Cognitivism in Practice

There are many cognitive learning practices that are extremely beneficial in the primary grades. I teach second grade and have had great success with teaching students skills such as "note taking" which is more commonly seen in upper grades. I find that teaching students to take notes and then referring back to to notes is very beneficial for writing and science and social studies. There are also many advanced organizers that have been created and simplified for elementary students. I think finding what works for your style is the key to success in any teaching experience.

Virtual Field Trips and Mapping

Wow!!!!!! Virtual Field Trips for me did not turn out the way I expected it to. When I was first exposed to Virtual Field Trips I thought they were the coolest, most unique technology I have ever seen. Naturally I was searching for a Virtual Field Trip that was similar to what I had experienced earlier. I spent every night searching and researching something that would be appropriate for second graders because that is what I teach. Working all day with an extremely intense agenda which included publishing a book, preparing for open house and practicing for a dinosaur program, the week has been over the top busy..I spent every night and all day Saturday working on this assignment. My first web attempt was a failure. After completing this Virtual Field trip and Concept Web experience I discovered a very important insight. I will probably never use this technology in my classroom mainly because it requires to much time to plan and also because I don't have enough computers to facilitate it... Something work out and something don't... this one doesn't work for me but I bet it works great for middle school and high school..