Lesson 2 | education-class-port

EDUC 2130-Lesson 2:

Teachers and Teaching

Overview Viewpoint:

Lesson two of EDUC 2130 focuses on the influences that teachers have on students. This is the first of many assignments that Anita Woolfork podcast would of been used to answer the questions. It consists of the research that anita did on students and the research that she found. This also focuses on the importance of getting to know your teachers and how much it helps with their education.

Think of a teacher you had who influenced you. What made this person a good teacher? I've had many teachers that influenced me but just naming one I would say Mr.Bean. My senior year my only focus was to graduate, in fact that was my whole focus throughout high school. Mr. Beans class was a technology class but it talked a lot about logistics. Mr. Bean wanted us to see our futures outside of high school and focused on the careers that we wanted. So a lot of our stuff focused on business and opportunities. He took our classes on field trips to the georgia ports and other job sites. He also had many opportunites for students to get jobs under hospitality, working at 5 star hotels and other places. Even getting many students internships. He wanted us to see the real world and to show us how education is important but for those who feel like its not for them that they have options too. He was a major help for many of us in understand how going after our dreams is important and how we shouldn’t be scared but we have to be careful and make the right decisions in life.
Students often identify teachers who were not very personable or approachable as among their most effective teachers. Is it possible to be personable, caring and effective? When would it be a liability to be personable or approachable? When would it be an advantage?
I personally believe that it is possible for a teacher to be personable caring and effective. I think it’s a liability to be personable and approachable when students are having a hard time with figuring something out. You have to let them know that its ok. Sometimes you have to tell students your own experiences like you used to have troubles with a certain area of something and how you defeated that problem. I think when teachers do that the student becomes more comfortable and tries a little harder.

Podcast questions:
What does Anita describe as the goal of educational psychology?
Anita describes the goal of educational psychology is to go beyond the personal experience. During the podcast she stated that students should be learning systematically and scientifically. Learning systematically can help break things down for the student better. Learning scientifically can possibly help with going more in detail with their work.
Anita mentions some compelling research. What was the research and how did it affect the students?
The research was done on a group elementary students in Tennessee that had what they called "caring teachers" that would do things like asked if something was wrong and would do other things that would make the students know that they cared. They did this on the 3rd graders until they got to the 5th grade. They found that the average mathematic achievement test score was in the 96 percentile for students that had very effective teachers. However, students who had lest effective teachers scored at the 44th percentile. Teacher engagement is what helps the students.
Anita describes 8-10 methods teachers could employ to help create student success. These methods help to foster what she describes as the single most significant predictor of student success. In your opinion, describe 2 or 3 of the most important methods she mentions in her Podcast.
In my opinion the most important methods she used checking on the students progress, making sure that the student knows that they belong in the classroom, and showing that the teacher cares. I have to agree that a teachers relation with a student could be a lifeline for them. It could save them because sometimes outside of the school it can be rough for them and the teacher might be the only person that they got. Checking on the students progress should be important, it lets the student know that you want them to do good. Making sure that the student knows that they belong in the classroom can be hard sometimes. Some student don’t feel like they do because they might have low self esteem or someone is putting them down so they don’t feel smart enough to be there. That’s why its important for them to know that it important for them to know that they do belong and that they do have someone who has their back.

Summary

This lesson focuses on showing that you care for a student helps them in the long run. The lesson gives you pointers on ways of making the student feel comfortable and letting them know that they can succeed. Anita's methods that she described is very important for the student. They really do help with student success. The importance of showing a student that you care can make or break them. When they have teachers that are less effective they don’t perform the best but when they have effective teachers they perform better. I want to be a effective teacher and a good influence on my students.

Research Question

How does getting to know a student help them?

Research Analysis

When you know your students, you have a better understanding of their special needs, learning preferences and styles, relevant prior experience, and practical issues that will play a role in the class.People learn best when they feel safe and known. If a student is afraid a response to a question or problem is not acceptable, he or she will not function at the highest level. Some research that was found was that reason why students thought it was important for teachers to get to know their students was so that they would know them as people. They felt it was important for their teacher to know them so that they could help them when they were upset, having a difficult time with friends or the other things that were going on in their busy lives. They felt it was important to know and understand their interests, hobbies, and what was important to them so that a teacher could treat them with kindness and respect.

Understanding students is very important to teaching. In order to plan how to teach your students or ways to present a subject in an interesting manner a teacher needs to know what motivates the students, what background the students are brining to the classroom, as well as the students interests. While students themselves are the most responsible for their own learning, good teachers should also accept responsibility for the learning of their students. Colleges and universities cannot focus solely on the delivery of content while assigning all responsibility for learning to the students. Teachers can do much to encourage and enhance learning both in classrooms and laboratories and outside of them. Teachers who continually try to understand their audiences and to address student interests, deficiencies, and misconceptions will be the most successful in helping students to meet their own responsibilities to learn.

Summary

The research I founded stated many different things. One that I didn’t really notice until now that it is important for us to teach or students that we do care for them because once the students go off to college they may not get to see that stuff from their professors so they wont necessarily have that encouragement depending on where they go. Colleges and universities do not focus on a students diversity and learning ability so its important for us to help they students figure out the way they learn before they go off to college. I noticed more things in the research that I found also and it made some really good points on why its important for teachers to get to know our students. One exampled I liked that they gave was that you have to put yourself in a child's shoes and that your not going to open up and say much to someone if you don’t know them. So that’s why its important for you to get to know your students.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/columnists/mcdonald/mcdonald013.shtml

http://www.nap.edu/read/5287/chapter/9