C4T #1 Summary

My C4T #1 assignment was on Diane Dahl's blog, a teacher from Texas.  She received her masters through Brain Based Teaching through BrainSMART at Nova Southeastern University.  Her goal is to find new ways to improve student learning. Her post on July 4, 2012 was on Metacognitive Thinking Skills for Life and Learning Part One: Optimism.  Diane Dahl states that optimism is the most important tool because it allows the mind to be more creative and find solutions.  She goes on to show this was proven through studies.  She points out the three strategies for optimism: Deal With It-take care of the problem, TNT-think about what you would have different, and Delete- delete the negative.

My C4T #2 assignment was Metacognitive Thinking Skills for Life and Learning, Part Two: Listening.  Diane feels that listening is very important , but it is rarely taught to children.  She is very upset that her school district does allow more time to teach better listening skills.  Diane feels that we should practice by using Listen and Repeat Strategy.  She recommends putting children into pairs and having one read a sentence while the other child listens, then have them repeat back what they heard. Then she wants them to reverse roles.  Another game she uses is Name that Tune, but her favorite is read-aloud time.

I made my first comment on September 14, on Part One, Optimism.  I feel that optimism is very important as a teacher we really need to express optimism to push our students forward.  I plan on teaching high school Science and a lot of students already have a fear of Science before giving it a fair chance.  I think it is my responsibility to teach optimism for them to perform better and for the students to have optimism in themselves.  I try to take the approach that the glass is half full.  My second comment was on September 23, on Part Two, Listening.  Having three kids of my own listening is a very important skill to have and to teach!  I commented that I really like the read-aloud approach.  I shared that some of my favorite teachers and classes over the years have been those where listening was critical in passing the test. I really enjoyed her post and look forward to following her in the future.