Mattie's Voice

 Educational Psychology Chapter 11:  Effective Learning Environments  Journal #6  Chapter eleven focused on effective learning environments. Throughout this journal entry I will be discussing and responding to the following questions.  How did you feel about the concept? How is this concept significant concerning the context of your classroom? How might you use what you learned to become a better teacher? If this event sparked additional questions, what are they and what actions will you take to address them? After researching your additional questions, what information knowledge and or skills did you gain?   My feelings about effective learning environments I feel that effective learning environments speaks for itself. Learning can’t take place in chaos. The strategies that I read about can be used in most teaching situations no matter if it’s elementary, middle, or high school learning environment. Slavin writes, there is not magic or charisma to make you an effective classroom manag

 Educational Psychology Chapter 8: Student Centered and Constructivist Approaches to Instruction  Journal #5  Chapter seven focused on student centered and constructivist approaches to instruction. Throughout this journal entry I will be discussing and responding to the following questions.  How did you feel about the concept? How is this concept significant concerning the context of your classroom? How might you use what you learned to become a better teacher? If this event sparked additional questions, what are they and what actions will you take to address them?   My Feelings about Student Centered Learning I feel that student centered learning is a great way to increase student engagement. I also enjoy the social exposure of this instructional approach. I personally love when my students become independent. I want to give them the tools that they need and know that if I am absent or have a visitor walk in my classroom, they can continue to work without me hoovering over their shoul

 Educational Psychology Chapter 7: The Direct Instruction Lesson  Journal #4  Chapter seven focused on direct instructional learning. Throughout this journal entry I will be discussing and responding to the following questions.  How did you feel about the concept? How is this concept significant concerning the context of your classroom?  How might you use what you learned to become a better teacher?  If this event sparked additional questions, what are they and what actions will you take to address them?  After researching your additional questions, what information knowledge and or skills did you gain?        To begin, I feel direct instruction is an effective way to delivery instruction. Slavin defines, “Direct instruction is used describe lesson in which teachers transmit information directly to students, structuring class time to reach a clearly defined objective as efficiently as possible” (p.166). The concept of direct instruction can be used in my classroom. Before starting I mu

   Educational Psychology Chapter 6: Cognitive Theories of Learning                     Journal #3  Chapter six focused on the cognitive theories of learning. Throughout this journal entry I will be discussing and responding to the following questions.  How did you feel about the concept? How is this concept significant concerning the context of your classroom? How might you use what you learned to become a better teacher? If this event sparked additional questions, what are they and what actions will you take to address them? After researching your additional questions, what information knowledge and or skills did you gain?   My engagement with this reading material has sparked additional questions. I wonder what role these theories play in the processing for students with disabilities. I also wonder what role it plays with individuals who speak multiple languages, especially the students who I teach that have English as a second language. I leaned that metacognition helps students le

 Chapter 5  Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice  Journal #2  Chapter five focused on the behavior and social theories of learning. Throughout this journal entry I will be discussing and responding to the following questions.  How did you feel about the concept? How is this concept significant concerning the context of your classroom? How might you use what you learned to become a better teacher? If this event sparked additional questions, what are they and what actions will you take to address them? After researching your additional questions, what information knowledge and or skills did you gain? The concept of behavioral and social learning theories is necessary in the classroom. It could be the difference between a successful school year and a non-successful school year. It could be the difference between having a positive learning environment or a negative learning environment. My biggest take away is that anything can be learned.  Therefore, having an expected behavioral &

Chapters 2 & 8  Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice  Journal #1  As I reflect on the readings this past week. I noticed that chapter two began discussing the success of an educator is only as successful as her/his connection to her/his students. For example, if he or she understands children’s developments, natural adaptations, and the way they learn and grow then success will be evident. Ultimately, it is not what I know as an educator, but it is how I use what we know to influence children based on their needs. This is tied into the presentation of the facilitation. For example, I can know how to multiply but why would a child desire to multiply. Understanding development is key. Children develop at different rates depending on the culture, parenting, education, biology, and other factors (Slavin, Page 22).   However, if I know that the child is more of an intrinsic or extrinsic motivated individual and consider the child’s instructional level, I can find the best correla