Summary Reflection

Summary Reflection by Janine Catlett

The book, Why Don’t Students Like School, was an interesting read. Daniel T. Willingham had many interesting perspectives of education and techniques to teach students. I found chapter 5 very informative and it reinforced some of my own ideas about practice and its importance when learning new concepts and retention of skills already presented. The idea that practice of skills needs to be presented over time and spaced out to improve transfer was refreshing. I enjoyed Chapters 7 and 8 and the information on how to teach slow learners and impact of intelligence on learning.
All in all, I found the book informative with ideas to take back to the classroom. I learned several new ideas and techniques to use in classroom that will better my instruction and teaching techniques with my students.

Book Summary

I enjoyed reading this book and learned many useful things to take into the classroom and also use with my family at home. After reading the quotes and principles, it really made me realize why people react and do the things they do. All of the principle made sense to me. People are very simple creatures of habit and life. We need constant motivation and our interest levels kept high. The classroom is more than just a place of learning. It is a place of emotions, socialization, motivation, and on and on. Every student needs to be reached and to be felt important as if they have a voice. We as teachers need to keep respect high, so these students will "follow" us where our teaching is guiding them. We can continue to inspire minds if we can keep their attention and their trust.
I read many things that I will refer to as I continue teaching. The principles are very true and based on much data. I would recommend this book to individuals not only in the teaching profession, but in every profession.

Animoto of Why Student's Don't Like School

I'll Cheer you On!!

I'll Cheer you On!!

Why Don't Students Like School Summary

This book was very interesting. I learned so much about simple things that I can do to help make my lessons and classroom better for all my students. Some of the things that really stood out to me were: we are all naturally curious but not good thinkers; we understand things in the context better because of the things we already know; knowledge of learning styles is not necessary because we think of the content of the lesson to drive the lesson and finally that teaching must be practiced to be improved. This book taught me these and many more things that I will refer to in the future to remind myself of about my students and my daily teaching.

Section 4 Ch. 6 &7

Chapter 6 talked about the differences between experts and novices. It made me understand why we need to teach children step by step and not expect them to understand the big picture right away. I really liked it when they said we need to teach them to think about the footwork and about the basics of their stroke before we teach them strategies when teaching them about tennis. I thought this went way beyond tennis. That is something we should remember when teaching anything.

Chapter 7 talked about he different learning styles of students and how knowing those styles can help us to help our students more. I think the main ideas that I take away from this chapter was that I as a teacher need to think about changing my teaching styles more frequently during a lesson. I always differentiate my instruction but never thought about doing it within my lesson. A good change up during a lesson can help students refocus their attention. I know I do this in many ways, but not in the ways pointed out in this chapter.

Animoto