EDP 3273 Post #2

In the last two modules in class we have discussed moral development and brain development, I decided to write about moral development. Some of the topics I found interesting were: "what values do we want to teach?", developing character, and activities to build moral values. So lets start with the first one, "what values do we wanna teach?", some that were mentioned were, honesty, respect for others, and compassion. I have found that in life, it is quite important to be honest. My parents always told me that honesty was the best policy. When being faced with telling the truth or lying, it is sometimes hard to be truthful when you are scared of the consequences, but I have always told my children that I would rather know the truth now then find out later. I follow the same direction with the students I have been observing. I stress that telling the truth is best and would benefit them the most. The second value I chose was respect for others. When children are developing their morals, it is important for them to know that respecting others is quite impairitive. Being treated with respect is a common value we all take for granted. This value reminds me of how my parents used to tell me to treat people how you want to be treated. So in the classroom, respect is going to be the number one rule. The last value was to teach compassion. In the world we live in right now, times are changing around us quicker than ever. Kids need to know how to show compassion to others, especially others that don't look the same as them or don't have the same things as them. Compassion is a value that will help make a child a good person in the future. The second topic I found interesting was developing character. As a teacher we wear many hats, outside of being a teacher we also are caregivers, models, and mentors. Holding those titles helps us to develop character in our students. In our classroom, we can teach values through curriculum, teach conflict resolution, and also create a moral community. The classroom that I work in (observe in)- the teacher has created a very structured environment that helps build morals. The final topic I chose was activities to build moral values. One of the activities mentioned in this module was responsibilities around the class such as cleaning up, cleaning toys, tidying desk or bookshelf. Doing so teaches the students responsibilities and values. In the classroom I work in, we have a business. Each week the students prepare and sell cake pops. We roatate jobs and the students learn all aspects of the process. We take inventory each week, we buy supplies, we make the cake pops, and we sell them during lunch periods to the other students at the school. The students I work with are at Kohlberg's Postconventional step, stage 5. They know that rules are social contracts and they are seeing that they can be bent if and when they need to be.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EDP 3273 Blog #1

As I reflect on the last few sections we have covered in this class, what stands out most would be when we talked about psychology in education and it effects on the way students learn. It helps give teachers an inside track on each students strengths and weaknesses. During this module, I spoke with a teacher friend of mine about biases and student files. She said she never reads the file prior to meeting the students so that she does not have a skewed view of them. From experience, I have worked in schools for the last 6 years, we’ve had several small classes so looking at their IEP’s prior to them coming in, we were able to get an idea of what behaviors might occur in the classroom. On several different occasions, the IEP did not match the child. So, when I begin teaching I may look at the files in order to be thorough but I will make my own judgments once they children arrive in the classroom. I’ve noticed that children grow and with the growth sometimes the behaviors get better. ...
Read more

EDP 3273 Blog #4

In Unit 6 of the book, we read about classroom management & grouping. In the last few weeks, I have been able to put into action some of the things I have read about in the classroom in which I work. I have also been able to see how it affects the students in their academics and socially.  When planning a lesson, it is always important to have a plan for how to handle unwanted behaviors. Even when you think the lesson will go smoothly, your best student could turn the lesson around quickly. That is why it is pertinent that you have a plan on how to redirect any unnecessary behaviors. In my current classroom, I was asked to plan a small group lesson for our English 1 students who have trouble reading. These students were grouped together by the ability grouping method. The teacher provided me with a reading comprehension worksheet that has a small blurb about a science topic with about 5 questions at the end. The worksheet of the day was “How old are trees?”. To begin the lesso...
Read more

EDP 3273 Post #3

Do the children in your internship reflect the stage assigned to their age group? The age group I am currently working with is teenagers, so they would be in the Formal Operational Stage of Piaget's theory . The children in my class are definitely preoccupied with their biological changes in growth and sexual development. They can understand that nothing is absolute, everything is relative. Are students given the opportunity to construct knowledge by actively exploring their environments? In my classrooms specifically, the teachers are all about allowing the students to explore their environments. We do a lot of hands-on stuff in the classroom to help build life skills. Our students are in the ESE program and they attend the Access Points program. We help the students build social emotional skills on a daily basis as well. In the recent modules, we have explored quite a few theories in regard to development. We had to compare Vygotsky's and Piaget's theories. I think ...
Read more