Whoa..a reset button for the brain!

For our Monday seminar we were given the opportunity to hear a presentation on adolescent brain development and teen alcohol usage. The presentation focused for the majority devleopment during the two peak times, in the first six years and between the ages of 14 and 15. The presenter brought up an interesting point about the idea of a reset button that "occurs" during adolescence. Children are literally rewired during this time and need supervision once again.
After explaining how the brain develops from childhood through adulthood (age 25+), the presenter talked about how the alcohol usage affects the brain particularly during times of rapid development. I expected the age old speech about drinking during college, but the presenter suprised me by focusing more on the effects of drinking during the teen years. From her presentation and the information she gave us, it seems that by the time college comes the brain development has slowed, and the effects of alcohol are not as bad.
Overall, I thought the information given was good, and the presentation itself was worthwhile. I thought that the presenter would have been really good presenting in the way she did to middle school students, but it was a bit much for college students (in my opinion).

The Parents of Low Achieving Students vs. The School

In this weeks seminar, we did a role play activity centered around a proposal for a High Stakes school. We were put into groups and given a various role to play in the "town meeting" where this proposal was going to be introduced and discussed. My group was given the role of the parents of low achieving students. Based on our role we then set to the task of coming up with questions and argues against this new proposal (my group did not support the proposal). At seminar, all groups were given a chance to speak their side and the superintendent and curriculum director answered questions and responded to arguements.
In my opinion, I felt that this activity was very beneficial and engaged us as students. It was beneficial because it forced us to see different viewpoints on school policy. As future educators, we already narrow our vision to look at policy in terms of how it effects us as teachers, and may not take into account how it effects other educators, or high-achieving students (in the case of the proposal used here). It was effective at engaging us because we had to put ourselves in shoes of someone else and see their side, as well as teach us to look critically at the proposal. Everyone was engaged and as the class went on became very involved in their role and how this proposal would effect them and any students they may work with.

Vietnamese families

The speaker last Monday was very interesting. He was a professor from the University in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. He came and spoke to us about research he had done with regards to family expectations and ideals of Vietnamese college students. The questions his survey asked gave good insight into the different views on marriage and education expectations in Vietnam, as opposed to here in the United States. I really enjoyed listening to him talk about the differences in how ideas about families had changed from the 1930's to present day. Many of his questions dealt with this topic, such as whether women should have jobs outside the home and how many children should a normal family have.
It was especially interesting to hear about how marriages were selected in Vietnam. Although, he made it clear that young adults in Vietnam may pick their spouse, they are not completely free to do so. Parallels were drawn to marriages in the United States, in particular how many young adults also are influenced by external factors (parents, friends) when picking a marriage partner. The professor gave a nice presentation and was knowledgable in the subject matter. The presentation was very well done!

Chalk

The movie Chalk was very funny. Although I know it is a "mockumentary," the problems and issues the teachers were dealing with were pretty true to life. My favorite character was the brand new teacher "Mr. Lowry." He was very funny, but his first year of teaching was a struggle, much like mine will be as well. The first year is said to be the toughest, and Mr. Lowry dealt with alot that first year. Even though everyone laughed when he checked out a book on classroom management, management it one issue that cannot really be taught. It seems as though we are given strategies to use, however we will learn the best when we are given "on the job training." Another issue with classroom management that effects teachers is that every class is different. Every year the classroom will have different learning styles, personalities and difficult behaviors. This makes id a challenge because the management system that was used with one class may not be effective with another class. In the case of Mr. Lowry, he was able to get somewhat of a management system with his history class this year, after most of the year was gone. Whether or not he signs his contract, if he does, his next history class will require a slightly different management system.
The other history teacher who was trying to win "Teacher of the Year," seemed to be the least effective teacher. He was very sarcastic and cocky in and out of the classroom. Although he had been nominated for the award, it was clear that his colleagues thought he was cocky as well. Many of the teachers rolled their eyes during the debate, being liked by your colleagues is a part of effective teaching as well. Teachers need work with and collaborate with fellow teachers to get ideas about activites and management strategies that would benefit student learning.

Chapter 7

In class we have been discussing chapter 7 in out educational psychology book. Chapter 7 deals with the social and emotional factors in a classroom, such as reinforcement, learning, and behavior. Although I took general psychology last year, it is interesting to look at these concepts in an educational context.
The beginning of the chapter talks about the behavioral approaches to learning, specifically conditioning. It uses the classic example of Pavlov's dogs to summarize what classical conditioning is. I thought it was interesting to relate this back to ed. psych, children are conditioned to respond in certain ways in the classroom on a daily basis. I began thinking back to my days in elementary school and how I was conditioned in the classroom and didn't know it at the time. One example I thought of was when teachers blow their whistles to line up the kids for recess. The kids are conditioned to look up when a whistle blows and stop what they are doing. To this day, I think many people stop what they are doing and look up when a whistle is blown.
Another issue that was discussed was Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory, which states that social, cognitive factors and behavior play a role in learning. What really caught my attention was his reciprocal determinism model. This model claims that three factors, behavior, person/cognitive and environment, work together to influence learning. I thought this was useful information to have, especially with students that are having problems academically. As teachers, we will need to take in account all of these factors when trying to help a student, not just whether or not the student has a good homelife.

New Teacher Panel

In this weeks Monday night seminar, we had three new teachers come speak to us. All three were Luther grads and were either in their first year teaching or were in the first couple years. I thought what the panel talked to us about was helpful, however I felt as though it wasn't a representation of the "real world" of teaching. in our group meeting the next day, we talked about where or what size school we wanted to teach in. Although small schools were a popular choice, all of us agreed that we were not staying in Decorah. The teachers in the panel all grew up in the area, went to Luther and then didn't leave. It seems that the "Luther bubble" stayed with them. I think that it would have been more interesting to have teachers from all different sized schools, Although I know that it was a Monday night, maybe teachers from Rochester schools could be added to the mix for next year.
Another interesting point that was brought up by the teacher panel was the use and reliance on technology in schools. The teachers in the panel made it clear that technology was used in curriculum on a daily basis. I think that incorporating technology in the classroom is needed in our society today, however, it shouldn't hinder the learning of basic skills (like using a dictionary, penmanship, and so on). I think that technology and computers can be a real asset in the classroom, but not at the expense of learning how to write in cursive, or find information in books and not using google.

Paperclips

In our Monday night seminar we watched a documentary film called Paperclips. It was about a middle school in rural Tennesse that collected paperclips from all over the world as part of a Holocaust class. The film got both teacher and student perspectives about the project. I really liked the film, I thought it was a really cool project idea as well. However, it wasn't the best representation of teaching. It seemed as how the students were mainly counting paperclips. In the beginning there were some clips of teachers using direct instruction, however, other then that different teaching methods weren't shown.
When our group met to talk about the film we discussed alot about how this Holocaust project could have been improved. One of the main things we discussed was that more technological resources could be utilized to make the project alot better. Students could make power points about specific topics pertaining to the Holocaust (which could be used as a form of assessment), or incorporate movies or clips from youtube even to give students a better understanding. Technology is a powerful tool that should be used in the classroom! Check out the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP15cY3f7UA