Week 8: Reflection - Final Blog Posting

Personal Theory of Learning
As I reviewed my personal theory of learning from week 1, I found that my views have not changed that drastically. However, in my first application, I made it seem as though modifying a student’s behavior and their learning were one in the same. Now, I see things a little differently. I don’t think a student’s behavior actually affects their ability to learn math. However, their behavior does effect the environment. If the environment is not conducive to learning, then the student may not learn math as well as they could in an otherwise favorable environment.

Immediate Goals & Adjustments
One immediate goal and adjustment I will make is to utilize a classroom webpage and our online grading program. I will keep a webpage updated with activities, lessons, goals, and news. Our online grading program also allows us to link all our assignments so students can access them and print them off. Since our school has such a high absent count, I spend too much of my time putting “missing work” packets together for students. This way, students will have access to everything they need. I will also set up a blog/discussion board so students can ask questions and get responses from all their classmates, not just me.

Another immediate adjustment I’m going to make is to complete more cooperative learning projects and assignments. At first, I was weary of doing things in pairs or groups because I thought they would be a big production and I need to do a lot of planning and preparation. However, cooperative learning can be very elaborate or very simple. It can range from a week long project to a simple pairing and comparing homework answers. The main idea, in my opinion, is to get students to problem solve together and learn from one another.

Long-term Goals and Adjustments
One long-term goal I would like to implement is to have students track their own effort. Since effort is a very important part of mathematics, it is important students realize that their effort will determine how well they learn the subject. I haven’t worked out all the details yet, however, I would like to set up a template in excel and post it to the class webpage. From there, students can download it and save it on their personal drive. Since we do not have access to computers on a daily basis, I will have students track their behavior on paper every day during the week. Then, weekly or bi-weekly we will enter the recorded data into their saved excel spreadsheet. From this data, students can track how much effort they are putting forth. As a class, we can also create tables and charts using their information. I will ask students to make honest judgments about the correlation between their effort and the comprehension of the material. When we come to the unit that discusses tables, charts and data, we can use their own graphs to answer questions and learn how to read them.

Another long term goal I have is to apply constructivism in my classroom. I want to get away from the routine of lecturing and having student’s complete 25 problems on paper. I would like to get more into constructing items students will have an attachment to. Or, taking real world items and applying what we’ve learning. For example, when discussing slopes, I could have students bring in a small house (bird house, doll house, etc.) and they could measure the slope (or pitch) of the roof of that house. This could also be done in groups to satisfy my goal of cooperative learning. By doing this, students will hopefully remember what a slope is by creating that connection with measure the slop of the roof.