Barb Rentenbach

After an introduction from her "smiling shrink", Barb Rentenbach began her presentation by typing "dear utk autism is my prism, not my prison." I thought these were such powerful words that really summed up Barb's overall message. After hearing her deep thoughts verbalized by friends on her video and students in the auditorium, it was so hard for me to grasp the idea of being trapped inside your own body.  Her ideas were so thought provoking and profound.  I can't even imagine the frustration of not being able to express herself freely without her technological aids.

Barb's presentation was an eye opening experience.  So often we assume that people who are handicapped are unintelligent.  Barb proved that wrong. After almost 20 years of being considered mentally retarded, Barb was able to reveal her intelligence.

Barb also enlightened me to the world of Autism.  I knew the basic facts from special ed, but hearing a first person account is an entirely different experience.  I love that she speaks out directly to children or 'friends' with autism in her book, giving guidance, encouragement, and support.  She turned Autism on its head- what most people think of as a negative thing, Barb expressed Autism as a special quality, a gift that some people were born with.

With Autism becoming more frequently diagnosed in children, I'm sure I will have students with Autism in my class.  Barb's story made me realize that I need to appreciate the skills and special abilities of these students, not see them as a burden or extra challenge.

group differences forum

Tuesday we had our group differences forum.  To be honest, I wasn't really sure what it would be like, or how much I would get out of it. However, once the conversations began I quickly changed my mind.  There are some topics that people just try to avoid- things that get people riled up and defensive.  This class discussion provided an opportunity to talk about these sensitive yet important topics in a conductive, positive way.  I think that a big part of this was that the conversation was focused on teaching instead of just personal experiences and beliefs. I was impressed by how well the discussion flowed.  No questions were left unanswered and people were willing to talk.  I also appreciated the courtesy our classmates showed each other.  People were nodding in agreement, asking questions for clarification, and being respectful if they happened to disagree.  

The fact that we were in school helped this professional, mature behavior, but I think we have also gained a lot of insight from conversations with each other over the semester.  I think that the group differences forum was a great way to wrap up our year because we all interacted and talked about serious aspects of our future career. We all share the common goal that we want to be great teachers, and I think that allowed us to really learn from each other in this conversation, as well as throughout the semester. 

10: language

Prompt: Theories in educational psychology promote the idea that language plays a critical role in cognitive development. Examine table 2.2 (page 51), paying particular attention to the age range that you are interested in teaching.  Consider how you might incorporate or adapt the strategies presented with your own students.

I would love to work with first or second graders, so I will focus on that portion of Ormrod's table of linguistic characteristics and abilities.

• Strategy: read age-appropriate storybooks to enhance vocabulary
• This is something I will definitely do in my classroom!  Since reading is such an important skill in all subjects of school, I plan to devote lots of class time to literacy.  With younger students this will include guided reading, read-alouds, independent reading, and also cross-curricular reading. The more students read, the more words they know, and the deeper their understanding and comprehension can become. I really prefer this way of increasing vocabulary  to the old-school memorization methods.
• Strategy: work on listening skills
• At this age, Ormrod explains that many children consider a good listener as someone who simply sits quietly. It is important for me to teach my students that listening requires more than silence.  I will teach them about the other parts of being a good listener, like paying attention to who is speaking, asking questions when confused, and retaining information.  I will stress that the most important thing is that they are learning and understanding, not just being quiet.
• Strategy: ask students to construct narratives about recent events
• Ormrod explains that these young students are increasing their ability to tell a story.  To foster and encourage this skill, I will provide multiple opportunities for my students to practice story telling.  One way I can do this is by having students write a paragraph about what they did over the weekend, make an illustration of it, then share orally with the class. 
• Ask follow-up questions to check for accurate understanding
• This age group typically interprets things literally, so it will be important for me to ensure that my students have a clear understanding of class material.  Whether it is an idiom or expression I use or something more ambiguous they read, it will be imperative for me to correct any misunderstandings students have.  To know when this is necessary, I will use follow-up questions to gauge their understanding and comprehension. Even beyond misinterpretations, this will help students summarize information they have learned and let me know where they need more help.

9: self-efficacy and self-regulation

Prompt: How might self-efficacy and self-regulation contribute to the intervention plans you use in your case study.


Identifying with the social cognitive theory, self-efficacy and self-regulation are huge factors of my learning theory.

The article I found defines self-efficacy as "the belief in one's capabilities to achieve a goal or an outcome." Obviously when a student's self-efficacy is higher, he or she is more likely to learn better and achieve more. It would be really beneficial to keep that idea in mind when planning interventions with Lisa. I assume that Lisa's self-efficacy is not too high in most areas of school. I would work to build it up by using some of the ideas below:

• Tailor tasks to Lisa's current self-efficacy level. Since students base self-efficacy on past successes and failures, I would want to provide her with a base of confidence, then build from there. This could start with providing some scaffolding earlier on, then gradually removing support as she grows. 
• Give Lisa reason to believe she can be successful. This would help her to gain confidence about her abilities and provide her with the support she needs. I might do this by pointing out her previous successes or just by affirming my confidence in her.
• Provide a way for Lisa to experience collective self-efficacy. Failure to perform well with her group could be damaging Lisa's self-efficacy even more, creating a cycle that continues her bad behavior. I would place her in a new group with a better group dynamic. Hopefully if it works well, Lisa would gain a greater self-efficacy when working with others.

In addition to self-efficacy, self-regulation would be important to keep in mind when dealing with intervention plans for Lisa. I think that this aspect of SCT would be the most effective in changing Lisa's behavior problems if well-implemented. Below I've listed a few strategies that could help turn things around.

• Let Lisa help set her own goals for how she should behave during cooperative learning. The book explains that students tend to be more motivated to work toward goals when they set them for themselves, instead of having goals imposed upon them. Letting Lisa create self-determined standards could give her some ownership over herself and her behavior.
• Provide a way for Lisa to control her emotions that could lead to poor behavior. This is the biggest problem area in the case study. Lisa gets very angry at her classmates when she doesn't get her way. In turn her behavior spirals out of control and she refuses to participate or pay attention. I would help Lisa find a strategy to calm her down before she reacts in such a way. It might also help to have a regular job rotation chart so that Lisa knows what job is hers that week.
• Have Lisa observe and record her behavior. The book explains that this can largely affect students' behavior. To implement this I could have Lisa mark every time she interrupts a classmate or displays a negative behavior. At the end Lisa could write a sentence about how she felt she did during the activity and what she could have done better. This would help by bringing awareness to the frequency of negative behaviors, and encompasses aspects of self-monitoring and self-evaluation.

This is a great page about self-efficacy in the classroom!
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/efficacy.html

8: behaviorist tools

Part 1: Consider your CSEL intervention case study.  Are there tools from a behaviorist view for either encouraging productive behaviors or discouraging undesirable behaviors that you could apply to the case? What are they?

In my CSEL case study a student named Lisa is having difficulties behaving in her group during cooperative learning activities. Chapter 9 of our textbook discusses many behaviorist tools for shaping student behavior. First the chapter explains ways to use reinforcement effectively. Reinforcement is used to increase a behavior. In Lisa's situation, I would try to reduce her undesirable behavior. In behaviorism, the strategies for discouraging these behaviors are extinction, cueing, reinforcement of incompatible behaviors, and punishment.

• Extinction: this approach would be to reduce Lisa's negative behavior by never reinforcing it.  While it could be easier for me as a teacher to just let Lisa get the job she wants to avoid disrupting the class any further, that would only encourage her to act out more. Initially this could cause an increase in behavior, but hopefully would eventually help reduce it.
• Cueing: the book suggests using body language or physical proximity to remind students what they should not be doing. If that doesn't work, you could go a step further and use a verbal cue. After a conversation about her behavior, I could apply this strategy by making eye contact with Lisa when she falls off track. This would have to be a later step in the process to adjust her behavior, but a good way to monitor her progress.
• Reinforcement of incompatible behaviors: this approach works by rewarding a positive behavior that cannot be performed at the same time as the negative behavior.  In the case study, I could use this by reinforcing Lisa's positive behaviors like working well with her group or paying attention.
• Punishment: there are several guidelines provided for administering punishment. One that I think would work well in the case study would be to simultaneously teach and reinforce desirable alternative behaviors. I would do this by explaining the alternate behavior that I would prefer Lisa to enact instead. This would hopefully help keep her motivated and avoid discouraging her too much. 

Part 2: Now compare the interventions that you have identified above with what you think might work from a cognitive or constructivist viewpoint. How do they compare to behaviorist tools? What are the benefits of each theory, and what are the deficits? Which theory might play a larger role in how you determine classroom management?

7: metacognition

Prompt: Consider a lesson plan you might use. Which metacognitive skills/abilities are involved as students gain facility/knowledge in this domain?

This week in my school rotation, I read a story to a class of 20 kindergartners. Once we were all in a circle on the rug I slightly panicked. In my head I was thinking, "What in the world am I supposed to be doing?!? They're all staring at me!" Luckily for me, my Reading Ed 430 skills came back to me and I remembered the process of a read aloud.

Before I began reading the book, I used the poster the teacher made to explain the schedule for the next hour.
"Our objective today is to identify fantasy and reality. First I'm going to read our book Bear Snores On. Then we are going to make a chart about things that are fantasy and things that are reality from the book. Next you will draw something from the book that was fantasy and something that was reality on your own paper and write a sentence. After that, we will meet back together and 'turn and talk' with our neighbors about what we did."  
I think that this layout helped begin the process of metacognitive thinking for the students because it made them aware of what was coming up. This agenda prepared their minds and gave them a preview of what we were learning and what we would be doing with that information. This shows the use of the covert strategy of identifying important information, especially highlighting the focus on fantasy and reality (which could have been missed since it wasn't included in the book's story line explicitly.)

Then I asked the students if they knew what the words fantasy and reality meant. No one did, so I explained that fantasy is something that is not real/cannot happen, like make believe. Reality is something that can happen in real life.

After that I moved on to the book. First I asked the kids what they predicted the book was going to be about. When they gave an answer, I asked them why they thought that. For example, one girl guessed the book was about a bear's friends. When I asked her why, she said because there was a bear with other animals on the cover. This questioning required the students to explain their reasoning, which is reflective of metacognition.

Next we took a 'picture walk'. As I flipped through the pages I asked the students what they thought was happening. One boy explained that something was sad, when I asked him why, he explained that he thought that because the bear was crying. In the same way as the cover prediction, these questions got the students thinking deeper about what they thought. Throughout the pages I asked the students to look for things that were fantasy or reality to warm up their minds for the activity later.

After the picture walk I began the story. While I read, students would share if they noticed something was fantasy or reality. When they did I would ask them why they thought so, and they would explain something like 'bunnies can't cook' or 'bears don't cry'. Other times I would use the covert strategy of comprehension monitoring by asking the students if what they saw was fantasy or reality. This let me know if I needed to explain further or if the students were understanding the topic.

After the students finished their illustrations and sentences on their own, they came back to the rug. I paired them up and asked them to share what they drew with their partner. This portion of the activity shows a variety of metacognitive skills. One is summarizing their work, providing a deeper understanding. Another is that in explaining their work to a partner, the students had to look back over their thinking to give an appropriate answer.

Big surprise, my article is from education.com! I appreciate the clearness of this article and how it provides multiple options for developing metacognitive skills in the classroom.
http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Dev_Metacognition/

6: knowledge construction

Prompt: Make a list of the sequence of skills necessary for ultimate mastery of the content of your lesson through a constructivist approach. Which of these learning activities/skills lend themselves to students' individual or group construction? How might you structure learning activities that lead students to discover these skills/principles?

For this PLE, I am going to use a lesson plan I created for my Ed 422 class. For that lesson plan, I used the direct teaching method, so I am going to modify it to fit the constructive approach. The plan is for 2nd grade math over comparing numbers using the greater than, less than, and equal to symbols. Students will show mastery of the content by using the greater than, less than, and equal to symbols to compare 3-digit numbers.

• First I would activate prior knowledge. 
• I would draw the symbols < > = on the board and ask the class what they represent. 
• Next I would write out the words 'greater than', 'less than', and 'equal to' on the board and ask the class what those words actually mean. "What does it mean if I say that something is greater than something else?"
• I would remind the class that it we use these terms and symbols in math when we compare two numbers. 
• I would go over the steps used to compare 3-digit numbers, beginning by comparing the hundreds place, then the tens, then the ones. I would model several examples of this (modeling and scaffolding are aspects of constructivism).
• This time together is representative of social construction.
• Next I would address misconceptions.
• Many students get confused about the direction of the direction of the greater than and less than symbols. I would show a picture of an alligator opening its mouth to the greater number, and remind students that the 'alligator' is greedy, so its 'mouth' is always open to the biggest number.
• From there I would allow students to practice.
• I would let students get together in groups of 2 or 3, one being the 'teacher', setting up the problem, and the others being the 'student', writing the correct symbol on their white boards. 
• This is mostly social construction but also some individual.
• Later I would ask students to explore the concept.
• I would ask my class to come up with real life situations where they might need to compare numbers to see which is greater. (Examples: money, students in 4th grade vs students in 3rd grade, etc).
• This hopefully adds relevance and interest to the topic, and also lets kids explore the idea more deeply.
• This is representative of individual construction.
• Next I would allow the students to participate in authentic activities.
• I would relate the content to real world situations. 
• One example I thought of is if our class could set up a little bowling alley outside. 
• We could use chalk to write out our scores, then use the greater than, less than, and equal to symbols to see which team/person is ahead. 
• This would give the students motivation to understand the concept and add interest since those little boogers are competitive!

This is a link to a website that really explains what constructivism is and how it can work in the classroom in great detail! 

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index.html

5: memory and instruction

How might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional decisions?

Our book say that in most circumstances, meaningful learning is more effective than rote learning.
     -Rote: learning primarily through repetition and practice, little or no attempt to make sense of what's being learned
     -Meaningful: making connections between new information and prior knowledge

I will apply this knowledge when instructional decisions as a teacher. This concept meshes nicely with my personal goals. I want my classroom to be engaging and interesting. I want kids to be able to explore and be participants of their learning experience. Meaningful learning requires deeper thinking and consideration about the topic, while rote learning consists of drilling facts into their tiny heads with rehearsal and repetition. Which sounds better to you?

The three most common forms of meaningful learning are elaboration, organization, and visual imagery. Each of these involve combining separate pieces of information into one "meaningful whole"

Elaboration: using prior knowledge to embellish on a new ideA. To encourage elaboration in my classroom I would ask questions that require students to think deeper to provide expanded answers. I could also give my students opportunities to connect topics we are learning with a personal experience.

Organization: making connections among various pieces of new information. I could encourage this type of thinking by having students sort words into related groups. Another example provided in the book is to teach students the relationships between parts of a whole. The example given was about learning the interrelation between velocity, mass, acceleration, and force. Instead of just teaching those as individual concepts, the book suggests to show how each of the concepts are connected and interact.

Visual imagery: mental pictures that are formed of objects or ideas. I would promote my students to use visual imagery by providing images to help clarify and illustrate more abstract ideas. I could also have my students take the imagery into their own hands and ask them to draw a picture of what we are learning about.

The book suggests that the effects of meaningful learning are best when the forms are used together. An example of this could be to have students organize information into categories, then make a visual representation showing the relationships and connections between them. This could be through a venn diagram, a flow chart, or a picture with descriptions.

This is a link to a great article about teaching for meaningful learning!
http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf

4: cognitive learning

What are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning?

While I think my personal theory of learning leads more to constructivism and social cognitive theory, there are still some aspects of the cognitive theory of learning that I want to implement in my classroom.

First is the thought that children construct knowledge rather than absorbing it.  I want my students to be active and engaged participants in their learning. It wouldn't be very interesting for any of us to listen to me talk all day. I think that this constructive idea would add ownership for the kids, which could assist interest and motivation.

Piaget's cognitive learning theory explains that "interactions with one's physical and social environments are essential for cognitive development". For the social aspect- want my students to be interactive and work together. I believe that kids can sometimes learn better from each other than they can from a teacher. Beyond just that, I think these interactions would help students mature and develop socially.  These encounters can teach children about understanding different perspectives, patience, and being socially considerate. For the physical aspect of Piaget's theory, I want my students to be able to have hands-on learning experiences to bring a deeper level of understanding to the content. I also want to provide opportunities for authentic learning so the students can transfer their knowledge into real world situations.

This is a link to an article on the livestrong website. The article quickly explains the basics of cognitive learning, its relation to memory (next blog post!), and discusses application.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/151537-cognitive-learning-in-children/

This link goes to an article about the importance of cognitive learning, what cognitive skills look like, and how to identify and adjust these skills.
http://www.learningrx.com/cognitive-learning-styles.htm

4: assessment

DUN DUN DUNNN!! 

The word assessment strikes fear in the hearts of everyone! But as we've learned this week in class, that doesn't have to be the case.

My old friend merriam-webster.com defines assessment as "the action or instance of assessing."  Well Merriam that is no help.  Our book defines it as "a process of observing a sample of student behavior and drawing inferences about the student's knowledge and abilities."  Okay yeah, that's better.

So beyond that, assessment can take lots of different forms. Two of which are:
     -Informal assessment: involves spontaneous, unsystematic observations
     -Formal assessment: involves pre-planned, systematic data gathering

Okay so those are all great definitions, but how do they apply? Well I'll you! Say I was teaching a lesson on the differences between the words there, their, and they're. I could use formal and informal methods of assessment before, during, and after my lesson to monitor the prior knowledge, basic skills and understanding, progress, and achievement in my students. I'll list 4 different ways I could do this.

1. Before I start my lesson I would have the three words (there, their, they're) on the board. I would ask my class if they knew the words, how to say them, or what they meant. Their responses would let me know their familiarity with the words. I would also check to see if they recognized that "they're" is a contraction. Simply observing like this is a type of formative and informal assessment.
2. Next I would begin my lesson and teach the meanings of the three words. I would explain that their shows possession or ownership, there shows directionality, and they're is a contraction of they are. I would have a slide show that has sentences with a blank where the correct version of the word should be. I would model a few of the sentences, breaking down my steps and showing them how to do it. Then I would pass out small whiteboards and markers and tell each student to write the correct word and show me when they are ready. This is another form of formative, informal assessment because it allows me to observe each student's understanding of the concept. 
3. Once I felt that my students had grasped the concept I would let them work with partners on a worksheet that has a story with the same fill in the blank set up. I would walk around the room and observe as the students worked together. This is a third way to informally assess the class because it allows me to observe who gets it, who is helping who, and who needs more help. 
4. Based on the results of the partner worksheets, I would either provide additional instruction, give more practice opportunities, or move on. Once I felt the students knew the material I would provide a quiz. This is a summative formal assessment of their knowledge.

Below is a link to a site that lists lots of fun ideas to use formative assessment in the classroom. It has options for oral language, questions, writing, projects, performance, and tests. 

fun formative assessment

3: creating a productive learning environment

Our textbook says that a well-managed classroom is "one in which students are consistently engaged in productive learning activities and in which students' behaviors rarely interfere with the achievement of instructional goals." Alright Ormrod, that sounds good, tell me more! (And of course.. she does.)

The topics of this chapter are things I'm really excited about, the stuff I day dream about! I'm hoping for a happy classroom. I want it to be a warm, engaging, inviting, positive place where students enjoy learning together and independently. I chose three strategies that I think would be most beneficial toward my goals:

1. Classroom arrangement. The goals of this arrangement are to encourage student interaction when appropriate and discourage it when counterproductive, to minimize possible distractions, allow easy student-teacher interaction, and allow easy monitoring of student behavior. I think I would achieve these goals, as well as my personal goals of allowing students to work together, by putting desks in groups of four. I also hope to set up designated areas to enhance learning. This could be with a comfy reading corner, a math station, etc. 

2. Establishing and maintaining productive teacher student relationships. I plan to achieve this by truly investing in my students- getting to know them personally, showing that I care about them and their growth, show interest in their hobbies/interests, showing respect, and in certain cases, improving relationships that need work. I think that a good way to build these relationships other than daily interactions is through the student teacher journal. This allows the student to share with the teacher more intimately and can help foster a close bond. 

3. Creating an effective psychological climate. This is about the general attitude and environment of the class- or as I think of it, the classroom vibe. Like I mentioned before, I want my classroom to be a happy place that engages students and encourages sharing and respect. I also don't want my room to feel like a place where students have no input. I hope to give plenty of opportunities for students to be active participants in what we do in class. 

My Big Idea!
Lately I have been thinking of a way to incorporate all of these ideas into a common theme. One idea I have is to have my classroom set up as a little community where everyone plays an equal part. For the physical environment, I think it would be fun to set up the room like a little town; the reading area could be the library, the fish bowl could be the aquarium, the handout box could be the post office, etc. I would also like to give each person in the town (aka the students) a job. The person who passes out papers could be the mailman, the line leader could be our bus driver, the lights person could be the electrician, the weather person could tell the daily forecast, la la la you get the idea. The jobs would rotate every day or two so that everyone gets a chance. The goal of this set up is to teach students that like a town, the classroom works best when we all work together. Each person has an equally important job and has to be accountable. I think this would be a fun way to designate roles and instill a sense of belonging and community within the students.

Link to "top 5 best classroom management strategies": http://www.brighthubeducation.com/classroom-management/3318-top-5-strategies-from-veteran-teacher/

Continuum of Responses
Lisa presents a difficult, but likely, problem that many teachers will face. I would address this issue by first going over specific behaviors are acceptable and unacceptable in the classroom during group work. I would lay out rules of respect and responsibility and print out a copy for each group to refer back to. I would encourage and model self-monitoring skills. I might also keep the students accountable for following these rules with some sort of behavior system, maybe marking a student's sheet when I notice them out of line, then giving them that sheet at the end of the day in a behavior folder. If these methods did not work and Lisa's behavior continued, I would speak with her privately to see why she has such an issue working in groups. I would take her response and try to modify the class activities in a way that best helps her.

2: motivation

Of all the motivational theories we discussed in class, I think I identify most with the Expectancy versus Value Theory.

This theory breaks motivation down into two parts:

     -Expectancy: "Can I do this?"

     -Value: "Why should I do this?"

After learning about this theory I realized that I use it quite often. In my fourth year of college, I've set expectations for myself and how I'd like to perform academically. I hope to do well in all of my classes and maintain or improve my grade point average. Getting As in previous classes influences my expectancy for other classes. For example, for the last 5 semesters I've earned all As and 1 A-. (Without fail that measly A- always sneaks in there.) This has become a standard for me (and sort of a jinx), so I expect to earn the same grades this semester. I think that this expectancy to succeed will boost my motivation to perform well in classes. Even though I'm in more demanding courses this semester, I expect to succeed, so this is even more helpful. 

I think that the value aspect of the theory is equally applicable to me as a student. Like I mentioned in class, junior year I decided to take a landscaping class. Identifying plants really has nothing to do with my major or career, but it is something I am genuinely interested in. I hiked to the Ag campus, never missed a class, studied for hours, and ended up spending more time on it than any of my other courses. By jiminy I knew those plants! (And I still do, Jasminum nudiflorum is blooming right now!) I was motivated by my own interest and desire to learn. That is also true for my education classes that I'm currently taking- Ed Psych, Elementary Ed, Special Ed. Unlike my 8:00 am political science course on international relations.. these topics are relevant to me and my future. 

In class we learned that you are likely to do well if you have expectancy for success and also value the task. The combination of my high expectations along with my value of the material will hopefully help motivate me to succeed!

I will keep this theory in mind when I am working as a teacher. First, I will need to try and set a level of expectation for, but more importantly within, my students. This deals with enhancing their self-efficacy, self-competence, self-determination, and self-worth. For value, I will need to help students find intrinsic motivation in our classroom tasks. This can also be done by improving the self-...s I listed above, but I think it would also help to make the material relevant and interesting to the students. One way I could do this is to provide options instead of one broad topic or assignment. (For reading, allow students to select a book based on their interest and choose a way to present it- poster, paper, journal, etc.) I think that allowing students to make choices and have some control over their learning would help them invest in it and find more meaning. 

When I googled "motivating young children" I found plenty of sites giving tips and advice, but this article was by far my favorite. I chose this article because it reflects many aspects I wrote about of the Expectancy versus Value theory, and it is interesting.It discusses connecting school learning to the real world, avoiding performance pressure, helping children feel competent, and giving children control over their work. 

http://www.highscope.org/file/NewsandInformation/ReSourceReprints/Motivated.pdf

1: reflection hopes and thoughts

The first day of class went beyond the typical name game and allowed us to share on a deeper level when we talked about why we want to be teachers. This created an open and honest environment that I hope will remain throughout the semester because I think that conversation is one of the best learning tools we have.

My main personal objective for this class (as well as my other education classes) is to learn how to be an effective teacher. I think that this course will be especially helpful because it focuses on things that apply to all kids of every age. I'm really looking forward to learning more about types of instruction, different learning styles and what works best with them, and classroom management. All of these things will help me to meet each of my student's needs once I'm a teacher. 

My concern for this class is that I will not be able to absorb all of the material presented to me. These topics are so crucial to being an effective teacher, but the depth and breadth of the textbook makes me a little worried that I won't be able to take it all in. BUT, I'm genuinely excited about this class and the fact that we are finally taking classes that are really talking about what to do as a teacher.

This has nothing to do with this post.. but I love it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wowJsEM7Blk