Technology in the Classroom

Digital cameras can really be a great addition in a classroom. I used them in math, writing, social studies…you name it. One activity I did with students in math was to have them take pictures with a partner of different shapes (octagons, squares, pentagons, etc.) then we printed them out as each group finished up. They used their pictures to write the properties of the shapes they found, and categorized them with other groups. There are tons of things that you can probably do with cameras and glogs too! (To learn about glogs, refer to: http://well0221.blogspot.com/2010/07/blogs-in-my-classroom.html)

What kind of person do I want to be?

Self-reflection is a skill, and it takes time and effort to obtain. I want to share a program that I used with my fifth-grade class, (and can be used throughout elementary school) to work on the question “What kind of person do I want to be?” was called PassageWorks. The program can be found here: http://passageworks.org/.

“PassageWorks provides educators and school leaders a practical, relationship-centered approach to transforming the culture of classrooms, schools and districts. For over two decades PassageWorks’ practices, principles, and tools have been used to foster student engagement, resilience, social and emotional intelligence and academic success. By supporting the inner lives of teachers and students, the PassageWorks model integrates cognitive and human development to create meaningful and effective classrooms.” ~The PassageWorks Institute

Fundamental Attribution Error

I wanted to share a video that I saw on eHow, which introduces a theory called the fundamental attribution error. This extends the attribution theory both inside and outside of the classroom. It relates to the way that people assign characteristics to others in our daily lives (including the way that a teacher might assign a characteristic to a student). Here is the link if anyone would like to watch, but I’ll also summarize the main points (http://www.ehow.com/video_4756534_what-fundamental-attribution-error.html).

The fundamental attribution error states that the way we look at ourselves and the world plays an important role in how we look at other’s behaviors. If we are happy and fun loving, we will see others in a positive light; if we are depressed or sad, we will see those same characteristics in others. The main idea of this theory states that people tend to overestimate internal characteristics in others, and underestimate outside influences that might play a role in behaviors.

The way that I can relate this to my future teaching experiences, is to remember that what I see in a child’s actions at school (internal cues) is not encompassing everything that might be going on in his home life (external cues). I might think that a student is purposefully being rude to me or ignoring my requests, and attribute this to an internal characteristic such as laziness; but, without knowing if he is getting enough sleep, or if his parents are going through a divorce, I should not relate his actions completely to cues that I see as internalized.

Attribution Theory

In education, attribution explains how beliefs of causes and outcomes effect expectations and behavior, with the four main factors for success and failure being ability, effort, difficulty and luck. This theory is much more complex than my brief description, but in a nutshell, it explains how and why some children see themselves as successful while others see themselves as failures. The most crucial factor in learning, and highly influential in attribution theory, is the interaction between teacher and student. As a classroom teacher, this is the aspect of the theory that is most relevant to my life. If teachers foster self-confidence, learning oriented behaviors and intrinsic motivation in students they will help develop the positive aspects of attribution.

When I reflect on my teaching I know that I need practice with providing attributional feedback to my students, and I will also make it a point to teach how to develop adaptive attributions. Motivation for Achievement provides many affective strategies for doing this, suggesting that teachers focus on supporting the recognition of effort over innate abilities. Recognizing the positive and negative results from productive effort vs. unproductive effort help students attribute their successes and failures to an attribute that they can control (effort) instead of one that is fixed and uncontrollable (ability).

Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!

"Mandatory viewing, especially if you’re thinking at all about education and how badly we’re failing the generations of students now in school." - TED.com

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html

This is a great video about how technology is, or should be, changing education. It is about 17 minutes long, but definitely worth the time!

....it's informative and he has a great sense of humor.

A Vision of K-12 Students Today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8

The way that humans are gathering, processing and storing knowledge is rapidly changing. This shift in learning poses many challenges to current educational systems. Students are "plugged in" 24/7 and as educators we need to keep our activities up to speed with their worlds if our goal is to keep students engaged, and motivated, throughout the day. We also need to continually educate ourselves with the newest technologies so that we know what our students have access to, and can utilize, outside of school.

I want to start off my blog by saying hi to everyone taking Human Motivation!