealing with diversity in my life. That I was open to a wide range of cultures, backgrounds, and ideas that helped enrich me and provided a wider image of the world. But, that's simply not true. I grew up in a small town. The majority of the population was white, and the majority of them were dutch. I can probably count the number of people who stood out on one hand. They stood out, and whenever I could, I tried to make myself get as close to them as possible, simply interested in to what they knew.

The best example of this would have been my friend Tal. She was from Thailand, and was doing an exchange program in our school for the year. She was incredibly bright, and so much fun. Surprisingly, we both liked the same Japanese band. But I also got to see her in class, and how difficult it could be for her. Because English was not her first language, there were times when she was unable to understand the material in class, simply because she didn't know the translations of words. She had to carry around a pocket translator, and it often led her to be a step behind because she had twice the mental work to do. It was particularily difficult because she was unable to use her translator on the diploma exams, leaving her at a serious dissadvantage to everyone else.

I remember writing a test with her, a final for a health class, and we got to work in pairs. There is no doubt that she didn't understand, but before she could even fully comprehend what was going on, I had all ready answered the questions. Thinking back on it, I feel bad for not giving her the chance to answer as well, or not taking in to consideration the language barrier that she was overcoming. Will teaching kids that have a different first language be as difficult? How can I make sure that I'm creating a fair pace between those that are working to understand the double language of the words and the context they are in, with those who are anxious to move forward? Perhaps the best bet would be to make sure that I'm not assuming kids know things, and explaining words in easy ways to make sure that everyone knows the correct meaning. If there was a serious problem with that, I could also consider making changes to tests for those kids, giving them the word in their language, or more time to read through the questions carefully.

While I don't remember seeing her have any problems adapting to Canadian culture, seeming to suffer little culture shock that was major enough for me to notice, she actually inspired us to learn more. She introduced some of my friends to sushi for the first time, and tried to share with us some of the things that she likes. Being quite the Asian culture buff myself, we actually got to bond a lot on the things that we shared, and the fact that she could relate to some of the things I liked.  Will the classes that I'm going to teach be more diverse? And will the transitions be easier as more culture is being shared as media and the Internet becomes available to more and more people? What kinds of things am I going to see, especially living in Alberta? I'm interested to see what the range of students I'll be getting, and if I'll be able to relate to them as easily.

Thankfully, even though Tal was the person I got closest too that introduced me to diversity, I got to see a much broader scope of things when I went to the University of Alberta. On my floor alone of the residence, there were girls from Australia, Mexico, and even my roommate was from Indonesia. All three of those girls were dealing with issues along side of their education; home sickness, language barriers, and a bit of culture shock. My roommate had a hard time with English, and I would often see her playing online children's games to help her learn English. Fun things like that seemed to work very well to get her into it. Maybe making sure that keeping the adjustments fun is a good thing? Helping to make kids miss home less could maybe be accomplished by having them talk about their culture, bringing it out and using it as a way to teach.

The thing that I really learned the more that I got a chance to meet people from different background when I grew up was that there is always a way to relate to someone. I completely understand, and put my faith in a system that tries to remove all barriers, prejudices, and create a truly safe environment for children to learn and grow up.

I cannot predict what the cultural map will look like as I grow up, or even what part of the province (or world), I'll be teaching in. The best way that I can think of to prepare myself for those challenges, is to always be open, to accepting others, and to looking for new ways that I may need to approach things to encompass the needs of everyone that I will be teaching. Whether it be special learning software, special games, or simply creating high levels of motivation, I think I can find, or come up with ways to help kids.

How Should We Define Intellegence

In class, we went over IQ testing, as well as Gardener's Multiple Intelligences. Two, very different ways to look at how to assess a child's intelligence. My viewpoint, however, was always leaning towards that of Gardener's Multiple intelligences. Why? Because in a world where we are beginning to become free enough to truly explore the capabilities of the human mind, following the same restricted techniques will not help to nourish a child's natural talents.


Taken from http://www.thedoghousediaries.com/?p=2009

 We can't all be good at something. But why do we have to feel like we're unsuccessful when there are things that every person can shine at. Gardener's Intelligences helps bring to light the many ways in which people can grow, and how their minds differ. Verbal, mathematical, spatial, bodily kinaesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, existential; we all posess these skills, in varying levels, but its incredibly important that we begin to nourish every single one of them. We need to see the talent in an athlete that is able to make a basket from the three point line, or an artist that understands the reason why they need to paint something. And as teachers, we need to find ways to allow children to excell, and not crush their spirits for having strengths in one area and not another.



Taken from http://fx.worth1000.com/all-sizes/278263/wrong-wrong-wrong/large

One of the unwritten parts of being a teacher is preparing kids for the world beyond school, both morally and educationally. Yet for some reason, we don't always act that way. When a person chooses their career, they are not going to apply all of the things they have learned in school, compartmentalized into different subjects. Instead, they will be asked to perform in the one area they have chosen. While I cannot argue for trying to give a child as rounded out as an education as possible, it is heart breaking when a child with talent it left feeling worthless because it is not the traditionally viewed form of success.

When I'm organizing my classroom, I want to have ways to allow children to complete assignments in whatever way suits them best. I want to make sure that I leave as many options open to them to do things, through music, philosophy, or an artistic work, other than just the normal essay style answer. It may be just a small start, but it would be the least that I can do to allow kids to truly get a chance to shine.

Addition- I have found a young woman on youtube, who displays a brilliant example of how intelligence can be found in multiple ways.

Morals

I'll start off by repeating Heinz' dilemma, the core idea that started our talk on morality.


"Heinz' wife is dying. One special drug discovered by a local druggist might save her, but the druggist is selling it at an exorbitant price. So Heinz, after failing to borrow the money he needs, pleads with the druggist to sell the drug cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist refuses. Should Heinz steal the drug for his wife?

This example is perfect, for there really is no correct answer, unless reality were to lie on a set of extremes, which is most often not the case. The choice between law, and what is right, and the fact that those two ideas are not always the same, is something that shows up more than once in reality. Sometimes, laws need to be changed as the ideas of what is right spring forth.

In relation to this dilemma, we were introduced to Kohlberg's levels and stages of moral development. Preconventional, Conventional, and Post Conventional moral levels all have their own set of guidelines, and different ways that they could approach Heinz' dilemma. I've decided that to see if I can truly understand those moral levels, that I'll attempt to assume what someone with that level of moral reasoning would do, if they were Heinz.

Preconventional
Punishment- Avoidance of punishment/bad things
If someone was simply trying to avoid punishment, the most likely thing that they would do would be to not steal the drug. They would not want to face the consequences of stealing it.

Hedonism- Getting something that's pleasent
Since not stealing the drug gives no reward, a person would probably steal the drug so that they could save their wife, and receive the chance that they will get better.

Conventional
"Nice Girl/Boy"- Wants to be perceived as a good person.
Stealing will most likely lead to imprisonment, which will contradict with the image of being a nice person. Their outward image would be marred, and probably leave them unable to steal the drug.

Law and Order- You obey the rules
Stealing is against the law, so you will be unable to steal the medicine.

Post Conventional
Social Contract- Don't destroy the base that holds the community together
If people to descend to the level of stealing things, it'll set a precedent of breaking the rules to get what you need, which could possibly lead to anarchy, and the chaos would destroy the order that makes things work. Even if it is for someone you love, it goes against your reasoning.

Universal Ethical- Truly revolutionary moral reasoning
Human life is worth more than physical possessions and money. Things that save life should not be allowed to be kept from those who need it. Steal the medicine, for you're doing more of a good thing than a crime.

Stages of Human Development.

Erik Erikson's stages of human development were an interesting concept to me. While they are not the main, or maybe the correct examples of conflict for everyone in these time frames, they really made me think. Our goals in life change as quickly as we do, each with their own sensitivity, their need to be met and dealt with. We may eventually resolve the problems that arise in one stage of life later on, but there is that crutial point in time when it seems as if that is what is important too you. True, no one year old is worrying about their autonomy, but the things that they do reflect that idea. It isn't always a mental exercise of thinking your way through these stages, as it can be as we get older in life, but the actions we do that reflect these things.

I decided, to try and find multimedia examples, tv shows, plays, and other examples of media that shows the stages in one way or another.

Trust vs. Mistrust


Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt


Initiative vs. Guilt


Industry vs. Inferiority


Identity vs. Identity Confusion


Intimacy vs. Isolation


Generatively vs. Stagnation


Integrity vs. Despair

My Ecological Context



Bronfenbrenner ecological theory introduced an important point. We do not exist as distinct individuals, suspended outside of all contact. There is a world surrounding each one of us, that has the power to affect us in either positive or negative ways. Take for example a university student with exams coming up, stressing them out, that wears them down and leaves them downbeat for their job that day. There are similar connections like this in everything that we do, from the complex to a simple cause and effect. And even though out ecological system may put us in a bad mood, as a teacher, one will have to learn to look for the reasons for behaviour that may not simply spawn from a child, and that we can't always overlook behaviour as being the simplest answer.

We did the assignment in class of mapping our own ecological systems, but I want to try something a little differently. I want to try to think back, and remember some of the things that fit into my ecological context when I was a kid. Things may change, but I think some of the things will still affect kids today, and in the future.

Chronosystem
Time- the 90's. It was the beginning of getting computers in your home, and I remember having a computer, a very basic one that played solitaire and mahjong. There were some political issues at the time, including the Columbine shooting near the end of the decade. In Alberta, there was access to school, food, and any basic needs plus a little bit more for those in my life.

Macrosystem
There was a heavy influence of boy bands, and a heavy market for things like Pokemon cards. A lot of the social details are lost, but I was barely old enough to understand some of the things going on around me, and thus, they didn't really effect me directly. But there was a second Euro invasion with the Spice Girls, the end up the Grunge scene, and something that influenced me a lot in my life, a large introductions of Japanese animation into mainstream North America.

Exosystem
This would involve my parent's divorce, my mothers job and the economic strain it put on the household. We rented a duplex, which could have potentially influenced me, but there were little problems with that until I was older. I can remember my parents getting into fights with their friends, which in turn changed my parents mood and they way that they behaved. As well, my mom went to RDC when I was younger, and the course load as well as the change in her schedule because of travelling for classes effected my life, and forced me to learn how to stay home alone and take care of my little brother for an hour after school.

Microsystem
I was living in a single parent household, with a younger brother, though I did get to see my father every second weekend. There was no church involved in my life, though I was lucky enough to have a strong connection with both sets of my grandparents because we all lived in the same town. The neighbourhood I lived in was great as well, for it provided me with many kids my own age or younger, and often created a great community for us to play in, whether it was water fights in the summer, or tobogganing in the winter. I mainly had one close friend, who I still have till this day. My schooling, after a bad first few years, went very well, and helped promote a much more intellectually active role in my life.

Individual
In my childhood, I was lucky enough to have good health, for the most part. I had pneumonia when I was younger, but there were no other serious problems. Being a girl had its ups and downs, but no different that being a boy would have.

It is difficult to try to look back and remember all of the little facets in my life, but even taking a quick look back tells me of all the things in my life that could have, and did affect me. Some of the events in my life may have even stemmed from the larger systems that I was not even aware of. If life had this many connections for me, then a child at any time would be faced with the same number of things that could change their outlook on the world. I remember what it was like when I was faced with some of the problems in my life. I was lucky enough to be sent to a guidance counsellor, and given the chance to work through those problems. That is something I believe that all kids need..someone that can look to see that there might be a bigger problem out there, and to help them overcome it.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Piaget vs. Vygotsky

Though Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky were by no means in competition with each other in their theories of child development, I found myself unable to resist the need to compare Vygotsky's system of scaffolding with Piaget's stages of child development. The two represented such different ideas, that even though I tried to remain objective in regards to both of them, I found myself finding favour and flaws with both of them, and ultimately leaning towards one system I could believe in moreso.

Piaget
Conflicted is a good word to describe my relationship with Piaget's stages. There is something, very useful, in having an outline, or a basic understanding of what you can expect from children at certain ages. While I was a child, I think I look back and over estimate exactly how much I do, a bit of a bias and distortion from what I know now. I probably wasn't as smart of a nine year old as I sometimes think that I was. So having someone who has looked into the mental understanding of children is invaluable, to projecting some kind of understanding of the children I'm going to be teaching.

Yet at the same time, I found the stages themselves to be restricting. The ages, as well as the defining points of the stages, are often far from being as clear cut as the examples that Piaget has described. It takes the individual out of child development, because even at best Piaget could only report upon a statistical amount, and give an average of his studies. And who is to say that what children know, and what we are able to comprehend that they know are the same thing.

When the lines between the different stages are this blurred, I almost hesitate to group a child in one of the stages. It is at best, perhaps an approximation of what skills a child will learn, in a somewhat linear order. The individual is powerful, and there is no reason why there may not be a rearrangement of learning for some kids. I would be hesitant to ever use these groupings, because there is something confining, and limiting perhaps our expectations of a child, if we say they can do these things, but not this other set of things. I don't think anyone could say that they haven't been astounded at what a child has learned when we aren't looking.

Vygotsky
I wish that there was more to Vygotsky that we were introduced to. Yet with a simple idea, I feel that his theory is not just a simple way of defining children, but, an extremely useful tool for life. Scoffolding works in any situation, for any person, no matter what their age is. And I personally view it as being the true goal of any teacher, to find a way to push a child higher, while giving them just the right amount of support that they need.

Vygotsky simply seems to put forth an idea of advancement, no matter what your age or learning level is. There is room to employ his techniques for everyone, and can be useful for those that are outliers in a classroom. It promotes students to take their education into their own hands, as well as pushing them forward with the ZPD (for all the cool kids).

I also related to the three kinds of assessment, of learning, as learning, and for learning. Once again, they are techniques and tools that can be used to more directly assist learning. Particularly, I thought over the assessment as learning. I never much enjoyed doing self assessments in school because I always worried I'd get in trouble if I gave myself too high of a grade. But, at the same time, it made me be critical of myself, and look at how far I was going, and whether or not I was happy with what I was doing. It would be a handy skill to take forward now even in to my own education, to make sure that I'm keeping myself on task.


And the winner is...
If it wasn't obvious, I found myself drawn to Vygotsky. Looking back into the reflection assignment we had when we went over Vygotsky, my opinion has not changed. Piaget's theory is one of fate, where Vygotsky's theory is one of possibilities. And considering that children have nothing but endless possibilities, I want to embrace as many things into my schema that promote a destruction of barriers or potentially restricting biases that could keep me from giving a fair chance to all of my students.

What Does it Take to Be an Effective Teacher?

It's getting close to the end of the term, and I have to ask myself, what have I learned? What are all these things, that are going to slowly build me up to the level where I can be the kind of teacher that helps their students the way mine helped me? There is certainly a lot to look back upon, some of it I'm sure I've got worked into my Teaching Schema, while others are still falling into place in my mind. It's a lot to process, and a lot to take into consideration.

In our first real lecture of class material, we went over what it means to be an effective teacher. Talked about, the way you need to act, and the skills you need. We'll need to take into account the changing social and ethical world, increased diversity, the actual subject matter, and still focus on being happy, motivating, and ever growing in our own knowledge (though I think the last part always happens without us focusing on it too much). Learning about it though, wasn't introducing new terms. We were simply going over behaviour that I had seen repeated in all of the teachers I've had throughout my schooling. Perhaps that's one of the greatest benefits to going into Education; everyone has had a first hand chance to observe what they are going to do with their life for twelve or more years. So, the knowledge was fairly well assimilated into my Teaching Schema to begin with.

But, then again, all of my teachers were different. I remember that some of the best teachers I had were not necessarily humorous, sometimes they didn't seem like the kindest person I've had at the front of a class. But there was something about them, that gave them the power to really get into our heads, and open it up. It really wasn't about what they were like, it was about, what they could get us to be like. They made us think, they made us stand on our own and gave us the responsibility we'd have to learn to deal with all the time, they gave us more than just the answer to four plus three. They taught us to learn, and learn about life.

Thinking back, my mind always goes back to one teacher. Mrs. Rice, who taught me grade six. She was an older woman, who I'd heard frightening rumours of the year before, about how strict she could be. It wasn't the best introduction to her class, and it hardly was the image I had of her when I left. She was a woman who inspired me, and who I may have to steal ideas from when I'm in her position. We were instructed to keep a scrapbook, filled with things we were proud of that we'd worked on during the year, and things she gave us that she thought were important. There were always pictures she'd taken of our presentations, things we could look back on with pride. I still have mine, and it's filled with art projects and awards, moral stories and everything I'd ever need if I wanted to remember my life at that time. I can remember how she made us feel like family, treating us each to a lunch on her, one on one, or how she would make sure everyone got to go stand in front of the class and have happy birthday sung for them. I remember worked so hard to find out about Athens, or getting the pleasure of learning about Canadian police forces when her own daughter, a recently graduated Royal Mounted Police came to speak with us. She was trying to show us a million, by collecting bread tags from her students over the years, and inspiring readers with a large collection of her own books for us. It really was an adventurous year. I want every child to have the chance to have an education like that.

So yes, I want to make sure that I push myself to understand the social and ethical matters that I'll come across when I teach. The mosaic will look quite different, and for someone who grew up in a small town like me, I'll probably be learning just as much as they are each year. I worry that I won't be ready, or that my first few classes won't get to experience the level of teacher I'll one day be. But I think, that I have a very, rich, library of resources to go to, simply by looking back at all of the teachers that I have had over the years.

I'd like to share a story I came across, a personal story from David Owen, which I found in another blog. I think, that it really does illustrate something that is an important element of teaching, that may be the direction I want to head in.

The best teacher I ever had
Mr. Whitson taught sixth-grade science. On the first day of class, he gave us a lecture about a creature called the cattywampus, an ill-adapted nocturnal animal that was wiped out during the Ice Age. He passed around a skull as he talked. We all took notes and later had a quiz.

When he returned my paper, I was shocked. There was a big red X through each of my answers. I had failed. There had to be some mistake! I had written down exactly what Mr. Whitson said. Then I realized that everyone in the class had failed. What had happened?

Very simple, Mr. Whitson explained. He had made up all the stuff about the cattywampus. There had never been any such animal. The information in our notes was, therefore, incorrect. Did we expect credit for incorrect answers?

Needless to say, we were outraged. What kind of test was this? And what kind of teacher?

We should have figured it out, Mr. Whitson said. After all, at the very moment he was passing around the cattywampus skull (in truth, a cat’s), hadn’t he been telling us that no trace of the animal remained? He had described its amazing night vision, the color of its fur and any number of other facts he couldn’t have known. He had given the animal a ridiculous name, and we still hadn’t been suspicious. The zeroes on our papers would be recorded in his grade book, he said. And they were.

Mr. Whitson said he hoped we would learn something from this experience. Teachers and textbooks are not infallable. In fact, no one is. He told us not to let our minds go to sleep, and to speak up if we ever thought he or the textbook was wrong.

Every class was an adventure with Mr. Whitson. I can still remember some science periods almost from beginning to end. One day he told us that his Volkswagon was a living organism. It took us two full days to put together a refutation he would accept. He didn’t let us off the hook until we had proved not only that we knew what an organism was but also that we had the fortitude to stand up for the truth.

We carried our brand-new skepticism into all our classes. This caused problems for the other teachers, who weren’t used to being challenged. Our history teacher would be lecturing about something, and then there would be clearings of the throat and someone would say “cattywampus.”

If I’m ever asked to propose a solution to the problems in our schools, it will be Mr. Whitson. I haven’t made any great scientific discoveries, but Mr. Whitson’s class gave me and my classmates something just as important: the courage to look people in the eye and tell them they are wrong. He also showed us that you can have fun doing it.

Not everyone sees the value in this. I once told an elementary school teacher about Mr. Whitson. The teacher was appalled. “He shouldn’t have tricked you like that,” he said. I looked that teacher right in the eye and told him that he was wrong.

Taken from http://www.robertlpeters.com/news/?p=2141