classroom management

Classroom management should begin on day one of the school year (BLT). Setting clear expectations for my children and modeling for them will help to ensure they at least know how they are expected to act in class.   We should never assume that children just know your expectations if you never actually tell them or model them, for the students to actually see.  They could have a different idea of a rule so it is important to make sure you all are on the same page.   The other influential factor will be to keep my children atively mentally engaged (CLT). Many times children misbehave due to boredom or frustration.  By asking open ended questions about the subject material, I am sure to get at least someone's response, which means they will have to be engaged and thinking about the material at hand.  The SLT informs us that when teaching a subject matter is important to stay within a student's ZPD.  This goes back to children misbehaving due to frustration or bordeom.  Students will be frustrated if the subject is too abstract and bored if the material is too easy. This idea of staying within student's ZPD can be assisted with the use of the DLT.  When starting any new subject with any age group it is important to exhibit the most concrete version of the subject material, as the DLT informs us it is easier to understand a concrete object more than an abstract idea.  When ideas are abstract before they are concrete, we are venturing outside of the student's ZPD since the abstract idea is to complex.    

Group Presentation

I think my group did a good job of incorporating all aspects of the four main learning theories.  If I were to give the same lesson in front of a real fourth grade class, I would make sure that I spent a bit more time in my explanations of food nutrients.  Younger people would have a harder time understanding how the different foods really contribute to your overall health and how they effect the way you feel.  I would give more examples of how the fats and oils group gets stored in your body and leaves you feeling fatigued.  I would also take a bit more time to talk about what good things are in fruits and vegetables and how they interact with your body to benefit your overall health (heart, organs, and energy level). More examples and longer wait times for responses would be two aspects I would consider when giving this presentation again. 

Group Lessons

Tuesday:
Group 1- I liked how you guys used all aspects of SLT.  Having us work in groups and in trios on the board was a great way to incorporate the MKP.  I think the CLT was also incorporated as we came up with words we commonly mispell and thought about what rules we use to spell these words.  I think the DLT was hard to pick up on but could be due to the fact that words are abstract.

Group 2-I liked how this groups again used the SLT right away by having us talk about the social norms we were witnessing as a group or class.  I also liked how concerete these examples were, as the group modeled the social norms themselves.  Great job incorporating CLT by having us think of how we see this in our lives.

Group 3- The DLT was immediately used as we seen two examples of speeches from the group.  Nice job of incorporating candy(BLT).  I seen SLT used as we talked in group about why these speeches were good and bad.  The CLT was used as we related how we seen examples of good and bad speeches in our own lives.

Group 4- Good idea of using a map to point out states(DLT).  Having a picture of each state's bird, flower, etc., was great to visualize these things.  Working in groups and presenting it to the class was a good idea as it helped me to think about these items as I spoke about them(SLT). 

Group 5- I really liked the concrete example you gave, which helped relate conjugating verbs to a more familiar example(DLT).  I also liked how we went through each conjugation as a group(SLT).  This was one of the best examples of conjugating verbs I have been given.