Personal Theory of Learning Reflection

In my personal theory of learning paper I discussed that I primarily use a more of a social constructivism approach. “Social constructivism was well articulated by Lev Vyogotsky and Albert Bandura. In this view, learning is considered a result of collaboration of a group of learners in effort to construct a common core of knowledge” (Duffy & McDonald, 2008). Throughout the course I have learned that each student learns different. Therefore I must adjust to different kinds of practices that include constructivism, constructionism, and behaviorism. A modification I would like to make is to have class more engaging for the students. The units should include lessons with more cooperative games and teamwork.

I think the one thing that is lacking in physical education is the use of technology outside of the classroom. Our classroom is quite different because our primarily goal is to keep kids active during class time. I think by incorporating technology homework assignments students will learn more about health and nutrition. The immediate adjustments I want incorporate in this year unit is the use of Blogs, Voice threads, and Virtual Tours. The students do not have enough time in our daily classroom routine to learn about all the health and fitness topics. Students can access their blog from home and discuss certain topics and questions that I have assigned. This will help students be more aware of living a healthier lifestyle. Voice threads are great, because this engages students in talking about a certain topic. This is also very engaging which will capture the minds of young children.

One long term goal I would like to accomplish is to develop a program which technology is more part of the classroom. Students and educators will develop the necessary skills to maintain a healthier lifestyle. Information is important, but it’s how you relay that information that makes it worth while. Working together with classroom teachers to help the students develop the necessary skills to use blogs, voice threads, and virtual tours will help every classroom.

Another long term goal is educating other teachers about using technology in the classroom. Educators whose teaching styles are “old –traditional method” tend to stay away from technology. We as colleagues have to address the importance of using technology in today’s classrooms. Educators have to adapt to society to incorporate a more engaging curriculum. Having a demonstration to each teacher personally how technology can enhance the students learning experience will have more a effect on the teacher using that technology in the classroom.

Reference:

Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations (Laureate Education, Inc.,custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Voice Thread

Here is a link to my Voice thread promoting how to have a healthy heart


http://voicethread.com/share/1261926/

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

I believe that cooperative learning is very important when it comes to student interaction. Unfortunately with so many students in all the classes it is hard to really meet other people. In specials the students in the various classes are mixed. This gives a great opportunity for other students to meet each other. But students tend to stick with others that they know. I try to incorporate many activities that involve cooperative games and team building. In the chapter Cooperate learning it describes “ five basic components: 1. Positive interdependence ( sink or swim together) This strategy involves students working together if they succeed then the whole group will, but if not than everyone will be unsuccessful. 2. Face to Face, promotive interaction. ( helping each other to learn, applauding efforts and success) When students cheer on their group members giving positive support is extremely important in building team work. 3. Individivual and group accountability- Each student must contribute for the team to be successful. The slacking members will not help the team succeed. 4. Interpersonal and small group skills. Communication, trust, leadership, decision making, and conflict resolution) this is the most important one. Being able to communicate with your group members working together to achieve a goal. 5. Group processing (reflecting on how well the team is functioning and how to function even better). It’s good to ask questions after the activities to see what the students thought they could do better, or what things that was difficult for their group to achieve the goal (Pitler, 2007).

Voice thread is an interesting way to learn about a particular object. The voice thread orientation discussed how it worked. I found it very interesting about the mother in the photo with her children. She was reflecting on what was happening on the day the photograph was taken. Then each child gave their account on what they were thinking. This is a great tool for students to learn about a subject but even families to know more about their heritage.

Instructional strategies and social learning theories correlate together when collaborating with other members in a group to come to a solution. Many different strategies that help students learn especially involving activities built around social learning theories. Cooperative games are a way to incorporate student involvement to achieve a goal.

Constructivism in practice

Both constructivist and contructionist have similar theories. When I think of contructivist it reminds of piaget of thinking cognitive and social interaction. Then contructivist reminds of Vygotsky of thinking of critical reflection. In physical education there is plenty of social interaction. I like having my students work with different partners every class. This way the same people are not grouped with their friends all the time. It makes students work with someone they might not normally talk to. I believe that positive social interaction in class benefits the students tremendously. One way to promote social interaction throughout the year is the use of cooperative games. These activities are meant for the students to problem solve and work together. At the younger level it tends to be much harder for them. Some of the cooperative games that I use are setup in stations. There are various activities that have students thinking and working together to complete the task. In the reading there are six tasks that teachers can use to help students generate and test hypotheses. Three that I like for cooperative games activity include “problem solving, experimental inquiry, and decision making (Pitler, pg 203).” One of the tasks that the students are asked to accomplish is having multiple students stand on a 10x8 sheet of plastic. The object is for the students to turn the sheet over on the other side without stepping of the plastic. This is very hard for some groups of students. But this way the students are social interacting, problem solving, and decision making. They are working together to accomplish a task. Teachers need to create learning environments so that learner can be involved in the lesson. There are several instructional strategies that include direct instruction, indirect instruction, experimental learning, Independent study, and Interactive instruction. I believe that interactive instruction makes learning more enjoyable for students. By having them more involved in the learning process they will retain the information more.

Cognitive Learning Theory

In the reading in this week’s text we explored two different instructional strategies. The strategies included “cues, questions, and advance organizers” and “summarizing and note taking (Pitler, 2007).” The cognitive theory is based on many different theories that revolve around auditory and visual learning, The learner is like a computer processing information, and that students learn from each other from demonstrations and visual modeling. The instructional strategies described in chapter 4 talked about cues, questions, and advanced organizers. In physical education, cues are very important for students to learn the concept. Cues are related to the cognitive learning theory because it modeling a visual in the students minds of what is expected. For instance when describing a certain skill it is helpful to give the students some sort of cue to remember. When describing catching a football, if the ball is above your waist your pointer finger and thumbs together forming a “diamond”. If the football is thrown below your waist your hands will be closer together forming “pinky’s touching.” These forms are demonstrated visually multiple times so students can grasp the concept. Many students tend to ask questions, I feel that answering the questions is important. The more time you take to demonstrate and answer questions will make the quality of learning in the lesson greater.
The one thing that I found frustrating was taking notes. Especially when you didn’t know what was expected on the test. Most of your time was spent taking notes not really paying attention to what was really being taught. In the chapter “summarizing and note taking” it talks about more efficient ways to take notes. One recommendation that I found useful was “give students teacher-prepared notes (Pitler, pg 120).” I like being straight to the point and having my students know what I’m looking for. This eliminates time spent trying to find the answer or what is expected. They can study the notes off the sheet that was given to them. I think mapping is a great way for students to learn. Since most of the time students are in activity it is hard for me to have students take notes. This is their time to be moving around getting some activity in building up their Heart Rate. Therefore giving students notes of what is expected on the quizzes helps me and them understand what concepts I’m looking for them to learn.

Behaviorism In Practice

The two strategies that are talked about in this week’s reading included.“Reinforcing Effort” and “Homework and Practice.” The behaviorist method has to do with reinforcing desirable behaviors. In the reading about reinforcing effort it discusses about teaching students about the importance of effort and have them keep track of their achievement. I see many problems with that scenario. One having students understand how to use an excel spreadsheet, and actually have them keep track of their achievement. The students that do not have problems learning this is a great idea. But the students that have difficulty believing that effort pays off, this theory will not work very well. I understand the point of it showing hard data to show how they excelled. But frankly this will be difficult for students who are not giving the effort to begin with.
“Homework and Practice” is the other strategy that relates to the behaviorist learning theory of repetition of the task. Homework is assigned for practice to make the student understand the concept after repetitions. Math was a difficult subject for me to comprehend. When I would receive homework it would involve repeating the skills. This method made me feel comfortable understanding the problem. But when the problem would change slightly it would throw me off because it was different. One of the recommendations explained “design a practice assignment that focus on specific elements of a complex skill or process (Pitler, 2007).” By breaking down the problem it is making it easier for the student to succeed.
Both of these strategies correlate with behaviorism because it is using a method of learning by using rewards. In this case the reward is keeping track of your grades through spreadsheets and word processing applications. At the end you get to see how well you have achieved throughout the course.

Reflecting on technology in the classroom

I was not familiar with blogs or wikis when I started this course. It seemed that when people spoke about these I had an idea, but that was about it. During this course we learned how to create our own blog, Create a Wiki, and various other technological ideas that can be used in the classroom. Creating these blogs was quite interesting to hear feedback about a certain issue or blog that I addressed. I find that blogs are a great way to involve participation that can not be done in class. The Wiki was a great example of how students can be placed in groups to create their own for a classroom project. As a physical education teacher students and parents will always question why we are learning this in P.E. Today’s P.E is quite different than previous years where we grew up. Our focus is to introduce students to a healthy lifestyle by incorporating different activities that they can use for a lifespan approach to utilizing physical fitness. Technology in the classroom for P.E is a bit tougher to apply than a general ed classroom. But we have included pedometers, simulation exercise bikes, and Wii’s.

There are a few ways I plan to continue to expand technology to increase student achievement. We use pedometers for our classes regularly. I find that students tend to work harder and move much more when using these pedometers. This is because we tell them to reach certain levels of step. Most of them want to be the best so they try to reach the highest goal. I am devising a lesson which will include using pedometers and a blog for each class. This blog will consist of posting their steps for a week. Each student will record their steps for the day than comment each day about how many steps they did, what kind of activities they did to reach those steps, and what they ate for their nutritional value. This will give the students an idea how calorie intake and weight management work. Students will also have to comment on other student’s blog to keep participation. Each student will have access to our computer lab during the school day where they can log their information if they do not have a computer outside of class.

My long term goals include devising a unit strictly on integrating technology into Physical Education. Blogs, wikis, Technology for physical fitness including GPS orienteering, Simulation Bikes, Pedometer Week where the whole school try’s to reach a certain amount of steps to have a healthy heart. I will develop a technology unit strictly using electronic devices that will aid in physical fitness in the classroom. I will introduce to my faculty the importance of a healthy heart by developing a pedometer healthy step week. This would be a great addition to our school to have students be aware of rewards for exercising regularly. By having the whole school involved it would increase the knowledge of students and faculty to be healthy and active.

Podcast

Here is a link to my podcast that I created. This is my first time working with Podcasts.

http://podcastmachine.com/podcasts/4480/episodes/20270

Partnership For 21st Century Skills

I think this is a great website for promoting the importance of science and technology. Ken Kay the president of P21 talks about he importance of incorporating together the 3 R’s but along with the 4 C’s which include Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity. Our society is lacking in educated Math and Science employees. We really need to inform children about skills that they can use in daily life. I feel we are not meeting those standards in classrooms around the U.S.

The information that I found interesting is the support from local businesses, community and government leaders. By having all this support from your community your desire to succeed has increased. “Since its inception in 2002, P21 has more than quadrupled its membership, growing from eight founding organizations to 39 members representing America’s leading business, technology and education organizations. Our work has been endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education.”

I think the framework may have to be revised but overall I think this is a great way to incorporate students to learn more about technology. I know of a program that is similar, RIT a technology school in N.Y. uses local business and government to help their students get co-op/ internships at various employers. By doing so students can get an experience how of the real world works including a paycheck. Most students who are in this program get a job after their program with this company.

I think my students would benefit from incorporating the 4 C’s into their curriculum. By having students use critical thinking, collaborating together for group projects. The use of communication is important in any aspect of life. Being creative has to be a strong focus, since I think students do not get the opportunity to be creative more in the classroom. I think I can be a better educator to incorporate certain materials involving p21 into my pedagogy.

Purpose of a BLog in a Classroom?

My content is physical education, it is a little bit different than other classes. Some people feel that physical education is just about running around playing games. Well that is not true, these students are developing gross motor skills, incorporating math, science, other classes into our activities. They are also learning how to follow directions, and work together cooperatively. But the main objective is to get these students involved in some sort of physical activity that they can use in their life outside of physical education class. lately we have been getting ready for the Fitnessgram, it assesses pushups, situps, pacer etc. By creating a Blog students can talk about various ways they have been trying to implemente physical activity in their lives outside of class. Students can talk about skills they are doing to become better in basketball during our unit or just talking about getting together to play a game. A blog gets students talking about that subject, since students these days use alot of technology. I believe students can also comment on how you can make your lesson better as en educator. I give out exit slips and surveys frequently to my students so i can read their feedback on how i can be a better educator. My grade level is k-8 physical education.

How Does Technology Help Students in P.E

For quite some time educators have been trying to incorporate technology into the Physical Education Curriculum. With the advancement of computers and gaming technology it is now possible to have students incorporate activities like Dance Dance Revolution into school activities. Do you think Technology in the classroom has and impact reducing child obesity?