Reflection

            In the beginning of this course, I talked about my personal theory of how students learn.  I specifically wrote about having a student centered classroom where the teacher should guide students along the way.  I also spoke about having students work with each other, which supports cooperative learning.  As this course is coming to a close, I have added to my personal theory.  I still believe in a student centered classroom and having my students work together.  After learning so much about constructivism, I have incorporated more of this into my classroom.  I have really learned that my students enjoy when they can physically create something and have witnessed firsthand how well they retain the information that comes along with it. 

            An immediate adjustment I will make regarding technology I learned about based on this course is to use more!  I would like to use my interactive white board more and also have students start using PowerPoint.  I know this is a difficult task for first graders, but I was able to work with groups of two to help them create a few slides and it went well.  I think that if I use this technology tool more, then by the end of the year my students might have a decent understanding of it.  PowerPoint is used extensively in the higher grades and if there is a solid foundation built early, then I believe it will help my students in the future drastically.  

            I use my interactive white board every day, but I feel I can do a better job letting my students use it more.  There are many great resources on the internet for ways students can use the interactive white board.  I have been experimenting by looking at some different morning meeting ideas for the interactive white board.  There are a lot of great ideas out there and I think I would like to start using my white board for morning meeting.  It could keep track of the calendar, weather, days of the week, and other morning activities that my students do on a daily basis.  

            I enjoyed this course thoroughly and learned a great deal.  I also enjoyed learning from my peers in this course through the discussion board and blog posts.  It is a great way to bounce ideas off each other and respond to them as well.  I am looking forward to using what I have learned in this course in my own classroom. 

Social Learning Theories and Cooperation

Cooperative learning and social constructivism go hand in hand, in my opinion.  Four key ideas of cooperative learning are using a variety of criteria to group students, using informal, formal, and base groups, keeping the groups to a manageable size, and combining cooperative learning with other classroom structures (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M. & Malenoski, K.).  According to Dr. Michael Orey, social constructivism is collaboration and interactions that occur as students are engaged in constructing something and conversing with others.  The conversations that happen help students understand what they are doing (Laureate Education, Inc.).

Technology can help aide cooperative learning and social constructivism.  Technology can facilitate group collaboration, provide structure for group memebrs, and can allow a group to work together even if they are not face to face (Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M. & Malenoski, K.). I can remember when I was in high school and had a group project.  We would all communicate through instant messenger to designate roles and get our work done.  We were also able to bounce ideas off each other this way and keep working outside of school.  Cooperative learning and social constructivism are two great methods to use to help our students learn these vital 21st century skills.