Reflection 1. Codes of Conduct:
So why do I have to write a code of conduct for Parents or Caregivers?.I suppose the most fundamental issue here is that schooling and educating is really a group effort, we are trying to be wholistic, as to how we go about raising these young people, into positive aware people who have the capacity to reach out and achieve outcomes that will give them some satisfaction in life. I qualify that statement with the word 'some', because I can't gaurantee outcomes with what happens for the rest of someones life, I can only control my own actions and thoughts, therefore strive to do my best for the students I am teaching.
So the first place I start with codes of conduct is myself,because I know as an adult that to function relatively well in the society that surrounds us, we all follow unseen and many times unwritten codes as to how we should behave. Many years ago if a parent smacked a misbehaving child while in the street no-one would have considered that out of place or inappropriate. Today the parent who physically disciplines a child publicly or even privately is running the risk of being thrown in jail.The imbalance of this societal shift plays out in the classroom constantly for teachers everyday. I'm not advocating brutality in any way but I do feel that the boundary setting that once was quite clear has been wrenched from adults and they havn't been given alternative strategies to support them or the children they are trying to raise.
So this reflection is a good one to have a go at establishing in my own mind a lovely fiction of how it would be if I had a school where the teachers and parents worked together and were not antagonistic or appathetic to one another and created a pro-active school and home life.
Firstly this not only involves teachers parents or caregivers its primary focus is to give the responsibility of behaviour to the students. If you were teaching a primary school group it would be wonderful to have a meeting with the parents of the year coming up and you work together to create a draft of conduct expectations prior to the new school year begining. Then when when you start the new year, you the teacher have discussion with the students establishing clear classroom expectations eg, we do not interupt when someone else is talking we raise our hand and wait till we are selected to speak. you might like to have specific positive values attached to some of these rules so that the children learn fundamental values of respect love patience caring giving etc.
Secondly creating a contract that can then be taken home for the parents and students to read together, agree upon and signed, would be a great undertaking for the student to tangibly undertake the management of their own behaviour with the support of their parents/caregivers. The reason I would use this approach is that everyone is in the loop, we are all trying to achieve the same outcomes and be as positive and supportive towards the students, with the aim of investing them with their own responsibilities and creating valuable awareness and self esteem which of course goes on to help with all areas of learning.
Thirdly consistency and clear parameters are essential for the developing student to feel safe in their lesarning environment, if they are feeling back up in their home life and not confusing messages then some of the elements of Glassers theories are being met and the chances of these kids going of the rails completely is a little less likley.
Safety, Love, power, Freedom and Fun these are the basic needs that Glasser lays out, not only students, but we all need to fulfill and only when these are met can real learning ensue. So through the implementation of a contract of behaviour guide lines that we might establish with student's and caregivers hopefully we are creating that feeling of safety and love, we are investing the students with power to choose good behaviour over disruptive behaviour, this in turn invests them with power over their engagament of learning this helps the teachers to create fun learning activities as they are not continually trying to manage misbehaviour. the students then really do have fun when they come to school so it is a positive experience and leads to further positive outcomes further down the life pathway.
Reflection 2.2, Essential Elements
I think that one of the most essential elements for all the students and teacher is that the students know where they stand, they understand what is acceptable and what is not acceptable behaviour in the classroom and as a group. they understand the rights and responsibilities of the whole group as well as the individual and the responsibilities are applied consistently, by the group and the teacher.
I specificly have used the word responsibilities instead of rules, as in my opinion students today still have the view that school is a prison, designed to contain and restrain them. With this negative view that many students reveal to me through discussion i wonder how I could construct a better way to manage misbehaviour. Reading Glassers Choice Theory and R.T.P. Responsible thinking Process by ed Ford and Bill Rodgers Positive Leadership have helped me to have a better understasnding of what I see needs to be in a well structured discipline model.
Glassers' states that " all we do is behave, that almost all behaviour is chosen and that we are driven by our genes to satisfy five basis needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and fun". If we implement the Seven Caring Habits from his Choice Theory we are replacing the external control psychology that is predominant in the world today and in a similar vein Ed Fords Responsibile Thinking Process, helps to develope a thoughtful aware person, who is reflective apon themselves and others around them, analyses their behaviour and works out strategies to improve difficulties. Bill Rodgers also supports the idea that we develope young people that become responsible for how they act and the effect their actions have on those around them.
Through the process of implementing these theories the teacher is growing and developing themselves and developing a much deeper understanding of how they "tick" as well. I think the major outcome of adopting a discipline that incorporates these ideas is that everyone is learning about "Respect". Learning to respect others and yourself is in my mind a pathway to fulfilling the five basis needs of Glasser and the personal ideal of Ford and the strong leadership of Bill Rogers.
Reflection 2.3, Reflection onTwo Theories:
The development of psychological theories in teaching or rather how we learn and what are the main underlying fundamentals that need to be met in order to achieve a reasonable learning outcome, are the basis of many of the theorists that we have been studying this semester. We have looked at the the theories that support total teacher centered control, with our examination of Skinner and the Behaviouralists, right through to the other end of the equation where we have student centered learning with the ideas of Ed Ford , Patrick Connor and Thomas Gordon.
An important aspect of maintaining effective classroom management is that we build workable relationships between the teacher and students, to this end we may need to employ a number of theorists' strategies at any one time in the classroom. Although Billy who has ADHD, and his special support person has implemented a behaviouralists based program where they use stimulus and response based theory to support his learning, you as a teacher must be familiar with the theory behind this learning process so that you will have the skills at your finger tips to give that added and complete support to Billy in your classroom and in so doing, create that safe, fun, empowering rewarding environment for that student.
Therfore, even though you may not favour the Skinner approach of theories, you must still have the competency to understand the individual needs that will pertain to each individual student.
After looking at a variety of theories of how we can manage student behavior in the classroom, the approach of Bill Rogers and Ed Ford are two interesting processes to examine.
The Positive Behaviour Leadership Model of Rogers, which sits in the middle ground on the scale of teacher centered to student centered managment theories, supports not only the student but the behaviour of the teacher as well. I feel guidance for teachers is vitaly important, because, firstly as teachers the main emphasis has been on our approach to managing students. Fair enough, but I feel we must manage our behaviour before anything eles and this relates back to Glassers point that, "all we do is behave, and all behaviour is chosen". When we have an awareness of our own behaviour then we can remedy any traits or re-actions that need adjustment. In my view-point it is through self development that we become cognisant of how to explain the eventual benefits of self discipline and self control to students, that through the Rogers model we are trying to atttain. His model focuses on respect, rights and relationships, that extend from teacher to student, student to student, parent and student and school, school and community. The point I would like to make is that he is also aware of the teachers responsibility to themselves in having a deep understanding of respect for themselves, how we think impacts so profoundly on the students, school and parents. It is from this inner development that we can develop a strong loving platform from which to implement our management process. From this positive behaviour model the students can identify clearly positive behaviour outcomes, but Rogers is not so naive as to suggest that this is all we need, he also supports preventative strategies in the form of very clear rules that are stated posistvely and the establishment of consequences for the breaking of those rules. "The authoratitative, democratic or decisive teacher knows their rights as a teacher and calmly goes about claiming their rights. they have a clear plan for responding to students' inappropriate behaviour. They have established clear rules and students know what behaviour is expected of them". ( Classroom Discipline and Management, p223) we are aimimg at student co-operation. He also focuses on body language and vocal language as a very important tool, to be consciously trained by the teacher to achieve student awareness and co-operation.
Another model that could compliment Rogers positive Leadership is the Ford model Responsible thinking Process. This model celebrates that we are all individuals whose schema is formed by the environment that we grow up in. it challenges us to help the student develop thier own idea of who they wish to develop into and sets them on a course to achieve this. to achieve this they need to be able to establish values and beliefs systems and understand the principles that go with these values. having got this far they then work out the behavioural boundaries thsat they feel will help them to achieve the support of the principle they wish to adopt. Again this is a sophisticated model that I think could only be attempted once the teacher has that competent understanding of the works of Glasser Rogers Dreikurs and the behaviouralists like skinner. It has merit in the way it invests the responsibility back onto the student in a aware and constantly developing way and provides a positive structure of learning self respect and respect for others as well as a realistic acceptance of the fact that we can fail but we assess and then find new approaches and we then learn new strategies for our individual needs.
As I mentioned at the begining of this piece I feel I would use many models all at once but it is through practice and the process of "Praxis" that Iwill develop that calm assertive confident teacher that I wish to become. Praxis= action then reflection upon the action, identification of flaws and the assessing how you can improve the process and then putting it into action once again, then assessing the results once again. As you can see a life long tool to create the best you can be at a given moment and always aimimg at improvement and positive output.
Bibliography:
Clifford H. Edwards & Vivienne Watts. Classroom Discipline & Management an australian perspective. John Wiley & Sons Australia, 2004.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Monday, June 4, 2007
Reflection Part 3 for JS423
This third reflection I hope will round off what I have tried to learn throughout this semester. As you can see at the beginning I was completely overwhelmed with most of the information that I was ingesting. It has been a complete revelation to me on many levels and I hope that I will continue to feed and nurture this new perspective of my faith that I have been allowed to see and think about.
Our last lecture had us focusing on the present day sign's of the times in which terrorism is a ever increasing issue. With the help of the historical perspective of colonisation that has occured around this globe, I start to get the picture that wherever white man or should I say European man has invaded, it has been purely for the benefit of a European treasury/economy somewhere, this has repeatedly brought about inequity to the indigenous peoples of the country that has been dominated. To then witness the terrible acts of terrorism by Asama Bin Laden and his followers is a chilling reminder that the oppressed will finally rise up against the oppressors.There seems to be a relationship to all the revolutions that have occurred it wasn't the poor of France but the literate and educated that led the Reveloution in 1789. Asama wasn't poor or opressed he was exactly the opposite and that is what makes his crime even more heineous, but this issue of empathy, with that shame that is being inflicted on the least of our brothers is a profound experience.When I read the article "Nine key themes in Catholic Social Teaching",by Massaro, Sheed and Ward, I found a reconfirmation of why I hold onto my catholic Faith, it's depth and real awareness of the value of Human rights and dignity, solidarity and participation and the common good,as well as the sacredness and value of the human family. This particular article has given me some very foundational concepts and language to build my practice of faith upon.It also encapsulated most of the ideas we have been trying to understand during this course, put it under headings that are digestable. For example under the first heading this sentence is the heart beat of my belief,"Because we are intelligent and free beings,God intends us to be immune from all slavery, manipulation, or exploitation. At all stages of our lives - from the moment of conception through the vunerable years of childhood and old age to the very moment of natural death - we deserve the care and attention that belongs to beings of inestiminable worth" and of course this as a foundation can be very challenging as we have seen this very week with the debate on stemcell research and the words of Cardinal Pell to those in politics who had to take the vote.I have found a very interesting ethestist a Dr Margaret Sommerville who enters many debates that are often very confusing for the lay person, these are just a couple of the web sites connected to her http://www.intact.ca/othersites.html and http://gauntlet.ucalgary.ca/story/2679
The clarification that Catholic social encyclicals teach us that to be human is to experience not only rights but also obligations to others and that by living in community with each other we flourish and grow if we follow these teachings. while saerching through youtube I found this great piece on Social Justice being practive in the creative arts arena and though it applies to Martin Luther King and his fight for justice I can see it as a cool idea on which I could instigate a project within a school and community setting.
As I try to match what I will possibly have to undertake as an educator with my own personal beliefs, I still come back to looking at the issues that face young people today. Yes there are very big issues that we have to face in this world today but I firmly believe that the best way to lead young ones to an active and rewarding live within their faith is to get them actively identifying issues within the community around them. Make it real and relevant, set achievable outcomes that they can all reach, that benefit the community around them and keep it relevant to the Gospels and the teachings of Christ. And the beauty of all this is that no matter what area you teach in you can bring your won special talents and creativity to the experience and this will enrich the experiences of those around you and you are living out the parrable of the Talents and that is a truely wonderful thing to aspire to and achieve within your life.
Michael thankyou for a truely inspiring semester and you probably will never know what you have done for me on a personal level, this unit has reinvigorated my relationship with Christ and for that I thank you very much, I have been praying for this to happen for a long time in my life. God bless and all the best in the future Clare Rooney
Our last lecture had us focusing on the present day sign's of the times in which terrorism is a ever increasing issue. With the help of the historical perspective of colonisation that has occured around this globe, I start to get the picture that wherever white man or should I say European man has invaded, it has been purely for the benefit of a European treasury/economy somewhere, this has repeatedly brought about inequity to the indigenous peoples of the country that has been dominated. To then witness the terrible acts of terrorism by Asama Bin Laden and his followers is a chilling reminder that the oppressed will finally rise up against the oppressors.There seems to be a relationship to all the revolutions that have occurred it wasn't the poor of France but the literate and educated that led the Reveloution in 1789. Asama wasn't poor or opressed he was exactly the opposite and that is what makes his crime even more heineous, but this issue of empathy, with that shame that is being inflicted on the least of our brothers is a profound experience.When I read the article "Nine key themes in Catholic Social Teaching",by Massaro, Sheed and Ward, I found a reconfirmation of why I hold onto my catholic Faith, it's depth and real awareness of the value of Human rights and dignity, solidarity and participation and the common good,as well as the sacredness and value of the human family. This particular article has given me some very foundational concepts and language to build my practice of faith upon.It also encapsulated most of the ideas we have been trying to understand during this course, put it under headings that are digestable. For example under the first heading this sentence is the heart beat of my belief,"Because we are intelligent and free beings,God intends us to be immune from all slavery, manipulation, or exploitation. At all stages of our lives - from the moment of conception through the vunerable years of childhood and old age to the very moment of natural death - we deserve the care and attention that belongs to beings of inestiminable worth" and of course this as a foundation can be very challenging as we have seen this very week with the debate on stemcell research and the words of Cardinal Pell to those in politics who had to take the vote.I have found a very interesting ethestist a Dr Margaret Sommerville who enters many debates that are often very confusing for the lay person, these are just a couple of the web sites connected to her http://www.intact.ca/othersites.html and http://gauntlet.ucalgary.ca/story/2679
The clarification that Catholic social encyclicals teach us that to be human is to experience not only rights but also obligations to others and that by living in community with each other we flourish and grow if we follow these teachings. while saerching through youtube I found this great piece on Social Justice being practive in the creative arts arena and though it applies to Martin Luther King and his fight for justice I can see it as a cool idea on which I could instigate a project within a school and community setting.
As I try to match what I will possibly have to undertake as an educator with my own personal beliefs, I still come back to looking at the issues that face young people today. Yes there are very big issues that we have to face in this world today but I firmly believe that the best way to lead young ones to an active and rewarding live within their faith is to get them actively identifying issues within the community around them. Make it real and relevant, set achievable outcomes that they can all reach, that benefit the community around them and keep it relevant to the Gospels and the teachings of Christ. And the beauty of all this is that no matter what area you teach in you can bring your won special talents and creativity to the experience and this will enrich the experiences of those around you and you are living out the parrable of the Talents and that is a truely wonderful thing to aspire to and achieve within your life.
Michael thankyou for a truely inspiring semester and you probably will never know what you have done for me on a personal level, this unit has reinvigorated my relationship with Christ and for that I thank you very much, I have been praying for this to happen for a long time in my life. God bless and all the best in the future Clare Rooney
Thursday, May 31, 2007
reflection on the idea of the webquest as a learning tool
I have been paning through all the sites on the net to see how i should approach the creation of this webquest and I have found some really interesting views that are insightful and well expressed and that offer a clear challenge as to ow top approach and use this madium to achieve good teaching and learning outcomes
http://www.webquest.org/ The articlae that I really significant was the entry that Bernie Dodge wrote on the 05/04/07 in which he gives us a clear idea of which end of the Blooms taxonomy we should be aiming at, with the outcomes that our webquest should hold.
Knowledge: arrange, define, duplicate, label, list, memorize, name, order, recognize, relate, recall, repeat, reproduce state.
Comprehension: classify, describe, discuss, explain, express, identify, indicate, locate, recognize, report, restate, review, select, translate,
Application: apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.
Analysis: analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test.
Synthesis: arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, write.
Evaluation: appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose compare, defend estimate, judge, predict, rate, core, select, support, value, evaluate.
From Bloom, et al., 1956
As teachers we tend to ask questions in the "knowledge" catagory 80% to 90% of the time. These questions are not bad, but using them all the time is. Try to utilize higher order level of questions. These questions require much more "brain power" and a more extensive and elaborate answer. Below are the six question categories as defined by Bloom.
KNOWLEDGE
remembering;
memorizing;
recognizing;
recalling identification and
recall of information
Who, what, when, where, how ...?
Describe
COMPREHENSION
interpreting;
translating from one medium to another;
describing in one's own words;
organization and selection of facts and ideas
Retell...
APPLICATION
problem solving;
applying information to produce some result;
use of facts, rules and principles
How is...an example of...?
How is...related to...?
Why is...significant?
ANALYSIS
subdividing something to show how it is put together;
finding the underlying structure of a communication;
identifying motives;
separation of a whole into component parts
What are the parts or features of...?
Classify...according to...
Outline/diagram...
How does...compare/contrast with...?
What evidence can you list for...?
SYNTHESIS
creating a unique, original product that may be in verbal form or may be a physical object;
combination of ideas to form a new whole
What would you predict/infer from...?
What ideas can you add to...?
How would you create/design a new...?
What might happen if you combined...?
What solutions would you suggest for...?
EVALUATION
making value decisions about issues;
resolving controversies or differences of opinion;
development of opinions, judgements or decisions
Do you agree...?
What do you think about...?
What is the most important...?
Place the following in order of priority...
How would you decide about...?
What criteria would you use to assess...?
http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/researchskills/dalton.htm
http://www.alicechristie.org/edtech/index.html Dr Alice Christie is a superb educator in the USA and her site is a great place to visit and learn from.
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/designpatterns/all.htm This site was another really helpful way to understand how to construct this learning tool
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Inspiration Mind Map Example
To load an Inspiration map onto a blog
when open in inspiration go to file
down to export,choose giff,
save, then save as, (usb, desktop my docs or personal file )
then in my blog
open up a new post
Hit compose
then picture icon
then browse
retrive from wherever
upload then done
Monday, May 28, 2007
final Lecture
Web quest
Define what a webquest is
Identify teaching and learning benefits of intergrating WQs as learning tools
Identify the critical components of a web q
Evaluate some webqs
Network data base that is univwersal, information that is accessible
an enquiry oriented activity in which most or all of the informatiion thast learners interact with comes from resources on the internet
Define what a webquest is
Identify teaching and learning benefits of intergrating WQs as learning tools
Identify the critical components of a web q
Evaluate some webqs
Network data base that is univwersal, information that is accessible
an enquiry oriented activity in which most or all of the informatiion thast learners interact with comes from resources on the internet
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Signs of the times Reflection Part2 JS423
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Reading the signs of the times is not something that I understood clearly before this unit and I still have a long way to go before I can say that I can read them well. I say this because firstly because I'm not well read in history especially modern history. So much of this unit is not new information, but it is more fully explained and put into a context that I have been able to get a grasp of. History has always been taught to me in these disconnected bubble's and now I am beginning to see it in a more broad and connected way, this helps me to understand the perspectives we need so that we may start to read the times that we are facing and living in right now, I now have a very different view of what Christ's message is to those who want to follow his mission that he entrusted to all Christians today,than I did before I started this unit of study.
I do have to have the historical perspective so that we can connect with what is happening in the world we live in right now, history has a habit of repeating itself, so it is up to those of us who have been told about the mission of Christ's message to do what we have to do, to the best of our ability and when we do that we are able to help in our own way to try to bring the balance back not only into our own lives but for the students that we teach, because we are actively living the word of God.
Now I am trying to come from a suitably conscious position and by this I am reflecting that when we as adults think about what choices we are making and then take a pathway that supports the least fortunate in our own community, we actively engage with the Idea of PRAXIS,Theconcept of reflection and action. We start with the closest relationship, that of family and then we extend our consciousness,experience and action into our community around us, which might be our Church or local parish, schools where our children attend or where we teach and then we can extend out further to a larger action plan, whatever that might be.
When we support communities around the world who are trying to survive with dignity and value, independently of the foreign monopolies that are constantly promoting poverty, when we actively engage in a conscious way to reduce our footprint on this planet, we then have way of sharing values with anyone around us, and I think subconsciously it does give hope.
"If you don't have a claim on my charity, then you have a claim on my justice" When we look around especially in this wealthy country of Australia, we do see many charitable organisations at work, people with a desire to live Christs message of "love one another as I have loved you" "if you do this to least of my brothers you do this to me",but the biggest challenge remains within the area of justice, if we talk about the 80/20 divide and the north V's south, we look at a very formidable challenge. We don't have to look very far to see this is a major issue facing this world today, we only need to see the homeless on our streets and the state of affairs in the aboriginal communities, in this country to start to become aware that social justice is a political as well as a church based responsibility.So how can we address overwhelming problem, how do we lead the students we teach,to have a awareness about these issues and what ways can we help them to engage in thinking about all this and then taking some action that they can see the positive results in. For me I teach Visual Arts and Textiles and Design and I really find that I have so many ways that I can introduce the discussion of social Justice into a lesson, and actively get students engaged in a project that is invigorating and inspiring that can extend into the community beyond the classroom walls. This is particularly easy if you teach in the Catholic System ot the Christian School system.Even in Catholic Schools that might not have a very high profile Social Justice programm there are many ways you can expand enhance and develope a really strong awareness of Social Justice in a school where you might be teaching.
One thing I have witnessed with the youth of today is that there is a huge vacuum and though they fill it with materialism it doesn't satisfy their deeper needs, I feel that when they do "acts of charity" they really love the experience, they need to experience the act of giving,the majority of people really do grow and prosper emotionally and spiritually when they are given the opportunity to take a real and responsible role in actively helping those who are less fortunate and are struggling through inequity, poverty, neglect, intolerance, violence, displacement, fear and despair.I think it remains up to us to keep the poitive outlook and actions occurring so that we infect the young with the value of positive thinking and the power of hope.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
ICT- Item 2 Blog Part B ED4134
Leonardo Da Vinci
In this Exercise i am trying to lead the students along a pathway where they will be able to see images I've put there and then go and retrieve information that will assist in their understanding of the unit they are studying with a view to the historical, the cultural,the subjective, the structural and the post-modern frame's that are covered in the stage4 and stage 5 curiculum.
Year 9 Visual Art Class
Automania
Since man invented the wheel he has been totally entranced with the idea of moving at greater and greater speed in this excersie we will look at the love affair that man has had with this idea and his relationship to the modern day automobile.
http://lizzy.smugmug.com/gallery/1597167#77504537
Your work is to now go to this web address and find other machines that involved movement and to download at least three other machines that Leonardo Da Vinci designed. Remember to name them and write a sentence about what the did and how they worked. http://www.wga.hu/index1.html
The next step is to have a look at this slide show that gives you some idea of how people axpress themselves through their cars in todays society.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/surlygrrrl/sets/72157594212114201/show/?no_back=1
Here are some images of art cars that people have created
Now in relationship to the Multiple intelligences theory that Howard Gardner has developed these are very interesting and valuable frameworks to have as a underpinning in class activities.And with the help of ICT in classroom work we can enhance and expand their learning abilities. What I am looking at here is how do I see this as a real undertaking in my lessons and curriculum approach. The example that I am working on for this exercise, to cater for different learning styles,is a Stage 5 Visual Arts Unit titled Automania. The overview is about the relationship man has with his Car in this modern world, how it has the status of Icon associated with it, how we venerate the automobile and its development in historical terms. The students eventually will create their own Art Car in a sculptural 3D medium which would be decided by the faculty and what type of equipment the school had in their art rooms. The initial lessons that would occur before the students embark on any practical art works, are usually research and development based processes that expose them to the gaining of Visual, historical, cultural and societal based knowledge. It is at this stage, that I find the use of ICT ,in the transmission and gaining of knowledge can be most effective.Another important factor is the stimulation of each individuals creative potential, using a range tasks we can incorporate all types of learners.
The Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence
To engage the verbal linguistic learner, make sure in a list of tasks that the students have to fulfill, that you would ask them to express information they gathered into a poem or a rap, or to write a prose piece if that was appropriate for the task.They would need too name artists, genres of art practice, historical information and other information that might relate to whatever topic they were studying.
The Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
This doesn't mean that a person with this intelligence as the dominant in their make-up, cannot engage in the rather abstract and fuzzzy aspects of the creative mind.As a teacher we can always challenge them to quantify, categorise, analyse, identify the flaws in something ie, would Leonardo's car have worked, read more about Leonardo's observations of nature and list what he discovered.Or you could develop a game that leads the students from Leonardo to the present using cars.This is an area where you can really engage the student, as you can get them to design a computer game where specific outcomes have to be attained relating to the requirements of the topic.
The Naturalist Intelligence
These little ones are always a delight to from where I stand, they are so observant of the world around them. Even though their strength lies in the area of the natural world their ability to find out fascinating details that many overlook is always enlightening. Including tasks for the Naturalist is fun,for example, they have to discover how paint was constructed in 1462, what was it made from, where did the colours come from. This is a fun one to create a web quest from as it takes all over the world, you can give them experiments to do, create colours from grinding rocks and then painting with the pigments, again there are many ways for this student to be engaged and to develop their knowledge base and grow.
The Bodily-Kinaesthetic
I can always pick these ones in a class, they will be drumming with their fingers or feet, taping their pen on the desk, generally they can't sit still for very long. Now this can be a challenge when we do theory in an art class, I find they focus quite well on challenging construction processes that have a staggered level of achievement, for example if you designed a web quest or computer game that has scores different levels of achievement, the competitive side of this intelligence tends to be stimulated and you can get some really great results.
The Musical-Rhythmic Intelligence
This Intelligence can work alongside the Linguistic intelligence quite well as they have the abilities to work with rhythms and melodies, so they have that understanding of the patter and metre of sound in words and also music. Here is another area that can be introduced,music of the times that you are studying, music like art reflects the culture and society that we live in and it really engages the students to listen and learn about the musicians that created the music. They also learn more about the artist because in many instances the musicians and artists all hung out together and had similar thoughts about societies that they lived in.With the unit Automania there are endless references to cars through music, to create a game called Musical Cars.
The Visual-Spatial Intelligence
These students seem to naturally enjoy the visual arts but not always, they may be very creative in the practical side of art practice but they really would rather not do the theory work involved, so to engage these students can be just as much of a challenge as a mathematical logical learner. I find with this type of intelligence they really need to be designing something on the computer, there is a web site called "Pimp My Ride" where the student designs a car, from the basic shape up, and can add, change and insert a lot of their own choices onto the basic car design they have been given.
The Interpersonal Intelligence
These students will help you the teacher in the classroom setting and also their class mates. These are the team leaders, great if you are building a computer game around the unit you're studying, and wonderful at helping the digital immigrant learn to speak to the digital natives.Great people to lead group work and presentations, also at helping with peer to peer learning activities.Though they can be quite chatty in class, they can be a good support to students who might struggle and need that little bit of extra help in class work.
The Intrapersonal Intelligence
This student might like to keep a journal and use Leonardo's time as a starting point, looking at Leonardos inventions and whether they could have been built with the technologies available at that time in history.Or they could keep a journal imagining that they were one of the artists in the Futurist Movement,or even as a car during Leonardo's time and then at the turn of the 19th century and then in the future.
There are endless benefits to developing ICT in whatever unit you may be teaching. developing programs on platforms like moodle, not only develop the student but they develop the teacher as well because you can always modify, readjust and add to the initial program so it is a constantly growing and developing information source that gives the students current information and can be used to challenge them and make them think and construct their own learning which is what the constructive approach to educating children is about.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Feel the Groove
Posting Stuff into My Blog:
Video visit youtube:email to blog copy the embed code paste into HTML
Feel the Love, Hear it too!
Have tried to download sonific so many times now while i am at home and it just doesn't work
it keeps saying no song selected and then directs me to itunes and everything costs money there, I give up.
AIM: To answer this question as a collaborative group using the links below...
Explore e-learning This is a catalogue of resources for Teaching Maths and Science in Secondary schools http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspResourceCatalog This is a site that provides a wide range of activities based on Gardner's multiple intelligences (fantastic site!) http://surfaquarium.com/mi/intelligences.htmThis site provides a number of very useful sites in relation to Gardener's MI with ideas for the classroom and the use of ICThttp://hometown.aol.com/abctagteam/multiple_intelligences.htmApplying Bloom's Taxonomy in the classroomThis gives you concrete leads....but how do you use it in the ICT environment?http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/researchskills/dalton.htmThere are a number of different sites that link you into research on e-learning and current trends. This site won't provide you with an immediate answer but it will help you begin collaborating with those who are researching in this field.http://www.ncsl.org.uk/networked/index.cfmConstructivist learning theory...don't forget that you are basing all this work on this theory. This is a good summary for you and not too technical.http://www.exploratorium.edu/ifi/resources/constructivistlearning.htmlThis site from Bradford England goes through the various intelligences and gives you possible activities in ICT to use to develop particular intelligences. While it is way beyond our technologies it is good to know because schools are getting these resources. There are also an increasing number of these technologies available as free software.http://www.bradfordschools.net/content/view/226/182
Tools and resources provided by Intel for free to support collaborative student centered learning. Online thinking tools are active learning places where students engage in robust discussions, pursue investigations, analyse complex information and solve problems. Resources for 21st century teaching help teachers play a critical role in facilitating learning activities and posing questions that take student thinking deeper.http://www.intel.com/education/tools/index.htm
Posted by offspring at 7:15 PM 0 comments
Labels: Compiled by Allan Coman
Google gadgets for your webpage- just for fun
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open&source=gghp.
Posted by offspring at 12:13 AM 0 comments
Sunday, March 18, 2007
How to add video into your blog
http://bloggerstatusforrealbeta.blogspot.com/2007/01/editing-template-in-new-blogger-blog.html
Posted by offspring at 11:46 PM 1 comments
Monday, March 12, 2007
http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/elearning-20/1
Posted by offspring at 4:59 PM 0 comments
Monday, March 5, 2007
http://evolution.massey.ac.nz/assign2
Explore e-learning This is a catalogue of resources for Teaching Maths and Science in Secondary schools http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspResourceCatalog This is a site that provides a wide range of activities based on Gardner's multiple intelligences (fantastic site!) http://surfaquarium.com/mi/intelligences.htmThis site provides a number of very useful sites in relation to Gardener's MI with ideas for the classroom and the use of ICThttp://hometown.aol.com/abctagteam/multiple_intelligences.htmApplying Bloom's Taxonomy in the classroomThis gives you concrete leads....but how do you use it in the ICT environment?http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/researchskills/dalton.htmThere are a number of different sites that link you into research on e-learning and current trends. This site won't provide you with an immediate answer but it will help you begin collaborating with those who are researching in this field.http://www.ncsl.org.uk/networked/index.cfmConstructivist learning theory...don't forget that you are basing all this work on this theory. This is a good summary for you and not too technical.http://www.exploratorium.edu/ifi/resources/constructivistlearning.htmlThis site from Bradford England goes through the various intelligences and gives you possible activities in ICT to use to develop particular intelligences. While it is way beyond our technologies it is good to know because schools are getting these resources. There are also an increasing number of these technologies available as free software.http://www.bradfordschools.net/content/view/226/182
Tools and resources provided by Intel for free to support collaborative student centered learning. Online thinking tools are active learning places where students engage in robust discussions, pursue investigations, analyse complex information and solve problems. Resources for 21st century teaching help teachers play a critical role in facilitating learning activities and posing questions that take student thinking deeper.http://www.intel.com/education/tools/index.htm
Posted by offspring at 7:15 PM 0 comments
Labels: Compiled by Allan Coman
Google gadgets for your webpage- just for fun
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open&source=gghp.
Posted by offspring at 12:13 AM 0 comments
Sunday, March 18, 2007
How to add video into your blog
http://bloggerstatusforrealbeta.blogspot.com/2007/01/editing-template-in-new-blogger-blog.html
Posted by offspring at 11:46 PM 1 comments
Monday, March 12, 2007
http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/elearning-20/1
Posted by offspring at 4:59 PM 0 comments
Monday, March 5, 2007
http://evolution.massey.ac.nz/assign2
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Liberation Theology Reflection Part1 JS423
.jpg)
Reflection
From the start this unit has presented me with many challenges, I have found myself pondering and reading many new and disturbing ideas that I have never encounter in such ways before. Due to this there has been confusion anger and fear, there are many psycological issues that I have had to face in this unit as well as issues of faith and belief. I was brought up being told you cannot have an opinion if you have not read, read what you may well ask (and it wasn't because I didn't ask this ) no, you must read what we tell you and you must accept this without question,
(sounds similar to the ideals of fundamental Islam,no) this unit has helped me to climb out of that post bubonic plauge church that my parents have brought me up in. There are some main topics that have emerged so far for me as an individual to try to get my head around, firstly the central principle of social justice, which is standing in solidarity with our neighbour, how do I as a catholic perform this in my daily life and in my community.
Secondly Liberation Theology, how do I understand this and how does it impact on my personal contribution to the planet I live on. Equity is a third issue that requires some serious negotiation of how I absorb and disperse my wealth and talents to grow into a giving and generous, loving and aware person in my immediate family and community and then extend this out to a world view. This then leads me on to question my own concepts of how I see my faith in Christ, much of the material brings me to a new and more challenging discourse with my God, and an awareness that my personal relationship with Christ and the Godhead are now at a point that I must now seek and embrace an active engagement with the actions and responsibilities of following Christs message in the world that I live in.
To begin with I will reflect upon this concept of “Liberation Theology”, this is a very new concept for me to digest, having never heard of it before this course. Which in the light of having been a practicing catholic most of my life is a considerably revealing issue in itself. It begs the question “why haven’t I heard of this before, why is it not discussed from the pulpits of our parishes, why haven’t the priests of our parishes brought it to our attention the responsibilities we carry to our brethren in other parts of the world? How do we understand this ideal of liberation and then channel it into a functional expression in our own country.
I have sought the help of a far more knowledgeable person, as I found myself getting too bogged down on this particular topic when its apparent that I know so little at this point about it and the time constraints that we have are terribly limiting for what I need to be able to discuss.
Apart from reading the course reading lists, I have sought some other information and I have read two articles by Rev. Lorenzo Albacete to help inform myself further on the issue of liberation theology, I would like to use some quotes from these articles as a clearer expression of what I am beginning to understand about this topic. In the article “The Liberation of the Oppressed” Rev. L. Albacete says this, “ Authentic liberation from all forms of oppression requires a recognition of the truth about the human person. Jesus said: “the truth will make you free”(John 8:32). This truth is Jesus Christ himself, the full disclosure of who God is and what it means to be a human being. Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross for us was an offering to the Father whose infinite mercy and love sent the son into the world.”……. “ This love is the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is thus the power of liberation. His presence is the presence of “burning charity” in the hearts of the believers reaching out to set others free from the consequences of sin at all levels of human existence, including the social, economic, and the political.” “Liberation from unjust social structures that destroy people” (A New Way of Encountering God, pg 61). Another article that Rev.Albacete wrote in regard to the visits of Pope John Paul’s to Latin America and the birth place of Liberation Theology, has helped me to better understand the Marxist tilt that some of the reading lead me to feel and become unnerved by. . I am not convinced that Christ can be a politicised figure or portrayed as a revolutionary like Che Guevara, the holy father says in regard to this, “Jesus’ message, had to do with man’s “integral liberation,” that is, body and spirit. This cannot be accomplished through any human power, even less through class struggle and violence. It is only God’s love that can liberate man and his world: the love of God in our hearts “ that brings transformation, peace, pardon and reconciliation”. (Waiting for Christ’s Return: The Christian in the World, pg48, Rev Albacete. The Word Among Us) After some reading and a little investigation reading about the cries of the poor and oppressed that the word of God is mediated through praxis “ the tension between action and reflection”, (Catholicism, pg128. Richard P McBrien.) At this point I can see Liberation Theology as a pragmatic course of action, and with this awareness we are given the opportunity to act in a way that supports missionaries around the world to help the poor. To engage in an intelligent questioning of what governments say and do in regard to our responsibilities to other nations, what conscious actions can we choose to affect countries where oppressive regimes are in power over a poor and voiceless population this ideal in itself does not only apply itself to developing nations or to the south American countries from whence it sprung. At this point I can see to develop an understanding of this will help us all have a basis to act from, so this Praxis can actively be engaged in.
From the start this unit has presented me with many challenges, I have found myself pondering and reading many new and disturbing ideas that I have never encounter in such ways before. Due to this there has been confusion anger and fear, there are many psycological issues that I have had to face in this unit as well as issues of faith and belief. I was brought up being told you cannot have an opinion if you have not read, read what you may well ask (and it wasn't because I didn't ask this ) no, you must read what we tell you and you must accept this without question,
(sounds similar to the ideals of fundamental Islam,no) this unit has helped me to climb out of that post bubonic plauge church that my parents have brought me up in. There are some main topics that have emerged so far for me as an individual to try to get my head around, firstly the central principle of social justice, which is standing in solidarity with our neighbour, how do I as a catholic perform this in my daily life and in my community.
Secondly Liberation Theology, how do I understand this and how does it impact on my personal contribution to the planet I live on. Equity is a third issue that requires some serious negotiation of how I absorb and disperse my wealth and talents to grow into a giving and generous, loving and aware person in my immediate family and community and then extend this out to a world view. This then leads me on to question my own concepts of how I see my faith in Christ, much of the material brings me to a new and more challenging discourse with my God, and an awareness that my personal relationship with Christ and the Godhead are now at a point that I must now seek and embrace an active engagement with the actions and responsibilities of following Christs message in the world that I live in.
To begin with I will reflect upon this concept of “Liberation Theology”, this is a very new concept for me to digest, having never heard of it before this course. Which in the light of having been a practicing catholic most of my life is a considerably revealing issue in itself. It begs the question “why haven’t I heard of this before, why is it not discussed from the pulpits of our parishes, why haven’t the priests of our parishes brought it to our attention the responsibilities we carry to our brethren in other parts of the world? How do we understand this ideal of liberation and then channel it into a functional expression in our own country.
I have sought the help of a far more knowledgeable person, as I found myself getting too bogged down on this particular topic when its apparent that I know so little at this point about it and the time constraints that we have are terribly limiting for what I need to be able to discuss.
Apart from reading the course reading lists, I have sought some other information and I have read two articles by Rev. Lorenzo Albacete to help inform myself further on the issue of liberation theology, I would like to use some quotes from these articles as a clearer expression of what I am beginning to understand about this topic. In the article “The Liberation of the Oppressed” Rev. L. Albacete says this, “ Authentic liberation from all forms of oppression requires a recognition of the truth about the human person. Jesus said: “the truth will make you free”(John 8:32). This truth is Jesus Christ himself, the full disclosure of who God is and what it means to be a human being. Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross for us was an offering to the Father whose infinite mercy and love sent the son into the world.”……. “ This love is the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is thus the power of liberation. His presence is the presence of “burning charity” in the hearts of the believers reaching out to set others free from the consequences of sin at all levels of human existence, including the social, economic, and the political.” “Liberation from unjust social structures that destroy people” (A New Way of Encountering God, pg 61). Another article that Rev.Albacete wrote in regard to the visits of Pope John Paul’s to Latin America and the birth place of Liberation Theology, has helped me to better understand the Marxist tilt that some of the reading lead me to feel and become unnerved by. . I am not convinced that Christ can be a politicised figure or portrayed as a revolutionary like Che Guevara, the holy father says in regard to this, “Jesus’ message, had to do with man’s “integral liberation,” that is, body and spirit. This cannot be accomplished through any human power, even less through class struggle and violence. It is only God’s love that can liberate man and his world: the love of God in our hearts “ that brings transformation, peace, pardon and reconciliation”. (Waiting for Christ’s Return: The Christian in the World, pg48, Rev Albacete. The Word Among Us) After some reading and a little investigation reading about the cries of the poor and oppressed that the word of God is mediated through praxis “ the tension between action and reflection”, (Catholicism, pg128. Richard P McBrien.) At this point I can see Liberation Theology as a pragmatic course of action, and with this awareness we are given the opportunity to act in a way that supports missionaries around the world to help the poor. To engage in an intelligent questioning of what governments say and do in regard to our responsibilities to other nations, what conscious actions can we choose to affect countries where oppressive regimes are in power over a poor and voiceless population this ideal in itself does not only apply itself to developing nations or to the south American countries from whence it sprung. At this point I can see to develop an understanding of this will help us all have a basis to act from, so this Praxis can actively be engaged in.
Michael, I'm sorry to break with essay convention and address this to you directly, I try to understand the world view and the historical view, and I hope that I am on the right sort of pathway, but from where I stand as a very ordinary person in the community, it is my individual action to those around me that will best serve the action of Christ in my daily life. In other words taking an active role in processes of helping people around me who are finding the going very difficult. Christ didn't come to save me persay, he suffered and died because of the sins I commit but through him and trying to understand his death and ressurection and putting it into Praxis I have a fantastic experience to commit to, share and develope in the life I've been given. Despite the short comings of family upbring, because I wanted to focus on my father I have looked into the St Vincent De Paul Society that he has been apart of all his life and this has been so revealing and inspiring.
About a hundred years before Gustavo Guiterrez a man called Frederic Ozanam was faced with the issues of social justice that were intergral to that time in history, through his profound understanding and belief in Christ he was motivated to fight injustices that he saw occuring in the society and political system around him. He was so motivated that he created the lay ministry of the St Vincent De Paul Society, and this has spread around the globe since its inception. From my experience it is an acessible way for people to live out the ideal of service that is implicit in the process of spiritual development and growth. Will service to those arond me help me achieve the intergral liberation that the Holy Father talked about or is there more that I will need to be able to grasp and understand, will I even have the ability to see and understand it when it is first encountered.
Even here in this affuluent contry of Australia the "Signs of the Times" are deeply troubling and overwhelming, we seem to live in times of political expediency and economic rationalists and bean counters. The result of this has been a widening of the gap between those who have and those who have not. The St Vincent De Paul Society tried to show the Howard Government the very negative impact that GST would have on the poor prior to its being introduced in 1999,http://www.vinnies.org.au/content.cfm?table=content_listitems&parentid=0&id=2539 years later we see the evidence mounting to prove the disturbing claims to be increasinly correct.
The more I venture into this discourse the more I am aware that the marxist lean to social justice is very easily reached in this day and age but Marx himself took a lot of his foundational thought from the instigators of the French Reveloution, this is why i am begining to find the work of Frederic Ozanam so interesting . He actualy lived within a short time of the aftermath of the Reveloution and was picking uop the pieces of human wreckage that were left from this tumultuous time. His awareness of Christs message of love never desersted him, It is through the passion that we can truly connect, it is so profound that it runs through my very blood corpusles and inbetween them. He knew, it was in the profound emotion of that recognition of the spiritual connectedness between us all, that Godliness in us all that we need to find expression for. Some people get lost in this material world, and others hear the message and take up the challenge to actively engage, with success and with lack of success but never with failure if they have acted from their hearts. It is in giving that we recieve, This is the hope I see in the older people working through charities like St Vinnies, my next dillema is how do we engage the youth of today in an active process that helps them to experience this sence of giving that can be so rewarding
Bibliography:
A New way of Encountering God. “Liberation Theology”, An Introductory Guide, Robert McAfee Brown. Chpt, 3. Unit Reader: JS423
Catholicism. Richard P McBrien. Study Edition Winston Press Minneapolis, 1981.
The New Dictionary of Theology. Joseph A. Komonchak, Mary Collins, Dermot A. Lane. Gill and Macmillan, Dublin. 1990.
Waiting For Christ’s Return: The Christian in the World. Rev Lorenzo Albacete.The Word Among Us, Vol: 2, Num 12. Nov, 1983.
The Liberation of the Oppressed. Rev Lorenzo Albacete. The Word Among Us,
Vol: 6, Num 10, Sept 1987.
Bibliography:
A New way of Encountering God. “Liberation Theology”, An Introductory Guide, Robert McAfee Brown. Chpt, 3. Unit Reader: JS423
Catholicism. Richard P McBrien. Study Edition Winston Press Minneapolis, 1981.
The New Dictionary of Theology. Joseph A. Komonchak, Mary Collins, Dermot A. Lane. Gill and Macmillan, Dublin. 1990.
Waiting For Christ’s Return: The Christian in the World. Rev Lorenzo Albacete.The Word Among Us, Vol: 2, Num 12. Nov, 1983.
The Liberation of the Oppressed. Rev Lorenzo Albacete. The Word Among Us,
Vol: 6, Num 10, Sept 1987.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Meanderings
Meanderings.
I've been trying to get it working in my head what this unit really is about, and how it would best benefit me in my teaching practice?
I can see how to use technology in the classroom situation, as a teaching and learning tool and as a creative expression and a research facility. You see, I can learn all that myself, as I need to and teach others along the way. But what really concerns me is, IF I throw away the use of closed text as has been sugested, how do I do the referencing to check for valid information when a student presents me with an assignment that is researched purely on the web. How do I do web checks for this information, that would be useful to know. In what way do I check for plagerism, how will I be able to assess that the work presented to me, is the students and not an overly protective parent. Now I realise that, some kids are quite advanced but sometimes their work really is so well put together that I question whos work it really is. I know from my own experience that only having web based reference is very hard to follow up and find out wether the student did their own work or another person did it for them. See this makes marking hard because then this presentation is extremely well presented and a child that struggles but has presented work that is hand written and researched on the web and through closed text and maybe they don't have acess to a computer, they loose marks because it doesn't look as good as the other kids.
there are sa number of issues that need adressing here, of course, but what I really feel is very important is that as a teacher I have ways of checking the web information that I am presented with is correct and that the marks that I give are fair and reflect a just process.
Now that would be helpful!
I've been trying to get it working in my head what this unit really is about, and how it would best benefit me in my teaching practice?
I can see how to use technology in the classroom situation, as a teaching and learning tool and as a creative expression and a research facility. You see, I can learn all that myself, as I need to and teach others along the way. But what really concerns me is, IF I throw away the use of closed text as has been sugested, how do I do the referencing to check for valid information when a student presents me with an assignment that is researched purely on the web. How do I do web checks for this information, that would be useful to know. In what way do I check for plagerism, how will I be able to assess that the work presented to me, is the students and not an overly protective parent. Now I realise that, some kids are quite advanced but sometimes their work really is so well put together that I question whos work it really is. I know from my own experience that only having web based reference is very hard to follow up and find out wether the student did their own work or another person did it for them. See this makes marking hard because then this presentation is extremely well presented and a child that struggles but has presented work that is hand written and researched on the web and through closed text and maybe they don't have acess to a computer, they loose marks because it doesn't look as good as the other kids.
there are sa number of issues that need adressing here, of course, but what I really feel is very important is that as a teacher I have ways of checking the web information that I am presented with is correct and that the marks that I give are fair and reflect a just process.
Now that would be helpful!
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Reflection: Why do I bother?
Yes, why do we bother? Teaching today is a formidable profession to place oneself in. Last year (2006) I had started my university studies long distance, while teaching casually, I was then offered a block of teaching for two terms. Of course I jumped at the chance to have a secure work pattern for myself and my family for a time. This was to be a real epiphany of my inadequacy and shortcomings and whether I would actually even become a teacher.
During a short stint of working at TAFE, teaching adults drawing, I had enjoyed myself thoroughly. I approached my teaching with vigor and enthusiasm, and seemed to manage the classroom behaviour well enough. I had placed my resume at various schools in the area on the off chance that I might get a day of teaching now and again, nothing happened for about six months.
The work at TAFE had run out, we were financially stressed, I didn't seem to be able to get any sort of work that I applied for, things weren't looking to good. At Mass, with the family one Sunday I just sat there and said to God " I can't do this anymore, You have to show me what you want me to do, I give up I'm in your hands, just point me in the right direction", there was a lot more I said that night as I sat in the church going through the motions of the mass that I know of by rote but don't always appreciate. Two days later a school called me to do a days casual teaching as one of its visual art teachers was sick, that was in June 2005 and I haven't really stopped teaching since then.
"Be careful what you pray for", is a well trodden phrase in today's world of euphemistic jargon ism, but when it really happens to you, you will be presented with really big challenges. I had no idea what teaching teenagers was about when I first started, I was flying by the seat of my pants, so to speak. If I had been a lot younger I might have crashed and burned long before I did. I need to give you some idea here of how I was employed, they called me in to do a days casual work that ended up lasting a term and a half, working as a casual everyday, which means every period was filled and then I would go home and construct lesson plans, classes, exams, assessment tasks and all the marking in my own time. Surprisingly although this was very exhausting and stressful, I managed to get through it all. With virtually no direction or support I've had to make my way through the jungle on my own and learn (on my own) what it is to be a teacher,(and I'm still learning and always will be) I've always liked a challenge.
In 2006 I started studying again, and working in the same high school, I was offered another block of teaching Visual Art from years 7 - 11. I said yes and within weeks regretted my decision, I was temporary part time, I was there five days a week, I was earning a quarter of the money I used to earn, and I was working even harder than I had the year before. There were a few fundamental factors here that made this job really hard for me at this point. Firstly I just did not have the experience, here I was, trying hard to put into practice what I was learning from the textbooks on how to be a teacher and it wasn't working, especially the two elective classes that I had of year9 and year11. I had quite a few students in both these classes with learning and psychological difficulties and some really lazy students who resented the fact that I made them work. I realize now, that I had no support from my colleagues, I was left to sink or swim, at the time there was just too much for me to worry about with the classes I had, than to give time to my own psychological state.
My year 7's and 8's were fine, and I had already covered this work the year before, so I was well informed of the content and outcomes required for these students as well as the programmes being in place to work from. Years 9 and 11 had no programmes written or assessment tasks or anything, I had to construct these on my own, the teachers around me were too busy to help me except in the most minimal ways e.g. pointing to draws where I might find some information that might be useful. To tell you what happened to me during those two terms would take thousands of words, there was so much that went on, suffice to say that at the end of the second term I was a complete wreck. I really could not face going back into a classroom, I did not want to become a teacher. I didn't know what I was going to do, I was burnt out, fed up and terribly defeated, I had lost every bit of confidence in myself, I was just so much of a mess.
It isn't until you fail, or maybe I should say don't succeed well at something that you start to question and learn yourself. Yes I ran away for a while, after my perceived failure, ( I'm sure not too many people saw it the same way I did) and I really had to work out what had gone wrong. There I was trying to do everything right for everyone, without realising what it was I needed to do for myself. Paramountly, to be in a safe learning environment myself, and I wasn't. To feel supported and nurtured along the way, none of these things had happened. Not only this but human contact is vital in the learning process, doing uni on line was just to wrong for me at this time. As it happened a friend mentioned Notre Dame and said to look it up, which I did, now my life and learning are back on track(yes, the roller coaster track) . This time round I know why I bother.
Teaching isn't just all the theorists and how we learn, I see Vygotskys Zone Of Proximal Development being brought into play everyday I'm in the classroom "Miss, how do I do ....." I will then ask other students "if they were the teacher how would they show their classmate how to do ......" and there are always kids who will offer that guiding support and peer to peer learning. Constructivism gives us language to hang ideas on, a launching pad to operate from, with the use of the epistemology of how we learn, we then have the building blocks at our disposal. So that in turn, the individual teacher, no matter where they are teaching understands what they need to do to help students learn to form their own building blocks of knowledge for their future. When I read about Piaget and Vygotsky last year It made no sense at all I was so lost in all these theorists, now it's making sense, I can understand how they put their theories to work and how it functions in the real classroom everyday and how I use it as a building block of my teaching knowledge. I've read Gardner before and I already use his multiple intelligences in the classroom as much as I can, it made sense when I read these and to use them seemed so spontaneous and natural (teaching visual art gives me a good scope for this) The article by Costa and Kallick " Habits of Mind and Thinking" was really important to me in regard to my own ability to think and grow, and in return help my students think and grow. Margaret Wheatley's article will be an invaluable tool for me in my future classroom teaching and how I get students to interact and support each other in the process of learning.
In future assignments I will show in a more specific way how I can use theory to develop lesson plans etc, back to the point of why I bother! Just this past Friday I had a year10 Religion class for the last period of the day, it had been raining, they hadn't been allowed off the verandahs and they were just feral when they came in. I would like to say some how I won them over with engagement and lively discussion, but this wasn't the case, work was set for them and we had to do it. Yes, it can be such a battle, but in that class there were boys that I have had in other classes, and they were great, they did their work, and the others were what I expected them to be. look at the week, lots of rain, so not much burning off of testosterone playing footy or sport, look at the subject, yipee! boys love religion in year 10, not to mention having to find bible quotations and explain them.
Bringing Christ's message into this world is a formidable task (especially to yr10) but I will persist. They need the love shown to them that Christ showed to all mankind, yes I make my classes clean up their room before leaving it, as a respect for their environment, how can I know if their parents teach them this. Sometimes the role I am filling is almost parental, I never leave a class without having learnt something from my students. And as a parent I've learnt so much from my own children. Teaching is a two way street of giving, and the more you understand how to facilitate this giving, in all it's complications and convolutions, I'll refer to Costa and Kallick here, thinking flexibly, creating, innovating, imagining, gathering data through all the senses, listening and understanding with empathy, remaining open to continuous learning and a sense of humor and much more, the more you give selflessly the more you receive in personal growth.
How else will we give hope to our youth and try to arrest this breakdown of society that we are constantly being presented with, that they are constantly seeing. how do we show them that they are loved and that there is hope and not just empty materialism and vanity. I can't just walk away, even though I not a very good teacher yet I hope in time to be a better one, God didn't give me the talents that he did for selfish purposes, he wants me to grow and develop them and with this type of awareness I can help other people to see and develop their talents, and maybe go on to do wonderful things with their lives, or maybe have a better day because they had art with Miss Rooney.
http://www.teacherfiles.com/animated/animated_school.htm
Wheatley_Archive\wheatleysolvingnotattacking.html36
Costa, A and Kallick, B. (2002) Discovering and Exploring, Book1 of Habits of Mind a Developmental Series (2002)ASCD
During a short stint of working at TAFE, teaching adults drawing, I had enjoyed myself thoroughly. I approached my teaching with vigor and enthusiasm, and seemed to manage the classroom behaviour well enough. I had placed my resume at various schools in the area on the off chance that I might get a day of teaching now and again, nothing happened for about six months.
The work at TAFE had run out, we were financially stressed, I didn't seem to be able to get any sort of work that I applied for, things weren't looking to good. At Mass, with the family one Sunday I just sat there and said to God " I can't do this anymore, You have to show me what you want me to do, I give up I'm in your hands, just point me in the right direction", there was a lot more I said that night as I sat in the church going through the motions of the mass that I know of by rote but don't always appreciate. Two days later a school called me to do a days casual teaching as one of its visual art teachers was sick, that was in June 2005 and I haven't really stopped teaching since then.
"Be careful what you pray for", is a well trodden phrase in today's world of euphemistic jargon ism, but when it really happens to you, you will be presented with really big challenges. I had no idea what teaching teenagers was about when I first started, I was flying by the seat of my pants, so to speak. If I had been a lot younger I might have crashed and burned long before I did. I need to give you some idea here of how I was employed, they called me in to do a days casual work that ended up lasting a term and a half, working as a casual everyday, which means every period was filled and then I would go home and construct lesson plans, classes, exams, assessment tasks and all the marking in my own time. Surprisingly although this was very exhausting and stressful, I managed to get through it all. With virtually no direction or support I've had to make my way through the jungle on my own and learn (on my own) what it is to be a teacher,(and I'm still learning and always will be) I've always liked a challenge.
In 2006 I started studying again, and working in the same high school, I was offered another block of teaching Visual Art from years 7 - 11. I said yes and within weeks regretted my decision, I was temporary part time, I was there five days a week, I was earning a quarter of the money I used to earn, and I was working even harder than I had the year before. There were a few fundamental factors here that made this job really hard for me at this point. Firstly I just did not have the experience, here I was, trying hard to put into practice what I was learning from the textbooks on how to be a teacher and it wasn't working, especially the two elective classes that I had of year9 and year11. I had quite a few students in both these classes with learning and psychological difficulties and some really lazy students who resented the fact that I made them work. I realize now, that I had no support from my colleagues, I was left to sink or swim, at the time there was just too much for me to worry about with the classes I had, than to give time to my own psychological state.
My year 7's and 8's were fine, and I had already covered this work the year before, so I was well informed of the content and outcomes required for these students as well as the programmes being in place to work from. Years 9 and 11 had no programmes written or assessment tasks or anything, I had to construct these on my own, the teachers around me were too busy to help me except in the most minimal ways e.g. pointing to draws where I might find some information that might be useful. To tell you what happened to me during those two terms would take thousands of words, there was so much that went on, suffice to say that at the end of the second term I was a complete wreck. I really could not face going back into a classroom, I did not want to become a teacher. I didn't know what I was going to do, I was burnt out, fed up and terribly defeated, I had lost every bit of confidence in myself, I was just so much of a mess.
It isn't until you fail, or maybe I should say don't succeed well at something that you start to question and learn yourself. Yes I ran away for a while, after my perceived failure, ( I'm sure not too many people saw it the same way I did) and I really had to work out what had gone wrong. There I was trying to do everything right for everyone, without realising what it was I needed to do for myself. Paramountly, to be in a safe learning environment myself, and I wasn't. To feel supported and nurtured along the way, none of these things had happened. Not only this but human contact is vital in the learning process, doing uni on line was just to wrong for me at this time. As it happened a friend mentioned Notre Dame and said to look it up, which I did, now my life and learning are back on track(yes, the roller coaster track) . This time round I know why I bother.
Teaching isn't just all the theorists and how we learn, I see Vygotskys Zone Of Proximal Development being brought into play everyday I'm in the classroom "Miss, how do I do ....." I will then ask other students "if they were the teacher how would they show their classmate how to do ......" and there are always kids who will offer that guiding support and peer to peer learning. Constructivism gives us language to hang ideas on, a launching pad to operate from, with the use of the epistemology of how we learn, we then have the building blocks at our disposal. So that in turn, the individual teacher, no matter where they are teaching understands what they need to do to help students learn to form their own building blocks of knowledge for their future. When I read about Piaget and Vygotsky last year It made no sense at all I was so lost in all these theorists, now it's making sense, I can understand how they put their theories to work and how it functions in the real classroom everyday and how I use it as a building block of my teaching knowledge. I've read Gardner before and I already use his multiple intelligences in the classroom as much as I can, it made sense when I read these and to use them seemed so spontaneous and natural (teaching visual art gives me a good scope for this) The article by Costa and Kallick " Habits of Mind and Thinking" was really important to me in regard to my own ability to think and grow, and in return help my students think and grow. Margaret Wheatley's article will be an invaluable tool for me in my future classroom teaching and how I get students to interact and support each other in the process of learning.
In future assignments I will show in a more specific way how I can use theory to develop lesson plans etc, back to the point of why I bother! Just this past Friday I had a year10 Religion class for the last period of the day, it had been raining, they hadn't been allowed off the verandahs and they were just feral when they came in. I would like to say some how I won them over with engagement and lively discussion, but this wasn't the case, work was set for them and we had to do it. Yes, it can be such a battle, but in that class there were boys that I have had in other classes, and they were great, they did their work, and the others were what I expected them to be. look at the week, lots of rain, so not much burning off of testosterone playing footy or sport, look at the subject, yipee! boys love religion in year 10, not to mention having to find bible quotations and explain them.
Bringing Christ's message into this world is a formidable task (especially to yr10) but I will persist. They need the love shown to them that Christ showed to all mankind, yes I make my classes clean up their room before leaving it, as a respect for their environment, how can I know if their parents teach them this. Sometimes the role I am filling is almost parental, I never leave a class without having learnt something from my students. And as a parent I've learnt so much from my own children. Teaching is a two way street of giving, and the more you understand how to facilitate this giving, in all it's complications and convolutions, I'll refer to Costa and Kallick here, thinking flexibly, creating, innovating, imagining, gathering data through all the senses, listening and understanding with empathy, remaining open to continuous learning and a sense of humor and much more, the more you give selflessly the more you receive in personal growth.
How else will we give hope to our youth and try to arrest this breakdown of society that we are constantly being presented with, that they are constantly seeing. how do we show them that they are loved and that there is hope and not just empty materialism and vanity. I can't just walk away, even though I not a very good teacher yet I hope in time to be a better one, God didn't give me the talents that he did for selfish purposes, he wants me to grow and develop them and with this type of awareness I can help other people to see and develop their talents, and maybe go on to do wonderful things with their lives, or maybe have a better day because they had art with Miss Rooney.
http://www.teacherfiles.com/animated/animated_school.htm
Wheatley_Archive\wheatleysolvingnotattacking.html36
Costa, A and Kallick, B. (2002) Discovering and Exploring, Book1 of Habits of Mind a Developmental Series (2002)ASCD
Sunday, March 18, 2007
John Hattie
The article that I used is the one that Tony McArthur gave us on John Hattie, mainly because it was the most easily accessible and understandable one and the further I got into it the better it became. Firstly is what applies to New Zealand applicable to Australia, are the statistics that he presents the same or similar here in Australia. He demands higher quality teaching, higher quality results from students. But doesn't agree with the current approach the the education system is using with the big stick approach that it adopts. The fist part was all to do with stats, and graphs but it all heads toward a well presented case of five major dimensions of excellent teachers. The first point, expert teachers can identify essential representations of their subject, they have complete pedagogical knowledge and create interesting classes because of this. Secondly, expert teachers can guide learning through classroom interactions, they are very conscious of the classroom climate for learning. I noted in this area expert teachers needed to know about the ability, experience, and background of the students they were to teach, and they needed to know about the facility in which they would be teaching. I learnt this the hard way that this is really important. Thirdly, expert teachers monitor learning and provide feedback, if we learn to use Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner, Glasser to name but a few theorists, our skills will increase so that we assess using many theories to get good feedback . Fourthly, attending to affective attributes, this pertains to a teachers care and respect for all their students and how they can overcome barriers to students learning. Lastly, influencing student outcomes, by understanding surface and deep learning and how to achieve this with all students and how to increase their self esteem and enjoyment of learning.
Building Teacher Quality, John Hattie. University of Auckland , October 2003.
Building Teacher Quality, John Hattie. University of Auckland , October 2003.
William Glasser
Control Therapy, William Glasser.
I am sure that you will think I'm mad but I find Glassers approach talks to me on a very profound level. The psychological contexts of what he is talking about as fundamental human needs resonate with my own fundamental belief of my spiritual life. I cannot approach teaching without a deeply rooted belief in Christs message of developing and using our talents in every way we possibly can. I often reach the point of tears when I read Glassers work because it rings so true with my own experiences. He gives a ideal of what we can aim at, in quality teaching, teachers do not need to scold or punish or coerce. Instead they befriend students, provide encouragement and stimulation and show unending willingness to help, but they are also consistent and fair."By understanding the drives for SURVIVAL, POWER, LOVE, BELONGING, FREEDOM, and FUN in people, we become more conscious of the need for our world to be a quality world of our choosing".http://raider.muc.edu/~schnelpl/Control%20Theory%20-%20Overhead.html. Students not only need to know their rights but they also need to be very aware of the rights of those around them, in other words, their responsibilities to themselves and those around them. We can use Glasser to help us understand fundamental psychology that motivates a students actions that help them to make better choices. By understanding this proccess that Glasser has devised, we can learn so much about ourselves and our choices and in turn guide and help our students.
http://raider.muc.edu/~schnelpl/Control%20Theory%20-%20Overhead.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Glasser
http://changingminds.org/explanations/needs/glasser_five_needs.htm
I am sure that you will think I'm mad but I find Glassers approach talks to me on a very profound level. The psychological contexts of what he is talking about as fundamental human needs resonate with my own fundamental belief of my spiritual life. I cannot approach teaching without a deeply rooted belief in Christs message of developing and using our talents in every way we possibly can. I often reach the point of tears when I read Glassers work because it rings so true with my own experiences. He gives a ideal of what we can aim at, in quality teaching, teachers do not need to scold or punish or coerce. Instead they befriend students, provide encouragement and stimulation and show unending willingness to help, but they are also consistent and fair."By understanding the drives for SURVIVAL, POWER, LOVE, BELONGING, FREEDOM, and FUN in people, we become more conscious of the need for our world to be a quality world of our choosing".http://raider.muc.edu/~schnelpl/Control%20Theory%20-%20Overhead.html. Students not only need to know their rights but they also need to be very aware of the rights of those around them, in other words, their responsibilities to themselves and those around them. We can use Glasser to help us understand fundamental psychology that motivates a students actions that help them to make better choices. By understanding this proccess that Glasser has devised, we can learn so much about ourselves and our choices and in turn guide and help our students.
http://raider.muc.edu/~schnelpl/Control%20Theory%20-%20Overhead.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Glasser
http://changingminds.org/explanations/needs/glasser_five_needs.htm
Jerome Bruner
Jerome Bruners theoretical basis is similar in a way to Vygotsky in the sense that he wants individuals to be able to develop "beyond the information that is given"http://tip.psychology.org/bruner.html. So the individual develops not only their schema but the added benefits of developing in an individually creative way (which I find is great for individual confidence and self-esteem, and of course the courage to keep trying to learn).
"Bruner (1966) states that a theory of instruction should address four major aspects: (1) predisposition towards learning, (2) the ways in which a body of knowledge can be structured so that it can be most readily grasped by the learner, (3) the most effective sequences in which to present material, and (4) the nature and pacing of rewards and punishments. Good methods for structuring knowledge should result in simplifying, generating new propositions, and increasing the manipulation of information".http://tip.psychology.org/bruner.html. Lets look at aspect No1, it runs along a parallel with the other constructivists on "how they learn". Aspect No2 I can see Gardner's Multiple Intelligences being used effectively here. Aspect No3 suggests similar mental pictures to me of Bloom's Taxonomy, ans I use this a bit loosely because i can feel the differences between the two. I will try to explain what I mean more fully with an example."
His approach was characterised by three stages which he calls enactive, iconic and symbolic and are solidly based on the developmental psychology of Jean Piaget. The first, the enactive level, is where the child manipulate materials directly. Then he proceed to the iconic level, where he deals with mental images of objects but does not manipulate them directly. At last he moves to the symbolic level, where he is strictly manipulating symbols and no longer mental images or objects. The optimum learning process should according to Bruner go through these stages.
In 1960, Bruner (then a professor of Harvard University) proposed a “spiral curriculum” concept to facilitate structuring a curriculum ´around the great issues, principles, and values that a society deems worthy of the continual concern of its members´ (Bruner, 1960). The next decades many school system educators attempted to implement this concept into their curriculum. Bruner (1975) described the principles behind the spiral curriculum in the following way:
”…I was struck by the fact that successful efforts to teach highly structured bodies of knowledge like mathematics, physical sciences, and even the field of history often took the form of metaphoric spiral in which at some simple level a set of ideas or operations were introduced in a rather intuitive way and, once mastered in that spirit, were then revisited and reconstructed in a more formal or operational way, then being connected with other knowledge, the mastery at this stage then being carried one step higher to a new level of formal or operational rigour and to a broader level of abstraction and comprehensiveness. The end stage of this process was eventual mastery of the connexity and structure of a large body of knowledge”…(p.3-4). http://starfsfolk.khi.is/solrunb/jbruner.htm_3.htm
I have included this large slab of text because it showed me clearly the way I could teach visual arts to a wide range of ages and abilities in students. Teaching a creative skills based subject allows a topic to be introduced in an intuitive way, once you have a grasp and hold on the spirit of the topic you can then introduce the formal or operational way which might relate to a skill or a observation process or a textually based process. Then the development of all this information into the scaffolding of comprehension of the artist, their society, their practice, the world, the audience, meanings of then and now, etc, etc.
http://starfsfolk.khi.is/solrunb/jbruner.htm_3.htm
http://web.lemoyne.edu/~hevern/nr-theorists/bruner_jerome_s.html
"Bruner (1966) states that a theory of instruction should address four major aspects: (1) predisposition towards learning, (2) the ways in which a body of knowledge can be structured so that it can be most readily grasped by the learner, (3) the most effective sequences in which to present material, and (4) the nature and pacing of rewards and punishments. Good methods for structuring knowledge should result in simplifying, generating new propositions, and increasing the manipulation of information".http://tip.psychology.org/bruner.html. Lets look at aspect No1, it runs along a parallel with the other constructivists on "how they learn". Aspect No2 I can see Gardner's Multiple Intelligences being used effectively here. Aspect No3 suggests similar mental pictures to me of Bloom's Taxonomy, ans I use this a bit loosely because i can feel the differences between the two. I will try to explain what I mean more fully with an example."
His approach was characterised by three stages which he calls enactive, iconic and symbolic and are solidly based on the developmental psychology of Jean Piaget. The first, the enactive level, is where the child manipulate materials directly. Then he proceed to the iconic level, where he deals with mental images of objects but does not manipulate them directly. At last he moves to the symbolic level, where he is strictly manipulating symbols and no longer mental images or objects. The optimum learning process should according to Bruner go through these stages.
In 1960, Bruner (then a professor of Harvard University) proposed a “spiral curriculum” concept to facilitate structuring a curriculum ´around the great issues, principles, and values that a society deems worthy of the continual concern of its members´ (Bruner, 1960). The next decades many school system educators attempted to implement this concept into their curriculum. Bruner (1975) described the principles behind the spiral curriculum in the following way:
”…I was struck by the fact that successful efforts to teach highly structured bodies of knowledge like mathematics, physical sciences, and even the field of history often took the form of metaphoric spiral in which at some simple level a set of ideas or operations were introduced in a rather intuitive way and, once mastered in that spirit, were then revisited and reconstructed in a more formal or operational way, then being connected with other knowledge, the mastery at this stage then being carried one step higher to a new level of formal or operational rigour and to a broader level of abstraction and comprehensiveness. The end stage of this process was eventual mastery of the connexity and structure of a large body of knowledge”…(p.3-4). http://starfsfolk.khi.is/solrunb/jbruner.htm_3.htm
I have included this large slab of text because it showed me clearly the way I could teach visual arts to a wide range of ages and abilities in students. Teaching a creative skills based subject allows a topic to be introduced in an intuitive way, once you have a grasp and hold on the spirit of the topic you can then introduce the formal or operational way which might relate to a skill or a observation process or a textually based process. Then the development of all this information into the scaffolding of comprehension of the artist, their society, their practice, the world, the audience, meanings of then and now, etc, etc.
http://starfsfolk.khi.is/solrunb/jbruner.htm_3.htm
http://web.lemoyne.edu/~hevern/nr-theorists/bruner_jerome_s.html
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget emphasises the learners interaction with their physical environment, his general theoretical framework is called "Genetic Epistemology" because of his primary interest in how knowledge developed in the human organism.
http://tip.psychology.org/piaget.html from reading some of the articles that I have on Piaget's theories, I can see that having these well instilled in my mind, will help me when I am in the classroom. I will have to understand and possibly assess what each student is capable of understanding and how they are computing the information. Giving us all these different stages and periods in a child's life, and how they all pass the same sequence of stages of cognitive development at similar ages and personal meanings which they can construct from experience depending on their current stage, is a platform for me see where they are at. It gives me a basis, a structure of criteria that will help me understand each student so that I can manage the individuals in my class to the best advantage for all of them.
Then you can tie in the other theorists and use techniques from all of them to help all your students, so students then have the ability given to them to all learn a topic or whatever it is that you are showing them, but learn it in relation to their own schema of their world. So this gives every child in the class a possibility to achieve good learning outcomes whether they are very bright and quick or they have learning disabilities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget
http://www.piaget.org/biography/biog.html
http://www.piaget.org/biography/biog.html
http://tip.psychology.org/piaget.html from reading some of the articles that I have on Piaget's theories, I can see that having these well instilled in my mind, will help me when I am in the classroom. I will have to understand and possibly assess what each student is capable of understanding and how they are computing the information. Giving us all these different stages and periods in a child's life, and how they all pass the same sequence of stages of cognitive development at similar ages and personal meanings which they can construct from experience depending on their current stage, is a platform for me see where they are at. It gives me a basis, a structure of criteria that will help me understand each student so that I can manage the individuals in my class to the best advantage for all of them.
Then you can tie in the other theorists and use techniques from all of them to help all your students, so students then have the ability given to them to all learn a topic or whatever it is that you are showing them, but learn it in relation to their own schema of their world. So this gives every child in the class a possibility to achieve good learning outcomes whether they are very bright and quick or they have learning disabilities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget
http://www.piaget.org/biography/biog.html
http://www.piaget.org/biography/biog.html
Lev Vygotsky
Now, here is a chap with the most amazing mind!, allot of what he has written at first has seemed just so confusing, but when I slowly get the hang of the language he uses and what he means, I can see he really had a great perception of how the learners minds work. I found a web site that helped me see some implementation of the tools that Vygotsky proposed for educators to use, Information on Tools of the Mind is now at http://web.archive.org/web/20Information on Tools of the Mind Following the links from this web address I was able to see some real ways of using his theories, which gives me something concrete to grasp hold of in a mental picture for myself to start understanding.
The way Vygotsky talks about us learning from the outside, from the social context that we are in as children, the environment around us. His theory of The Zone of Proximal Development,gives the individual the tools to step up to the next level of learning and understanding, using external help. The way our cognition grows and matures is not independent of our social environment but because of it. Now this has rather profound implications for how we as educators teach in this country and all over the world, we funnel these little ones into a class room and try to teach them. The use of scaffolding or mediation ( when an educator or peer ) assists with the solving of problems by tips, hints or demonstrations. These learning tools must be relevant to the individual, they have to be able to make sense of them, using their cognition of the social context they are in. I think their peer group is a very strong way for them to grasp this learning. Setting tasks and giving the students time to work in groups can be one of the ways to aid this learning process.
http://chd.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/theorists/constructivism/vygotsky.htm
http://www.funderstanding.com/vygotsky.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Vygotsky
http://www.kolar.org/vygotsky/
http://tip.psychology.org/vygotsky.html
The way Vygotsky talks about us learning from the outside, from the social context that we are in as children, the environment around us. His theory of The Zone of Proximal Development,gives the individual the tools to step up to the next level of learning and understanding, using external help. The way our cognition grows and matures is not independent of our social environment but because of it. Now this has rather profound implications for how we as educators teach in this country and all over the world, we funnel these little ones into a class room and try to teach them. The use of scaffolding or mediation ( when an educator or peer ) assists with the solving of problems by tips, hints or demonstrations. These learning tools must be relevant to the individual, they have to be able to make sense of them, using their cognition of the social context they are in. I think their peer group is a very strong way for them to grasp this learning. Setting tasks and giving the students time to work in groups can be one of the ways to aid this learning process.
http://chd.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/theorists/constructivism/vygotsky.htm
http://www.funderstanding.com/vygotsky.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Vygotsky
http://www.kolar.org/vygotsky/
http://tip.psychology.org/vygotsky.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)