Cognitive Learning Environments

"Cognitive learning environments focus on helping students encode information meaningfully to long-term memory so that it can be easily retrieved." There are many times when I ask my students to think back to a topic and they tell me they don't remember anything. In math, everything you learn builds on prior knowledge. If you don't understand something as simple as adding and subtracting you will not be able to move on and fully comprehend what is going on. Students do not easily remember things and need different tools to help them. Whenever I start a new topic I try and give my students a do now that involves them in discovering or recalling something that will be relevant for that lesson. Last week, I did a lesson on the discriminant. I first made them an organizer that would help them have everything in order and easy to understand. They were the asked to find the roots of 4 problems using the quadratic formula. After they finished that, I told them that the discriminant will tell us what type of roots we have. The discriminant is a part of the quadratic formula. As a class, we looked at each problem and decided based on the discriminant what will the roots be and why it worked out that way. There organizer helped them to stay focused and not get confused, they were building on something that they already knew. They were then able to connect this new information to exisiting knowledge. Students sometimes need to have an organizer because they don't know where you are going with your lesson and they may not have written it down in the best possible way to go back and understand it. I remember being in school and your teacher would use the whole chalk board and have everything right next to each other but you didn't have that much space on y0ur paper so you quickly tried to write it underneath and it just didn't do the same thing that it would have if it were right next to it. When you have an organizer set up so that they have to write one thing in one box and another in a different box, at least you know there notes are well structured. The only downfall is that students should be learning how to take good notes. There are certain days although I think a good organizer goes a long way. These are just some of the tools that I have read about and have used in my classroom and notice that they have worked.

Constructivism

There was a lot to read about constructivism but I think I have a pretty good idea now about what it is. Constructivist learning environments focus on giving students authentic, real-world problems to solve. Constructivism emphasizes the importance of the learner being actively involved in the learning process. I think it is extremely important to have a hands on experience when learning. Students shouldn't have to sit there and listen and write. They should be able to be learn and build from previous knowledge. I teach math so students almost have to be actively engaged to understand what is going on. They also need to understand how the math they are learning relates to real life. Students are constantly asking "when am I going to use this in real life?" I always try to make sure I have an example ready for them because that is one way to get them involved. When that doesn't work I try and give them a hands on experience. I recently did a group project in my Contemporary Math class on Pascal's Triangle. Each group member had a different part and had to find out through the internet about their part. There were 4 parts, Historian, Technician, Analyst, and Artist. They were motivated to do this because they were able to use the computer to look up there information. I had given them a basic summary the day before about Pascal's triangle and they had to go more in depth in each of there areas. Once they researched there part, as a group they presented to the class. Each group presented in a different way. One group used power point, another a poster and one even did a rap about Pascal's triangle. I was truly happy with the way everybody presented and was involved the whole time. A constructivist classroom is definitely a good way to learn!

Flash Workshop

I went to the flash workshops over the weekend. Unfortunately I have not gotten the program yet so it was difficult to follow along. I was able to borrow a laptop in the first session but I had to share with someone. In the second session I had my own laptop but the program was to old and didn't do certain things. I did find it intersting to learn about flash but I am not sure exactly how useful it is for a classroom. If anybody has any ideas of how flash is useful in a class, specifically math, I would appreciate you leaving me a comment.

GLEF article

I usually don't enjoy reading articles and was not looking forward to this assignemnt. After reading though, I really enjoyed the GLEF article. I read the "Caring Schools and Emotional Intellgience" article giving ten tips to creating caring schools. I thought it was great to read an article and be able to comment on it as well as read other peoples comments about it. The article gave great strategies that I would definitely try to impelment in my classes.

First day of class

I am entering this program with basic skills and hope to learn more advanced ones. I teach math at Valley Stream Central High School and hope to incorporate technology into many lessons. I am looking forward to the next couple of years in TEAM. It seems so far to be an excellent program that will help me in future lesson planning.