Reflection

When I started this class eight weeks ago I was of the mind that my personal theory of learning was mostly constructivist. The core principle for the constructivist approach is that “knowledge is unique to the individual who constructs it” (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2008, pg. 16). Now that I have learned more about other learning theories I think that my personal learning theory is still strongly constructivist but it also contains parts of each theory. I use behaviorism as classroom management and sometimes as motivation. I see the role of contructionism and the importance of student’s creating artifacts that they can share with others.

One adjustment that I will make in regards to my integration of technology is that I will make more of an effort to make my students the creators. They can help create PowerPoints, publish stories on Word, and help write on a class blog. The norm has been that I create all presentations for the class, but if by turning technology over to them I can increase their engagement and understanding in a lesson I will certainly do it. Since the brain seeks meaningful patterns, making information meaningful will help students to remember it. These tools help to create networks in their brains through concrete experiences, and the more networks to information that we can create the better chance students have of retrieving it later (Laureate, 2008).

One of my long term goals I would like to make in my instructional practice is to let my students create more. I said it before in the previous paragraph, but as a teacher of young students with limited technology in my classroom this is a very big goal for me. This will take a lot of very careful planning on my part. I will have to create organized lessons to teach my students how to use the technology and have them practice using it. Once they are comfortable using technology such as PowerPoint or Word, I will create projects where I give my students a subject such as a letter of the alphabet and they create a power point for that letter with minimal teacher help.

A second long term goal for me is to integrate Web 2.0 technologies. I currently do not do any of those technologies in my classroom. I would like to start a classroom blog next year where I can inform parents of our weekly activities and we can highlight students who did exemplary work for the week. This is actually not very difficult to do. I just need to set up a blog account and then make the commitment to update it weekly. The real key will be to do the blog with my students where they are helping to add information and create a website they can be proud of and excited about.

References
Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Program number 2. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. [Motion Picture]. Brain research and learning. Baltimore.