Learning Evolution

Learning is such a complex process. This semester I have come to terms with the idea that learning is a complicated process that should always be evaluated (the process that is) and modified for success. At the beginning of this school year, the administration at our school asked each department to design common assessments based on core objectives. This process was suppose to really improve teaching and make learning objectives very clear to students and teachers.

While I think it is great to spell out learning objectives for students and teachers, this does not equate to good teaching. As the year has moved on, I realized that actual learning is so much more than spelling out objectives, teaching material and evaluating based on those objectives. This approach is pretty behaviorist and in my opinion, that is the least effective and lasting method of teaching and learning.

I really like the cognitive theories that we discussed in class. Back to my school, we are going to be so much more successful if we are building schema and capitalizing on background knowledge that the students already have. Students will retain much more information if they have knowledge to attach it to. Cognitive teaching methods are so important to the learning process.

We can’t forget about constructivist theories when discussing learning. Learning is messy and sometimes there will be failure and sometimes cognitive conflict must be created in order to retain and really understand information. Students must be given authentic opportunities to learn and demonstrate their knowledge. With these opportunities, students will value their understanding and knowledge of classroom material. As Vygotsky promoted, learners must be stretched beyond their perceived capabilities in order to achieve lasting learning.

Thinking about all of these learning theories in the context of my school and my classroom makes me realize a few things about how my thinking has evolved over the semester. There will never be one right way to teach every student. Teachers must constantly study and find the best teaching practices and the best methods in order to reach all students. I must dabble in all of the learning theories once in a while. Positive reinforcement and cognitive apprenticeship can really benefit many of my students when used at the right times. Above all, I as a teacher can never stop learning. I should always investigate new ways of teaching, presenting, motivating and creating understanding in my classroom.

Week of November 23

Learning, learning, learning. . . . . I can really see the value of social constructivism and the theory we studied this week. Last year I was doing observations in various media centers and I saw such a great example of this theory in action. I was at Washington High which is the alternative school in Ogden. Students who attend this school have been through disciplinary action at other schools, have family circumstances that haven't allowed them to attend traditional schools, or have drug abuse issues. With students who have such diverse backgrounds and needs, it would be so easy for the teachers in this school to throw busy work at these students. The teachers don't do this though. Students have projects that they work on as a group. When I visited in November, students were just finishing a Veterans Day project. Students went to a nursing home and presented a Veterans Day program. Students in English classes wrote and researched topics to write speeches. Students in social studies classes wrote newspaper articles about various time periods in war. FACS classes sewed individual pillows to give to Veterans at the program. Students were incredibly motivated to take on these huge tasks. The tasks were above their ability and comfort level, but with the help and support of the teachers and classmates, they were able to make great things happen.

Learning is effectuated by teacher vision. Teachers must have the foresight to understand that no two classes will be the same. Students need different levels of support and challenge. When teachers have appropriate vision, students can achieve well beyond original expectations.

Week of November 16

I really liked Bruner's ideas and I think that they are very applicable to learning. The idea of spiral learning is very powerful. Spiral learning takes place in our classrooms, but also from year to year. I have taught so many students who have really benefitted from previous teachers and the concepts taught in those classes. It would be so great to coordinate with teachers of different grade levels to plan a scope and sequence. Our district use to devote an entire day for teachers to get together and make such plans. With budget cuts in the last few years, we don't have a day to gather and plan in subject areas across various age groups. I'm really disappointed that we don't have time to plan and coordinate curriculum; I think that students could really benefit from this planning and sequencing.

Learning can best be effectuated by spiral learning. Students learn best when they have the opportunity to build on prior knowledge and learning. Teachers can act as a catalyst of learning by coordinating with previous learning and curriculum.

Week of November 9

The readings this week really made me think about learning in my classroom. I really like the idea of authentic activities and I try to utilize those activities as much as possible in my classroom. In the past my students have published picture books for elementary students at different schools, written letters to parents and administrators and created poetry books to help other classes understand the elements of poetry. I think that students learn so much more when they are actually "doing" the subject matter. I do think that sometimes it is scary for a teacher to plan such activities. Last year my students made picture books for students in an elementary school. I was really stressed with the results of the product. It's one thing for my students to fail in the context of my classroom, but when a student fails to produce a great picture book, or a picture book at all, the elementary students suffer. Cognitive apprenticeships are great for students, but sometimes I think they can also be more stressful for teachers.

In order to effectuate learning, teachers need to step out of the classroom, take chances, and realize that learning is messy. Cognitive apprenticeships may be complicated and challenging, but the student learning is powerful and lasting.

Week of November 2

There is so much going on in my mind this week: case based learning, 25% of my students with swine flu, the end of the quarter, and thoughts of APA documentation style. When I stop to think about learning, I think about synthesis. I don't think that true learning can really take place until you stop and think about, reflect and ponder that learning. With so many new teaching ideas, responsibilities and mandates, I don't know if I have my students stop and reflect and evaluate their learning as much as I should. I think that when you reflect about learning and really think about what you have learned and how you will use it, you are more likely to value that learning and continue to build on it. My students really need time to reflect on learning because sometimes they don't see the big picture. They don't know why it's important to do independent reading, learn new vocabulary and make meaning out of text. Whole class reflection is very beneficial. I need to make more time for this in my classroom. The day before Halloween is not a great time for reflection, so I'll try it during the first part of November.

Learning can best be effectuated by setting time aside to think about and reflect on the things that we are learning and how they will be helpful in the future. This time could be 5 minutes of class time or 20 minutes of individual journaling time or anything in between.

Week of October 19

I really enjoyed the readings this week concerning motivation. I really think that motivation is one of the most important parts on the classroom. The readings this week focused on how students ask for help and how teachers can help students ask for help. I think that before we even think about that, teacher enthusiasm should be taken into consideration. If a teacher is not enthusiastic and does not care about the content, students sense that and become apathetic to the content taught in the classroom. I remember the first year I taught. I taught texts that were available and texts that other teachers taught and had success with. I was so fortunate; I had the best mentor teacher ever (literally, she became the Utah Teacher of the Year a few years later). I thought that everything was in place for me to have a great year. That year, I tried to teach pieces of literature that I didn’t love. I think that really came through to the students. I didn’t feel a lot of success with some of the units that I tried. I was frustrated because my mentor teacher loved those pieces of literature and it seemed that her students did too. The next year, I was able to order my own set of books. I chose a book that I loved, that filled the curriculum standards and that I felt I could teach in an impactful way. That really changed everything. I could look at my kids and say “I love this book and I think that there is a lot that we can learn by reading it together.” That enthusiasm changed my classroom that year. Since that experience, I try to get enthused about everything I teach. Sometimes we are mandated to teach certain curriculum that doesn’t excite us, but we can put our own stamp on it and add our own personality.

So I guess I think that learning can best be effectuated by really motivating students with our enthusiasm. If students see that we love the things we teach, they will be more motivated to learn.

Week of October 8 What is Learning?

This week I’ve been thinking about learning according to schema and of course Piaget’s developmental stages, but I’ve also been thinking about my own classroom and my school. When I am asked “What is learning” I have to say that student motivation is a huge key. I work in an amazing school and I work with wonderful teachers. I can’t help but think that some of the success I see in the classrooms of my fellow teachers comes from the motivation that these students feel when they enter the classroom. The classroom environment makes such a huge impact on student learning. If students feel like they are valued and cared for, they will do anything for a teacher. I just wonder if we will talk about that in class. My faculty has been working on positive reinforcement and specifically sending home two positive postcards a week. Teachers choose any two students in class and send home a postcard telling parents about a positive thing that happened with the student that week. This has been very powerful and there has been great feedback from parents and students. I think that when students get one of these postcards, their motivation goes up and they are willing to try that much harder in class. So is there a theorist that has done research on this, or should I start my research process so I can make millions of dollars selling books with my findings?

I think that one of the best ways to effectuate learning is to try to get to know students. (Of course everyone in my Masters classes understands this because I’ve seen your lesson plans and I know that you are amazing teachers.) Students need to know that a teacher cares about them. They also need to know that the teacher cares about them enough to put a foot down when they are out of control. So, there are my thoughts about learning and effectuating learning for this week.

Week 6--What Is Learning?

I've been thinking a lot about background knowledge and schema this week. I love these concepts and I really try to use a lot of background knowledge in my lessons. The thing I've really been thinking about this week is the fact that there is such a discrepency in background knowledge among some of my students. I have many students who are well-read upon entering my class and they are ready for so much literature and so many challenging pieces. I have other students who don't read at all and reading for enjoyment is so foreign to them. Sometimes it seems hard to bridge the gap because there is such a difference in background knowledge and schema. I imagine that teachers in science, history, math, art, music and all other subjects run into this problem in their content area.

I think that the best way to effectuate learning when background knowledge is so different is to include a huge base of background information. In our classroom study of Shakespeare, we do a lot of background set up before we start to read Romeo and Juliet. We do basic research activities that discuss who Shakespeare was and why he was important in history. We study cultures and traditions of the time. I know that some of my students know about some of these things, I just hope that the knowledge base is broad enough that all students are learning something and have a schema for when we start to read.

Week 5--What is learning

What is learning? Well, with all of the study we’ve done over the past few weeks, I’m still trying to figure out my theory of learning. I do know this—people all learn differently. This is always demonstrated at the first of the school year. I give assignments to my students and I would really LOVE to tell them how to do each step, how to schedule their time and what not to do. I can’t really do that though, I have to let them learn and work at their own pace. It is like fingernails scratching against a chalkboard when I hear students talking about they have to “get started” on the paper that is due the next day. What happened to the two weeks I’ve given you to write the paper and the great nuggets of learning I’ve given you along the way? Ironically the students who wait until the last minute often produce some of the best material. So, the bottom line is that I can teach ideas, materials and skills, but I can’t dictate how the kids use those skills.

The best way to effectuate learning is to do what we are doing right now. Since so many people use skills and ideas in different ways, we need to understand many theories of learning. When we have so many theories in our teaching toolbox, we will be more likely to reach a greater number of students.

What is Learning Week 3

Our study of Functional Behavior Analysis this week really made sense to me and helped me add some new theories to my beliefs about learning. I really grasped on to the idea that we must find the cause of the breakdown in behavior or the breakdown in learning. Once we find the cause for this breakdown, we can try to remedy this problem and THEN reward students for the positive things that they do. This idea really spoke to me because I think that there are so many reasons learning can break down or behavior can break down. If we find the cause and fix it, deeper learning takes place. I really thought that Skinner's ideas last week were good, but I couldn't help feeling that it was like putting a Band Aid on the problem. If we reward students during one class for their learning, how likely are they to carry that over to the next class. On the other hand, if we find the very place that learning is breaking down, I think that correction is more likely to make a permenant impact on students.

Teachers can effectuate learning by getting to the root of the problem or the breakdown. Sometimes this is a quick process and can be taken care of in a few seconds. For example, every year I teach my 9th grade students about using strong verbs in writing. Every year I have a few students who don't know how to identify a verb. I take a few seconds and explain the definition of a verb and then these students are ready to go (until next year in 10th grade when they tell their teacher that they don't know what a verb is :). Sometimes getting to the root of the problem takes a longer process. Right now my department is working on making common assessments at each grade level. We are designing 4 common assessments to give to the students throughout the school year. We have teaching objectives for each quarter and throughout the year, we test the students to see if they have learned what we are trying to teach. This process is long, but I think it will be worth it in the end. So to make this long blog entry even longer, I think that teachers can effectuate learning by constantly evaluating students. This can be a formal common assessment or it may just be trying to fix the blank looks that we get from students during a lesson. I think that this type of learning will last a lot longer than exclusive reinforcement.

What is Learning Week 2

This week we studied Skinner's behaviorism theories and I read a lot of intelligent blog posts about learning from my classmates. I don't think that my definition of learning has changed, but I think that there are a few more things that I can add to my original definition. I believe that learning MUST be attached to some prior knowledge. This is so crucial especially for younger students. Just today I was teaching a lesson about writing in one of my English classes. We were talking about "writing" in very broad terms, both narrative and expository. We started talking about the act of writing recipes in the foods class. One girl raised her hand and said, "I just don't understand how you can make a recipe into a story. That doesn't make sense." I thought that was a strange comment and when we finally got to the bottom of it, this girl had no prior knowledge of "writing" in the expository sense. She had always defined "writing" as creating poems and stories. It took just a second to go back and give these students some prior knowledge of writing in all forms.

I especially appreciated the idea of prior knowledge when I did the readings about Skinner’s theories. An emphasis soley on external behavior seems one-dimensional to me. Of course students need positive and negative reinforcement, but I think that there should be a balance. I appreciate Skinner's theories, but above all, I’m looking forward to reviewing all learning theories so that I can use a balance of these in my classroom.

What is Learning Part 1

Learning is so much more than understanding. I think that learning is understanding plus being able to transfer that knowledge or skill into another situation. For example, in my English class, it's great when students can learn to identify and explain a theme in The Odyssey. I know that learning has occurred when students can take that same skill and identify and explain a theme from Romeo and Juliet. Real learning can be applied or transferred into multiple situations.

As a teacher I can effectuate learning by giving my students plenty of examples as opposed to expecting students to generate successful results from the beginning. Successful learning doesn't just happen all of a sudden; successful learning has to be scaffolded and guided. For example, I must give my students examples of themes in many pieces of literature. I must teach student that simply coming up with a simple truth in a piece of literature is not enough. That is a starting point that must be explained and defended. I need to walk students through this process using multiple pieces of literature. Once we do these steps, it is much more likely that students have learned to identify and explain a theme because they have done the steps in various situations. At that point, I must make sure that we discuss that learning at different times throughout the class so they can stay sharp and keep that learning.

One Last Thing About Learning 2.0

I've really enjoyed learning about new technology in the Learning 2.0 exercises. The best thing about this activity is that I'm able to make evaluations about which technology will be great for my classroom and which technology will just cause more headaches. I really like the extensive view of Learning 2.0. I have learned about many different resources from great websites to extensive generators. I feel that since I've been exposed to so much technology, I'm able to better assess what will work for my students. For example, I know that Wikis and junior high students don't mix. However, Wordle and junior high students do work very well together. I'm really excited to go back through the Learning 2.0 program and make lists of the items I want to further study.

Wordle Again

Here is another Wordle creation. My students are going to love this!!

Wonderful Wordle

This week I learned about Wordle. I really love this program and I'm excited to use it in my classroom. I made a quick word cloud of quotes from Romeo and Juliet. I'm so excited to use Wordle with this unit. I think that I will try to do a different word cloud each day based on the events in the play we will be covering that day. Then the students can make predictions about how these words will come into play. This is a really exciting tool and I'm so glad that someone smart was able to develop it.

You Tube Videos

I've been looking at YouTube a lot lately because I've been scanning for any remotely educational videos I can use on a new project I have at school. Here are a few that I really like.

New Music Website

Thanks again to my Instructional Technology classes, I was able to find a new great website. I was able to spend a lot of time looking at http://www.last.fm/ today. I'm a big R.E.M. fan and so I loved looking at the older pictures and watching some of the newer videos.

I think I'll spend a lot of time on this website. So many times my students will tell me about a new band and now I can just come to this site and see exactly what they are talking about. I can read about the band and watch some of the videos from YouTube.

RSS Saved My Relationship with Dave Barry

I'll admit it, I love Dave Barry. I don't know of many other newspaper columns that come close to the witty humor that is so flawlessly delivered by Dave. I was in a state of mourning when his column was unceremoniously snatched from my local paper. My Instructional Technology classes came to my rescue again!!

I learned about RSS feeds this week. Since I'm too lazy to keep up with Dave Barry each week on his website, I can follow his writing through bloglines.com. This is a site that allows a user to bookmark many sites and have the newest material from those sites listed in one spot. I'm really excited to keep up on blogs, recipe sites, and Language Arts content sites.

Technorati and Del.icio.us

Technorati and Del.icio.us are tools that guide me through the opinions of other people.

Technorati is a site that allows the user to search blogs. A blog is really just someone's opinion and so Technorati helps me find what other people think about a specific subject. This is great for social purposes, but I'm still trying to find the application to academic pursuits. Why would I want my students to search blogs for information when they could search reputable sources?

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site that allows me to look up information according to tags that people have "tagged" information with. As I looked up information, I found many interesting items, I'm just not sure that these items are worth precious classroom time.

So, this week I was pretty unimpressed with my ability to use my imagination and see how these sites could be useful in my classroom or a library. I'm hoping that my classmates can help me think of useful ideas.

Rollyo

Rollyo is a tool for teachers. This allows me to customize a search engine to include specific sites to be searched. Today is cold, so I customized a search engine that would only search travel sites. When I did a search, I quickly found some amazing pictures of Cancun.

This will actually be very helpful to me when I start a research unit with my students. We do a research unit that involves traveling and I can narrow the searches to the sites I want the students to scour. On second thought, I may just link students to our classroom blog and post web sites of interest there. Technology gives me so many options.

Thanks again Inst Tech!!!

Big Huge Labs

Here is just another example of what you can do with that wacky tool we call the Internet. This helps me remember Reuben's trip to the fire station this summer. He did cry when he saw a man with a mullet, but I believe he came away a stronger boy.




You can click on the image to get a clear view.

Skype

Tonight was a great night. Reuben and my mom were able to talk face to face using Skype. I'm so thankful for this great service that allows my son to communicate with my mother. If not for this type of technology, my mother may never get the full explanation of Thomas the Train's buffers and steampipe. I'm really excited to keep in touch with all kinds of people this way.

Andy and Reuben

Who knew that things like this could be done?

Week 4 Continued

So, I'm couldn't figure out how to post my blog site on the Learning 2.0 recommended site, so I just made my own Wiki. You can find it here: http://amyislearning.pbwiki.com/

I'm not sure that I did this right and I realized that Wikis don't look like blogs. My Wiki doesn't look great, but the information is there. Maybe one of my awesome classmates will add an edit to this Wiki.

Week 4--Wiki-What??

So I admit, I've only really had one experience with a Wiki. On an amazing episode of The Office, Michael Scott is trying to negotiate his salary and he has no idea how to go about doing such a complex task. He goes to Wikipedia and finds information. This information would probably be useful to anyone except Michael. He uses much of the information incorrectly and manages to try salary negotiation while wearing a woman's pantsuit.

If The Office can use Wikis, I can too. I really didn't have any idea about a Wiki, but I've liked what I see. I really think that Wikis could be really useful to people who are in the same large workplace. Company policies, memos and announcements could be posted and reworked at this location. Of course in a library, there are endless possiblities. Students could add or edit information about book lists, or they could even make their own book lists and descriptions on a Wiki. I really enjoyed looking at The Book Lovers Wiki. Wikis like this are really appealing and easy to read. The Wiki that dealt with the ALA conference would be really helpful to people attending that conference. Wikis allow many people to get information posted without the bother of e-mail delivery problems.

Week 3 Photo Sites

I had no idea that so many photo sharing sites existed. I love using Shutterfly and Snapfish, but I didn't know about Flickr, Mappr, or Montagr. These sites are so amazing. I used Flickr to make the slide show of Reuben on the left of this page. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I actually had to go on another blog and find directions about how to make a slideshow. Then I had to copy the html code to my blog. The hard part was adjusting the html code to make the slideshow fit in the narrow space on my blog. I'm so grateful for the help sites on blogger that tell me how to do these things.

I'm actually really excited to see Mappr. I've been using Google Earth with my classes a lot this year. We read a lot of world stories and it's nice to find those on a map and then click on pictures that actual images of these new places. My students love it. I am trying to think of ways to integrate Mappr with the concepts I have used from Google Earth. I'm excited to keep exploring and clicking until things work out the way I want.

I found this picture on Flickr. I love this site because people take much better pictures than I ever do. This is Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. It is one of my favorite places to be in San Francisco, but I could never caputre it like this photographer did.

Seven and A Half Steps to Lifelong Learning

This slideshow really made me think about the process of learning. I think that I'm probably the best at using technology to my advantage. I love to discover new technology that will help me and my students. Usually when I master this technology and give it to my students, they already know about it and don't need much training.

The hardest step for me is viewing problems as challenges. I like to "get" things right away. When I don't, I tend to give up on them. This slideshow motivated me to think about the challenges I face in learning and overcome those challenges.