Group Differences Forum

It's been a crazy ride and now it's all over.  The group differences forum was a great way to end the class time.  I think it's important to talk about our differences and find some understanding in how diverse we all really are.  Some of our differences are in our control and some of them are not.  Understanding our differences and the differences of our students will enable all of us to be better teachers and better people.  I always believed that you have to start teaching children from where they are at the moment they walk into your classroom.  Getting to know my students and where they come from and how they live will enable me to teach with a different perspective and adjust my teaching to meet their needs.  I enjoyed hearing the different opinions and realized even more how different we all are and how many varied backgrounds we had sitting in one class.  Each of us comes to the table with different experiences and none of us knows what we will experience down the road.  Teaching and learning with an open mind will allow me to accept people's differences and maybe learn something too.

How do I learn and how do I want to teach?

I wasn't sure when we started the summer session exactly what type of learning theory I would possess.  After seeing and doing projects, I know for sure that I am truly a constructivist mixed some social cognitive approaches.  I think this is part of the reason why I like science.  Hands on labs and activities, visual aids, demonstrations followed by student interactions are all the ways I want students to learn.  I love the concept Piaget describes when we create knowledge rather than absorb knowledge.  I don't know how many lectures or classes that I have taken when my mind drifts off and I am thinking about all the things I need to do when this class is over.  I have to ask, am I learning?  No, I am not learning and I don't want to learn or teach that way.  I was nervous with the public speaking aspect of my teaching project (which I know will get better with time and practice), but I was intensely confident in the presentation and activities.  I knew that the activities would represent the material and make the information more authentic and relatable.  Working in small groups and in a collaborative setting are also things that I would have the students participate in doing.  The social cognitive aspect of my learning and teaching practice would have to be shown in the modeling and self regulating aspects.  Again, much of science can be modeled by presenting demonstrations, showing videos, and working together in groups on projects.  Self regulation is important in any learning situation.  The ability to responsibly participate in a lab activity, collect data, analyze the data, create a report that summarizes the data all require self regulation.  I believe this is something that can be taught, modeled, and learned.

A good example of this type of learning that I have experienced is with my own science classes at UT.  I had to take a Geology class and I loved my astronomy class so much that I decided to take planetary geology.  With this class, we had to attend a lab once a week.  Each lab was an activity that re-emphasized what we were learning in lecture.  When it came to taking the test, much of what I drew on to answer the questions were based on the hands on lab.  How do you actually visualize a planet thousands of years away from us and be expected to think about and discuss the material and planetary environment?  The lab brought these aspects down to smaller parts and put them in a relatable learning environment.  Sticking with astronomy, I also experienced another way for me to learn that confirms my constructivist learning style.  We could do extra credit if we wanted to earn points to be added to our final grade.  I decided that I was going to write a children's book about a star that started at the sun and was trying to find his way home.  The star had to talk to each planet and learn facts about  each planet as he continued through the solar system.  I learned more about the planets and was able to retain more information when it came to taking the test.  My initial reason for doing the extra credit was to get extra points, but I learned more without realizing that is what I was doing at the time.  I want my classroom to be colorful, and fun, and active!

Creating a classroom learning environment

I know it is imperative that I maintain a classroom where all of my students can learn, feel supported and safe, and still enjoy the learning process.  Because I am more of a constructive learner and I know my teaching style will follow this pattern, I need to really put in place classroom expectations, rules and regulations, and consequences if not followed.  The science classroom is a perfect environment to have hands on activities, movement and participation in experiments both indoors and outdoors, and student discussion.  This type of classroom environment also creates the perfect opportunity for misbehavior and lack of self regulation.  I want to the students to feel like they are a part of the classroom and that they contribute to the classroom in both the success as a whole and as an individual.  Let's say we are participating in an activity and there is one person who appears to be getting out of control.  They are loud, not working on task with their group, and causing their group frustration.  My first approach to taking control of the situation would be to ask that the student consider the classroom expectations and rules and regulations and respond whether or not they are abiding by them.  I would ask the student to offer me the infractions he was imposing during this activity and what the consequences will be if he doesn't get back on task.  At that point, we could continue with our activity.  The next intervention level would be to follow through with the appropriate consequence based on the rules stated for the classroom for that particular rule violation.  If this did not work and the situation continued or escalated, I would have to determine the severity of the behavior and either send the student to the office, pull him away from the group for a period of time and try to reintroduce him back to the group still following through with the consequence from before.  I want them to be able to come back to the group.  I think that sometimes we punish the behavior, take them away from the class or group, and they feel like they are in a place where now it doesn't matter how I act because I messed up and it's over anyway.  There has to be a consequence, but I think you can still give the consequence and have the student come back to the group to finish the activity as long as the behavior changes.

Motivation and Teaching: Kristen Nuchols

Motivation is at the heart of anything we could endeavor to do, to become, to believe.  I have always been challenged myself to maintain motivation in all things and I believe the reason may be perspective.  Over the course of my life and with the additional experiences, I have developed a different perspective than the one that I had as a child.  I have to ask myself, why did my perspective change as I got older?  Why do I care more about the learning aspect than the grade, like I did when I was a kid?  Why did I think that learning wasn't fun when I was younger?  Don't get me wrong, I loved school but what I loved was the social aspect, and the work and the grades were just a necessity.  I knew I wanted to go to college, but I had no clue what I wanted to do.  I have to look at my own situation when I think about how I might motivate my future students.  There are so many different things that motivate children.  There are so many different things that children perceive are important.

I think that a foundation for establishing motivation has to start with a humanistic outlook.  Maslow's hierarchy of needs establishes the factors that are necessary to establish a homeostasis required to begin the learning process.  Knowing these needs, allows me as a teacher to know what must be met before I can expect learning to begin.  A student that has not had their basic needs met will not be able to take advantage of the lesson and ideas being offered and may look at them from a different perspective.  As I said previously, perspective can easily change why children are motivated or not to learn.  As a teacher, I can try to ensure those basic needs are met such as food, water shelter through different resources and collaborative opportunities.  Through understanding about every one's need to feel accepted and feel confident about who they are and what they are capable of accomplishing, I think motivation can be created once basic needs are met.  I have an idea about who I am as a teacher only in that I want to adapt as much as possible to the students and situations in my classroom.  I believe individuals require different motivation.  The activities I plan to use and the teaching style I plan to use are all consistent with a piece of each motivational tool and theory.  Some students are goal oriented, some need reward and punishment, some need to satisfy their extrinsic need to get good grades, and others just enjoy the act of learning.  I truly believe that you can create a lesson, activity, attitude, assessment plan, etc. that will encompass the needs of most.

I have personally experienced this in teaching swim lessons.  Many students just want to swim and they want to learn.  Some just want to get it over and get out, but they know that at the end of the lesson they get a lollipop, so they keep going.  Some of them just want to know that they are doing good and that you believe in them. Many of my students require a different teaching style and  I adapt according to this situation.  I think I can use a multitude of theories to establish a teaching method that will enable my students to learn and want to learn.

Kristen Nuchols Blog #1

The idea of teaching seemed so far off from what I thought I wanted to become when I was younger.  I watched my dad my entire life teach high school physical education, coach football and baseball, become the high school athletic director and finally an elementary school principal.  I always knew something about what he did was special, but it appeared to me at the time, uneventful.  As I have grown older, have had children of my own, gained many life experiences, and have collaborated with my own children's teachers, I now truly understand the meaning and role of the professional teacher.  I know this is the path I was supposed to find and travel. When I reflect back on our first class discussion about why each of us wants to teach, it is incredible how varied each of our responses are to the question.  We get into teaching for a variety of reasons, but our ultimate goal is always to make a difference in the life of a child and evoke excitement and motivation to learn our content area and to nurture their desire for lifetime learning.  I saw this motivational clip on YouTube and thought it said perfectly what it is in my heart and mind:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1tN1U0uu2e4. 

Just as there are varying reasons for individuals to choose teaching, there are a variety of teaching styles and student learning styles.  I want my methodology to be based on discovery and inquiry learning.  I want to learn how to better incorporate this type of teaching into my lesson plan and ensure I am meeting the needs of the differing learning styles.  I understand that there are many factors that contribute to how a child learns and to what degree the child will have strengths and weaknesses in certain areas.  With that being said, I would like to reference the idea of differentiation of instruction.  This idea calls for me, as the teacher, to meet the student where they are.  This concept calls for the teacher to learn where the student's strengths and weaknesses lie and adapt and accept them to help each student learn and grow (Powell, 2011, p. 204).  My ultimate goal in this class, is to understand the way children think and learn and use this knowledge to incorporate these concepts into my lesson and activity.  I want a cooperative, hands on, and fun learning environment that reaches everybody.  I believe this class will enable me to better myself in these areas so I can be a successful teacher.

Powell, S. (2011). The Eighth Chapter. Introduction to Middle School (p. 204). Massachusetts:  Pearson Education, Inc.