A Reflection On The Semester

Another challenge educator’s encounter is the cultural gap that is between students and teachers. It is important for educators to understand that some culturally diverse children may need things explained to them in a different way for them to gain an understanding.

My observation for the spring semester was placed at Pine Richland High School. I was able to watch over John Dolphin’s twelfth grade British literature course. John Dolphin has been teaching at Pine Richland for the past eighteen years. I went to observe his class three times. Two out of three of those visits I was able to be at the school all day long to really get the feel of the way it is like to be at the school all day and seeing the difference of his eight classes. Throughout my time there I learned different strategies on how to keep the students involved, the way that a school of this size is ran, and the difference of how John taught compared to my previous observation teacher.

A second strength of the sociocultural perspective is the emphasis on the role of adults in childhood cognitive development through guided participation. Vygotsky introduced the idea that children learn in a zone of proximal development. Meaning the distance between what an individual can do alone and what they can do with guidance and assistance from a capable member of society (Mcleod, 2010). Any skills outside the zone would be already mastered or still too difficult to attempt alone. “To Vygotsky, learning in collaboration with more knowledgeable companions drives cognitive development (Sigelman).” This is true throughout the world. Children in many cultures learn from a teacher, from family members, and many others. In other cultures, children learn skills from relatives, members of their village or tribe, or from other skilled members in their group. This perspective satisfies the need to recognize the role of adults in

Cultural differences pose several barriers for students and may impair their opportunity to learn. These barriers are created by differences in language expression, communication style, preferred learning style, gender-role customs and behaviors, and limited parental involvement due to these cultural or socioeconomic barriers

Overall, the theories, methods and strategies learned throughout this program have allowed me to be a better teacher in the sense that I don’t look at the whole picture anymore. I pick apart each piece of puzzle to see how I can better each student as an individual. This will let my students to become investors in their education, as well as allow me to become a better teacher.

Hispanic-American learning style is limited because it mainly focused on Mexican-American only. Hispanic-American have 21 elements of learning style grouped into 5 categories they are as follows: 1. Environmental learning style elements include sound, temperature, design, and light., 2. Emotional learning style elements include responsibility, structure, persistence, and motivation., 3. Sociological learning style elements are concerned with the social patterns in which one learns., 4. Physiological learning style elements relate to time of day, food and drink intake, perception, and mobility., 5. Psychological learning style elements relate to global versus analytical processing. The construct of field dependence/ independence is a component

Cook gave a lecture on Mental and Emotional Health. I really enjoyed his lecture because he used a personal example of him and when his father died. He was using his personal experience to explain to the students how he dealt with his father’s passing and how he got professional help. Before Mr. Cook’s lecture, he showed the students a crash course video on YouTube about emotions, stress, and health that would tie into the lesson. Throughout the lesson, Mr. Cook would ask the students questions and they would also ask him questions. What really caught my attention this week is Mr. Cook’s teaching style. I really feel like he knows the material and that he is well prepared. In my opinion, it is like he knows that book forwards and backwards. I also noticed that the students are not required to take notes like the students at my previous field experience was required to. Overall, I had a great first week and I look forward to learning more about Mr. Cook and his methods of

Teachers must learn about their student’s cultures if they want to educate them to the best of their ability. Many of the students in culturally diverse classrooms will want to learn in different ways. Some will want to learn in pairs, groups, as a class, or just alone. If the teacher is educated in their culture then lessons can be adjusted to appeal to every student as much as possible instead of forcing some to forget about their culture and learn like others. Students from

The approach is based on the idea that an individual’s activities occurs in a cultural context and can be best understood in their historical development (Kagitcibasi, 2012). Vygotsky developed this theory with the intent of coming up with a way to explain human behavior. The theory examined various subjects including the psychology of art, thought and language; and also focused on education of students with special needs. Vygotsky believed that caregivers, parents, peers, and culture at large play an important role in developing an individual’s higher order functions. There are various modern time interpretations of this theory with one focused on explaining human development. In this context, the sociocultural theory explains that learning is a social process and the society makes a significant contribution to individual development. The theory states that learning is based on interactions with other people and once this has happened, the information is then incorporated on a personal level (Hutchison,

It begins when a teacher recognizes the cultural capital and tools students of color bring to the classroom. She is then able to respond to students' use of these cultural learning tools positively by noticing, naming, and affirming when students use them in the service of learning.” The idea is for teachers to form a partnership of learning with the student, to facilitate the growth of the student’s neuroplasticity. Properly intellectually stimulated, a student will grow millions of new brain cells; brain cells with trillions of synaptic connections that will enable the student to think in more intellectually sophisticated

Over the course of this class I have pieced together many things about my own life that before went unnoticed. I am now able to see things in a bit of a different light. Now that I have been introduced to the realm of psychology I understand some of the reasons for behavior around me. I have learned that there is a reason for most everything and a lot of our behaviors and mental processes can be explained through psychology. Studies have been conducted for many years to try and pinpoint the source of our behavior and it is not something that most people think about every day. Having a better understanding of why we operate the way we do will help me to better understand myself and the others around me.

What did you learn this semester? The golden question from all friends and family members when you come home for breaks. One would think that since my first language is English, writing papers would be easy. It should be, but it is not. I have learned that my writing was not as good as I thought it was. I have learned that throwing a paper together last minute does not work as good in college as it did in high school. I realized early on in the semester that I have trouble analyzing pieces of writing, I can give a summary all day, but analysis is not a strong suit of mine. Sometimes teachers believe that we automatically know how to write, we are not born with reading skills. It would be hard to believe if someone said that they learned nothing from English 111. From English 111 I learned that summarizing is not the same as synthesizing. I also learned that I needed to strengthen my critical reading, thinking, and composing skills. I also gained a better use and understanding of rhetoric knowledge such as audience, purpose and evidence. In conclusion English 111 taught me to be more aware of my conventions in writing. I believe that I have gained knowledge in critical thinking, rhetoric information, and conventions from this semester that have strengthened my writing and I can provide examples to back the clause.

As the semester started, I had set my mind that I was destined to achieve a lot. During the start of the semester, I had several difficulties writing English assignments especially in terms of grammar. During the first week of the semester, I sat down, organized my thoughts and comprehended that throughout the semester, I had to achieve all that I had planned for. As a student of English, I had planned that throughout the semester, I had to improve my skills as a scholar, writer and critical thinker. Now that the semester has ended, I can reflect all the semester activities to depict how my writing skills and critical thinking skills have drastically improved. This paper presents a reflection paper of how this

After almost completed my first semester successfully her at Arizona State University, I got educated in a variety of subjects from my classes, but the class the inspired my the most and had a great affect in the way I look to my career was the Student Success in Business class WPC 101. I remember the first day of this class where I was required to write an essay about My Sun Devil Store, and from that moment I knew that this class is going to be full of inspiring materials. I have experienced from my first semester her at ASU many circumstances not only challenging but also entertaining with regards to my classes. The biggest takeaway in this semester is finding my strong skills in Math and computer applications, and exploring more about my Supply Chain Management degree as well.

Over the course of this semester, I have had the opportunity to learn about educational psychology. I have always enjoyed psychology and was especially interested in how it applied to teaching in the classroom. There were five specific concepts we discussed over the semester that especially interested me. I found that homogenous and heterogeneous grouping, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, operant conditioning, cooperative learning, and divergent versus convergent thinking are five psychological concepts that every teacher should learn about in preparation for teaching.