Life is like riding a bicycle; To keep balance, you must keep moving.

The stress of the semester has officially set in. I am overwhelmed with papers, projects, fieldwork and classwork assignments. On top of that I am still attempting to maintain a job and social life. Most of the time I feel like I am completely unbalanced. I either spend too much time on work and not enough time enjoying myself or taking time to do things for me, or I am spending too much time having fun and not dedicating enough time to my studies. I am working every day to try to incorporate an hour or so of fun into my day, that way I don't feel the need to spend the entire weekend away from my work. Balance, balance, balance. I WILL FIND MY BALANCE.

Monday 9/30/13:

During today's class, we participated in a treasure hunt about cooperative learning. We accessed a site that allows teachers to create a treasure hunt using QR codes.

The QR codes allow technologies (like the iPhone) to scan the code. Each code coincided with a question about cooperative learning. 

Our group was divided into the manager, recorder, time keeper, researcher and presenter. The manager would check to make sure that all questions were answered and answered completely. The recorder took notes about the information we found. The time keeper made sure that we were on task and not dedicating too much time to one question in particular. The researcher was in charge of looking up answers on the computer. The presented recorded the information on the week five forum on eClass.

I really liked how this lesson incorporated a new technology into it. It made the lesson more engaging and updated. I think students would appreciate any teacher who attempted to breach into their territory: a technologically savvy one at that. I would like to use this type of activity in a future lesson if possible. I think that it encourages students to utilize the principles of P.I.G.S. The activity incorporates the aspects of positive interdependence as students work together toward a group goal, of individual accountability as students work individually to find information for the group, of group processing as students share their findings and reflect on the process, and of social interaction as students talk with one another.


Tuesday 10/1/13:

Today I completed a self-assessment to find out what kind of educator I am. Dr. Smirnova provided us with a link that would let us self-assess our teaching styles. After we had completed the 40 question assessment, we would check our answers using this scale. According to the results of this assessment, I am mainly a humanism, cognitivism and reconstructionism/critical theory teacher.

Humanism was my highest score: 24. A humanist believes that learning is a personal act to fulfill one's potential. This directly correlates with my personal philosophies that you are the only thing holding you back and that you are responsible for your own outcomes. I feel that all students have the capability to do great things, they just need the appropriate tools and motivation to do so.

Cognitivism and reconstructionism/Critical Theory were tied for my second highest score: 22. Cognitivism focuses on how the mind is an information processor. As an educator, a cognitivist would aim to figure out how his/her students' minds best functioned and structure teaching to fit their modes of thinking. I can see how this learning theory would apply to my teaching style. I believe that all learners learn differently. Some are visual, others are auditory. Some can pick up a skill by listening to directions, while others need a demonstration or to practice the skill multiple times. When planning lessons, I always take into account the varied ways of processing information. I attempt to include visual input (videos, charts, graphs), auditory input (lecture, music), hands-on input (models, personal experiences), etc. 
Reconstructionism/critical theory emphasizes the importance of addressing social questions in an attempt to create a better society and worldwide democracy. This was an interesting find for me. I did not realize how deeply I felt about informing my students about the world around them in order for them to make informed decisions that may result in social reforms.

I was surprised that by score for Behaviorism was only 16. I currently work at Hudson Valley Behavioral Solutions whose guiding principle is Applied Behavior Analysis: a facet of behaviorism. I practice this theory daily and see the benefits it has for children with Autism, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, and other behavior problems. I feel that this result occurred because my ideas as a general education teacher are vastly different than those of a special education teacher. I feel that this ties in with my cognitivism side of my teaching style, which believes that all learners learn differently. Students in a general education classroom can benefit from different teaching styles, while children with special needs may benefit more from the behaviorism model of thinking.


Wednesday 10/2/13:

During today's class, we were provided with time to work on our lesson plans. My group has already completed our first lesson direct instruction lesson plan. We mainly worked on our second lesson plan that follows an inquiry-based lesson plan structure. We plan to engage students through artifact bags, colonial themed books, and websites. We also brainstormed ideas for our third lesson based on cooperative learning strategies. We wanted to have students write from the perspective of a colonial boy or girl and then have students share their works with the whole class. Dr. Smirnova liked this idea, but suggested that we involve other forms of expression like theater, job listings, or poetry. Although I like this idea, I know that I personally dread putting on theater performances or writing poetry. I think it would be difficult for students to accept the differentiated activities if we are forcing the choice upon them. It also would not be an effective activity if we allowed complete freedom of choice to students. Every student may decide they want to participate in a theater performance, and no one may participate in the poetry section. This is an issue with the activity that we as a group plan to work on further during our next meeting.

Friday 10/4/13:

Today was our first experience with fieldwork at Bishop Dunn Memorial School. We are in a fourth grade classroom with twenty-six students. Today, we introduced ourselves to the students as a class, then we broke up into groups. Each fieldwork group was given an opportunity to meet with a group of four to six students for about seven to ten minutes. Our group decided to make name tags with the students that way we could learn the students names quickly and easily for future lessons. After the name tags were completed, we engaged students in discussion regarding what they had been learning about in social studies. We also probed questions regarding the thirteen colonies. After the students had given some thought to the topic, we stated that our group's topic was New York and the New Nation. We asked students to make predictions about what the topic meant. We then provided additional information from two age-appropriate, colonial life books. The students did not seem interested in the reading passage, but Alex sparked their interest by reading them fun facts and tips. These were ideas that the students could relate to by making comparisons to colonial times and now. Overall, the first experience of fieldwork for Social Studies Methods was a success!