Nietzsche Statement

Nietzche statement: "When you know the way the how takes care of its self"

Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model of Development

Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model of Development:

Digital Nation

Today we watched a video in class called Digital Nation, which was about how we are living in a digital world now and children are growing up in it. People and students now multitask, because we have a lot of resources to do so. I think teachers need to try to adapt to this new phenomena and reality in our society. Our society has changed with new technologies, but our education system has not. I think children learn better if they find it interesting and fun. Therefore, teachers need to try to adapt their teaching styles to technology, because it will help students learn. If a teacher incorporates technology with the curriculum students will be more interested and not as distracted to use technology for non-educational uses. Teachers should try to teach students to use technology for educational benefits. That being said that kind of scares me. I want to be an elementary teacher but the way I want to teacher may have to change to meet the changes in our society. I know teaching is a career that you have to continually learn and grow in and that is what I will try to do to better my teaching, but it a lot to think about. Teachers and parents now have to monitor children more, because of technology and children’s “screen time”. I volunteered at Brownies in Girl Guides, which is 8-9 years old girls and one of the girls had a cell phone and she was only 8, so many children are getting cell phones and their own computers younger and younger. Parents and teachers have to be more aware about what their children are doing on the internet and with their cell phones, which can be hard. On the other hand children may get cell phones so busy parents can still be in contact with their children. I know a 10 year old boy who has a blackberry, because both of his parents work and are not home when he is home after school. Therefore, having a cell phone helps his parents be in contact with him at all times. On the other hand his cell phone could distract him from his school and homework. That is why teachers need to try to integrate student’s technology with the school curriculum.   

I grew up with internet and computers in my school and at home. I had a cell phone since I was 15 years old, so I think technology had influenced my life and my chonosystem, but not as much as some people. I also think that people younger than me and generations to come will be more influenced by digital technologies and teachers and parents will have to cope with it. It might be more difficult to discipline their children then it was years before.

Piaget and Vygotsky Theories

Piaget and Vygotsky`s theories are very different from each other. Piaget is more of an individual and cognitive constructivist, where Vygotsky is more of a social and relationship constructivist. Piaget focuses on stages of development, where Vygotsky does not have general stages of development. Vygotsky believes that education plays a powerful role for shaping thought. Where Piaget thinks education just refines the child`s cognitive skills that already have emerged.  Both of them believe that teachers are a facilitator and a guide for students not a director. They both think teacher are there to support the student, but Piaget thinks learning is more of an individual concept, whereas Vygotsky thinks learning is more of a social process, where students can learn with the teacher and more-skilled peers.

That being said I think I agree with Vygotsky more. I agree with Vygotsky`s view about learning is situated and collaborative. I think guided practice can be really beneficial for students as they can see their mistakes and the teacher can guide them to see their errs. On the other hand, I think Piaget`s four stages of cognitive development are good to see where students should be, but people should realize that students may not always fit into those exact stages. Therefore, I think Vygotsky`s theory complements Piaget`s theory. You can use Piaget`s theory to understand the development thinking of children, but then use Vygotsky`s ideas of scaffolding or zone of proximal development to help the students grow and learn in their studies.

I discussed before that ideas change and what we believe is true at one point in time could be viewed wrong at another point in time. Piaget`s theory may have been viewed as right at one point, but as educational psychology progresses we will have different views or we can expand someone`s idea. Piaget`s and Vygotsky`s ideas are not necessarily right or wrong it is just their view on what they believe.   

Picture of Jean Piaget

 A picture of Lev Vygotsky

Piaget’s Stages

Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete, and formal operations. I will explain each stage and also provide an example about the stage from my own development. Sensorimotor phase is when infants learn to differentiate themselves for objects and others, as they interact with the world through their senses and movements. An example of this stage through my own development is, I used to twist and play with my hair when I was tired this made my parents realize I was tired, even though I did not use my words to explain I needed a nap. Preoperational thought is when young children display an increased symbolic thinking by linking their world with words and images. I would pretend to make supper for my dad when I was young I applied my knowledge of language to use my imagination. Concrete operation is when children reason logically about concrete events and can classify objects in their world into different settings. I played house or Barbies but I understood it was not real and it was made up. I knew it was not reality. Formal operation is when adolescents are capable of reasoning more logically and in abstract and idealistic ways. I wanted to stay out later than my parents told me to come home is an example of formal operation as I knew the consequences if I stayed out later and I could reason out the pro and cons of the situation. I think people are able to go beyond Piaget’s last stage of cognitive development, as people are able to think into the far future. I think my knowledge has expanded beyond Piaget’s last stage as I can think into the far future and set goals and try to achieve those goals. I have a goal of being an elementary teacher. I set a goal and I am working hard to achieve that goal. It will take four years to complete that goal but I can still see myself in a classroom teaching young students. I also think about being married and having children but I do not want to do that right now. Those things are in the future but I am still able to think about them.  

This is a picture of me at age 5 going to my first day of kindergarten. According to Piaget I would be at the preoperational stage. I am beginning to think symbolically and able to think through language, but I am making decisions through intuition, as I am not able to fully think about the decision I am making. I am going through egocentrism, as I think everything is centered around me. I cannot comprehend that different people are experiencing something different than I am. I also probably have not attained conservation yet.

Why I Want To Be a Teacher

I always wanted to be a teacher ever since I was little. I liked helping children that are younger than me and as I grew up I worked and volunteered at many places in my community with kids. I volunteered at my church`s Vocation Bible School, play school, and Sunday school. I also was a Jr. Leader for the Spark`s and Brownie`s in Girl Guides and the Brownie`s Leader for one year. I also worked at the Recreation Department and the Boys and Girls Club in my home town in Rocky Mountain House. I enjoy all these jobs that I participated in and that encouraged me to be an elementary teacher. To help children succeed and improve is what I believe I was met to do and I feel very passionate about that. I want to be special needs teacher and I think that stems from my older brother being autistic and seeing the struggles my brother and my parents had to deal with in order to fight for his education. I want to make a difference in someone else`s life and education that they may not have otherwise.

I am very passionate and determined to be a teacher. I think I will be committed, and do the 7 professional skills and try to grow professionally. It kind of makes me mad when I hear people go into teaching because they get the summers off. I had teachers that were not passionate and you could tell the ones that just were there to get a pay check and the ones that were dedicated. I think some people that do not know what they want to do for a career decide to go into teaching because it is familiar to them, as they were a student and they know what a teacher does. I think this is the wrong reasons to become a teacher unless they become committed and grow professionally and try to do the 7 professional skills. I think teaching is a great career because it is not shift work, you get all the holidays off, and you get 2 months off in the summer, but I do not think these should be the main reasons to go into teaching. I think teachers should be passionate about what they are teaching and want the students to learn and succeed, as they “won’t buy what you do but they will buy why you do it”-Simon Sinek.

This is a picture of one of the Spark's units I helped at. I was a Jr. Leader for 2 years with the Spark's unit. I helped planned the meeting and helped the leader with anything she needed. I enjoyed it and I enjoyed getting to know the girls.
 








These 2 pictures are of my Brownie Unit. I had 15 energetic young girls ages 8-9 year old. I planned at the meetings, got all the materials that were needed, wrote newsletter for the parent and anything else that needed to be done. It was a lot of work, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Being a Wise Consumer of Information about EDPY

The video clip about Allison Cameron’s classroom was interesting. It was about a classroom full of high risk boys that were not doing very well in school. Cameron introduced exercise in her classroom and her students improved in their marks. There are many studies that say exercise improves people’s concentration, and metal health. There is now a study going on in Red Deer right now trying to prove this it is called “Move your Mood”. They get people to volunteer to go into middle school classrooms and do activities with them during lunch hour and see if their marks improve. I think this is something that we believe right now and I think it is true, but it was not believed before, because children were out playing all the time they didn’t have video games or TV so they were more active. We believe now that exercise improves student’s marks and concentration, but it may change in the future when we have more information that is why there are always studies taking place. Also something may work for one group of students but it may not work for another group of students.  

Effective Teaching in Action

Throughout my education the teachers that I really enjoyed were the ones that where dedicated, caring, respected me as a person, stayed after class to help me, and do extra activities that went beyond their job as a teacher, such as planning field trips for us. My grade 5 teacher was Mr. Long. I think he was a very effective teacher. He taught us in a way that was fun and in a way the class understood the class material, which showed he mastered the content. For example in grade 5 we had a medieval times unit and instead of just giving notes about it and watching a video about the medieval times we turned our classroom into a mini medieval times era and gave our school and other schools in our community little tours through “the medieval times”. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it and I also learned a lot. Mr. Long took extra time to plan this. Some of my friends and I went on a Saturday with him to paint some of the set. Here are 2 pictures of some of my grade 5 classmates and our medieval times set and our costumes:



The teachers that I thought were an effective teacher in high school were the ones that helped me learn the material, as it sometimes took me longer to understand the material. The teachers that would stay after school or during lunch hour to help me were seen as a great teacher to me. The ones that stayed after school or during lunch hour seemed to care about my grades and my success, as I was one of those students that had to work hard to do well, but I wanted to succeed. A teacher that respected their students, but also accepted respect in return is a great teacher in my eyes too. The 7 professional skills to be an effective teacher that were discussed in class were: instructional strategies, goal setting and instructional planning/lesson design, classroom management, motivational skills, communication skills, working effectively with students with culturally diverse backgrounds and technological skills. These 7 professional skills make sense to me how a person that does all of these would be a great teacher. However I think different students are going to identify with one teacher more than another, because of their personality types or what that student needs and what that teacher is willing to do and what they can do for that student. For instance, Mr. Long could be viewed as not a very good teacher to someone as he may have not done what that student needed to succeed.