Is The Power Team really that powerful?

While reading about The Power Team, I felt as if I had many different thoughts racing through my mind. Who was this Power Team, what really is their message, what are their intentions? Prior to this assignment, I have never heard of The Power Team. I began creating images in my mind based on the descriptions of their appearance in size and comparisons to American Gladiators. So right now, in my mind, I'm looking at big beefy men in red white and blue. Throughout the rest of my reading, I felt a mix of emotions. I didn't know what I felt about the "performances" the preachers were hired for. I was slightly angered that John Jacobs had this idea that the strength was going to lure in non-christians. I think this part bothered me because, one- it sounds like a mind trick, trying to inflict religion on someone and two- I didn't feel like this was the most reasonable approach to display your religion... super strength? I mean it flat out says they are try to manipulate the audience for a response. Now the school programs.. So I understand that The Power Team is aiming their super body image at young men but I don't feel like the whole super strength thing really appeals to men my age. They kinda make the impossible (or close to it) look easy. What, do they think they are going to brain wash the audience to think they will be super and almighty? I've never seen The Power Team, but I wonder, do they talk about what extreme dedication and hard work it took for them to look like that. I completely support the message of taking out the God and Christ and talking to students about making responsible decisions. But, I also think people in the community actually know what their message is (outside of schools) and they are just trying to make an appearance to make a bigger impact on a community. In my opinion, don't try and push your religion on me. People may appreciate that but I like to make desisions for myself. I'm sorry, but from what I've read, if I saw someone trying to compare their super strength to their dedication in their faith, I'd have a lot of questions. There is most of what I've read in this assignment that I disagree on.

thoughts behind the tics

My first thought was that the teacher attacked the student right away and never sat to think about the judgments she was making. Sometimes I think I am very particular about things and sometimes even find myself using the term OCD, but I feel nothing but complete sorrow for those who live with the tics of OCD and don't know much of life without them. When the student was walking home from school, all I could think is that I couldn't do the same thing every day. Sometimes my mind won't let me walk on the cracks of the concrete, but other days I have so many other wondering thoughts to not even remember where I was on my way to. I have the same feelings as the students as to not being able to put certain thoughts out of my mind and I always wish I knew how to stop thinking about them. Sometimes I wish I could blame my racing thoughts on something such as a mailbox, but why is anything else to blame. The mother in this story, if you ask me, is just plain ignorant. Now I'm no parent, but my best assumption is that no matter what my child does, I'll try and understand and be there for them. I know my mom would do this for me. I can call my mom balling my eyes out for no reason what so ever and you know what, she'll stop and listen and help me piece together the confusion of my emotions. I know I would be completely lost without the comfort of her love and understanding. I think we all have that voice inside our head but I can not imagine not having the strength to tell it to shut up. There are somethings I don't want to listen to but I just can't help it but I can't imagine listening to everything. This story really hit home with me and created a better understanding of the mind behind the tics. My friend in high school suffered from OCD and we never knew how to deal with it. We just yelled at her that she didn't need to go back that one last time to make sure her car was locked. Little did I ever know until this assignment we might have been hurting her. I think this assignment is a good eye opener as a break to the reading we've been doing about writing. OCD could have been someones research topic and this is somewhat of a comic relief to how some of our writing could go.

my research is in full swing...

When I began considering topics for my research paper, I knew I wanted to focus on education. I began thinking, which got me thinking about thinking… How do we learn and how does the learning process work? While researching information on these ideas, the word motivation became very familiar which lead to me to include; What role does motivation take in learning and what factors influence motivation? Into my questions I want to answer for my final research paper. When a student encounters the learning process there are many ways in which learning occurs and many factors that influence their ability to learn such as prior knowledge, their learning environment, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and social aspects. Some factors that influence a student’s ability to learn include what prior knowledge they possess, how information is organized in a manner to easily understand during the learning process and how it is organized to maximize memorization and retention. Each of these factors includes strategies to enhance learning. Another factor that influences learning is motivation. Gender and the environment are two aspects to consider when talking about motivation in academics. There are two kinds of motivation I am looking into during my research, intrinsic and extrinsic, which is motivation that comes from within or from an outside influence. Many parties including teachers, peers, and the learner themselves can influence motivation. I learned from one of my sources that students that are highly motivated could positively influence other students while working in small groups. Academic motivation to perform well can have a great impact on the outcome of how well they actually do. Learning takes place in a social environment and this is an important factor to consider including how the physical environment is set up to enhance learning, how students are interacting, and how the teacher is impacting the students and their learning. Teachers need to take into consideration that students learn in different ways and are different levels of academic performance. A classroom has many levels of abilities and understandings that create many different approaches to learning.

I think the knowledge I have obtained thus far in my research is very general and I need to continue to narrow down my topic and be more specific. I think I have partial responses to the questions I want to answer for my final research paper but I do not think I have enough information to form complete answers yet. I need to find an opposing view on my topic. I think this is going to be a task because I am taking note in my research that there are many ways in which people learn. I think my argument has more than one viewpoint and this is something I need to strongly considering refining for my final topic.

Sources I have looked at so far are listed as citations below.

Ambrose, Susan A., Michael W. Bridges, Michele DiPietro, Marsha C. Lovett, and Marie K. Norman. How Learning Works. 1^st ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2010. Print.

Dunn, Rita, and Shirley A. Griggs. Learning Styles: Quiet Revolution in American Secondery Schools. Reston, VA: National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1988. Print.

Lei, Simon A. “Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: Evaluating Benefits and Drawback from College Instructors’ Perspectives.” Journal of Instructional Psychology. 37.2: pp 153-160. Online Journal.

Riener, Cedar, and Daniel Willingham. “Myth of Learning Styles.” 42.5 Sept/Oct 2010. 32-35. Web.

Saab, Nadira, van Joolingen, Wouter R., van Hout-Wolters, B.H.A.M. “The Relation of Learners’ Motivation with the Process of Collaborative Scientific Discovery Learning.” Educational Studies 35.2 (2009): pp 205-222. Online Journal.

Tan, Seref. "Perception of Students on Factors in Motivation to Learn." e-Journal of New World Sciences Academy 4.1 (2009): n. pag. Web. 28 Feb 2011.

haha... plagiarism

I started my reading for today's class with Gabriel's Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age and I was astonished at how many points he made throughout the article that sound exactly like what you might hear if you sat in on a research paper's grading process. I completely agree that many students simply just do not realize that their writing is not original and that plagiarism is a big deal. I give the digital age we live in credit for how easy it is to copy other people's thoughts. Copy and pasting on a computer is so common there is even keyboard shortcuts to do so. Many people probably rely so heavily on their research to write their paper. They think they'll just take a little from here and a little from there, change some words, and had a couple sentences of their own. One of the surveys in the article that stood out to me was a study conducted that showed about 40% of 14,000 undergraduate students admitted to copying a few sentences in written assignments. Right away, this number represented the IUP campus and I realized just how common plagiarism is whether the writer meant to or not. Many students believe that their copying is not causing any harm. If you take a look around out digital age there are multiple examples of why students get the idea that they aren't doing anything wrong. A lot of downloaded music is illegal and they aren't being caught. A lot of the music being downloaded is already copied within itself with stolen beats and lyrics and even songs within songs such as mash ups. Underage drinking is at an abundance and continues even after some people are caught. It is even evident in the media as TV shows use contents from other TV shows such as South Park or the Scary Movie series mocking movies. What role model are students creating for themselves if they are in the wrong so many times throughout the week. Copying to, what they think, help them get a better grade seems like a small offense compared to other illegal activity. Gabriel suggests that plagiarism could be avoided if more time was spent in the grade level education and I agree because thinking back on my honors and AP English experiences in high school, I never knew how to use scholarly sources without using quotation marks throughout my entire paper.

Education... "any act or experience that has a formative effect on mind" We are educated everyday, both in and outside of the classroom. But what is it that really makes people want to learn and what makes them interested in certain topics. I know I want to teach and I want to find a topic where I can look deeper into the learning process. After I attened the Undergraduate Conference yesterday, the idea of funds of knowledge and pedagogy stuck in my find. The session leaders explained the funds of learning as each the student and the teacher brings their knowledge to the learning experience. I want to look into what I truly believe about teaching and how this compares to any studies conducted about motivation in the classroom. What is my effect on my students really going to be?

Undergrad Conference

On Wednesday afternoon, I attended the English Undergraduate Conference when I completed my classes for the day. I attended the session on "Teaching English is Secondary Education". I intend to be an Elementary Education teacher but I chose this session because of its educational background. The session was led by two women. The first question they asked us to consider was, "What makes you want to get into education?" I immediately responded kids. I want to teach because of my love for helping others be the best they can be. I want to teach at the elementary level because I think they're the perfect age for me and I don't see myself teaching at a higher level. I enjoyed this conference because the speakers put all things aside to make us feel comfortable and get what information we needed out of the time we spent together. We covered many topics to point me in the right direction. We talked about making teaching more interesting. One of the speakers said that she taught how she was being taught and lessons became very monotone and repetitive. This immediately sparked my interest to know that I truly want to help others and make learning fun. They mentioned that during student teaching the process will run my life but I will learn a great amount from the experience. The leaders of the session recommended many book titles that I hope to come across and have time to read. We talked about pedagogy and student centered teaching where students participate in doing their own learning. We spent much time talking about the PSSA and "teaching for the test". This creates many time constraints in teaching but we talked about how to bring the art into the classroom because another student in attendance had a degree in art. Art is a passion of mine so this meant a lot to me because I can see it now, my future students having a different project every week. This leads me into the next topic we discussed of putting yourself into your teaching. Each of your students including yourself bring something to the table of teaching/ learning wether it be their knowledge, talents, or creativity. Creativity is an important step in getting past the limitations which may or may not be set upon me in the classroom. One of the last points we discussed was "Who id your teacher self?" Who am I really and what do I truly believe in? What so I personally believe about teaching and learning? I am so glad I decided to attend the conference. I have began thinking so much more about the teaching and learning process and I know I have made the right decision to follow the path of education. I have began to think so much more of myself and my future after Wednesday nights meeting and I have opened many ideas and possibilities for myself

Bibliography

"John R. Searle's Chinese Room." (2003-2004): n. pag. Web. 4 Feb 2011. .

This article is a summary of John R. Searle’s Chinese room argument. The argument tries to show that strong artificial intelligence (AI) is false. Searle’s experiment is conducted by having a closed room with two slots and a rulebook. Chinese characters are inputted through one slot and you use the rulebook to construct more Chinese characters. The new characters are outputted through the other slot. This experiment shows AI to be false because the new Chinese characters are only being created following rules and there is a complete lack of understanding of what is actually being produced. Even with being given the rulebook, you would never understand the meanings of the characters you are creating.

This article is important in the field of education because it proves a sense of a lack of understanding. When I read this article, I thought about the fact that people don’t always understand the full context in which they are writing. When someone is asked to respond to a prompt, I feel like the instructions sometimes serve as a rulebook and the output is just answering the questions in the prompt and aimed at satisfying the reader. The response doesn’t always pay attention to the understanding of what they are writing about, but simply producing an output.