Classical Conditioning

Classical Conditioning Podcast

I decided to create a podcast about classical conditioning because I hope to teach psychology at the high school level.  Classical conditioning is a concept that is likely to come up in the psychology classroom, so I thought a podcast on this topic would be appropriate. 

I decided to break up the podcast in the following way:  First, I gave a brief background on classical conditioning.  Then, I tried to emphasize the most essential vocabulary associated with classical conditioning.  Finally, I gave a personal example of classical conditioning so that it was relatable to the audience.

Please enjoy!

Differentiated Instruction

Over the past few weeks, I have learned that there are different meanings of "diffentiated instruction." Some Instructors advocate giving gifted students more work, and some argue against it. The instructors that are against it believe that gifted students should not be "punished," in essence, for being brighter than the rest of the class by being given more work. They advocate for giving those students more choices in how they learn the material. As a student in the Teacher Licensure Program, I think this can get very confusing. One of my professors told my class to make sure that we don't let the rest of the class find out about a student being gifted (or have a learning disability) when you give them a different assignment. My question is how do we do that without singling them out? Other students will see the gifted or special needs student get a different worksheet or assignment and may question them or you (the teacher) about it.

Teaching students with differentiated instruction is in itself challenging. Doing this correctly may prove to be even more challenging.

Waiting for Superman

I got a chance to see Waiting for Superman last weekend, and a few things really jumped out at me.

First, teacher unions are bad. There were a group of teachers from D.C. Public Schools in the documentary who were protesting Michelle Rhee's (the Superintendent of D.C. public Schools) proposal for higher pay instead of tenure. Why do teachers feel as though they are entitled to their jobs? Teachers should have to "work" to keep their jobs just like any other professional.

Another issue worth noting was the "dance of the lemons." Bad teachers (the lemons) are passed from school to school until a principal gets the mediocre one of the group. In the state of NY, there's a place called "the rubber room" where teachers who needed reform were sent to complete their reform program. The teachers show up for 6 hours per day and get to do (essentially) whatever they want. They can play cards, read, listen to their ipod, text, eat, etc. And while they're there, they get paid their full salaries! This seems like a giant waste of taxpayer dollars.

Overall, I thought this documentary was very accurate and raised a lot of good points about the state of education today. It was very depressing to see kids "stuck" in schools that are bound to fail, and the only way out is to get in a charter school (which has a limited number of seats available). Most of the kids in the movie did not get into the charter school. There has to be a better way!

Merit Pay and Teaching Attitudes

Although the idea of merit pay is quite admirable, I don't think it is going to be implemented any time soon.  The way I see it, most teachers are not expecting to get paid a lot.  I'm sure they would appreciate a monetary reward now and then for a job well done, but according to Education Week, top teachers aren't the ones getting recruited anymore.  New teachers are the hot commodity. Why? Because they're cheap and don't have to get paid as much as an experienced teacher (because they don't have a leg to stand on yet). 

On another note, it seems like ever since I've started the Teacher Licensure Program, I've been hearing a lot of negative things about the teaching profession.  This can be very discouraging to new teachers.  Last week, a panel of former U of R TLP students (that are now teaching) came to discuss their views on teaching in our Foundations class.  Although I wasn't surprised at what the panel was saying, their attitudes were very negative.  How do they expect us to love our job if everyone else is being so negative? I do not understand this.  I can understand the importance of being fully prepared and knowing what you're getting yourself into, however; if you are in teaching for the long run, you shouldn't let anyone or anything get in the way.

Attitude can make a huge difference in how well someone performs his or her job.  If we're expecting merit pay to become a reality, we need to look at changing our attitudes first.