Cognitivism in Practice

This week, we explored two instructional strategies,“Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers” and “Summarizing and Note Taking.” The concept mapping with the use of Inspiration and Kidspiration really help the students see how the ideas are connected. They can literally follow the arrows follow the flow chart. Having this sort of visual reference, instead of just reading text. "Instruction should be well-organized. Well-organized materials easier to learn and to remember." Smith, M. K. (1999) Having the materials organized in such a manner that the students can be lead through the lesson is a must when dealing with 8 and 9 year old children. The idea of combination notes, providing a visual image to correspond to and cue a written concept allows the brain to process the information in multiple ways to help trigger recall of the information. I am surely going to use this when introducing my 2nd and 3rd graders to Powerpoint. I think that these are skills they will build on as they progress to the middle grades.

Smith, M. K. (1999) 'The cognitive orientation to learning', the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/learning-cognitive, Last update: September 03, 2009.

In this week's resources, behaviorist theory is explored in two areas. Reinforcing effort is discussed as way to show the students there is a “connection between effort and achievement” (Pitler, 2007, p.156)that can be tracked with a spreadsheet. The program we use in the computer lab called Education City, automatically tracks the effort, progress and outcomes for each class. These can be downloaded to an Exel spreadsheet to give to the classroom teacher. They can see the students’ progress or lack of progress, which can be used to keep a record for remediation plans for school based problem solving and potential student referrals. I automatically reward my students with stickers for achieving 100% correct in any given Education City activity. I also give them stickers for effort based on these spreadsheets that show improvement over time.
As far as the other aspect discussed in the text, homework and practice, I only use practice since not all of my students have computer access outside of my lab. We also use www.starfall.com to practice vowel sounds and reading, like Mrs. Metz’s class (Pitler, 2007, p.196) does in the example from the text. After practicing with their vowel sounds in the Learn to Read section, they also practice using the Key Skills program which rewards positive outcomes with virtual stickers that the students accumulate throughout the year. This can be printed up and given to them at the end of the year. The little ones really enjoy getting these rewards and counting them each time we use the software. This program also tracks their progress over time and shows their percentages for each skill set.
I feel that using these aspects of behaviorist theory helps build a foundation for the Primary grade student use in more creative projects in the Computer Lab.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

2010

2010 is off to a flying start. I am not quite sure if the flight will arrive on schedule or not, it's hard to tell these days, but I am optimistic. We started a writing project today just to get used to using Microsoft Word, a chat room and moving between applications. It is a bit ambitious, but it will give me a good sense of the students who will take this to the next level and the ones that need a bit more help, encouragement and mentoring.

Another Step Towards 2.0

Today Education City, a web-based resource that we subscribe to at Falconer, launched their "Live Play" feature in the Math section. I had to give it a test run, so a couple of my classes tested it. It allows our students to participate in a virtual race that they can win by knowing their math facts. They compete on-line with other schools around the country that subscribe to the program. They get to choose an avatar for themselves and are randomly put up against other students on-line either in their class or from other schools. The children really seemed to enjoy it once they got the hang of entering their answers. I hope it is well received by my other classes.

Integrating Technology - Reflection

When I began this course I did so with great anticipation and apprehension. The anticipation was due to the fact that we were finally getting into some technology applications. The apprehension was due to the very same. Blogs, wikis and podcasts were not familiar territory for me. I had blogged a few times before and am a frequent user of Facebook, but felt a little intimidated about posting for my peers.

I will say that the experience of using these web 2.0 skills has been very rewarding. It has opened up a new perspective for me as to how these “digital natives” learn new skills. I started watching them more closely as I implemented some collaborative chats into my lessons. I noticed their eagerness to help one another with their new found skills and most of them were eager to contribute to the discussion, even if it was just a few brief words. This has definitely made me shift my focus to student centered learning. I want to see what other capabilities the technology that I already have access to in my lab I can utilize to further this goal.

I would like to continue exploring blogs, wikis and podcasts as part of my curriculum and also share some of the ideas with my colleagues through after-school Professional Development training. We already have a blogging workshop set to take place in the next few weeks. I feel that the more teachers on my staff that get comfortable using Web 2.0 technologies, the more we will be able to set up collaborative projects across the curriculum and grade levels. This is one of the goals that I would like to have come to fruition in the next couple of years. As my current students progress with the technology and move on to the middle grade computer lab, they will be able to help my future classes adapt to this technology more easily.

I feel that if I can get the students accustomed to working on projects using the chat room or blog set-up that the administration will see the benefits and lift some of the current restrictions. The older students are being given access to the system-wide e-mail service “First Class” and I think that by preparing the younger students for that  forum in the safety of “in house” chat that they will have the know how to use these communication skills effectively.

Podcast At Last

Here's the link to my 1st podcast (many technical glitches were involved in creating this podcast) which finally uploaded successfully. I am going to see if it can be linked to our school's server next week.

Time flies & bees & beetles...

We were having such a productive time today creating webs of insect facts for the 1st grade that half my classes went beyond the 40 minute time slot. The students were focused and trying their best to sound out words they were writing in their sentences. I find that the most important thing at that age is learning how to use the space bar when typing sentences so they don't read, "abutterflyeetsflowers"or "unamariposacomeflores".