IP&T 301 Week 9

1.) I think the students in my cohort classroom are both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. I can tell some students work hard and put forth their best effort because they love learning and want to do well, but others clearly are working just to get class points towards a party and reading to gain tickets to enter a drawing.
2.) Intrinsic motivation can be either positively or negatively affected by rewards and praise. If small rewards are given sparingly and unexpectedly, they can help students engage in tasks they normally would not be motivated to engage in. If the reward provides the initial motivation and then the student develops a sincere interest in the activity, then the student becomes intrinsically motivated. However, giving external rewards can often motivate students extrinsically because they work for the reward. Praise can increase intrinsic motivation if it is specific, informational, and sincere. If teachers praise students for being “smart” or constantly praise less-than-praiseworthy behavior it can undermine intrinsic motivation.
3.) If students feel confident that they will succeed and understand the value or relevancy for mastering a certain task, they will be motivated because they expect to succeed and to gain something from that success.
4.) Individual students were praised highly by their teacher when they advanced a level on the accelerated reader program and were additionally given a balloon and pencil from the school librarian. To increase the entire class’ motivation, the teacher set up a points system to reward the class when they were all exhibiting desired behavior.
5.) I agree with the cognitive theory the most because I think it covers all areas of motivation: students’ perceptions of their own abilities, goals, motivation, teacher feedback, and development. I believe there are many factors that affect student motivation and desire to learn new things and acquire new skills. What motivates one student may be different from another student and teacher need to be award of all the different factors that can increase or decrease their students’ motivation to learn.

Technology Lesson Plans!

Science Lesson
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Math Lesson

Language Arts Lesson

Week 10: The most important thing I learned...

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I think the biggest thing I learned from watching from these three videos is that even young students can independently use technology to create multimedia projects. In the “Brown, Bear” video, the kindergarten students were able to create original, detailed pictures of vehicles using KidPix. The teacher said the students had no exposure to computers before coming to school, but after having time to play around and experiment on the computers, the students became very competent computer users. Because of their curiosity and creativity, they made many computer discoveries on their own without teacher instruction.

In the “Habitats” video I was amazed at how using technology allowed the students to expand their creativity in a way they would not have been able to do otherwise. The KidPix program enabled them to create detailed illustrations of imaginary creatures much more quickly and neatly than they probably could have done with drawings. The efficiency of the technology allowed them to put more creativity and thought into the project.

Technology Observation

I feel like my school has a pretty wide variety of technology. The students all have daily access to computers outside their classroom in the hall or "pod." It is nice because the computers don't take up classroom space and the students can go use them when they need to. However, I feel like my teacher doesn't take advantage of the technology tools available to her. The students only use the computer for AR tests, and so far, I haven't seen her use any technology except the overhead in her instruction. She says that she has used the LCD projector from time to time, but I feel like that could be a huge asset for her if she incorporated it more into her lessons.

I completed the midcourse evaluation and informed consent.