Letters

This week's blog post is rather personal. I have been trying out new writing strategies in the classroom and one of the strategies I have come across is letter writing. The idea is for you all to write a letter to me and let me know how you're doing. How are you doing in class? Are you struggling or excelling? Is everything going the way you expected? Have you learned some good stuff? Is there anything I can do to help you succeed in class? How can I help you do better? What are you struggling with outside of class? Is there anything positive or negative going on in your life that you'd like to get off your chest? How's life? Is John Edwards or Chris Angel for real?



Post a letter to me via blogger you can either post it for the world to see, or you can send me a comment/make it private/etc. if you'd rather the world not see. You can do this in the settings tab on your blogger site. You would have to make your blog private for one reading, invite me to read it, wait for me to comment on your letter, and then you could delete your post and make your blog public again. You could also just send me an email if that's easier.

Work with me on this. I'm trying it to see how it goes. It might fail, and I can live with that.

Outskies.

What Did I Learn?

Every day I try to learn something, some days I have to force it, and others it just so happens to fall into my lap. Last week I had this learning fall into my lap (it's kind of my favorite kind of learning). What I learned isn't anything concrete, it's not factual based - more like a philosophy or a musing. Here it is:

If you give students the opportunity to amaze you, they will. If you push students to work above their level by systematically planning to do so, they will. If you stop taking "No" or "I can't" as answers, they disappear. If you let your students explore on their own, they still will learn.

I know this sounds pretty "hippie-dippie" and unfortunately I agree, but I do believe this. For instance, if I gave you all a simple question for you to comment on in this blog post, it would be "What is the significance of the candle?" Will you answer? I bet you do...

Left Brain Right

I've already mentioned this book in class. I still find it a very useful, interesting, and enjoyable read. It has helped me shift my teaching style on occasion, and made me think about how to better serve my population. What I think I liked most about the book is that as a left brainer, the book gave me many different examples of how I could put my right brain to use at the end of each chapter.

Conversely I will admit that some of the information is quite cheesy, especially for myself. As a left brainer I thought about why certain things wouldn't necessarily work the way the author described, and I was skeptical of some of the findings the book had.

I do believe the future will look different. I do think that society will see a lag in this change until younger generations enter the workforce with differing ideas of what "work" should look like. I would like to take an extremely humanistic approach to the future and say that things will work out and our global society will work itself out for the better. Who knows?

Anyway, IF I haven't convinced you to read this book yet, maybe the author can:

Toodles.

What Do I Write About???

The overall theme for this week and student blogs has been "What should I write about?" I have intentionally given little information for you to write about so that you can be as creative as you'd like with these blogs. All you need to do is remember three things: 1. You are writing for an audience, 2.You need to relate whatever it is you are writing about to concepts that we are learning about in class and apply those concepts, 3. You can earn extra points by going above and beyond in your post.

Not too hard right? Well consider this:



I'm not asking you to become a child genius, but I am asking you to push your limits. I am challenging you to be the better you. Everyone has something they are good at, so let it shine while you write.

Good Day.

Welcome

Welcome to Mr. Dreier's psychology blog. This is where you'll be able to check in with other students' reflections of psychology as it relates to class, and find specific questions that are to be answered in your blog. This weekly assignment is ongoing and is worth five points per post, with ability to earn six points a post if it is above and beyond what is expected of you. If you do the math, the blog posts combined are worth roughly 50 points with possibility to earn 60. That amounts to one test score, and blogging is WAY easier than any test I've ever taken.

SO...What should your blogs look like? They need to look like whatever you want them to look like - they are specifically designed for you. It is YOUR writing, YOUR "space", YOUR reflection. Personally I like to have a little fun when I write. You can view these as creative writing if you wish, but understand that part of this whole blogging grade is based on content. So if you go too far on creativity and address nothing that we've mentioned in class, you're missing the boat. You may want to check out this excerpt from another blog to understand your expectations.

Especially understand this: Blogs have been found to have an enormous positive impact on students, in that they:

Promote critical and analytical thinking
Are powerful promoters of creative, intuitive, and associative thinking
Promote analogical thinking
Are a powerful Medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information
Combine the best of solitary reflection and social interaction
Provide you with an opportunity to write without risk
Provide a basis for writing for an audience

HAPPY BLOGGING!!!