Group Differences

Differences and variety is what makes America, America.  Our society needs to realize that there will always be differences and challenges that will make us uncomfortable and question.  In our group differences forum, we brought up huge issues in today's educational system.  We have to realize that these issues are worldwide, not just what we battle here in America.  As teachers we need to address these cultural, learning, and social differences.  I believe that being outspoken and facing all of these issues is the answer.  It seems that our government wants to dance around and not directly attack or question the challenges that our school system faces.  There is no one fix-all remedy that will change the entire country.  However, individual states and even individual school systems need to set up a program that will counteract the negativity related with some of the differences and unfamiliarities that students face in school.  It is impossible to change the society as a whole but facing issues from the bottom up will slowly resolve the situations.  Students need to understand the different cultures, different learning disabilities, etc. in order to function in society much less school.  As a high school math teacher I will try my hardest to advocate change and will work hard to make a difference in my students' lives.

#9 Self-Regulation/Efficacy

In my high school cases study the students are not interested and are simply ready to graduate.  This situation is very realistic and will be faced by all of us teachers.  I would try to convince the students that they need to learn the information I am teaching and can use it in the future.  Of course saying that the information is valuable and proving is two different things.  In order to keep them on task and help them realize the importance, I will help them self-regulate.  This being one of the last classes they need prior to graduation will benefit my goals for them.  I will help them set out a series of goals for the class so they may get something from the class.  Otherwise, they will only coast through the class causing distractions and not learning.  If I can help them set realistic short-term goals, they will become more involved in the class and in turn will cause less disruption.  Trying to make the students understand the importance of the class for graduation will help them appreciate the achievement of completing high school.  By talking to them about finishing on a good note and tackling this class with enthusiasm, I will help raise their self-efficacy.  The sensation of graduating is one thing, but gradutating with a high GPA is a totally different sense of accomplishment. 

The following link leads to a discussion about the core strengths that are essential to life.  I think it is important fo us to realize that these concepts that we are portraying in our classrooms relate to everyday life.  If we can associate some of these ideas to outside of the classroom students may accept them more often and translate them into their classroom habits.

In my high school cases study the students are not interested and are simply ready to graduate.  This situation is very realistic and will be faced by all of us teachers.  I would try to convince the students that they need to learn the information I am teaching and can use it in the future.  Of course saying that the information is valuable and proving is two different things.  In order to keep them on task and help them realize the importance, I will help them self-regulate.  This being one of the last classes they need prior to graduation will benefit my goals for them.  I will help them set out a series of goals for the class so they may get something from the class.  Otherwise, they will only coast through the class causing distractions and not learning.  If I can help them set realistic short-term goals, they will become more involved in the class and in turn will cause less disruption.  Trying to make the students understand the importance of the class for graduation will help them appreciate the achievement of completing high school.  By talking to them about finishing on a good note and tackling this class with enthusiasm, I will help raise their self-efficacy.  The sensation of graduating is one thing, but graduating with a high GPA is a totally different sense of accomplishment. 

The following link leads to a discussion about the core strengths that are essential to life.  I think it is important for us to realize that the concepts that we are portraying in our classrooms relate to everyday life.  If we can associate some of these ideas to outside of the classroom students may accept them more often and translate them into their classroom habits.

Barb's Presentation

This presentation caught me off guard.  Going in I did not realize that Barb was non-verbal and has Tourette's.  I assumed she would be physically talking about her life and her book.  This obviously did not cause any issues because she was able to communicate through her I-pad.  This leads me into the use of facilitated communication.  For those who are not familiar with facilitated communication; "it is a process by which a person referred to as the "facilitator" supports the hand or arm of a communicatively impaired individual while using a keyboard or other devices with the aim of helping the individual to point and thereby to communicate" (Wikipedia).  The presenter that helped Barb was the "facilitator" as Barb used her I-pad to communicate to the audience.  At first, this seemed to be amazing; and it was interesting to see someone with autism an apraxia to use this technology.  After seeing facilitated communication first hand, I decided to do a little research about this practice.  The following article submitted by the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) discusses the intent and implications of facilitated communication.  FC has drawn skepticism and left me doubted after seeing and researching.  It was hard for me to understand how it could be possible for a person that does not speak or read to develop the capability to spell out words in a diverse vocabulary.  Barb seemed to understand what was going on and could actually type using the technology, but with the facilitator's help it seemed she was being led into what words to type.  The words that the facilitator wished to speak, not necessarily the words that Barb thought.  The support of a hand on the back was obviously helping Barb to regain focus and deal with her apraxia.  However, it seemed like her hand remained in the same position as the facilitator moved her to the necessary letters on the keyboard.  We were told that she is capable of typing emails and this method has allowed her to open the lines of communication to many people.  This I believe is her own words and thoughts.  Other words that I felt like was truly hers during the presentation were the constant announcement of "goodnight".  I know she has Tourette's, but to me 'goodnight' was what she was trying to tell everyone, she was tired and ready to go home.  I do not intend to take away with the possibility of someone with autism communicating and having their own thoughts.  It just seems outlandish that an 'aut' could develop answers to questions completely on her own.
     The presenter, forgive me for forgetting her name, talked about psychology and the expectations that are set for students and persons in general.  Her analogy of the rose and other types of flowers through testing seemed to be a little askew.  I agree that we hold students to norms, but these norms are created by using tests that are given to everyone, not some made up standards that cannot be met by most individuals.  She used the example of a rose being the "premier" flower with other types of flowers falling short and considered as lesser flowers that have issues.  These norm-referenced scores are calculated into a bell curve that is used to evaluate everyone.  However, the presenter made it seem like these tests had no validity or relevance.  I understand the complications with norms but it remains a standard way to assess, not a test that is pulled out of thin air.
   

#8

In this high school case study senior history students are uninterested and misbehaving.  Due to the time of the class and the age of the students they do not pay attention are causing a distraction to other class members.  Some students are paying attention and would like the opportunity to learn but this opportunity is being minimized by the disruptive students.  A behaviorist could tackle these issues in two different ways.  First, the disruptive students could be handled by administering punishment.  Because they are behaving in ways that need to be eliminated, the teacher could give more homework, take away fun things, or physically "call out" these students in the middle of class.  Another way of handling this situation is to address the students that are behaving properly.  You want to encourage their actions and hope that the other students will take notice of the treatment that the well-behaved students are receiving.  In order to reinforce the well-behaved students, you can present negative or positive reinforcements.  You can give these students less homework (negative reinforcement) or you can give a reward for their good behavior (positive reinforcement). 

The main difference between the way a behaviorist and a constructivist would handle this situation is addressing the behavior or addressing what is causing the behavior.  I would assume that a constructivist would attempt to get the entire classroom's attention by changing the instructional strategy.  The behavior must be addressed but not necessarily punished or reinforced.  Instead of calling out individuals, you could address the situation as a class and talk about what problems the misbehavior is causing and why it needs to change.  This website talks about different ways to address behavior issues in a classroom from a constructivist perspective.  It is important to realize the repercussions that may occur from always punishing bad behavior or always positively reinforcing good behavior.  Sometimes good and bad behaviors can be overlooked individually and the whole class can benefit from a group discussion.  I believe that constructivism will play a larger role in my classroom due to my level of expectations for my students.  I hope that my students will use the knowledge that I provide them and the things that they learn from the class to create their own ways of thinking and learning.  This will promote higher level thinking and help my students understand concepts within math.

Metacognition Lesson

The first thing I came across during a google search was this web page that leads to an activity a teacher did in her 2nd grade class.  I think this activity is amazing and could work at many different ages.  The activity described helped me come up with an activity that would be useful in my high school math class.  Sometimes math can be hard to understand, point blank.  However, I believe using different techniques and activities can help students relate to the material.  In a geometry class, I could use a meta cognitive activity to help the students understand.  A lower level geometry class would require students to be able to construct different polygons via angles.  I could start a lesson by reviewing angles with the students.  This will allow the students to question how much they remember about angles and if they need further explanation.  Once the angle review is completed, I would move into the actual lesson.  I would have the students construct different polygons using their knowledge of angles.  Hopefully, I would have access to different materials to have my students construct the shapes physically, rather than simply drawing.  This activity will require true understanding of the rules and laws associated with angles and shapes.  If the students do not fully understand, they will have trouble constructing more complex polygons, i.e. something other than a square or triangle.  However, the knowledge of triangles and squares can help them create a different object.  In essence, this activity will require constant use of meta cognitive skills.

#6

Skills are accumulating throughout each year a student learns math.  Everything in math builds on something that was previously taught.  In order for my students to truly learn mastery of the content, they have to master the basic skills and remember how to apply them.  Simple building blocks in math should be mastered at an early age in order to understand larger concepts in high school.  My job will be to reignite the information that the students may not remember from earlier years.  This includes simple things such as: order of operations, simplifying fractions, showing all work, etc.  These skills are necessary to carry over into higher mathematics and will prove worthy in mastering the content.  This blog discusses the importance of content mastery.  I realize this may not be the most credible source, but the information does seem to come from a high school teacher with quite a bit of experience.  She points out the significance of teachers' mastering content and being able to relay this knowledge to the classroom.