Overwhelming Welcome to my Online Adventure

Overwhelming Welcome to my Online Adventure

     Upon seeing this course pop up on my eClass, I immediately began to grow nervous as always. I started looking at all of the material and assignments that needed to be covered throughout this course and my anxiety began to kick in, but then I took a deep breath and began to think about the whole point of this course. I want to learn about how people learn and what can impact someone's learning specifically. I also know what to expect being that I have been in a course designed by our wonderful professor, Dr. Smirnova. I had to calm down and ease myself into "school mode". This is my first online class that I have ever taken and truthfully, I am anxious. I may know what to expect from the course work, but I don't know what to expect from engaging into an online course.The quotes above clearly demonstrate how I view learning with children. The teacher is a major important role to ensuring student's success. The quotes also reflect on my opinion of the No Child Left Behind act. Every child deserves an equal opportunity for success no matter what the circumstances may be and it is up to the educator to open the doors and steer the child in the desired direction. 

     According to E.L. Thorndike (1910), the roles of psychology in education intertwine in a variety of ways. The human education spectrum is broken down into four portions and the aspects of psychology reflect and refer to each of them uniquely. The four topics that are mentioned by Thorndike are aims, materials, means, and methods. In many cases, psychology contributes to refining ideas and making ideas clearly understandable when discussing the aims of human nature. Psychology links numerous scientific studies and concepts together to expand human intellects and materials. Psychology affects the overall understanding of means in human education specifically because the concepts behind psychology helps for humans to process the content that is translated through informational products. The three methods that Thorndike states when it comes to education revolves around how the teacher teaches the information, the personal work experience gained, and the basic laws of human nature. The major changes that may have an effect on these roles is the concepts behind intellectual functions that refer to further discovering what relates to those intellectual functions and  the individual differences between humans that can dynamically affect character, behavior, and intellect thus affecting how education corresponds with psychology. 

Works Cited:
"Classics In The History Of Psychology -- Thorndike (1910)". Psychclassics.yorku.ca. N.p., 2016. Web. 28 June 2016.

    When it comes to effective teaching, the same question replays in my mind over and over again. What is effective teaching? The video below describes some effective teaching techniques by visually modeling what effective teaching looks like. 

     To catch and keep the students' engaged, the students need to be mentally engaged into the learning process and one way to do this is to constantly provide the students with manipulatives and tasks that they can accomplished. An example in the video is through the use of a white board. When every student uses a white board, each student is able to be responsible for their own work and express their individualism about the learning the topic and content at hand. All of the learners will be actively engaged and demonstrating their knowledge on the task. I strongly enjoy the concept of using a white board, but I would also use tablets to provide a digital white board to keep the students engaged. I also agree with the ideas of using "wait time" to a teachers' advantage. Using "wait time" gives the teacher a moment to react and reflect on what is going on at that given moment in the classroom and conversation. Below is a video that displays a less-than-effective teaching visual.

     The instructor in this video clearly did not get the memo of effective teaching because this lesson was not engaging at all. I was bored watching it myself. First, the instructor did not seem at all excited or enthusiastic about the subject. If the students can visually see and hear the lack of enthusiasm in the instructors lesson, then the students will obviously not be engaged. The instructor also did not use "wait time" at all. If the teacher did not see a student raise their hand within a matter of seconds, then the teacher answered their own question without giving the students a moment to think for themselves. This prevents the students from gaining and acquiring the knowledge that is being taught. The students are not able to think or are not engaged, so they are unable to retain information. 

My Experience with Create, Evaluate, and Relate

Create

(I know that it is too small to read, but I used bubbl.us and I absolutely love using this mind mapping tool. It's extremely simple!)

Evaluate

• Valuable Advice: The type of information that you can find on this site is information provided be "veterans" of the education system also known as retired teachers or teachers who have been in the game for quite some time. The reliability of this information comes directly from authors, but it technically can vary because every classroom has different students and every classroom is not going to exactly face the same situations.
• Irrelevant Advice: The type of information that you can find on this site is blogs, discussions, and opinions on specific matters. The reliability of this website is not so high being that it could be biased or not based on scientific evidence or research, it could follow up with only personal opinions. 
• Practical/Logistical Advice: The type of information that you can find on this site is advice as well as many other tips and even lesson plans. The reliability of this site is relevant specifically because it is a commonly used website that is flooded with information that any teacher can use. 
• Words of Inspiration to Remember: The type of information that you can find on this site are inspirational words and considering this is a psychology based site is also reassuring. The relaiability of this site is higher on spectrum because it is primarily a newspaper type theme that follows the same format and characteristics as an every day newspaper.
• Lessons-Things to watch out for/mistakes to avoid: The information on this site is like a television channel for teachers. It shows the teachers certain things like when a lesson goes wrong and alternatives to do instead. I would say that this website is reliable because it is published first handedly by teachers who have gone through certain situations with visual photographic evidence. 

Relate

• What does it mean to be a qualified teacher?

     Not only does it mean that someone is certified to be qualified, but the teacher must also share the passion and wisdom of effective teaching to reach out and engage their students. I believe that teachers should also be qualified in all knowledgeable aspects of education that are relevant to the students' success. The teacher should also be willing to do what ever it takes to ensure that the student will be able to reach their full educational potential and more. 

• How do you access qualifications?

     People can access qualifications by becoming certified through a college and gaining their degree or by passing a series of tests in order to work in a less official educational setting. It may take times to gain the qualifications necessary, but it can be achievable.

• What is good teaching, and how is it measured?

    Good teaching is the foundation of educational and knowledgeable learning. Good teaching is when students will be able to form connections and retain the information that was taught. Typically it is measured through evaluations and assessments which I do not prefer to view as a way to measure teaching. 

• How do qualifications make a difference? What knowledge or skills would a qualified teacher possess that an unqualified teacher does not?

     Qualifications make a very big and obvious difference compared to those without qualifications. A qualified teacher should be able to make accommodations and modifications for their students, to understand the students' levels, to incorporate engaging activities into their lessons, and to make themselves available whenever they are needed. An unqualified teacher can very well form something similar to the examples stated above, but a qualified teacher would absolutely know what they are doing. 

• How do school systems that may have a paucity of "qualified teachers" (such as rural and urban schools) work to meet the requirements established by No Child Left Behind?

     School systems work to meet the requirements established by No Child Left Behind by cooperating together as a team. Not only does the success rely on the teachers, but also the environmental community that the students are in. The school systems can also reach out for grants and other professionals to aid in successful events.