What?
Throughout chapter 3 and during class we talked about a lot of theories. The two that we focused on were Erik Erikson and Lawrence Kohlberg. Erikson has 8 stages that we looked at.

1. Trust vs. Mistrust=infancy
2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt=toddler years
3. Initiative vs. Guilt=Preschool years
4. Industry vs. Inferiority=Elementary School Years
5. Identity vs. Role Confusion=Adolescence
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation=Young Adulthood
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation=Middle age
8. Integrity vs. Despair=Retirement Years

Kohlberg has 3 levels with two different stages in each

Level One: Pre-conventional Morality

Stage 1: Punishment avoidance and obedience

Stage 2: Exchange of favors

Level Two: Conventional Morality

Stage 3: Good boy/good girl

Stage 4: Law and Order

Level Three: Post-Conventional Morality

Stage 5: Social Contract

Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principle

We also talked about the marshmallow test. That is when a child is left in a room with a marshmallow, what does the child do? Another thing that we talked about is how our brain remembers things. We learned different strategies to memorize these theories.

So what?
I believe that it is important to know the theories and to know that everyone is different. I took what Dr. Byrd told us and put it into practice. While studying for the test, I made flash cards and went to the gym to study. This helped me memorize everything that I had written down. This is the way that I want to study for every test. I was not able to go to the study groups so I know that I will do better on the next test.

Now what?
I have already made plans to meet with a study group every week. I hope to take the things that I have learned so far and apply it into my life as well as my teaching. By knowing the stages of development I can understand what stage my students will be in so that I can help them to my best ability.

Extra Credit
I went and saw Temple Grandin. She is an amazing lady. I was surprised by how well she did in a large group. I loved the insights that she gave about children with autism. She kept telling us that autism is so broad of a subject that we need to look at individual cases to help our students. We need to find their strengths and build from that. She stressed that communication and attention is the key. I liked how she told us that Grannies are one of the best people to be with an autistic child because she can sit with them and keep them company. Temple taught me that even though she has autism, she can be a normal person. She has her doctorate degree and has a job that she loves. I am really glad that I had the opportunity to listen to her.

Chapter 2 Learning Log

What?
This past week I learned a lot about the importance of the pruning of neuronetworks, brain plasticity, and the two theories. Pruning of neuronetworks is very important in the development of the brain. There are things that you need to remember and things that are not so important to remember. Like the example that Dr. Byrd gave in class, when we are on vacation we need to know our hotel room number. When we get home there is no use remembering that number so our brain prunes it/forgets it. On Monday I went and saw Rainman. This pruning does not occur in his brain. He remembers everything forever. Brain plasticity is an interesting concept. This means that the brain can keep growing all of our lives. It is up to us if it keeps growing. The saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks", is false. The two theories that we looked at were Piaget and Vygotsky. Piaget's theory was derived by watching his own children. He has the stages of development. Sensorimotor is from the ages 0 to 2. This is an important stage where the child learns using senses and experiment with trial and error. They also develop an understanding of cause and effect relationships. The next stage is Preoperational from the ages 2 to 7. In this stage the child has a hard time realizing that a teacher is a normal person and not just a teacher. This is called single classification. This is a lower level of thinking. One thing that the child believes is transductive reasoning. This means that they believe that one thing is directly related to another, for example; snow brings Christmas or cake means birthday. Concrete Operational is from the ages 7 to 11. This stage is still a lower level of thinking, but is preparing the brain for higher thinking. This is where the child works a lot on conversation. The child can now understand other people’s perspectives and start to think more deeply. The final stage is Formal Operational from 12+. This is where the brain is able to think abstract and hypnotically. Vygotsky's theory talks a lot about relationships, the relationship between adult and child as well as child to child. Relationships are very important. Guided Participation is where the adult helps the child. He talks about the power of play. Running outside, role play, playing at the park are ways to help our children develop. We also learned about ZPD, zone of proximal development. This is the space between what a child knows and what a child will know with the help of an adult or capable individual. It is important to have challenging experiences to help the child learn.

So What?

This information is very helpful to me to become a teacher. With this information I am able to plan lesson plans appropriate to the level that the child is on. I will have a better understanding of what activities would be appropriate in my classroom.

Now What?

I am glad that we are able to take this class in the beginning of the cohort. With this knowledge I know that I will be a better student which in turn will make me a better teacher. This class has just started but has opened my eyes to new ideas and a new way of thinking.

Rainman
I am so glad that I had the opportunity to go see this man. I have always been interested in the brain so to see someone that can remember everything that he sees is amazing. I was amazed that he could tell people how to get to a certain destination and he knew the names of the roads. I would love to spend a day with him and pick at his brain. I was very impressed with his father and how much his father does for him. I was not impressed with the questions that were asked at the end. Overall I loved it!

Learning Log

What?

I learned so much in class last week! Learning about the brain is so interesting. There are many different parts of the brain and each part has a specific role. We were able to research in pairs about a specific part of the brain. This was a very good way of letting the students teach themselves and others. In my group we looked up Amygdala. This one-inch almond shaped part of the brain is located in the temporal lobe. It is important because it deals with memory, emotion and fear. After looking up our part of the brain, we were able to get into groups and discuss all parts of the brain. I never knew how complex the brain is. After this lesson, the brain makes more sense to me.

There are four different studies that we read and studied; descriptive, correlational, experimental, and action research. We made a chart and also had a bell quiz about these. With these studies we can become better teachers because we will have background knowledge on how students learn and preform.

So What?

With the knowledge that I obtain this week I am more prepared to be a better teacher by understanding how the mind works and how to assess my students. This will give me a chance to know what level a student is and help that student progress in his or her learning. I believe that these topics were chosen because it is so crucial to the development of children to be taught at there own level. That is why we as teachers need to know the level of the child and help them.

Now What?

There is so much that still needs to be learned. This is a life long process but I believe that we are off to a good start. By learning the development of the brain we know that to increase our knowledge we first must know where to store all our information. While growing up I had teachers explain that out minds are like a library with unlimited files. We must keep all of our files organized or we will just have a big mess. I believe that teacher was right. We all have the ability to learn and remember things throughout our lives, we just need to keep it organized. By knowing this I am able to teach this to my students and help them organize their thoughts so that they can learn. I also will be able to use the different studies and apply them to my teaching so that I can be the best teacher for my students.