EDLD+5364+Observations+Week+3

As I go through this course, I am intrigued with a sense of deja vu, all over again. I came into the education world after working in journalism for five years right out of college. I came into education with a reporter's skepticism and objectivity.

I am finding it interesting that, after 16 years of teaching, I am coming back to some of the lessons I learned in the very first certification course I took at East Texas State. With this week's readings, it was clear that I must have had a good foundation all those years ago. In trying to arrange my lesson this week to support affective learning, it hit upon this in the week's reading - "motivation is at least as important for school success as the capacity to recognize and generate patterns" (Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). My first professor emphasized that a good teacher often has to give a multitude of examples of a concept before one will click with some students. Once you have that "click", the student can then be motivated to assimilate the concept into their prior learning. Cognitive dissonance has always been a factor in my teaching as I challenge students to work with new concepts. Recognizing an example is a first step to understanding the concept.

"Teachers can present models of processes in a variety of contexts (as one-on-one instruction, in small groups or as a whole class, live or at a distance, online or in person), using a variety of media (video, speech, text, diagram, animation)" (Rose, D., & Meyer, A. 2002). Reminded me of the idea of hitting a group of students with the information from a variety of directions. That is what is so interesting to me as I learn the new technologies that are available. It is giving me new tools to reach students from a different direction. The electronic book website we learned about this week could be used as a great strategic aid and introductory tool. I would also like my students to use to teach others. I see it as a group project that could be used by students to teach other students about a piece of literature. Sort of a book about a book.

Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). //Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning.// Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the center for applied Special Technology Web site. Chapter 6. Retrieved on October 5, 2009

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