Intelligence

3) You have now read several views about intelligence. What do you think about intelligence?

Is it one trait or many? more heavily influenced by nature or nurture? a fixed capacity or a

modifiable ability?

 

 

I feel that intelligence should be measured by a person's ability to be happy and satisfied in their lives. I think that if a person feels like they are good at something and finds joy in day to day life, then I think that they are pretty intelligent. Intelligence should not be measured solely on a persons ability to solve an algebra problem. These people may be successful in a classroom environment, but may not be so well adjusted to living in the real world. Intelligence is not a fixed entity. I feel like every day we learn something new and meaningful to our lives. Something that was important for me to know five years ago probably has no relevance to my life today. Something that I am learning right now may not be important or relevant to me five years from now. I don't think that intelligence is something that you are born with. Intelligence is something that develops over time and has a lot to do with a persons desire to learn new things about their world. 

 

Article Reflection

My article was titled "Creating Safe Schools for Queer Youth." The article listed statistics about the amount of bullying that lgbtq students face in schools everyday. The statistics were staggering and heartbreaking.  4/5 LGBTQ students reported being verbally harassed in schools. This does not create a safe environment for these students to learn.  The article stated that most teachers felt like it was their job to protect students, but the LBGTQ students polled did not feel like their teachers did anything to stand up for them or their rights. There is a serious disconnect between the teachers wanting to help and the students knowing that they are protected.

The article listed ten ways to ensure a safe learning environment for LBGTQ students. I thought they were very helpful to know.

1. do not assume heterosexuality

2. guarantee equality

3. create safe environment

4. diversify library or media holdings

5. provide training for faculty and staff

6. provide appropriate health care and education

7. be a role model

8. provide support for students

9. reassess curriculum

10. broaden entertainment and extra curricular activities

When I am a teacher I will not allow the use of any gay slurs. Students in my classroom will know that those are harmful and inappropriate.  I also want students to know regardless of their sexual orientation, race, gender, ect. that no one deserves to be put down or bullied especially at school. I hope that they know that I am a safe person to talk to and will take any harassment that they may face incredibly seriously. All students deserve for school to be a safe and welcoming environment.

Chapter 3

Development

Chapter 3

(3.1) Personal and social development can have a major influence on both individual student

learning and the learning environment as a whole. Identify a case from the CSEL guidelines*

that you would like to address in your paper. Then, examine the possible developmental

factors that could be influencing your target student(s) or classroom in the case study. Consider

all dimensions of personal and social development, including cognitive, language, social,

emotional, and moral development. *CSEL guidelines can be found under CSEL Artifact. Cases

are included at the end of the document. Choose the case that best suits your desired grade level.

Elementary Education:

You engage your third grade students in cooperative learning activities at least twice a day, changing heterogeneous group members once every four weeks. You have agreed upon routine procedures that your classroom community uses within their small groups, including the roles and responsibilities of group members. Lately you have noticed that one small group always seems to have difficulty grasping material and completing their project in an acceptable manner.  You observe this group carefully and find that Lisa seems to be the catalyst for their problems.  She gets angry with others if she does not get the job she wants and refuses to do her part in contributing to the group’s learning.  She constantly interrupts others in her group.  She does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations. 

Many of Lisa's issues in school seem to be able to be attributed to her lack of social development. When faced with stressful or difficult situations she is not capable of dealing them in a mature manner  She reacts with aggressive behavior  Her cognitive development may not be on par with her peers and may play a part in her frustration. She may not be able to understand the assignments and in turn is becoming frustrated. Lisa's is not able to use words to communicate her desires to her peers. This leads me to believe that she could use some development in the language department. I believe that by looking at these issues in her development and working on them, Lisa's school experience will improve. The teacher has to take a holistic approach and not only focus on her cognitive development, but work to improve her social skills and language skills as well.

(3.22) Check out tables 3.1 (p. 75), 3.2 (p. 83) and 3.3 (p. 91) with particular attention to the age

ranges you are interested in teaching. Identify your personal favorite ways that an educator can

promote a child’s sense of self, perspective taking, and moral reasoning skills.

The book advises the use of scaffolding in my age range to promote a sense of self. I would like to have discussions with children about art and talk to them about how they relate to it in their real lives. I want children to be able to understand how their actions affect others. I think that this is a key part of moral development. When a child does something nice for another child, like helping pick up paper scraps, I will be sure to give extra praise. When a child does something that is harmful to someone else, I will use that as a teaching moment to show the child how his or her actions affect other people. 

Song Discussion

 

Old Crow Medicine Show "Let it Alone"

 

While the traveling through this big iron world It'll sometimes ask of you To give advice at certain times And tell folks what to do
Well, at this time, I'm gonna tell you What's the wisest plan When it comes to mixing in with things That you just don't understand, hmm
Let it alone, let it alone If it don't concern you, let it alone Don't go around putting on airs And meddling in other folks' affairs If you don't know, say so Mind your own business and let it alone
Well, you see two people fighting Them man and woman, say You think that it's a crime for them To carry on that way Well, you think that you could stop that row But just as you draw nigh The lady with the poker Strikes the gentleman across the eye
Let it alone, let it alone If it don't concern you, let it alone They know their business, all right, all right They practice that way every night If you go buttin' in, they'll break your chin So mind your own business and let it alone
Well, you say that love's against you And on your weary way Well, lying in the gutter A drunken man, we'll say He's lying in the gutter And you can tell that he's all in But on his necktie plainly gleams A great big diamond pin
Let it alone, let it alone He's not your pal, so let it alone The man is drunk, it may be true But the diamond don't belong to you So shut your eyes and eat some sighs Turn around and beat it and leave it alone

This song is a discussion between a person in young adulthood and maturity to death in Erikson's stage of development. The mature person is looking back on life and is telling the younger man that if something does not concern the then they should "let it alone."  This is something that he has learned form years of experience and is telling someone with less experience.

I think that I will use this in my classroom by having students reflect on their experience. I want for students to think about what they have learned and share their experiences with others. Maybe I would have fifth graders come to the art room and share with the kindergartners wisdom they have gained throughout their elementary school experience.

chapter 2

Chapter 2

One of the most cited theories of human development is that of Swiss biologist Jean

Piaget. After reading about Piaget’s basic assumptions (p. 27-32) look with particular attention

at the stage of child development you would like to teach. The other most cited theory of

human development belongs to Russian developmentalist Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky’s theory of

cognitive development leads us to expect greater diversity among our same-aged students than

Piaget. Given these two influential theorists’ ideas on cognitive development, how might you accommodate students who are not yet working at the level of their peers?

I would like students to work with other students that are at a skill level above themselves. Hopefully this way they can raise their zone of proximity and gain more knowledge in the subject matter.  I hope to keep the groups in my classroom as diverse as possible.

Theories in educational psychology promote the idea that language plays a critical role in

cognitive development. Examine Table 2.2 (p. 51), paying particular attention to the age range

that you are interested in teaching. Consider how you might incorporate or adapt the strategies presented for use with your own students.a

I hope to work with students at the elementary level in my art classroom. I know that when working with this age group (this applies to high school as well) that I can not be sarcastic.  Students will take every thing that I say literally and at face value. It is going to be important to mean what I say and say what I mean.... you know what I mean. I also will not be able to say things like "you really let the cat out of the bag. " or anything like that.  The students might think that they really had a cat in a bag and that is just cruel.  

I want to be as clear as possible with my students and make sure that they feel free to ask me to clarify if they have any questions or concerns in my classroom.

Social Cognitive Theory

Which of the learning activities/skills can you think of that lend themselves to learning through modeling? How might self-efficacy and self-regulation contribute to the intervention plans you use in your case study?

I think most things that are observable can be taught through modeling. Some things that I want to teach in the art room with modeling would be things like...
how to clean brushes
how to work well in groups
how to stay organized
how to stay on task
how to raise your hand when asking a question

ect. ect. 

I think these task lend themselves to modeling because they are things that are observable in the classroom. Some of them such as cleaning brushes and staying organized are things that I could model to my students myself. 

My case study, Lisa needs to learn how to work well in a group. To be able to do this she needs to believe that she can be successful in working in a group. This will raise her self efficacy and motivate her to really try.  I would want Lisa to be able to use self regulation skills to improve her group dynamic. Lisa and I would work together to create specific goals to increase her success in groups. She would have to diligently work towards these goals daily. Hopefully if she has a high self efficacy about working well in groups and uses self regulation skills she can increase her success in groups.  

Barb Rentenbach Presentation

When I went to Barb Rentenbach's presentation not knowing what to expect. First her friend talked about Barb and about her writings. She had us read some of Barb's writings aloud.  It was interesting to hear her words coming out of our mouths. Her writings were clever and witty. She seemed to read constantly because her work was riddled with quotes and novel words.
The best part of her presentation was for her interview. She opened up the floor to for us to ask her any question we would like. Most of the people in the audience seemed nervous about asking her questions. When met with a lull in the crowd she typed out " One mute per show please." She is such a funny person! The thing that I learned from this presentation is not to judge someone by the way they look. On the first impression I would have thought that Barb was not capable of doing much. Thank god for augmentative communication. I am so glad that Barb is able to express what she is thinking. She has so much to share with the world.

Behaviorism

How would you define successful mastery of your lesson objectives from a behavioral view of learning? Consider your CSEL intervention case study. Are there tools from a behaviorist view for either encouraging productive behaviors or discouraging undesirable behaviors that you could apply to the case? What are they?

Mastery of objectives would look like for me that a child can demonstrate what I was trying to teach them. For example if I was going to do a lesson on contour lines, I would first do a pretest and ask them to draw a contour line drawing of a dog or a cup in the box. Then we would go through our lesson. I would demonstrate what a contour line drawing is and what it is not. The students would practice making contour line drawings and would then incorporate them in whatever project we are doing. I would give the students the same test I gave them before the lesson to see if they now know how to do a contour line drawing of cup or a dog. I would also asses the students for their use of contour line drawing in their projects. I think that the post and pretests are the really key thing to qualify this as a behaviorist perspective. If the students were not able to master the concept of contour line I would reflect on what did not work in my teaching of that concept. If I was set on making sure 100% of the students mastered that concept before we worked on another one I would go through the whole process again but modify my teaching style or the learning environment. 

Some awesome examples of pre and post testing


The elementary case study revolves around Lisa, who is having difficulty working in a group. She is upset if she does not receive the job that she wants and interrupts other members of her groups. If I was to use a behavioral view of learning to try to discourage undesirable behaviors and increase productive behaviors the first thing I would do is monitor. I would keep a chart that shows when and in what circumstances she is misbehaving to try to understand the cause of the problems. I would reward Lisa with lots of praise or positive reinforcement when she cooperates with her group. I would use negative punishment like taking away recess time if she cannot work with her group.   I would monitor the situation and keep track of how she is progressing. 

Meta Cognitive Skills

Consider a lesson plan you might use. Which metacognitive skills/abilities are involved as students gain facility/knowledge in this domain? Think of an activity or lesson component that explicitly teaches one or more metacognitive and one or more problem solving skills.

http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.utk.edu:90/stable/20715385

I just found the BEST article in the universe that relates to this topic. It is a study where they two compared   classrooms of third grade students. One class used metacognitive teaching techniques and one did not. They compared the artwork of the two classrooms made during their art time and found that the students in the metacognitve class "understood the thematic nature of art, generated more strategies, and developed a solution clearly related to their theme." The students were given a theme such as friendship or happiness and asked to create an art piece concerning their theme.  During the planning process of making the work students were encouraged to think aloud about their theme.

The teacher that was incorporating metacognitive skills in her classroom did so by encouraging a "culture of thinking."  She did thinks everyday that raised students self awareness, especially about their own thinking and focused on planning and problem solving.  This study suggests that art teachers and classroom teachers should work together to increase the metacognitive skills of the students. 

So if I was going to make a lesson that would encourage the students to gain metacognitve skills I would definitely focus on planning. I would have students do a lot of sketching before the create a product and talk about their work with me and other students.  I would give students a theme to work under but not be too specific so that they their work does not end up all looking the same. OR I could let the students choose a theme at the beginning of the year and keep a process/sketch book that explores their chosen theme. This way their art is relevant to their lives and they are doing a lot of self reflection. 

Chapter 6 QTC

What are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning? 

I would like for my students to be able to access long term as well as short term memory in the classroom.  To do this they would need to be able to pay attention, which will be in part my responsibility making sure lessons are engaging. I would like for students to be able to know and understand all of the elements and principles of design. They should be able to have a full understanding of the concepts and be able to use elaboration to be able to explain how they work together in an artwork. 

How might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional decisions?

I know from the teacher project on chapter 6 that it is important to use hot cognition to engage students.  I think it may be a good idea to give a short little survey to be able to know what the students are really interested in. I can then model the projects to their personal interests and to draw in their own life experience into the projects. This will make the learning much more meaningful, engaging long term memory. I will try to teach using a lot of different types of stimulation like visual, verbal, and personal exploration be able to capture the attention of all types of learners. 

Chapter 15

Turn to p. 559 in Ormrod’s text.  Now, imagine that you are meeting with Ingrid’s grandmother today to explain her scores on the recent standardized achievement test pictured at the bottom of p. 559.  What will you tell her about Ingrid’s performance? her strengths? her weaknesses?

If I was meeting with Ingrid's grandmother I would first start off with the positive. I would let her grandmother know that she did a great job on her social studies, science and reading comprehension scores.  We would talk about how these subject areas are where Ingrid really shines.  

I would then address math concepts where Ingrid scored as average. I would discuss how she is preforming in the class in math concepts and let her know that we will work to keep Ingrid at this level as well as improve in this subject area. 

We would then talk about spelling and math computation, where Ingrid tested at below average. I would let Ingrid's grandmother know what we will be doing in the classroom to help Ingrid improve those scores. We would also review how Ingrid was doing in my class with these concepts to make sure that she was not just having a problem with standardized testing.  I would also suggest working an extra 15 minutes a day at home on these concepts. I would refer her to this website http://www.kidsspell.com/ where Ingrid could play games on the computer to help with her spelling.  This would be a fun website for Ingrid to practice her math computation skills. http://www.coolmath4kids.com/ I would emphasize to Ingrid's grandmother to try to work practice in without overwhelming the student. I would let her know that I will be monitoring her progress and communicating with her regularly. 

Chapter 14

(14.1) Think of a lesson plan from your licensure area (feel free to use the same topic you used for Chapter 6, 9 & 10). Knowing that assessment is an integral part of teaching, explain at least four informal and formal assessments that you will use in your lesson plan to provide you with feedback and involve the students in assessing their own learning.

 

 

I could do a project on color theory with my students.  We would be working with complimentary tertiary colors to create a landscape painting. I would introduce the topic and teach them about how we can find tertiary colors and demonstrate how we can make tertiary colors.  While I am presenting I will informally check for understanding by asking for student volunteers to create a tertiary color. If they still seem confused about the process of making tertiary colors I would explain it again maybe in a different way.  Before they can get the paper to begin the final projects I would ask them to mix 4 tertiary colors on newsprint for me as another informal check for understanding. After they finish their tertiary color landscape I would ask them to complete a reflection work sheet in which they tell me which tertiary colors they used and how they were made. Then as formal I would use a rubric to assess the final products as well as their reflection  of the final product with emphasis on whether or not the tertiary colors were used. 

(14.2) Consider norm referenced assessment and criterion referenced assessment. Are there advantages to both? Are their disadvantages?

 

Norm referenced assessment cannot measure the population as a whole. It can only measure where the individual lies within the whole.  It can be used to rank the achievement of students.  Criterion referenced determines whether students have achieved a skill or concept. Norm referenced is easier to grade but you get worse information, but you can get a huge amount of information with it.  Criterion testing gives better information, but it is more difficult to analyze.

 

Pep Talk

Some days we all  need a pep talk. "What will be your Space Jam?" "What will you create to make the world more awesome?"

Sometimes I get so overwhelmed by school work that I forget why I want to become a teacher.  I have to remember that as a teacher I will have the opportunity to motivate students to make the world a better place. What an amazing idea!

Hopefully this can inspire you to do something to make your life, someone else's life, or the world at large a more awesome place.... or maybe it will just inspire you to finish your homework.  That's important too.

Chapter 13

1.      Based on ourreadings and class discussion, how will you create a learning environment thatis conducive to learning? 

  This chapter has made me think not only about the physical environment that I would like to create in my classroom but also an environment that involves a mutual respect between students and teacher.  As for the physical environment, I would like for my classroom to be personalized but not overwhelming. I feel that in the art classroom the wall space is SO important as a place for students to derive inspiration from.  I would like the walls to have examples of student work, posters of work by great artists, and things that I find aesthetically pleasing in general.  Although this may sound like a lot of "stuff" to be on the walls, hopefully it can be organized in a way that does not make a students brains want to explode.  You can group student work by project or by color.  Posters could be framed and hung in a gallery like style...  ect.

   It would also be beneficial to have a poster in the front of the classroom to display a reminder of a short list of expectations for the class.  I want to keep the rules or expectations simple and to not phrase them in statements like DO NOT TALK. That will only create a negative environment and one that is not conducive as a creative space. 


   I found a post on one of my favorite art education websites the other day that referred to the Love and Logic approach that we talked about in class on Thursday. The approach that this teacher is suggesting is a sort of spin on Love and Logic by giving the student a choice. She gives an example of a student using a paint brush incorrectly and getting paint all over a fellow students project. She suggests giving the student a choice of 1. using the paintbrush correctly like we talked about in class or 2. switching to crayons so that he doesn't get paint on his friends painting. Who would want to switch from crayons to paint?! NO ONE.  I think this is a great approach that revolves around building mutual respect between teacher and student.


http://www.theartofed.com/2012/08/15/how-choice-can-improve-student-behavior/

Now consideryour CSEL case study.  Develop a fullcontinuum of responses for dealing with the misbehavior of your case.

My case study that I chose involves a student that is not working well in a group. She is unhappy if she does not get the job she wants, interrupts her group, and does not contribute to the projects.  In this situation I would speak to her outside of the classroom and ask her why she is unhappy working in a group. If there is anything that can be altered to make her feel more comfortable in the group, like rearranging the groups, I would try to alter it. I would remind her how she can be respectful to her group members by not interrupting them and by contributing to projects. I would remind her that if she cannot work respectfully with her group members that there would be consequences. (Maybe no recess or letter home to parents) If in class she still does not work respectfully with her group I would start by cueing. I would keep checking in on that group and use proximity to try to solve the problem. If that does not work, I would rearrange the group and speak with Lisa's parents about the issue. 

Chapter 11

1. Consider the theories of motivation that we discussed in class. which theories of motivation are most helpful and instructive for you? How can they enhance motivation and affect your student

A theory to develop motivation that we discussed in class that I connected to the most was that area the suggestion to give students choices. I remember when I was in elementary school we would have choices of projects to complete rather than writing a straight forward book report. Some projects would be geared more towards those who learn more visually, some more mathematical, and some geared more towards those who prefer to do a written assignment. I would always choose to do some sort of diorama if it was an option. I LOVED dioramas for some reason. Those were the projects that were the most memorable for me through out school. I'm sure the book reports were important for some occasions but I felt very excited and motivated to get to work on something if I was able to choose what i wanted to do.


(Awesome diorama that I would have loved to make circa 1998)

In the art classroom, I imagine that choice could break the ice and get students who may be intimidated by art more excited. For example, I know that some little boys may not be as excited about creating a cubist collage but would really get excited about making a collage of their favorite baseball player. Some kids may hate to paint but really love to use colored pencils. I will try to write lesson plans that are flexible enough to allow for choice of theme or material, but still making sure that they address the principles of art and design or history that I want to teach in that lesson. Hopefully this will engage students that are less than thrilled to be in my classroom.

First day of class

On the first day in class in Ed Psych we got know each other a little better. We were asked four questions.
1. Do you feel like we have a strong theory of teaching and learning
2 Are you professional?
3. Do you generally understand the actions of others?
4. What concerns you the most about your first day of teaching?

These questions are much more specific and introspective the usual first day of class questions. Typically the first day of class students would be asked to share something more generic, like share one interesting fact about yourself. This exercise opened the course up to be more of a discussion course rather than a class where there are strict right and wrong answers. In this course, I hope to have a more firm grasp on why students do the things they do. I would also like to learn how to make art accessible to all students regardless of their background.