Module 1

Module 1:

This first Chapter in Woolfolk is a great introduction into the world of Educational Psychology.  It has excellent points on what we should be beginning to think about.  The examples of different situations are helpful along with the text because it makes it relatable to a real situation.  “What Makes a Good Teacher” shows many different situations where being a good teacher includes different things.  I am fortunate in the sense that my children are not linguistically behind or anything like that, but I like to believe that I would try to work with that student to help them; our school is fortunately becoming more diverse so this may be something we need to come back to in the future.  I also think Danielson’s Frameworks for Teaching (p. 10) are things that i can relate to.  I have knowledge of my students; I spend everyday with the same 19 students without changing classes or anything like that.  I am also fortunate that not only do I see their childhood development, since it is a K-8 school, I also am able to see their development into adolescents and can help the other teachers with my knowledge of their history.

I think the things that concern me are the studies.  I am fearful of being assessed on my end.  I am still a new teacher and have thousands of things still to learn.  Reading the sections on the research and case studies makes me nervous of things that I will have to change; but at the same time improving myself can only help my students.  Education is only improving and with acts like No Child Left Behind, or Obama’s redux, standards are only changing to help improve the process for the students.  What may help even before that is the understanding behind the cognitive development and the study of the brain.  Studying what parts of the brain controls what, and how processing occurs can help teachers make decisions on how to teach material that will be best received by the specifically aged children the are catering to.  Woolfolk mentions how babies are born with a brain one third the size of an adults, and as I am teaching children who are only 4 and 5, I need to understand that although I might be able to comprehend some things, they are still developing and need a lot more growth before things that are simple to me, might be simple to them (p. 35).  I also need to add it their emotional age and consider their outside thoughts while teaching.  I see the struggles.  According to Piaget my students would be in the Preoperational stage of development, and that means they are working on expressing themselves using objects and symbols, but relating it back to time and relating to others is very difficult (p. 47).  I can see in my classroom where all of these things are coming together, and it can cause major issues.

I think in the third chapter it is important to think about the outside and social aspects that might factor into children’s development.  How parents raise their children is also a factor, are they more permissive or authoritarian, or are they not really involved at all (p. 83).  I have seen all types of parents in my different roles here at school.  As a teacher sometimes you have to take on another role for the children if they are lacking something at home.  It becomes difficult to navigate teaching within some of those instances.  I think with so many things coming at us it is amazing that there are still people who choose this profession.  I think these chapters have been a good introduction into the world of teaching, and some of the things that go into it.  I am excited to see what other situations the text brings up in further chapters.