Module 5
Chapter twelve talked about motivation in learning and teaching! Just like the title says, this chapter full with information about motivation in the classroom and how to get our students motivated. There a couple of things that I was able to take away from this chapter, for example, I was not familiar with the technical term intrinsic (a motivation associated with activities that are their own reward) and extrinsic (a motivation created by external factors such as rewards and punishments), obviously, as a student I have witnessed both of these during my education. Intrinsic motivation is the one that everyone as a teacher wishes to accomplish, it's very hard though, as a student I find hard to really get into certain subjects, biology for example! ugh, just by writing it I'm already bored, but some people are not! I am a music teacher and believe it or not, there are people who just do not like music, learning how to play an instrument, reading notes, history of music, etc (shocking, I know) but everyone will encounter students who are not interested in the subject they majored in college. Now, I learned that having extrinsic motivation is not at all wrong. We can definitely use it but not all the times and we have to be careful when to use it.
Chapter fourteen talked about knowing how to teach and differentiating. This chapter speaks immensely about teaching approaches, differentiating instruction, planning and knowing how to teach. As a first year teacher, this is something I'm still learning, even colleagues that I know who have a couple of years teaching are still learning this as well. The truth is, that everything takes time, of course, we can prepare our lessons, read, do our research, but to become an expert teacher it takes time just like Woolfolk mentions in the textbook. Knowing how to differentiate instruction is crucial for a child's learning experience. In my classroom I have several students with different learning needs (IEP's) and it's a lot of work when I have to know all students from prek-8th grade. I try to do my best, and I always seek for advice to my fellow colleagues to learn more about a particular student and learning what works best for them. It may seem a lot of work but it's definitely possible, in a classroom is always better to be over-prepared in a lesson and really have extra materials for those students who need differentiated instruction rather than assume that everyone learns the same way.
Chapter fifteen talks about my favorite topic -- Assessments (not really). Honestly, for a very long time I had this idea that assessments are horrible because I immediately thought of standardized tests (which are indeed horrible), but the truth is that no! There are summative, interim, formal and informal assessments, and these help us as teachers know where our students are struggling and modify the way we teach or the material we are teaching. The major problem here is standardized tests, because not everyone is good a time limit test taking (ME, for example), and it's annoying how some districts evaluate their teachers based on the test scores, when sometimes a teacher may have students who are way below their grade level or other similar situations. Honestly, I have a bad experience with standardized tests that almost made me want to quit becoming a teacher because I couldn't pass a "simple" basic skills test. It made me feel worthless, unintelligent, and rejected. I can only imagine how students much younger than me feel when they take these as early as in 2nd grade! Overall, what I enjoyed about the chapter was about the authentic classroom assessments (page 602).
Chapter fourteen talked about knowing how to teach and differentiating. This chapter speaks immensely about teaching approaches, differentiating instruction, planning and knowing how to teach. As a first year teacher, this is something I'm still learning, even colleagues that I know who have a couple of years teaching are still learning this as well. The truth is, that everything takes time, of course, we can prepare our lessons, read, do our research, but to become an expert teacher it takes time just like Woolfolk mentions in the textbook. Knowing how to differentiate instruction is crucial for a child's learning experience. In my classroom I have several students with different learning needs (IEP's) and it's a lot of work when I have to know all students from prek-8th grade. I try to do my best, and I always seek for advice to my fellow colleagues to learn more about a particular student and learning what works best for them. It may seem a lot of work but it's definitely possible, in a classroom is always better to be over-prepared in a lesson and really have extra materials for those students who need differentiated instruction rather than assume that everyone learns the same way.
Chapter fifteen talks about my favorite topic -- Assessments (not really). Honestly, for a very long time I had this idea that assessments are horrible because I immediately thought of standardized tests (which are indeed horrible), but the truth is that no! There are summative, interim, formal and informal assessments, and these help us as teachers know where our students are struggling and modify the way we teach or the material we are teaching. The major problem here is standardized tests, because not everyone is good a time limit test taking (ME, for example), and it's annoying how some districts evaluate their teachers based on the test scores, when sometimes a teacher may have students who are way below their grade level or other similar situations. Honestly, I have a bad experience with standardized tests that almost made me want to quit becoming a teacher because I couldn't pass a "simple" basic skills test. It made me feel worthless, unintelligent, and rejected. I can only imagine how students much younger than me feel when they take these as early as in 2nd grade! Overall, what I enjoyed about the chapter was about the authentic classroom assessments (page 602).
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