Chapter 13

There are certainly a lot of factors that go into creating a productive learning environment. In class we discussed the importance of the physical arrangement of the classroom, maintaining positive relationships with students, and setting limits for behavior. I plan to use all of these strategies within my future classroom. Below is a link to an article I found about classroom management in urban schools. The article is rather long, but it is worth reading because it contains so much valuable information about working with students in urban schools.
Urban Teachers Professed Classroom Management Strategies
I have done a fair amount of volunteer work with urban students and I can relate to so many of issues raised in this article. I think some of the most important quotes from the article are...
*"Urban students may experience a greater need than suburban students for developing close relationships with teachers."
*"Students preferred teachers who displayed caring bonds and attitudes toward them, and teachers who establish community and family type classroom environments."
*"Urban children expect much more direct verbal commands than perhaps suburban or rural students may expect or receive."
*Students said that effective teachers adhered to the policy that, "There were no acceptable reasons why every student eventually could not complete his or her work, and there were no acceptable reasons why a teacher would give up on a child."
*"Always follow up and keep your promises to them. Doing exactly what you say you'll do means something to students. They experience so many empty promises."
I think this article makes it clear that relationships with students are an important (perhaps the most important) component of creating a productive learning environment. As a teacher, I want my students to know that I care about them and want to help them be successful. I want them to know that I believe in them and will maintain high expectations for academics and behavior. I think this will be an important factor in my classroom management strategy.

For the Elementary Education Case Study, I would handle the situation in several steps.
1. First, I would try cueing Lisa and see if that is enough to get her working with the group appropriately. I would try to remain in close proximity to that group and use subtle cues when I notice Lisa causing problems.
2. If that does not work, I would speak with Lisa privately about the problem. I would ask her about the issues her group has been having, and discuss with her some general strategies for working with a group. For example: listen when others are speaking, remember that sometimes you have to compromise, everyone must work together in order to succeed, etc. I would also give her a printed list of this information as a reminder of our discussion. Finally, I would make it clear that I expect her behavior and participation to improve.
3. If steps 1 and 2 did not alleviate the problem, I would meet with Lisa again. I would discuss with her the fact that her group is still having problems, and this time I would give her much more explicit instructions. From now on, I will give her an assigned job since she was unable to cooperate with her group in deciding who gets what job. She will be expected to complete this job without complaint. I will also make sure that she receives very specific instructions about what her job entails and how she is expected to interact with other group members. If this strategy works, then we will try and gradually work back towards less structured group participation.
4. If Lisa still chooses not to cooperate, then I would give her an individual assignment covering the same material, but that is much less fun and requires a little more work. Hopefully this would motivate her to want to go back to participating in the group work.

Motivation

In class this week we learned about different theories of motivation. We specifically learned about extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, expectancy theory, value theory, behaviorist theory, self-efficacy theory, goal theory, attribution theory, social cognitive theory, cognitive theory, and socio-cultural theory. I was most interested in the value theory of motivation. This theory states that people must believe there are direct and indirect benefits for performing a task. As a student, I constantly found myself wondering when I would ever need to know this information in real life. I absolutely hated the idea that I simply had to learn things to pass a test and then I would never use that knowledge again. I have always been much more motivated to learn topics when I felt like the information was useful.
My goal is to someday work with urban elementary school students. For these students especially, I feel like it is important for them to understand why it is important that they learn the material. They need to know how the information is applicable to their everyday lives. Below is a link to an interesting article I found that talks specifically about ways to motivate students in urban schools.
Rethinking Learning and Motivation in Urban Schools

Initial Thoughts about EDPY 401

Overall, I think EDPY 401 is going to be an interesting class. I have taken one Educational Psychology class in the past, and I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed learning the material. I think a lot of what we are going to study will be very useful in the classroom setting. My personal goal for this class is simply to learn as much as possible in order to help myself become a better teacher. In looking over the syllabus, some of the topics that really stood out to me were: motivation, complex cognitive processes, and cognitive and linguistic development. I am especially looking forward to learning more about these specific areas of Educational Psychology.
Below is a link to an interesting article I found about why it is important for teachers to be knowledgeable about Educational Psychology.
What is the Importance of Educational Psychology for Teachers?