Nearly to the end!

Well I am near the end of my first study period and I have to say that I have really enjoyed it. I am looking at things from a different perspective now, even my own children. Can’t wait to learn more….only another 3 and a bit more years to go 😉

Motivation

Wow, This week for our discussion board topic we had to design a creative way to show everyone about what the key points about motivation were! What a doosey! I ended up doing a powerpoint presentation but still had to put a lot of info into it! So much to know!

Basically if a student has no motivation to learn, they just simply will not try!

If the subject is interesting in some way to them, they will put in the effort but if it does not capture their attention or interest them, they are less likely to be motivated to put the effort in to learn.

If a teacher puts the subject into real life situations, the student may become more interested, but not all. If the subject makes them curious, or they are fascinated by it, they may become motivated.

However if they are thinking about something else, something as simple as hunger or needing to go to the toilet, they will not be able to concentrate in being motivated on anything else until this need is met.

Behavourism

This week we have been learning about Behavourism. How children are conditioned in a way to learn. They need Positive reinforcement and teachers can unintentionally give negative reinforcement by simply referring a question on to another student if the first student they asked “didn’t know” what the answer was.
We also read about punishment. Different forms of punishment, who would have thought that emabarrassing or humiliating someone would be classed as a form of punishment? Just joking! As a teacher of course if you embarrass or humiliate a student even if it is unintentional could be construed as a form of punishment. Children learn by doing, they need praise for doing a good job, not too much, just enough to make them feel good about the job they have done inspiring them to keep doing a good job. They also need to learn that if they do the wrong thing there will be consequences for their actions. First impressions on children CAN really make a difference, it can set them up for the rest of their schooling career, whether it be from a bad experience or more hopefully from a great experience!

Piaget and Vygotsky

This week we started to learn about Piaget and Vgotsky, try saying those names over and over again! There is alot to learn but I am finding it ok as I can reference some of the topics covered to real life experiences that I have had with my children. They both have their own theories on how to teach the students, more so how the students learn. I learnt a new word this week, which has stuck in my head for some reason, it is “rote learning” bascially it just means that students are lectured about the subject they are learning and they just memorize what they are told! Sounds a bit like how I was taught at school!
Anyway I am enjoying my uni experience, hopefully I will be able to keep on top of things. This week coming it is my babies 5th Birthday. She has told me I can’t do any uni work on her birthday, so we will see how that goes.

I have started; finally!

Wow, I have finally started, I am now on my way to becoming a teacher. I may be studying for the next approx. 3.5 years but hey, the end result I think is worth it. I am finding this first week interesting, there is alot to take in, assignments to start already!!!! I can do it!! I can do IT!!! maybe if I keep saying this as my mantra, it will make it happen??? 🙂 One can only hope.