Weeks 6 & 7

Reading chapter 7 of the Interdisciplinary Inquiry gave me so much information in the way that I could engage students in inquiry. I especially liked the Inquiry-builder chart developed by Kovalik and Olsen that incorporates Bloom's Taxonomy with Gardner's “frames of mind” and science as inquiry from the National Science Education Standards. I am a very visual learner and seeing the way that the chart was laid out gave me clear impression of identifying cognitive processes that may be learned by the student. Though a student might not have all these processes, the chart can act as a map in finding how they can learn. I thought that this chapter also good to read side by side with chapter 3 in the Roberts and Kellough book on developing ITUs. Both of these chapters dealt with idea of influencing cognitive behavior in students. This is a subject that I don't know much about, coming from the field of behaviorism, but it was good to learn how others in education see the learning process. I do find it most fortunate that I have taken most of my behavior classes before reading this chapter because I might have had a difficult time organizing my thoughts on these conflicting view points, confusing myself along the way. At this point I find it refreshing to learn this new method of viewing education and maybe help find a common middle ground to use both of these methods of thought to help the students that I work with.

Chapter 8 in Interdisciplinary Inquiry and chapter 4 in Roberts and Kellough dealt with assessing learning which I happen to be familiar with as a behaviorist. I take data daily on different behaviors that my client exhibits as I try to determine if the intervention that I am using is changing my clients behavior, for better or worse. I think that assessment is such a critical part of anything we do as it will show us results of our actions. I am a firm believer in Socrates' maxim, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” As far as incorporating my client in the assessment process, one his teachers this year made a portfolio for his work, as described in the reading. I am an advocate for this technique not only for the benefit of the teacher or the parent, but especially for the student. For example, at the end of this school year when my client received his portfolio in his English class, he was extremely proud of all the work that did. This is a great reinforcement for him and something that I can draw from in the future when he needs to be reminded what he is working for. Not only can data collection be way to show progress, or lack thereof, but also a tool to motivate students. And if we as educators can teach a valuable lesson to our students, it's that results matter. And that hard work can translate to a more positive self-esteem.

Considering the online tutorials on assessments, I found it valuable as well. I enjoyed learning how one can assess the students you are teaching in the scope of what they produce and also how they produce. I really enjoy the online tutorials because it is a nice summarization of our reading and it happens to have videos which help me relate to the topic more.

Journal on the Online Tutorials

I realized I have not written on the my reaction to the online tutorial called Concept to Classroom from the first six weeks of class. During the first few weeks of the course, the idea of interdisciplinary learning was a very new concept to me. As I have never been a teacher, outside of being a substitute teacher at a high school for two years, I have never taught from a curriculum before. Though it was great to learn about this topic in this sort of way. I liked that I could easily look up new “buzz” words right on the page and that there was video for me to watch as professionals in the field talked about the new concepts. And with the new concepts I have been able to look at my assignments in this class, like the collaborative ITU projects, and use them as a frame of reference into the lesson that I am in the process of making . It's unfortunate that I probably will never use the curriculum that we are writing as a group, but I sure that skills that I am learning along the way will be used in some sort of fashion as a behavior analyst. May it be coming up with a collaborative plan for a individual and their different caretakers or with my coworkers as we open a new autism school in the next year.

Week 5

In reading chapter 5 and 6 from the Interdisciplinary Inquiry book, I found it most interesting choosing the right resources for the age group that you teaching. especially considering the age group that you are teaching, one would not want to use a resource that a student cannot grasp or understand. For example, using an article out of the Atlantic Monthly would not be a good idea to use for students in 8th grade, as it is meant for reading of a higher grade level. But using newspaper article would be more appropriate because its writing style is more geared to those who are of that grade level's comprehension.

I also liked the list of habits of the mind and the thinking processes. These ways of exploring a topic use different parts of a student's thinking ability and is a great tool in forming a well rounded approach to helping a student form their ability to question.

The different resources in learning was one of some of my fondest memories growing up. Of the different way to research, those being textbooks, reading documents, using libraries, using artifacts, field sites, experiments and personal interviews, I remember my best and most impacting way of learning was through interviewing. I was fortunate enough to interview a holocaust survivor in high school and it was since changed the way that think of history and the way that I think about plight of those in hardship all over the world. But I see using this resources for learning gives the student so many avenues to explore the theme and connect with the topic, much more than sitting in a classroom and only reading a book while listening to a lecture every could. Though it is good in a classroom to teach from a book, using different resources broadens the mind to seek information in many different ways.

Using media and technology as a resource in learning is something that we have become so familiar with in this generation. And I feel is one is one the best ways to teach a student how to explore a topic. Especially with the advent of the internet, a student has a many ways to seek information in which they explore their topic. And as one in a classroom, though not a teacher, the one skill that many students in my school do not have is the ability to effectively research on the internet. These student can easily find facebook, or sites that are given to them on tv, but they do not know how to search sites for themselves. Its funny how the autistic students that I work with are extremely good at finding anything they want on the internet yet their classmates in a general education class cannot. One of the skills that teachers do need to start teaching is using the internet to find information, in a smart, safe, factual way, and to be able to discern what is a legitimate source of information.

And using media is such a great way to keep the interest of students in the classroom. in regards to our group ITU topic of the BP oil spill, there are so many sites, graphs, video clips and articles that a student can easily get a grasp on what is going on and why it is important that they care.

Media and technology are great assets to us who each but they must be used in such a way that it causes the student to really think and inquire about the topic covered in class.

My fourth week

Reading about implementing a theme was a very new concept for me as I am not a teacher. Though I found that I became quite interested in ways that I could find a area of interest to the students and use a methodology to implement a theme study based on questions I could ask myself about it. I also like the way that when implementing a study we can use the students curiosity and skills at their grade level to help themselves learn about the theme st hand. I personally found myself using King's question stems to help with my client this week when he was studying about the events of World War II. One of the hardest things for a teacher to autistic children to get out of their students is a level of thinking in which the student starts to ask why a certain event, lets say in History, happens. With my client, is was the first time I got him to ask why we went to war with Germany and why did Germany feel the need to try and take over Europe. Now I don't think he could put his mind around the concept of countries fighting countries for political reason and such, but it was a great step in which he finally asked a why question in class, pertinent to a topic that we were studying.
It was also interesting to read about meeting required standards as it was the first time that I have even thought about that in terms of teaching. It is something that in my field that I don't have to deal with directly. I can see the challenge of one having to fit a theme within the framework of the standards that the students need to meet. How rewarding for a teacher to have the interest of the students, implement a theme that crosses multiple subjects, and have them learn skills that will meet local standards.
The concept of initiating thematic units to me is like laying down a foundation that the students can stand on to begin their own personal journey into the topic. Providing the correct questions and resources for them to work with gives them the advantage to go into a theme like a traveler going into a foreign country with a map and a personal guide. The student can find the things that they want to find and have the courage to go deep into the theme with out getting lost.