Lesson Reflection

-sighs- Finally, it is over. I did my lesson today on how to make a great presentation and it went really well. At first we had trouble getting the computer connected up to the smart board, but finally I got it. I was so worried that it wouldn’t work. Anyway, I did the presentations and I wanted to share my top 3 good things that I thought came through in my presentations 

1. I didn’t stutter too much. I managed to stay cool and look like I knew what I was doing. (Which I did) I was just very very nervous. 
2. I engaged the kids to the point where they weren’t sitting there bored out of their minds. 
3. I got great responses from them, they seemed to be laughing along at all my “jokes” and they seemed glad (well, as glad as possible) to be in the classroom. 

Okay, so, what is a reflection about what I could have improved on right? I think that overall the lesson went very well, however there were many things that I think I could have improved upon. 

1. Used an activity to lengthen the activity as well as engage the students even more than I already did. 
2. I think I could have also used a more examples to illustrate my point. A lot of the slides I went through I went through really quickly and I think I could have used examples to improve their understanding of the tip. 
3. Use the “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them method” I did not do the first part of that little blurb, which I think would have been beneficial as then they would know what was going on.

Well, I am so glad that I finally got the lesson done. :) Ms. Sanford and I have already talked about me potentially doing another lesson in the new year to talk about some of the programs that they can use for their summative. I can’t wait for the Christmas holidays.

Sincerely yours, A. 

Positive Reinforcement

Remember when you were younger and your parents would nag you to do the dishes so every night right after dinner you would race to do the dishes so that they wouldn’t nag? This is an example of Negative Reinforcement. Negative Reinforcement is essentially using a negative stimulus (in this case, nagging from the parent) to achieve a behaviour standard (doing the dishes). Therefore, Positive reinforcement is when you use rewards (prizes, special privileges) to create a desired behaviour. 

My question to you is: Which is better? I firmly believe that positive reinforcement is the only way to go. Think about it this way. When you try to train a dog to sit, what do you do? Do you hit him on the nose when he doesn’t sit? Do you force him to spend the night outside when he pee’s on the carpet? No. This only reinforces that if he doesn’t sit he will be hit, and if he pee’s in the house, he will be left outside. If you want to train your dog to sit, typically, you hold a treat in your hand, say sit, and push his bum down. When he does this action, you applaud, cheer and give him the treat. This allows him to go associate treats with sitting. When he hears the word “SIT” He will be given a treat if he does what they say. 

The same thing goes for children in school. If you yell at a student when they don’t capitalize their I’s or cross their T’s they will associate fear and yelling with making a mistake. However, if you congratulate them, rewarding them with an extra 5 minutes at recess, they will associate correct grammar with prize, knowing that you will applaud them. Why would you instil fear, and anger in a child when you could provide them with happiness and joy? Research shows that positive reinforcement actually improves the chances of a good behaviour. 

My last word of advice to you, the next time a student of yours does something that isn’t what you want, sit them down and explain what you want and applaud them when they do it right.