Behaviorism in Practice

We all know someone who attended a school with multi-age classrooms or grew up having forty-five students in their homeroom class; as a teacher who panics when the class size jumps from twenty-five to thirty, I can not even imagine. Knowing how beneficial instant feedback is, and the importance of differentiation, I have no idea how teachers have been able to feel successful at the end of the day before computers. Computers are a tool that allow students to interact with their instruction, while progressing forward to expand their knowledge and likewise stepping back to review a concept when mastery is not shown. Students are no longer expected to master a concept at the exact same rate as their perfect classmate Sally. Programs available on the computer allow students to have a more individualized education plan. No longer are only the students that meet the criteria to be placed on a state IEP getting the benefits of an individualized instruction plan. Computers are a tool that allow every student to be monitored and ensured a successful growth rate. Our school has a program new this year called Acuity. Acuity differentiates the test a student is taking based on the answers the student is getting right. The program then offers resources for the student to practice to ensure the student is understanding the intended benchmark. This program aligns with the behaviorist theory because the students response to a question is what determines what the next question given to the student should be.

This weeks reading of "Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works" offered me with insight that gave me many "ah ha" moments and reinforced my decision to be pursuing my masters in technology. I was so excited to learn about MS Word being able to summarize writing and the option to have MS Word evaluate the paper in regards to the readability scale level. Just as I envision and want my students to use these tools when they write a paper, I found myself going back and pulling up papers I had written to see how I had scored. Empowering students with this tool provides a quick check for the students to check their sentence variety. Being a second grade teacher I am not ready to introduce my students to the feedback option from their peers, however, I can see how impacting that tool could be.

Survey Monkey was used in my classroom this week. I loved the idea of giving my students real data...not data from a worksheet. My students completed a survey about how much effort they put into preparing for their weekly spelling tests and compared that data to the data collected on the average grade they were receiving on their spelling test. It made for great discussion. I am excited to see the results of this weeks spelling test as I told my students we would be taking the same survey again to compare results...again looking at effort compared to the grade. I am confident we will notice an improvement in both.

I by no means think a computer is the end all solution for educating our students, but I do believe when utilized properly it can be a great benefit to a learning environment.