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