Why is blogging so hard for me? I guess this is why i never had a diary. I like to keep all my info in my head and go over and over it until it drives me crazy. I have always been told you should write down your thoughts so you can give it a end. I am now being forced to do so. I will do some recap to get caught up with where I am in my learning phase.

Learning theories, Cognitivist is where I began in this process, I have moved toward constructivist. I am comfortable with this. I know everyone is working toward toward social constructivist but that releases to much control for my taste. In ideal situation where students are all equally motivated and mature it would be great. I really believe that I as a teacher may not be able to keep up. I am still struggling with the proper way to stimulate students thought process in order to get the outcome I want. Isn't teaching and assessing making sure they know and understand what is to be learned? If students are going their own way all the time how will they know and understand fundamentals. Fundamentals are extremely important. Will students have their own prospective of what the fundamental is if they are allowed to "find their own way". I posed a question once and only one person responded Dana who seemed to understand my frustration with students interpreting their own truth. Not much was said other than we are to assume everyone knows the ground rules for this lessons purposes. In the end, it was said there is a place for all learning theories in the classroom and I believe this to be true. I believe you can not have one without the other they all build upon each other in some form. In my c class I would have to make certain the fundamental information was there before we could do any higher order thinking.

This is unrelated but a situation I have been thinking about. I have friends who grew up up north. As an adult I spent several years living in NY and NJ. (my husband graduated Cornell Law School this is where we met ) I recently spent time with one of my friends who she and her husband are both successful attorneys. I love spending time with them because they are interesting and they think and talk about all sorts of topics. They debate and come at you from all sorts of angles. I have discovered about myself that I can keep up in my mind but not verbally. I'm always just a few min. behind on the anwser. i can contribute some to the conversations but not a lot. Anyway, I started thinking maybe my lack of ability to reason the way do is because of my lack of experience with a constructivist or social constructivist education. In school even in college it (down south 20years ago) we had very few students who would participate in this sort of cantor.

Then another reason came to mind. She(my friend) was talking about an older sister who grew up in Texas. Who they saw very little but have as adults have been spending more time with. she made the comment that she thought her sister was not very smart because she could not participate in their conversations or just had very little to add. Then it occurred to me culturally we are different. We may live in the same country but certain ways of talking are not encouraged. Down south, we don't get together and discuss and debate controversial issues with everyone. It is not considered polite especially in southern women. Of course this is not stated out loud and I believe has changed over the past 20 years but women of our generation it is not the norm.

After moving home(Alabama) from Princeton, NJ I realized the stark difference in my Northern friends and my Southern friends. Though I missed the subtle ways of southern women I now appreciate the bold and brassiness of my northern friends. I admire their intellect not that southern women are not smart because they are they just don't feel the need to make sure you know it. These women are clearly social constructivist!!! I believe culturally, educationally its a normal way of life.

I know if I had been allowed to discover on my own instead of being told exactly what to think I would have been able to keep up more in these conversations. I had to learn as an adult to ask, think, compare, listen to their way of thinking then come to a conclusion. i found them extremely fun and loved learning. I guess this is my testimony for constructivist and social constructivist.