PLE #3

When wondering if teaching was what I really wanted to do, I looked a lot at how I could fully invest in my students and have them see and feel that they are smart and can give back a lot to society. How as a teacher could I do that productively? One way that I know will help is building an environment that fosters encouragement from not only myself but the students that interact with each other. Modeling, I believe, is one of the most powerful models of teaching. I always looked to my teachers as role models. I also looked at them for praise. When I felt encouraged, I felt accomplished and smart.
As a pre-intern getting my feet wet in various ways such as being active in various elementary school through my cohort and also by working in an after school program, I see the impact of praise. Praise builds confidence and I believe that when students feel confident in their work it helps them from breaking down others confidence. When I do not feel confident in my work, I like to compare people and when someone is doing better than myself I like to tear them down. Whether it is in my head or outloud, the act of tearing someone down has an odd way of making your problems seem more irrelevant and not as bad as someone else.Erikson shows the importance of confidence in students' ability to learn in his stage theories. With elementary students, they are going through Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt. PBS display this theory well by saying
"Erikson said that children who are deprived of the opportunity to establish independence and autonomy may become oppressed with feelings of shame and self-doubt, which later result in losing self-esteem and being defiant"(PBS).
As an educator,  I wish to have the students obtain this sense of independence and knowing that they are able to be successful in school.
I digress by saying that with all of that being said, I hope to foster an environment that displays uplifting praises and congratulations when someone is on task or able to do an activity and a kind "You can do it! Try again!" when I feel like they are not confident in their progress. So, as a teacher, I will model this in my best ability by showing the kids what it looks like to be uplifting in their groups that they are placed in or in the classroom as a whole.

Develop a full continuum of responses for dealing with the misbehavior of your case.    

In my scenario, a student named Lisa is placed in a group with others who, as a teacher, I notice not working well together or seem to be understanding the material. For the most part, I notice that Lisa is the problem and gets angry if she doesn't get what she wants and also refuses to do her part. She also continuously interrupts others in her group and does not pay attention when her group prepares for class.

 As a teacher, I would begin by fully explaining the exercise that they are about to do. I will make sure that I explain it in detail so that they may not begin the exercise already confused as to what to do.

Along with that, I might see if swapping up the groups every two weeks would help with the bickering. If the kids are not with the same people for four weeks then that might help alleviate the problems.  With that, I will make sure I see which students work best with others and try to place students who focus more in a group with others that do not focus as much to make the other students desire to learn, too. This will also help with her talking too much because the other team members may not respond as likely as people in the other group. 

If there is still bickering and fighting, I will pull Lisa aside and see what the problem is. I will not do it in front of people but make sure that she knows that I want to really know that I am there to help her and help foster a productive learning environment.    

||PBS||

Motivation

I have been extremely fortunate for the past few months to be able to work at an after school program. I have nineteen first and second graders (eleven boys and eight girls) and luckily I also have a co-teacher. Even though I do not assign homework to these particular students, I do expect them to behave properly and respect their peers. Since it is a fun after school program, one issue that I continuously run into is their desire or motivation to listen during bible lessons or behave during organized events throughout the day like snack, bible, chapel, or free play. How do you keep a child motivated and on task when there are not any tasks for them to really do besides listen to the teachers, pay attention at bible, and respect your peers? I know this is a question that I continuously ask myself and my co-teacher.
This past week, my co-teacher and I implemented an extrinsic reward system for the children. It is similar to the model that was used at the camp I worked at the previous summer. This summer, I worked at a church camp that worked with inner city children at the Boys and Girls Club of East Texas. We were trained on how to disciple, teach, and love correctly and we talked a lot about extrinsic motivation. At camp, we used methods like the 5 to 1 ratio which is where if you were disciplining or telling them what they could improve on, you would say five positive statements like "I really appreciate you standing in line correctly", "That you so much for not talking in the halls!", etc. and then saying at the end state what the child needs to work on for that particular day.
Another way that I have used this method in my class at the after school program is by praising all the kids who are sitting correctly in the class instead of calling out one child who is not sitting correctly. As the slides state:
 

self-development: seeing accomplishments (praise from teacher), specific praise helped you want to go deeper

 This definition of self-development helps the students as a whole begin to grasp what sitting correctly in the hallways, keeping their hands to themselves, being attentive in bible or chapel, or even sitting correctly in their chairs during snack actually look like. By using this form of extrinsic motivation, the children are able to say "okay, so Ms. Watson appreciates it when we are quiet in the hallways and usually says something if we are sitting down and patiently doing what we are told". Through this, the children are learning great skills while also being praised. 

This type of motivation does not only need to be used to an after school or camp setting. It can also be effective in other settings such as the classrooms when you are trying to get the children to pay attention to you while you are teaching and instead of calling a student out of getting others in trouble, you instead show kids what it should look like in the classroom by praising the students who are sitting quietly and listening. 

After seeing extrinsic motivation play out in my after school and camp settings and also seeing the positive effects of it through educational psychology, I now know that it is something I am going implement in my classroom.  

 

First Class Reflection

The first Educational Psychology class went really well for me. I was expecting the class to be modeled like my Educational Psychology class that I took my Junior year, but I was very relieved and surprised about the class. I am extremely excited to be in class with people in various majors other than elementary education such as interpreting. This will add to discussion and help me understand more about the interpreting field.
As far as the actual classes are concerned, I am very excited about the material that will be covered. When we had to sign the sheet saying what classes in particular we are interested in, I was really excited about some of the topics. In particular, I love Erikson's Stage Theories. I had a class that used that theory very well in describing how it should be related to elementary school and other grade levels. I will be interested to see what Educational Psychology has to say about it, too.
Personally, I will like to leave this class with a better grasp on how my psychology background can help in the education realm. I have already seen some ways that it helps to have psychology background but I am very excited to further my scope of how it could help.