Monday, December 13, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Blahging
Blahging! That is what I thought about blogging in the past. Don't people have better things to do than sit in front of a screen and write about what time they fed their cat or what they bought at the grocery store? For heavens sake! When I was your age we played outside and .......blah, blah, blah.......Oh never mind! I just realized thats what I was about to continue to say about my thoughts on blogging is so boring that I dont't even want to read what I have to say. OMG! I hate it when I realize that I might be wrong....perhaps I'll just say unaware. Hmmpphh! I can't believe what a fuddy duddy I am about this! I would never have believed that could be possible for me, but after reading what I just wrote, I guess it is. So.....I guess I'd better change directions.
One benefit of learning about technology and blogging has been my heightened awareness that attitude and confidence play important roles in successful learning. My fearful attitude (and true ignorance of almost everything having to do with technology) got in the way of my learning. I usually have an open mind and eager attitude for learning, but in this case, getting up to speed with current technology has been a long, discouraging road. I now see how fear of failure can turn into fear of even trying to learn. I see this in my dyad and main placement classrooms and now I have a new way of looking at students who struggle. Students who act out in class might just be trying to divert others' attention from seeing that they do not understand what they think the rest of the class does. I now see them as students who need extra attention and I need to figure out how to reach them. Their learning struggles are my responsiblity.
My own learning struggles have helped me become a better student and will hep me become a better teacher. As a fairly secure adult, I find that sometimes I am still sensetive to the idea that others might think I'm not so smart and it is terrible and truly gets in the way of active learning. My point is that for struggling children, this feeling must be debilitating and now I will be better able to identify this and help disruptive students deal with their real issues, not the behaviors they are showing to the class.
Signed, The Newly Blissful Blogger
One benefit of learning about technology and blogging has been my heightened awareness that attitude and confidence play important roles in successful learning. My fearful attitude (and true ignorance of almost everything having to do with technology) got in the way of my learning. I usually have an open mind and eager attitude for learning, but in this case, getting up to speed with current technology has been a long, discouraging road. I now see how fear of failure can turn into fear of even trying to learn. I see this in my dyad and main placement classrooms and now I have a new way of looking at students who struggle. Students who act out in class might just be trying to divert others' attention from seeing that they do not understand what they think the rest of the class does. I now see them as students who need extra attention and I need to figure out how to reach them. Their learning struggles are my responsiblity.
My own learning struggles have helped me become a better student and will hep me become a better teacher. As a fairly secure adult, I find that sometimes I am still sensetive to the idea that others might think I'm not so smart and it is terrible and truly gets in the way of active learning. My point is that for struggling children, this feeling must be debilitating and now I will be better able to identify this and help disruptive students deal with their real issues, not the behaviors they are showing to the class.
Signed, The Newly Blissful Blogger
Friday, December 3, 2010
Quick Images in Math
I've always loved math, but what is math? There are so many ways that it comes into our lives. I find it challenging to describe my thinking about it in terms of solving problems. Now that I need to relflect on it and its relevance in education, I am beginning to understand how to relate to elementary school math learners. In order to better understand how elementary students think about math, we participated in a few math games in class. It was enlightening to see how ohers think about math. I have been suprised at the differences I have seen in all of our thought processes.
During the "Quick Images" activity in our own class, I discovered new ways and strategies for solving math problems. I agree with math teachers who say that understanding students' approaches to solving problems is key in helping them move forward in understanding math. Learning how to ask the right questions in order to elicit valuable responses from students about their thinking is tricky. It takes practice and reflection. It has been helpful to watch students' for learning new methods come from situations where they need to become more efficient thinkers.When we did Quick Images in our own class , as well as with elementary studends in their classes, I ovserved how the pressure of time has a positive impact on my own and students' problem solving thinking because of the need for efficiency. In Quick Images, we only had three seconds in which to count the number of objects in an image. This required us to "group" items, rather than count each one to come up with more accurate answers. Necessity, as is often the case, seems to be the mother of invention.
During the "Quick Images" activity in our own class, I discovered new ways and strategies for solving math problems. I agree with math teachers who say that understanding students' approaches to solving problems is key in helping them move forward in understanding math. Learning how to ask the right questions in order to elicit valuable responses from students about their thinking is tricky. It takes practice and reflection. It has been helpful to watch students' for learning new methods come from situations where they need to become more efficient thinkers.When we did Quick Images in our own class , as well as with elementary studends in their classes, I ovserved how the pressure of time has a positive impact on my own and students' problem solving thinking because of the need for efficiency. In Quick Images, we only had three seconds in which to count the number of objects in an image. This required us to "group" items, rather than count each one to come up with more accurate answers. Necessity, as is often the case, seems to be the mother of invention.
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