1. Week 5
1.1. The Law of the Garbage Truck
1.1.1. people dump their garbage, sometimes on you; don’t take it personally!
1.1.2. smile and move on, don’t spread the garbage
1.1.3. successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day
1.1.4. life is too short! 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it
1.2. Role of the learning objective
1.2.1. allows for flexibility, while keeping trajectory
1.2.2. for completing curriculum requirements
1.2.3. ability to assess success at the end
1.3. Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive skills
1.4. Stiggins’s targets
2. Week 6
2.1. Types of intelligences/defining intelligence
2.1.1. linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic
2.1.2. instead of assuming a student with typically lower grades has a lower cognitive ability to learn, ask if perhaps you can present your lesson differently for their type of intelligence
2.2. Special education
2.2.1. has a long history
2.2.2. has come a long way; much more accepting today
2.2.3. for students with behavioural, communicational, intellectual, physical or multiple exceptionalities
2.3. Controversial topics in special education
2.3.1. parent; “my son/daughter doesn’t seem as smart as the other students.”
2.3.2. over-diagnosing or not
2.3.3. sameness or equality?
2.4. IEP
2.4.1. Individualized Education Program
2.4.2. allows inclusion in the class
3. Week 7
3.1. Individualism and collectivism
3.1.1. individualism; self-reliance, “freedom,” worth of individuality
3.1.2. collectivism; giving group priority over individual, significance of group identity
3.1.3. a balance of both is important in the classroom; you cannot have everything be individual, and teamwork/functioning in a group is important, but you must not forget to consider the student as an individual, and differentiate class material/methods as often as you can
3.2. Cultural diversity
3.2.1. cultural frames; traditions, value systems, myths, symbols, etc, of a given culture/society
3.2.2. stereotype threat; someone feels at risk of conforming to stereotypes about their social group. Protect against this with education that is accessible to them
3.2.3. disparate impact in educational; all students are individuals with differences that could get in their way if you aim only for one demographic; diversify your teaching
3.2.4. multicultural education; allow students to bring their culture into the classroom, AND provide diverse material
3.3. SES
3.3.1. Socioeconomic status
3.3.2. economic/social position based mainly on income, education, and occupation
3.3.3. there is a link between low SES and lack of success in education; what can teachers do to make education accessible to this demographic?
3.3.4. inclusion; do not let certain SES students feel left out
4. Week 8
4.1. Standardized Achievement Tests
4.1.1. country wide, standardized
4.1.2. highly controversial
4.2. Arguments for
4.2.1. education accountability
4.2.2. assess effectiveness of instruction (teacher effectiveness)
4.3. Arguments against
4.3.1. provides no feedback; no benefit for students, results are not used to reflect on instructional effectiveness
4.3.2. unnecessary stress and huge distraction for students
4.3.3. every teacher grades differently, format of standardized test is the same; lack of familiarity can lower marks
4.4. Characteristics of well-designed standardized tests
4.4.1. assess curricular goals
4.4.2. curricular goals must be teachable
4.4.3. assessed knowledge and skill must be clearly described and understood
4.4.4. specific enough to directly guide instruction
4.4.5. process must be minimally intrusive in classroom
5. Week 2
5.1. Principles of development
5.1.1. development follows an orderly process
5.1.2. gradual and progressive, not necessarily at specific rate
5.1.3. quantitative and qualitative challenges
5.1.4. individuals develop at different rates
5.1.5. development results from genetics and environment
5.2. Piaget
5.2.1. impact of development on learning (trauma has an effect on learning, poverty can also have an effect, etc)
5.2.2. contributions of developmental theorists (a theory of child cognitive development, detailed observational studies of cognition, a series of simple tests to reveal different cognitive abilities)
5.2.3. developmental appropriateness (DAP; a teacher or child caregiver nurtures a child's social/emotional, physical, and cognitive development)
5.3. Supporting students’ psychological well-being
5.3.1. support individuality, support their thoughts and ideas (do not belittle because they are “just kids”)
6. Week 3
6.1. What teachers can do to make the teaching and learning experiences more effective
6.1.1. do not be consumed by your one learning style; keep in mind everyone has their own
6.1.2. adapt lessons to cater to all learning styles
6.1.3. meta-cognition; help students recognize their own styles, so they can help themselves
6.2. Constructing the right classroom environment
6.2.1. deal with “behavior problems” before they happen; make expectations clear
6.2.2. do not make consequences you cannot stick to
6.2.3. do not antagonize children; teaching is grey
6.3. Positive
6.3.1. inspire students to want to learn
6.3.2. engaging
7. Week 1
7.1. Reflective practice
7.1.1. be INTENTIONAL with what and how you teach
7.1.2. constantly review/update your resources/lesson plans
7.1.3. move away from passive learning; ACTIVE learning is key
7.2. Four commonplaces of education
7.2.1. teacher x student x topic x setting
7.2.2. BALANCE is key
7.3. “connecting dots,” not “collecting dots”
7.4. becoming a good teacher is primarily an attitude (willingness to adapt and reflect)
8. Week 4
8.1. Diagnostic assessment
8.1.1. pre-assessment
8.1.2. determines prior knowledge
8.1.3. helps to foster low floor high ceiling approach
8.2. Meaningful instruction and specialized instructional strategies
8.2.1. meaningful instruction actively engages learner, and encourages meaningful construction of knowledge (constructivism)
8.2.2. specialized instructional strategies helps foster low floor high ceiling approach also; strategies for giving each individual student what they need
8.3. Effective Classroom, Engage all Students
8.3.1. engagement is extremely important
8.3.2. design your classroom in a way that all students see themselves represented in it and in their learning material
8.3.3. allow opportunities for students to be seen and heard for who they are