Blog 1

I thought that the movie Paper Clips was really interesting because it really showed how important it is to teach diversity and to facilitate activities that create an enviornment where students want to learn. In my opinion I thought that the paper clip activity was really beneficial to students because it made learning fun and it got them interessted as well as motivated to explore more about the history of the holocaust. However, I think that the school could have expanded on this activity to push the students further and think deeper about diversity. The project was more focused on emotions and stories which should be taught, however I think the students needed to know more facts and could have explored other aspects to the holocaust that would have taught them more about diversity. Also, I think that in a community where the majority of people are white Christians, a unit on other cultures and maybe other religions would have been very beneficial for the students. I do think that this video showed a great way how to get kids motivated to learn and how important it is to find projects that will be interesting for kids.

I also enjoyed reading Chapter 2 because it was really informative in understanding how kids' brains develop. I think it is really important to remember in the future when planning activities and it would help you to better connect with your students. I enjoyed reading about how the brain develops and the different stages of development in the opinions of the two different psychologists. I think that by having a combination of Piaget and Vygotsky- knowing different stages of development but also understanding that a lot students learning depends on language and culture- will give you the best kind of picture of development. I think that this chapter is very important in understanding how to be a good teacher because it helps you recognize where your students are developmentally and will ultimately help you connect with them in a way that will help them achieve in school.