IMPACT ON LEARNING

My curriculum mapping is used to see a direct correlation between my teaching strategies and the knowledge and understanding my students' gain. I use the standards to guide me in the skills my students need to master in order to move on to the next topic. My curriculum practice allows me to give students immediate feedback when needed. I have diversified the assessments so that every learning style is addressed. Deciding what is essential for my students to know and then determining how my students will demonstrate their understanding lets me create the best road map for the learning experience. I am able to give all my time to facilitating my students because I have already designed the process to which my students will be assessed and the skills needed. If a student has to change from one math teacher to another the curriculum's mapping allows this transition to be less stressful and the knowledge gain in one class can be carried to the next. My students are free to explore a topic from all directions. The Curriculum Mapping allows you to change skills as the lesson is being taught and the students demonstrate that they may need more or less time in a particular area.

Mastery of Program Competencies

My Curriculum Mapping shows that I have mastered Program Competencies: #2 teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students, #3 teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning and #4 teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience.

My artifact shows that I know my subject by the thoroughness and details contained in my curriculum. My essential questions are open ended and requires students to use their critical thinking skills. Every content is matched with a skill and the assessments are varied to meet the diversities of my students. The skills are incorporated so that my students will gain a complete knowledge of the topic. The various methods used to teach will allow all my students to gain mastery of the skill. My choices of assessments are diverse so that all learners have a chance to be successful.

The combination of worksheets, puzzles, exploratory group activities, individual assignments and technology shows that I have diversified my teaching strategies in order to manage my students' learning. I vary the types of assessment from formative to summative and traditional to authentic. I give immediate feedback. The class activities are student centered. All of these strategies show that I am monitoring student learning.

My curriculum is set up in a very detailed and orderly manner. Each essential question is matched with content, skill and assessment. The standards are also listed. The design of my curriculum mapping is well thought and informative. All the required information is readily available. My artifact shows that I think systematically and by reflecting at the end of the unit and making any necessary change shows that I am learning from the experience of my students and myself.

Don't Miss The Bus!

For our county, school for the students start Monday, August 10. As children prepare for school by picking out what they are going to wear for the first day, parents are smiling. They made it through another summer.

Teachers are in school making preparation and declaring that this is going to be a better year. Our rooms are clean, lesson plans are made, meetings are too long and the copier is broke. School as usual. Let us keep looking on the bright side. All our smiling students are on their way back to us. New outfits on and bookbags full of school supplies. Remember, we are forming the future!

The Five P's of Classroom Management
　
Powerful curriculum all planned and ready to go - meaningful, useful, relevant, with opportunities to be creative and emotional

Prerequisites are in place - teacher and students are in relationship with each other, as are students with students

Parameters are clear at all times - general and specific ground rules, procedures, and directions

Participation is expected and nurtured - students are actively engaged and on task; direct instruction provides for student involvement

Positive attitude - teacher models a positive mental attitude towards students and classroom activities

Classroom Management: A Positive Approach
http://www.todaysteacher.com/ClassroomManagement.htm

To Scaffold or not to Scaffold

To scaffold or not to scaffold... That is the question. If we want to be effective and have all our students learn we must use diversity in our teaching strategies.

According to a definition in Thesaurus : "Scaffolding is a temporary arrangement erected around a building for convenience of workers." Let us be that temporary arrangement around our students and remember that:
"Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or in the same way."...George Evans. I borrowed this quote from Alberta Wandell's blog.

So teachers, let the SCAFFOLDING begin.

The Three Evils.....

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil,


This is an old adage that I was brought up on. We still see the pictures of the little monkeys covering their ears, eyes , and mouth.

Let's look at another old adage for teaching. This saying is perfect for the kinesthetic learner.

I HEAR AND I FORGET

I SEE AND I REMEMBER

I DO AND I UNDERSTAND

When we are making plans for the upcoming school year let's keep this saying in mind. (: This was probably one of the basis for authentic assessment:)

A Teacher's Motto

“The Teacher’s Motto”

As school starts back, budget cuts have given us furlough days, our class size may increase, we no longer get the $100 to buy supplies for our students and classrooms. We must remember why we became teachers.

“A hundred years from now, some things won’t matter; how much money was in my bank account, the size of the house in which I lived, or the kind of car I drove around…but the world may be a better place because I was important in the life of a child.”

author unknown
http://www.behavioradvisor.com/oldindex.html

Cobb Performance Learning Center

Cobb Performance Learning Center

What is the Cobb Performance Learning Center? It is an alternative high school in Cobb County where Success in the only option. The Performance Learning Center none as PLC has been in existence in Cobb County for 3 years. There are other PLC's throughout Georgia and now in Pennsylvania and other states.

Usually when someone says alternative school you think of discipline problems. In our school that is not the case. Our School consist of 75 students at one time 15 maximum per classroom. These students feed into us from all the Cobb County High School. Our student body is made up of those students who have dropped out or are on the verge of dropping out because of family situations, boredom, being bullied etc.

To be admitted the students and parents must fill out an application which can be obtained online. Once this application is completed along with references from their home school an interview is made. Once the child and their parent or guardian are interviewed the admissions committee discuss the candidate. If they are accepted they start the next mini-mester. If they are not accepted they will receive a letter stating why their application was denied and suggestions to what they can do and then reapply.

All applicants take a competency skills test because our school does not have the traditional set up. All students must be self motivated. We are student centered and our teachers are facilitators.

Our classes consist of 20 %-50% nova net instructions, individual and group projects, and offline assignments. We have job shadowing, mentor ship and other activities. The students are allowed to attend their home school functions. They take their exit exams with us and when they graduate their diploma will come from their home school.

If you would like more information on our program you can call the school at 678-331-1098.

Opening the Door to Learning

In toady's classroom we as teachers must always be aware of ways to integrate technology into our classrooms. Our students are so Internet savvy and we must become that way also. In order to keep our students positive about learning we must include technology whenever we can.

At my school, Cobb Performance Learning Center, in Marietta, Georgia we not only are changing with technology we are also being Eco friendly. There is a paper shortage all around and we don't need to cut down any unnecessary trees. We have decided to put part of our course online in Rcampus. It is a free website where you can have an online class. Activity sheets can be loaded, Internet searches can be done and the students get a free eportfolio. The teachers get a website. You should check this out.

I am in the process of updating my website, so when you get a chance check me out at www.beamath.1faculty.com

Psychology Perspectives on Learning

Beatrice Washington

Rachel Lawrence

The four major Perspectives of Learning that we are going to discuss are Behaviorist Perspective, Cognitivist Perspective, Constructivist Perspective and Social Psychological Perspective. We will also discuss what their implications are in learning.

Behaviorist Perspective

B. F. Skinner was a proponent of the behaviorist perspective. He believed if you rewarded desired response you could shape one's behavior. Skinner also believed that voluntary beharior such as learning new skills was not just regurgitation. His work helped to develop computer-assisted instruction which has many uses in today's classroom. Skinner's approach to behavior was very logical and precise and this helped to improved the learning of basic skills. The drawback to his work is that it relied only on observable behavior and therefore it could only be used on the basic and simple learning task. Skinner's scientific approach to observation shows that behaviorism has limited applications in teaching higher-level skills.

Cognitivist Prospective

Cognitivism is based on work by Jean Peaget (1977). "Cognitivism deals with how people think, solve problems and make decisions" (Smaldino, S., Lowther, D., & Russell, J., 2008). Unlike behaviorist, cognitivist makes a mental picture of information. This information is stored in a short-term memory spot and as new information is gather and rehearsed the cognitivist adds the rehearsed portion to the short-term memory that it already has. A new spot is created for the information that does not fit. Once the short term memory is fully rehearsed it is then stored as long-term memory and the process repeats itself and learning takes place. Since short-term memory and long-term memory keep evolving, learners take information and skills in the long-term memory and develop new cognitive strategies for dealing with complex task. Therefore higher-level skills are being developed. Cognitivist prospective has a wider realm of learning than that of the behaviorist prospective. Students are able to be more self reliant and a teacher then becomes a facilitator.

Constructivism Prospective

The overall means of constructivism is that children are able to create a coherent system of knowledge based on their interactions with the world. "This perspective considers the engagement of students in meaningful experiences as the essence of experimental learning" (Smaldino, S., Lowther, D., & Russell, J., 2008). The constructivist perspective on learning allows students to relate problem solving techniques along with discovery. Learners can create their own interpretations of given information. "The emphasis on the constructivist perspective is on learning through action. While action refers to mental action, young children are most active mentally when they are physically engaged in figuring out how to do something" (Constructivist perspective, 2002). In order to teach with this method, students should be provided with ways to assemble knowledge, rather than merely basic facts. The ultimate goal of this perspective is to allow students to base their learning on their own use of knowledge to facilitate their thinking in real life.

Social-Psychological Perspective

The social-psychological perspective suggests looking at the organization of the classroom on learning. Within this approach, it is beneficial for students to use cooperative learning so that they can more socially benefit through competitive and individualistic learning. Some cooperative learning techniques include small-group collaboration, learner-controlled instruction, and rewards for group achievement. Through teaching with this approach, students can relate to one another and benefit socially through learning.

Resources:

Smaldino, S., Lowther, D., & Russell, j. (2008). Insturctional technology and media for learning. Columbus: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.

(220) Constructivist perspective. University of Kansas Inclusion Project. Http://www.circleofinclusion.org/english/approaches/kamii.html