Geiman,+Caitlin,+Memory



 Something interesting about myself is that I love to fly-fish. Some of my favorite locations to fly-fish include the Applegate River, the Scott River, the Klamath River, and my hometown river, the Rogue. I enjoy really any activity outdoors, but fly-fishing specifically brings a calm peace and joy to my recreational time.

 I am currently pursuing a Bachelors of Arts in Elementary Education. I have interest in the possibility of pursuing a minor in either early childhood development or Spanish. My educational goals include the pursuit of personal experience along with deeper information and understanding of educating elementary-aged students. My career goals are most likely much different than that of the majority of education students here at SOU. Currently, the only insight I have towards my future career is the interests/passions in the following; working with children, the outdoors, traveling, interior design, and event coordination. My goal, regardless of my future career, is to work hard in my education and current experiences and to always take full advantage of the opportunities in life which present themselves each day.

What brings me joy:  -Family & friends  -The outdoors/outdoor activities  -Deep conversations/relationships  -Traveling  -Sports  -Dance  -Music

 My greatest fear about being a teacher is not being able to, for any reason, connect and/or successfully encourage an individual student in the specific way in which that student needs in order to be successful in all of the areas of development which education (educators) should provide.

A personal experience which describes a time when the subject of math was extremely difficult for me to learn began when I was in elementary school and continued on through my high school years. For whatever reason, math has always been a struggle for me as a learner. I remember clearly having a constant frustration towards mathematics and learning such at school. Many times, I felt like I was the only one in the class who did not understand how to do math. Along with such feelings I felt both embarrassed and like I was an outcaste when/if I asked questions or admitted to not understanding the content. But the reality was that from a young age I needed extra help in order to truly understand, yet because of such negative personal feelings, I did not pursue such help. In result of this unfortunate cycle, my lack of understanding for math simply continued to increase as the content broadened, which left me feeling like a failure and as though I would never be able to do well in math. Thankfully, in college I have come to find my voice and personal determination and have become much healthier in my perspectives on my learning experiences and needs within math. Yet, I still struggle at times to be confident in the math classroom. I feel that this piece of my history can help me to connect to students with learning differences by the very means that I simply can understand, to a certain extent, the frustration and negative feelings which come with being different than the majority of the class and/or needing more help in certain areas that most people. I hope that my experience will deeply bind me to different learners and that I can help them all the more in the end because of what I have experienced.

What I hope to gain from this course is the further education and personal experience (broadening comfort) with the inclusion and proper education of all learners, especially the different learners. I hope to personally widen my knowledge in how to best relate and connect with different learners in order to best support and educate them. I hope this course will also educate me in the best edict to work with different learners and their families as well.

I chose the topic of attention and memory because I personally have faced many obstacles with both finding and appropriately using memorization and study tools throughout my schooling and even in every day life. This topic is relevant to me as a future inclusive educator for the key reason of desiring early development and success of academic memory and attention tools. My hope is that in my personal research of this topic I will be better prepared for guiding and encouraging my individual pupils in finding such tools which work best for their academic and future professional endeavors.
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This video receives a 5 out of 5 and is my top resource for its presentation of a professor from the University of Texas at Austin who explains intentional memory and attention tools which he uses (and have proven to be successful) in the education of his students. This resource is an excellent example of how to use mnemonic device and memory cues within the classroom for the whole class along with students with special needs. Overall, I truly appreciated hearing genuine tools and cues which have proven to be successful from another educator.=====

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Lumosity.com receives a 5 out of 5 stars! This website is a brain training program created to assist in the enhancement of cognitive processing and, therefore in the enhancement of the lives of individuals. With the development of neuroscientists along with the research from prestigious institutions such as UCSF and Stanford, Lumosity.com offers a highly accredited resource to improving and further developing both attention and memory skills and knowledge.=====

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<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Mastropieri, M.A. & Scruggs, T.E. (2010). The Inclusive Classroom: Strategies for Effective Differentiated Instruction (4th ed.). Columbus, OH: Prentice Hall. =====

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<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Our text book for this Inclusion Strategies course is a definite 5 out of 5. The book dedicates an entire chapter to attention and memory which is incredibly rich with information regarding; understanding the important role attention and memory play in the classroom, strategies for improving attention and memory, how to design and implement such strategies, and the preconditions for improving memory for students with special needs. =====

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This online article sponsored by education.com receives a 5 out of 5 for its most helpful information including the different forms of memory we as humans posses. Such included; sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory. This article also discusses successful instructional strategies for educators by pairing such rich information with educational tools.=====

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This magazine article receives a 4 out of 5. This article both helps the reader to be able to have a little inside of understanding as to why memory can be challenging at times for students with ADHD or learning disabilities. In cooperation with such information, this article then goes on to suggest specific tools to aid such students in the 'mastery' of memory. Some such suggested techniques include; providing a place to study for the students, communicating with the students when specific information is more important, and relating the information the student is learning with his/her life in order to make stronger memory connections.=====

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">This PDF receives a 4 out of 5 for it’s rich information and elaboration of memory strategies specifically for students with learning disabilities. The broad range of resources and references which were used to construct this article bring great credibility to it’s content, along with great research thereof. =====

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">This resource receives a 4 out of a 5 for its inclusive information accommodating students who may be having difficulties with retaining information and/or recall of skills learned in class. I like how this article is inclusive toward ADD/ADHD students and therefore brings in a new element of adaptations within memory skills and knowledge in the classroom and in the individual lives of such students. =====

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This short youtube video recieves a 3 out of 5. Dr. Carol Flexer makes a great point in her video that children do not have the same listening capabilities as adults. Children receive sensory information from their surroundings differently because their auditory development is not complete or fully mature until they are about 15. The implications of such immaturity within young students cause for both listening and attentive skills to be much more difficult.=====

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">This resource receives a 3 out of a 5 of effectiveness in communicating some great integration strategies to improve memory and retain information specifically for children. I specifically like the diversity of the integration of our different human senses into memorization skills and strategies. =====


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The top five things I have learned while completing this project would include; **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Attention and memory can be both strengths and weaknesses for both learning disabled students and non-learning disabled students.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">There are many instructional tools which can be implemented into classrooms (and/or one on one instruction) in order to foster higher success in both attention and memory.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">There are many self-help strategies in order to develop higher attention and memory both as a student, or for every day life.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Children have lower level of maturity when it comes to listening attentively.
 * There are different types of memory involved in learning tasks (sensory memory, working memory & long-term memory).