Final Thoughts on Ed. Psych.

This has been a very eye opening semester for me. I really enjoyed this class a lot. I found the Monday night lectures to be very beneficial. It is always nice to do something out of the ordinary, as opposed to sitting in a classroom reading out of a textbook. Jim did a very good job making everything interesting. At the beginning of the semester I was skimming through my Woolfolk text, and I was just dreading the class because a lot of the reading was very boring. Jim made everything interesting, and I liked how he took different theories and applied them to everyday life. I like teachers who do that. It helps me immensely, because I tend to struggle when we do a lot of reading from the textbook in other classes, because I need a little more explanation than the text can offer. I never got bored in class either. I don't think I have had a class like that yet. :) This class has been such a great experience, and it has only made me more excited about becoming a teacher. I have already learned so many things from this class, and I know I will be using them in my classroom. :)

I-Movie projects

For ed. psych., we had to make an I-movie on an educational book of our choice. My group read the Freedom Writer's Diary. This was a really great book. It told the story of Ms. Gruwell, a first year teacher who is faced with a classroom full of racism, hate, and ignorance. She realizes that her goal for the year is to open up the eyes of her students, in regards to racism, and learning how to accept people who are different than themselves. I really enjoyed reading this book.

I liked listening to the other presentations as well. Some were kind of difficult to understand, and the videos were kind of blurry, but all in all I learned quite a bit. After seeing the presentations, I think I would like to read Last Child in the Woods. It sounded like an interesting book, and I think our society is running into a huge problem regarding the amount of time that children spend inside. Technology is taking over the classroom. Children are spending way too much time playing video games and watching TV.

As teachers, we can make a difference in our students' lives, and get them more acquainted with nature. We can have class outside, and integrate nature into our lesson plans. We can help our students become reacquainted with nature.

Click here to watch Freedom Writers I-Movie:

The "Dot" Activity

Last Monday night, we did a very interesting exercise. Doug had everyone close their eyes and we got a dot put on our forehead. When we opened our eyes, we had to "find our group," without talking or using any type of sign language. We automatically assumed that the group he was talking about was based on the color of the dots on our heads. But he never specifically said that. We were all tricked by this part of the activity.

Then, the we had to sit down in the lecture hall, based on what color sticker we had. The blues, which was the largest group, sat in the back. The reds, which were the middle-sized group, sat in the middle of the hall. The yellows, which was the smallest group, sat right in the front. Then we each got a plate of oreos, that were completely the wrong size for each group. My group, the blue group, only got 7 oreos for the 20-ish people in the group. The yellow group of three people got a huge plate of oreos.

Throughout the rest of class, our group in the back got ignored, while the groups in the front got their every need tended to. Doug tied this into the classroom, and asked us if we thought their was a correlation between a student's performance, and where they sat in the classroom. We all discussed that we though the students in the back sometimes got ignored, which gave them the idea that they didn't matter as much as the rest of the students. The ones in the back also talk out of turn more than the rest of the class. I kind of agree with this. It has been true in almost every class I have ever been in.

As future educators, we can make sure that the "kids in the back," never get forgotten. We need to make sure all kids get the same amount of attention, regardless of where they are sitting. If kids feel like they aren't getting any attention, or that they don't matter, they wont be as likely to perform to the best of their abilities. We can prevent this by making sure all kids know how special they are.