Module 1 Activity 4

I found this activity really great,as a teacher, student behaviour is a main concern and being reminded of  the ways to control the students' behaviour in class is always appreciated. I learned  more about positive reinforcement, punishments and rewards which I will try to implement in my classroom in the future. In addition, looking at the other ccti participants group comments I  was really inspired to use some of their strategies since they worked so well for them. I really hope they work for me since being able to change students behaviour for the better is a really rewarding part of being a teacher.

Module 1 Activity 3

Activity 3 really reminded me of some of the things I have learned a few years ago. I  was reminded that students learn in many ways and by observing is a main one especially when children are young they learn mostly by observing and mimicking what they see happening around them. I used this information to model good behaviour in and out of the classroom, this information influenced the way I teach and work examples for younger children.

It was a great activity and my colleagues comments in the blog was also very interesting and insightful, I am even considering using some of their ideas on modelling in my classes in the future.

Module 1 Activity 2 - information processing

This activity looked at how we learn/how we process information and by going through the self  activity I got to realise that in order to remember certain information we need to associate it, make a connection with something that we know; I could not have remembered the letters but after it was organised into words, it was soo much easier. I can use this when teaching my students, I must always try to relate what I teach with that students already know because we all know students are not empty vessels. I will try to help students decode and store what i teach in their long term memory by making giving them things they can relate to.

Module 1 Activity 1

The most powerful lessons that I learnt during this activity:

During this activity I was reminded in the readings about how students learn and that we as teachers need to be constantly thinking of ways to meet our students’ needs and how to keep them motivated. I was also reminded that we are only facilitators/guides; our students are not empty vessels waiting to be filled.

From going through the comments section of the group blog I have realized that quite a number of teachers have been motivated and influenced by the change in students behaviours towards learning based on that change in methodology/pedagogical approaches that was implemented.

Children are our finest teachers. They already know how to grow, how to develop, how to learn, how to expand and discover, how to feel, laugh, cry and get mad, what is right for them and what is not right for them, what they need. They already know how to love and be joyful and live life to its fullest. To work and be strong and full of energy. All they need is the space to do it.

Very interesting paragraph, tells us that students are not as empty as we think they are. Given the right guide we can bring out the knowledge in them and help them improve on what they already know. We simply need to give them the chance express what they know.