Day 1 Reflections

1. E. L. Thorndike Reflection:
What are the roles for education and psychology envisioned by E.L. 
            a.      E. L. Thorndike describes education as the core of any lesson plan and what any teacher will try to get their students to understand to their best ability before the lesson has ended. E. L. Thorndike goes on to explain that psychology is the tool teachers use to make sure that their education is being delivered in the most effective way as well as making sure that the material is taught clearly and effectively. He further explains this saying the importance of psychology when it comes down to who the students are, what their background knowledge is, and how important it is to measure the effectiveness of the teaching methods being used are.

2.                           
      Have these roles changed? What kind of methods did Thorndike recommend for research?
               a.      I don’t believe these roles have changed, on the contrary I believe these roles have been amplified to cover various new regions of study when it comes to the psychology aspect of learning. Thorndike goes into this mentioning the studies being done on different races, sexes, and locations of students showing how in-depth the studies of psychology can go.  

                     Thorndike mentions going about the tried and true methods for researching if what you’re practicing is effective which include putting your methods to use in multiple ways and classrooms and then comparing the outcomes.

1.      
2. Characteristics of Effective Teachers:

A: Modeling Effective Teaching:

         This video is insightful because it brings up a lot of tactics we see in both our readings for today as well as lessons I have learned before. Some of those being the idea of wanting to keep the students interest and methods to do so. One major way we've learned to do that is to make sure not to keep a classroom stagnant by always changing the teaching style throughout the class as well as making sure to make interactions between you and your class. Another big topic seen in this video which I think a lot of inadequate teachers tend to forget about is to monitor what their students are thinking. This is important because it can show where your class is with the content of your course as well as how comfortable they feel about the content. Both of these things can help you decide if you're being effective as a teacher as well as how to change your teaching style to help your students. 

B. Boring Economics Teacher:

           This video shows a couple of things opposing what the effective teacher in the previous video spoke about. One of those things was about how you need to look interested in your student's answers and how you need to look enthused to be part of the learning process otherwise you distance yourself from your students, meaning they distance themselves from the lessons. Another thing we see in this video is the sheer lack of interaction in-between teacher and class by making questions general and waiting for students to interact instead of taking the lead and turning to face your students and ask them personally to answer questions. 

3. What to Expect Your First Year of Teaching

             Reading this I have found a story that has been told to me to every teacher that knew I was on the road to become a teacher myself. That is, that the job is difficult, the job requires a ton of practice, planning, patience, and hard work, but in the end it is very rewarding. This itself just assures me all of it must be true.

             Otherwise this set of information covers some useful topics of what to do and what resources you have in your school as a teacher to tap into if dealing with certain difficult situations as well as the idea to look out for other teachers of your subject on tips and tricks they have to get their lessons in order.

Tips From First Year Teachers

            This article was pretty awesome to read because it showed a lot of different perspectives of many different educators at different levels of education. They talk of many different topics they find important when it comes to teaching and it is all important. You also see throughout their comments and tips there are some main repetitive answers including to always treat your students with respect and care, and to always be over prepared, two lessons I think are core values of education. 

4. Are Sleepy Students learning?  Reflection:
              This study brings to light the age old question of how much does sleep effect a student and how many hours a student should be getting. This study wasn't at all surprising to me and honestly reminds me a study done that involved moving classes to a later time in the day believing that students naturally had a sleep schedule set to wake them up later in the day. If I recall correctly they started school at 12 PM to hopefully overcome the grogginess mentioned being seen in classes earlier in the day and ended up showing positive results on the students grades over time which is an interesting pairing with this study.
Create:

          

         Evaluate:

• Valuable advice:
• This advice is a good outlet because it's from a source of people who just went through this experience and can give you the most raw outlook on it and what they might have felt they were missing. 
• Irrelevant advice:
• This advice isn't bad, but it definitely won't help a new teacher in their first years of teaching. A lot of the knowledge given seems too about yourself and not your job and doesn't focus much on the act of teaching itself.
• Practical/logistical advice:
• This is the words of a teacher that has had more time to refine their skills and is able to give their two cents on what they believe a new teacher would need and what they should focus on before jumping up to the level of an experienced teacher.
• Words of inspiration to remember:
• "Constantly remind yourself why you are in the profession. You’re not going to get rich, there are going to be more headaches than you anticipate, and there are going to be times that you tell yourself ‘it’s not worth it.’ If you keep in mind the kids you’re reaching and the difference you can make in one kid’s life, it will be worth it. Focus on your success stories, and don’t focus on the kids that won’t allow you to reach them (for whatever reason). And write down the funny stuff that happens. It’s good to have a drawer full of those things when you’re having a bad day." — Aaron Frazee, high school social studies teacher
• Lessons - things to watch out for/mistakes to avoid: 
• This website covers a lot of useful topics but it has a small segment at the end that gives a good outline of what mistakes to avoid as a new teacher. One of the biggest ones being that you need to remember you yourself need time to relax and need to be able to say no to certain tasks to not risk getting over run by your work.

Relate:

• What does it mean to be a qualified teacher?
• I think being a qualified teacher doesn't just include certification but it must include a want and passion to teach because without those two things you could become another bad teacher we all have experienced before. 
• How do you access qualifications?
• People can obtain the qualifications through schooling and a college degree.
• What is good teaching, and how is it measured?
• Good teaching is effective teaching. It includes having both your students learn the subject matter of the lesson, understand it, and feel comfortable using it.
• How do qualifications make a difference? What knowledge or skills would a qualified teacher possess that an unqualified teacher does not?
• Qualifications make a difference in the way that a qualified teacher has the ability to use the lessons they learned to conduct a classroom using techniques that are proven to be efficient while an unqualified teacher would be basically using guess work to replicate off what education they have experienced if any. 
• How do school systems that may have a paucity of "qualified teachers" (such as rural and urban schools) work to meet the requirements established by No Child Left Behind?
• School systems tend to work together with their community and each other to meet the requirements established by the No Child Left Behind act.