Week 2

Website #1: (learning and the brain)

       This article is very interesting to me, it is about how teachers can become more effective with how the brain senses, processes, stores, and retrieves information.  Apparently, how the brain works can tell a teacher about how they teach. The first step in being a good teacher is being able to get the students attention. Dr. Perry (2012) states that attention can be lost in three to five minutes. For a teacher, that is not a lot of time to teach a lesson or even one idea. I believe this website is important, especially for me, because it helps me to understand that what I teach is important and I need to make sure I am only teaching and saying the morning important things. Dr. Perry (2012) also states that in four to eight minutes of teaching can be tolerated before the brain starts to daydream or drift away. Teachers have a lot of pressure on them now if the students can only have attention for three to five minutes and now will start daydreaming after four to eight minutes. Teachers always need to be doing activities with the students that is constantly keeping their brains workings, and not looking towards that needing to shut down. This article is extremely important to me because now I know why sometimes my students have a hard time focusing on the days they call the "boring stuff".  Teachers, including myself, need to find ways to jazz up different materials to get the students thinking so after these minutes are up, the students brains aren't even thinking about losing focus or trying to daydream.

Perry, B. (2012). How the brain learns best. Retrieved from http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/brainlearns.htm  

 

 Website #2: (Information processing theory)

      I became a teacher because I wanted to make a difference and I wanted to help students learn. Teaching is not just telling them what to do and giving them worksheets. Teaching is helping students to learn and understand new ideas and topics that they did not get before they were in your class. Information Processing Theory is the study and analysis of events that occur in a person's mind while learning new information. Teachers not only have to teach the information, but we have to be able to make sure they understand the information we are presenting to them as well. I like this website because it breaks down the steps of the Informational Processing Model. When teaching, you never know what the students are thinking or what they are processing when you are teaching or asking them questions. This website helps you to better understand how they might be taking the information that you say and perceiving it. I am always trying to find new articles or journals that can better my teaching skills, or help me to better understand my students. This website is important, to me, because now I understand information processing theory a bit better and maybe I can help my students when it comes to thinking and learning new information.

 

Thadani, R. (2010, 05 29). Information processing theory. Retrieved from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/information-processing-theory.html