teachertan

  Cognitive Learning Theories In my fifth-grade classroom, we are going through a Social Studies project on becoming an expert of the country of their choice. As I am teaching virtually this school year, everything is digital and online. The platform that I am using to have students submit their work is called Seesaw. Seesaw is a tool where I am able to assign, grade, and post work for the students to engage and interact with their schoolwork and content. Dr. Orey discussed that an important component of cognitive learning theory is elaboration, which is the “process of building connections to store information” (Laureate Education, 2015c). Another component of cognitive learning theory is dual coding hypothesis, which demonstrates how   images can be a powerful tool to use in the classroom as our senses are used. As I am using virtual field trips to help my students use their senses through their research, the connection of using a graphic organizer helps students verbal...

  Behaviorism is a theory that “ emphasize changes in behavior that result from stimulus-response associations made by the learner” (Orey, 2010, p.271). Watson and Skinner are two behaviorists that came up with the theory that “human behavior resulted from specific stimuli that elicited certain responses” (Orey, 2010, p.271). The use of behaviorism in the classroom is using the instructional strategy of adopting the model of “rewarding desirable behaviors and punishing inappropriate ones” (Orey, 2010, p.271).  Another instructional strategy that is under observational learning is the use of modeling. When students observe from their peers or adults around them, they “acquire many favorable and unfavorable responses” (Orey, 2010, p. 275).  This is a learning strategy that can be beneficial to both the teacher and to students as students “work for things that bring them positive feelings” or “approval from people they admire” (Orey, 20101, p. 276). With the use of technolog...

  Reflective Essay By engaging in the resources of this course, I was able to incorporate technology in creative ways that I have not even been able to think of. For instance, using Twitter and social media as a tool in the classroom was not something I thought could be a incorporated for school learning. Even though I am immersed in technology and social media myself, I had a perception that social media is a distraction for students. This course helped me reset my mind into viewing social media as another tool to connect my students and collaborate with a large audience in class. I learned that “I don’t have to be a master at every piece of software that I use” in order to effectively use technology in the classroom (Laureate Education, 2015). Instead, technology is a tool that can help engage my students in their learning journey in school as well as a tool to help me continue my growth in teaching. I found using the resource of social bookmarking helpful as a tool to organize...

My name is Chea-Lene Tan and this is my third year teaching 5 th grade. This year, I am teaching 5 th Grade, and want to try to create a blog for Social Studies Writing. I have already created a blog this year mostly for parent communication. The blog that I already have was created mostly to give updates and information about what is happening in the classroom. However, I want to create a blog that has a focus on student learning as well.  The purpose of a social studies blog would serve in my classroom is for students to be able to share their writing for social studies about current events. I want to be able to create a collaborative space for students to be able to share their writing and give feedback to one another through the comment section. As Richardson mentioned in the list of classroom uses of weblogs,   I want to be able to “create a dynamic teaching site” that is filled with “discussion topics, links to additional information about topics they are studying in c...