Week 3

Differences

According to many studies, there is an indication of different behavior and beliefs among people belonging to different generations.  As a teacher I often find myself saying, "what is wrong with our kids?", "why wont they do their homework?".  I believe there is a relationship with the time period in which your were born and how you view school and success.

According to the articles this week, the researches believe that generations today are self-absorbed, often referred to as Generation Me.  They are taught to believe in themselves as if they can conquer the world.  I teach my students this, but they also need to know that they must be willing to complete all of the hard work in order to reach their specific goals.

According to the videos this week, studies suggest that multi-tasking for students actually produces negative effects.  Students that focus on one objective often do better in class.  If students are aware of their primary objective before a class begins then they will increase their chances of meeting that objective.

Research also suggests that knowing a student's learning style is not really effective.  Knowing someone's learning style can be helpful in getting to know that student, but planning a students activities solely on that learning style is a mistake.

If we as teachers make instructional decisions based primarily on what we think makes sense and what media says and not research, are we doing our students a disservice?

My opinions
I taught in Detroit Public Schools from 1999-2012.  I left and went to University Prep for 3 months and then to EAA (Education Achievement Authority) for 9 months.  Let me just say, Thank God I am back home with Detroit Public Schools.  Despite all of the negative press that DPS gets, we don't experiment with our students.  We have a curriculum and we have technology and we are able to fuse the two together to make a positive learning environment.

We definitely need to approach learning differently.  We can't ignore research but we also need to research what works best in our classroom and Common Core works really well with my students.
As teachers we can't possibly think that just because we learned in a certain way that our students will learn in that same way.  I can't keep giving out homework assignments that aren't motivating to my students. Research says that short but to the point lessons work best with students.   I decided to create my classroom based on research but also based on the needs of my students.  In my classroom instruction is always short, entertaining, and motivating.  Some of the activities in my classroom include:
Tic-Tac-Toe Homework (Gives the students a choice of what assignment to complete)
-Centers
-Cause and Effect Books
-Talk Shows (Mainly with Social Studies)
-Hands up to 85 (Spelling Words)
-Flocabulary
-Wiki Page (consists of games related to our learning objectives)
-Kidblog-Teacher created questions about core subjects
My students have made tremendous gaine in Reading and Writing because of these activities that are designed for them to become better thinkers.

Learning Styles
According to research, knowing a student's learning style does not directly relate to student achievement.  However, I think it is important to know a student's learning style and create a variety of lessons for your class that will target all learning styles.  If Johnny takes a learning style quiz and it says he is an auditory learner, should all of his lessons only focus on auditory learning tasks, NO!! Johnny still needs to be exposed to all types of lessons.

I think students need a new approach to learning and teachers should let go of how they learned and expose children to activities that require them to create, compare and apply.  Teachers need a strong curriculum but they also need to be able to step outside of that curriculum and create meaningful lessons.