Preparation For The Coming Storm

This past week has proven to be an interesting and productive time for me. For the past week or so I've been fiddling around with Sophia.org and figuring out how it works and what I can do with it. On top of this I've been looking at flipped classrooms to see how they actually function. Since the lesson plan is coming up quickly for this class I thought I'd get a move on it and do the research to make the lesson plan more effective than the last time I presented.


I've also been studying my professors carefully and observing their teaching styles and instructional effectiveness. My history professor uses a textbook that is entirely make up of primary sources (speeches, documents, letters, newspapers, etc.). We are to read these primary sources outside of class but class time is marked with lectures and discussions of the content and building on what we've read. Instead of reading from a textbook that only offers the publishers point of view, we read the actual sources for ourselves and interpret them. This creates the problem that I keep hearing from other students about how they have to actually think, interpret, and understand the content instead of just memorizing it like other classes. The only problem is that while we are looking at the philosophical, political, and religious ideologies of a given time period and the effects on society events such as wars, treaties, inventions, and key political figures are underplayed or ignored.


During my observation of my professors I've also learned what not to do. Another professor of mine attempts to teach wholly around discussion which is a good idea but it is poorly executed. He's a bit intimidating and no one wants to speak up which really makes things unproductive and awkward for everyone. He also has us reading a lot for each class to where it becomes overbearing and when taking into consideration the other classes we have it becomes work overload.


 So far it's proved productive and also frustrating trying to pull together fragments of what I perceive to be better ways of creating and executing an affective lesson plan. But I've got two more years before I have to start really worrying about that so that's a relief.

To The Hunt...

Today in class was different than I expected; today we were going on a scavenger hunt using a new app on out phones to complete it. Dr. Clark has been telling us about technological integration into our classrooms and today was an example of what that looks like when its implemented and put into practice.


I saw where it gave simple guidelines as to what to do but was broad enough to allow us to think critically and collaborate with others in our group as to how best complete the job. It gave us more freedom in how we needed to get the job done and a sense of independence among us as well as telling us that the teacher trusts us to do it. The activity allowed for diversity in answering questions and how we took on these challenges. I say all these things not because this activity helps us in increasing our knowledge on new material or improve our understanding of a standard. Instead, it acts as an example that this activity promoted critical thinking, diversity, collaborate and communication skills, trust between teacher and students, independence, and individuality. It serves as an example to what our activities should encourage and foster in our own students.

Back In The Saddle Again

Here we are again, gotta say I'm actually excited about jumping back in the saddle in EDU. I was surprised not to see any familiar faces from 250, well except Dr. Clark. It was great to see though that I'm not the only guy that's going in to teach history. It is interesting to see the new class where everyone is really quite and are a little timid to answer questions or ask them. Hopefully in a few weeks that will change and then it gets fun.

Despite EDU 250 being the hardest class I've ever taken it was also the most fun class I've ever had. Despite the chaotic schedule and over whelming amount of papers I actually missed doing this. But this time around I know what to expect and what is expected of me. Going back into this has proven easier than I originally thought because we're not covering info we've never heard before. Instead we are just building on prior knowledge from last semester or at least that's how it is for me. This helps in acquiring new info because I have something to connect it to.

I've been reading other student's blogs about this semester and it seems almost everyone is a bit intimidated by how much work there is for this class. If I had 21 credit hours I might be having a mini heart attack too but after last semester I've seen that it is possible. All you need is a large pot of coffee and an IV.

This is what I learned from my experience from last semester and that is:

1. Don't be afraid to ask questions, the professor won't bite.

2. Its okay to ask for help on papers and projects, that means from other students as well (I don't mean copying from other people's work or having them write it for you, trust me the professor will know). You're not alone on this.