Constructivist Learning Theory Part II

Picture this...it is the end of out basketball unit and to go over all the skills and things that I went over the past two weeks before gameplay in P.E. class. I want to go over these skills. So I set up many stations using the entire gym. This lesson will incoporate the fact that Basketball is played all over the country and in many different ways. The stations are "Over pass city", students will review their passing skills in the tri-state area where many great Basketball players have started. "Dribbling through the swamp", where students will dribble in and out of the swamps and marshlands of Florida. "Shooter's Land", students will travel to Indiana and Kansas where shooters a born! "Slide but don't slip", students travel North to Minnesota where they will review their defensive drills and skills. "Shooting the breeze", students will travel all the way to Arizona where they will combine dribbling and shooting skills. "Redwood Layups", Students will be challenged to make their layups over tough, tall trees (defenders) out in California. This will obviously allow my students to get what I want out of the lesson but also learn that Basketball is played all over the country and in many different ways. I hope (thinking Constructively) that this type of lesson idea will reach out to more students and allow them to learn at their own levels.

I hope to incorporate more and more different ideas into my lessons which is a major reason why I am taking the TEAM course to broaden my horizons.

Constructivist Learning Theory???

In class this past week one thing that I was able to get done was a little research. The topic I looked into was Constructivist Learning Theory. I was able to look into this topic in three different search engines: 1) Google 2) Google Scholar (yes there is a difference) and 3) LI University. I found out many things I understood and many things I did not understand. Basically I found that Constructivist Learning Theory really wants to focus on the individual learner or small group of learners in thinking about learning rather then the actual subject or lesson (How we learn not what we learn). What I took from my research is that there is no such thing as knowledge from person to person instead knowledge is what we make it (construct for ourselves as we learn). Basically I think that they mean we all have very similar abilities in the learning skills category but it is how well we are able to take information and use it in a useful manor that determines what knowledge is to us individually. Further more all sensations around us whatever they maybe because there are plenty, have no meaning or definition to them except the ones that we as indiviuals give. Now I'm not sure how well this is making sense but honestly I looked at some things for about 45 minutes and this is what I took from the sites I viewed.

The Past Week

This past week has been pretty hectic and it seems like I haven't even got that much done. I began to look into the Constructive Learning Theory but didn't look at enought to talk about it yet. I have been working on my synthesis journal a little bit and of course my major project. On top of this I have been doing lacrosse workouts at night with my team preparing for the spring season and working as a chapperone at Basketball games at East Hampton to make a couple extra bucks. So it's been crazy and I'm looking foward to getting some work done in class on Wednesday.

BACK TO SCHOOL!

The past couple of days back a school have been rough. It's always tough comming back after a vacation as I'm sure many of you feel, but the past few days the students have been dragging and it has been very difficult to get things done and keep their attention. I hope things get better quickly.

Turkey Weekend!

Hey everyone I have not been around for a week or so. This past week has been very eventful. I played in a annual "Turkey Bowl", a flag football game between many teachers I know. We played on Wednesday and it was a battle. On Thursday I went to my girlfriends house and my aunts house for two Thanksgiving Day meals, which of course I had no complaints about. I also got to see my Cowboys win on Thanksgiving which is always a plus. The past few days I have just been hanging around and working on my proposal script. Hope all is well

Pressure and Composure

This is my 50 word mini saga. Check it out what do you think?

Marratech on Pink

Yesterday I was able to discuss the topics of design and story in Daniel Pink's book in a group on Marratech. I was able to meet some people from the Herricks class as well as talk with some fellow classmates. I had a good time discussing these topics with others and enjoyed the interaction between classmates.

Marratech and the Past Week

This past week I have been thinking about my mini-presentation and am still stuck on ideas for that. The small Marratech session was helpful in steering me in the right direction for our big project on Environment - Athletics. I also was happy that I could express to Dr. Schneiderman how happy I was with the assignments like the Audacity. I look foward to moving foward with TEAM and catching up with all my work.

This is my team after one of our wins this season.

Great Design - the light bulb

WOW!

Audacity

I have really been having a good time working with the Audacity program. Mixing songs and beats has always been an interest of mine and this program makes it so easy. I look foward to learning about and using programs like this one more and more in TEAM. Check out above what I came up with the other day.

BIG WEEK

This past week has been huge for me. My soccer team ended our season with a 2-1 victory to finish our season witha 6 and 6 final record. In TEAM I learned about a new program called Audacity. WIth this program you can make music tracks, and record voices or even lyrics. I got pretty into it and came up with something I really liked. Finally my Cowboys play the Giants this Sunday and I'm really hoping for a win for Big D.

Missing Marratech

I was angry I was unable to meet with the class during any of the recent Marratech sessions to talk about Daniel Pink's book, but every session I had a conflict. I hope to be able to talk with others in class about the book and what their thoughts were about it.

Just posting to update my blog. My coaching season is almost done. The girls are playing well and have us at a record of 5 wins and 5 losses. We have just 3 games left and we hope to do well in order to finish out the season strong.

TEAM

This is Matt Maloney. I recently joined the T.E.A.M. masters program through C.W. Post University @ Southampton High School. I am pretty excited about it although I am off to a slow start. I am learning a lot about technology and using many things I didn't even know existed. The class is great, it's one night a week and a lot of fun, cool people are involved.