New Teacher Panel

So today we had three current teachers come join us in class today. They talked about the perks of working in a small school which I found interesting however, I think I would rather work in a bigger school. I grew up in a bigger school and the idea of everyone knowing everyone is a little scary to me. Also, from the class and school I was at for jterm I realized that the students then know how to work off of each other and are better at distracting the teacher or getting things the way they want. Of course, if I was offered a job in a small school I would definitly take it. One thing they mentioned I did not know about was the primary license. I figured you would be licensed and that would be that. 

Another topic we talked about was the use of technology. In the schools now, all of the older kids have personal laptops, all the kids have cellphones and they use these for everything. I found it interesting that the teachers were complaining about the kids using computers instead of dictionaries or playing with toys, but they did not just tell the kids they could not use it. I think it is very important that kids know how to function without electronics because the internet does not always work. If I were the teachers, I would say that they can not use computers unless I say otherwise. Also, I think there might be a correlation between the lack in hands on learning and the amount of computer usage. The teachers were saying that they use computers so much more and that they did not have time for hands on activities. However, they did not make the connection that the lack of hands on learning was because of all the use of computers. I would use the computer less and use hands on learning a little more. This way all types of learners are being benefited. 

However, they gave a lot of good advice that I will have to make sure to remember. They said to make sure to observe classroom management more, observe as many grades as possible and to volunteer and work with kids as much as possible. I am really glad I have already done that a little bit, but I will make sure to save time for more of it in the future. 

Paper Clips

So, I mentioned in my last blog about a movie called Paper Clips. In this movie, a school in Whitwell, Tennesse started an after school project to learn about the holocaust. The whole paper clip idea came when someone wanted to know how much 6 million people was. So the teachers had the students come up with something they can collect 6 million of, so the kids choose paper clips. Along with collecting paper clips they also learned about the holocaust and had visiting speakers who had surved the holocaust tell their stories. Overall, I think that this project was very useful to teach the students about prejudism and the teachers emphasised how a lot of people have predjudist view points. However, the documentary did not talk about what the students learned outside of the basics of what happened and the predjudists. I would have liked to see maybe a little more historical information. I also would have liked to see them connect these violent acts to other violent acts, maybe even some that we as Americans did to others. Of course, the video did not tell us everything they learned, so it is possible that they did tell the kids this information. However, overall I think it is a great idea and that it is obvious that it did have an impact on some of these children. 

My First Blog Entry

Hello!

Welcome to my blog for Educational Psychology. So far I am really enjoying this class. We are learning a lot already about the psychological aspects of education. Today we learned about child development and the different viewpoints there are about how and what effects a child's development. There is the very controversal and well known idea of nature versus nurture, however there is also continuity versus discontinuity and early versus late experiences. 

In this class we also watched the film "Paper Clips" which is a documentary about a school in Whitwell, Tennesse that did a project to learn about the holocaust. It was actually interesting because this week at the Decorah Area Middle School they were having a underground railroad activity. In this activity, students that were learning about slavery all became fugitive slaves for the day. They had to go around all day without laughing, smiling or talking to get signatures from teachers. The teachers were all secretly either friend or foe. If the students got three friend signatures they were set free, however if they got three foe signatures they got sent to one teachers room to become slaves again. I think that it is really important to be creative and be able to make the topic come alive for students, especially with history because it is so long ago that its hard to relate to modern day. Well that is all for today. Hope you enjoyed my blog entry and that you come back for more information on how my class is going.