I have found that this semester's course has had a solid impact on my teaching abilities and experiences and outlook on the profession. Starting with the Firestone experience and then including the canonical wiki and lesson presentation, all three of these have in some way molded me in a new way. Then lay on top of that our work with teaching different lenses, and they couple together to reenforce new teaching abilities and strategies. However, I have felt that most of the semester felt very disconnected. Whether this was at my fault as the student or a combination of other factors, the class felt very unfocused or solidified at times in an overall sense.
Compared to last semester, our time at Firestone was much more well spent and productive. I really felt like I made a difference in a student's life and that I helped my student prepare for the OGTs. I was able to work on my ability to teach in a one-on-one atmosphere and still have support from my peers and teachers if I needed assistance in trying to get a point across to help them understand something better.
The lesson presentation was also a huge builder for this. Being the closest to a full class lesson I've taught, it may not have been the most serious activity we've done, but it helped me to learn to gauge time and student reaction, even if they were my peers. While the experience will be different with a group of high schoolers, the same concepts will be applied, just adjusted.
The canonical wiki felt the most useless assignment we've done (and still sort of does) until I realized exactly what had happened when it was done: I had 20 links to pre, during, and post reading activities for two handfuls worth of canonical texts. BOOKMARKED. I could walk into a classroom and be able to teach an entire unit on these books with all these resources now. It as boring and felt dumb, but it will come in handy in the future.
As for my feeling on the disjointedness, I feel a lot of it stems from the class being once per week. While we covered a solid amount of material and it DID connect, it didn't seem to feel like it from week to week. I would often forget what we had discussed the week before and it seemed to jump around a lot. It all came together as we continued on, but I continually felt like there was no direction (in this class and especially in Multi-Modal). There was a lot of valuable content that I feel we spent time discussing, which is always good and I thoroughly enjoy, but didn't spend testing and memorizing and having concrete details about. All the lens work we did? We have a few sheets on each one, but not much material we can hold onto for the future besides the knowledge we already have.
All in all, I'm always happy with your course, Pytash. You've taught me a great deal and I couldn't be happier. I know I'll take these materials and the knowledge you've instilled in me into my future classroom, and I don't know where I'd be without your support and care as a teacher.
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Pleasure Reading
13 years ago
1 comment:
Matt - I agree, the semester was a little disjointed. We do not have control over when classes are scheduled (so the 3 hour block once a week is here to stay - at least I think). Personally, the 2 snow days and 3 days at Firestone also contributed to that; however, I think having students in schools is important, so I am willing to lose face-to-face classes so you can have that experience. I expect for you to take the lens work (and all the work we did in class) and apply it in your teaching. You should take that knowledge and figure out how it can be incorporated in your teaching, how it will benefit your students etc... I enjoyed our class immensely and am anxious to hear about your student teaching and future teaching experiences!
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