Kristopher Martin

CONCEPT 1:  Motivation  Summary Woolfolk defines motivation  on pages 462-63 in the text as "the processes that initiate direct, and sustain(ed) behavior." She furthers this concept of motivation as a set of processes by breaking it down into Intrinsic motivation (the natural human tendency to seek out and conquer challenges) - and Extrinsic motivation (when we do something to earn a grade, avoid punishment, please the teacher, or something else). Understanding how our students are motivated to complete work could mean the difference between success and failure. Woolfolk describes this idea saying that "teachers must encourage and nurture intrinsic motivation, while making sure that extrinsic motivates learning (Anderson & Anderman, 2014; Brophy, 2003)."  Reflection In light of everything going on, motivation has been hard for me to find. That's why I chose to focus on this aspect of the reading this final week. I think as the world evolves ...

CONCEPT 1: Metacognition  Summary In Chapter Nine Woolfolk discusses Complex Cognitive Processes and Metacognition . On page 341 of the text, Woolfolk defines metacognition as a "strategic application of declarative, procedural, and self-regulatory knowledge to accomplish goals and solve problems" - without processes like metacognition and problem solving  students cannot learn. She continues stating that "special kinds of procedural knowledge (metacognition)" (pg. 344) know as Learning Strategies exist to help students know how to use these processes. Applying these strategies by "teaching students directly to ensure that they are using and understanding them" (pg. 350) will "help students focus attention and effort, process information more deeply, and monitor their own understanding of the material" Reflection I think it all just accumulates toward: Do we care about how our students actually come to know, retain, and present knowle...

CONCEPT 1:  Behavior     Still from The Godfather  Summary On page 272 of out text Woolfolk discusses the "behavioral approach to learning" stating that approaches like applied behavioral analysis "are useful when the goal is to learn explicit information or change behaviors." She goes on in the same page to give us tools to use such as the ABAB design principle: "Take the baseline measurement of the behavior (A), then apply the intervention (B), then stop the intervention to see if the behavior goes back to the baseline level (A), and then reintroduce the intervention (B)." Woolfolk also cautions us on the idea of punishments on page 263 saying that they can have adverse effects to the goal, and can "serve as a model for aggressive responses, and negative emotional reactions." She goes so far to say it's "unethical" and that we as educators should be more focused on fostering an environment that "supports academic learn...

A Conversation with a Not-So-Ordinary Art Teacher Summary H eidi O'Hanley has been teaching for some thirteen years, and she's pretty much seen it all in the education world. Getting her start as a conservator restoring textiles, she discovered through the process of training her interns that she had a natural affinity for teaching. So she decided to go back to school and earned her Graduate Degree in Art Education from Columbia College Chicago . From there she became actively involved in the National and State Art Education Associations, in fact she was Student Chapter President for the National Art Education Association for three years, and is currently the Poster Chair Coordinator for the Illinois Art Education Association . (You can check out their website at the bottom of this blog.) Admitting that she became a teacher late in her career, now a Nationally Board Certified K-12 educator (one of only three in her district) she has more than made up for it. Heidi cur...

CONCEPT 1:  Intelligence    Summary Woolfolk discusses the idea of intelligence on page's 124-25 of our text as "one or more of three themes: The capacity to learn, the total knowledge a person has acquired, and the ability to adapt successfully to new situations and the environment  in general." Woolfolk continues wanting us to "notice how even these early definitions signal that intelligence can be increased, because it includes the total knowledge (a person) has acquired" Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence dictates that there are "at least eight separate forms of intelligence" which we can examine on page 126 of the text. "The eight intelligence's   are: linguistic  (verbal), musical, spatial, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic (movement), interpersonal (understanding others), intrapersonal (understanding self), and naturalist   (observing and understanding natural and human-made patterns and systems)" G...

CONCEPT 1: Diversity   Summary Right in the opening chapter, Woolfolk dives into the stats. On page 4, in quoting Erica Turner she writes: "American society and schools are more diverse and more unequal than ever." And while diversity in school may be rising, and issues of equity also on the rise, our teachers are increasingly becoming less diverse." Continuing Woolfolk points out that "even though students in classrooms are increasingly diverse in race, ethnicity, language, and economic growth level, teachers are much less diverse..." I find this alarming that our institutions do not reflect the multiple life experiences of our students. Representation is psychologically important for healthy development and "the percentage of White teachers is increasing, while the percentage of Black teachers is falling"... Reflection One question was always present throughout this chapter, and that was " What evidence is there that teachers make a di...