Week One- Reflections

The Webinar by Judy Willis looked at addressing the challenges of getting children engaged in education by providing information on the way the brain works, filtering the huge amount of information it takes in and providing practical advice on how to bypass these filters to ensure our students are learning and not suffering from boredom, frustration with the content and stress. The reading was also centred around the way the brain works and the importance of education to build up skills.

The main points that I took from this Webinar and reading were:

• To get past the Reticular Activating System (RAS), we need to offer new and interesting ideas, concepts and lessons to bring students in. This filter will prioritise potential danger, so providing a safe learning environment is key;
• The Amygdala is the next filter within the brain which responds positively to things of interest, relevance and pleasure. This builds on the function of the RAS. This part of the brain responds poorly to stress including the fear of being wrong, test-taking anxiety, frustration with difficult material and boredom;
• The Webinar outlined practical strategies to combat the above identified issues;
• Children do have strengths and weaknesses in their brains and by helping a child hone their abilities, you can actually change their brain; and
• Different brains respond in different ways when given the same problem.

Considerations for my classroom

I believe that in order to achieve the best from each student, a teacher needs to take into account a number of things. Teachers need to form relationships with their students. They need to know when a student is stressed so that they can actively provide solutions to calm them down and allow them to learn at their best. 

Additionally, as mentioned in the Webinar, building a relationship with your student provides you the opportunity to make the learning personalised- offering a way to bring a complicated idea back to "real life" so that the student can better understand it. Teachers need to know their students in order to offer their brains the ability to tie the new information to pre-existing concepts allowing for them to build up knowledge. Our brain, after all, is a big filing cabinet.

As discussed in the Webinar, the brain will respond poorly to potential danger and stress. I will be setting up a safe environment for my students which will incorporate the use of a safe place that they can go to should outside stress be affecting them. I will also establish procedures that will assist in calming them down. I will endeavour to be there for my students, offering encouragement and support on both a personal and professional level. I am not someone who can stand on the sideline and watch someone suffer.

Throughout my education, I have found that I suffer from boredom. This Webinar and reading has explained to me what is actually happening and this is key to student learning. As a teacher, I will be faced with content that will not be of interest to myself or my students, however the challenge will be to find ways of provoking curiosity. I believe that through the use of good teaching strategies and ICT, this can happen. For those students that finish their work fast, I would provide additional fun exercises such as a puzzle of the day or extension reading. 

Through the developments in technology over the past 10 years, I believe that learning opportunities for children have diversified. With the development of apps, Facebook and PinInterest, teachers are now able to work collaboratively with other teachers to share and develop teaching resources. I am a member of a group that posts approximately 10 questions a day where teachers from around the world post their experiences, knowledge and links to assist their collegues. 

ICTs are also an important medium for incorporating into lessons and for communication with our students. It can allow teachers to assess where students are up to based on online assessments, as well as provide homework online. They can help personalise a concept for students and provide practical applications. I believe that ICTs are important and will be incorporated in my classroom to assist with students that excel in this medium, whilst developing the skills of other students. As per the reading, by helping a child hone their abilities, you can change their brain.

Traditional Classrooms 

I am not going to offer much in the way of commentary on the "traditional classroom" as I feel that as a teacher, you need to adapt constantly to the changes in your students and the dynamic that they bring to your classroom. If you are not actively doing this, your students will suffer. I believe that by entering into such an important profession, you are very much accountable for your students reaching their potential and should be actively seeking ways to push and extend each student. 

(I do realise that there are cases where you may have little control over your students and their learning, but in these cases I believe that you still need to set personal learning goals for them, even if it is just getting them to sit in the classroom for a period of time without disturbing the other children.)

Learning Theories

When asked the question of which learning theory (behaviourism, cognitivism, social constructivism and connectivism) will best inform successful learning approaches, my answer is that they all have their place in education. Building on the concepts outlined in the Webinar and readings for this week, I would argue that each is important particularly given the wide range of learning styles that I will encounter throughout my teaching career, as well in each individual classroom.