Erica Dodge- Methods II Reflective Notebook

 Let's start by assessing my general understanding of our solar system.  How do the phases of the moon occur? As the moon orbits around the earth the sun will always light up half of the moon, the half that is facing the sun. The phases occur because when the moon orbits around the earth we see the shadow side of the moon. For example if we had a new moon the moon is located between the earth and the sun, so us on earth only see the moon's shadow. On the other hand a full moon is when the earth is between the moon and the sun allowing for us on earth to see the fully lit side of the moon.  What causes the seasons? This is simple, the tilt of the earth's axis. The earth's axis is not straight up and down it has a slight tilt of around 20 degrees. Due to the tilt in the winter the sun's rays hit the earth at an angle producing indirect light, where as in the summer the sun's rays hit the earth directly. This tilt also results in the sun in the sky for longer perio...

 The Dr Seuss book "Diffendoofer Day" directly calls out our education system and what it values, memorization and conformity. It challenges this conformity by presenting Diffendoofer School, where children are challenged to think and form their own ideas and it allows these children to succeed. In my future classrooms I hope to challenge my students to think for themselves, but in order to achieve this I need to think deeper into "what does it it mean to be able to think?".  When I approach the idea of thinking my mind goes to critical thinking, but that still brings up the question of "what is thinking?". I believe thinking is the formation of ideas and opinions based off of your prior knowledge. Thinking is where people form their own ideas and question the world around them. In a classroom setting they don't need to memorize information to pass a test, but are able to comprehend, apply and think through a problem.  To create a classroom where my st...

 As a teacher one of the most important things to understand is how people come to know something. This is where different learning theories come in, whether it is influenced by Skinner, Piaget or Vygotsky, we each develop our own theory of learning and this will affect how we approach teaching. My current belief is that learning occurs in an individual's brain. As you learn you are negotiating with your prior knowledge or schema related to what you are learning. This negotiation is the process of learning. Even-though I believe that learning occurs in each individual's brain what one is exposed to can effect that internal negotiation. This could be through negotiation with peers, reading something or hearing something from a teacher. In my experience in school and maybe even yours there was a perception that the teacher is in control of what you are learning, but this does not fit with my idea of how we learn. This brings up the question what is the teacher in control of, if a...