Tuesday, December 9, 2008

A Reflection On Something that I have learned

This post is all about focusing on how one should teach...and care about what they choose to teach their students.
It seems that the more in depth I try to make my thoughts the more lost I become. I lose sight of what I was originally trying to accomplish because I get so caught up in thinking about doing something instead of actually doing it. I noticed that when I try to first complete any task, I have to think about doing it first for a bit and how I plan on executing it before I even make one step towards getting around to carrying it out. Its like the longer I wait around and let my ideas stew...the more ideas I get until it overflows and I become unfocused. It's as if the longer you wait around to get all the right ideas the more unfocused you became-then. If a student were given a task to complete in a designated amount of time but was not given an engaging prompt or selected amount of time to go by then what could be expected besides either procrastination or just plain lack of interest? So many times I have been in a class where the teacher will try to give their students an activity to complete without giving the students something to really work with. Instead most teachers hand out a printed off copy of a worksheet or a coloring page etc. that is relevant to the material being taught...but do these types of activities really teach students anything or are they more or less a form of busy work that is looked upon as being educational? In my opinion when teachers stoop to the level of giving students work that is not challenging, they are directly contributing to their students memorizing -not learning of concepts/or content. Taking heed in such learning material as a foundation in classroom content focus shows unoriginality, and lack of the teacher wanting to truly share their own talents with their students in ways that will help them grow, and in ways that are fun and unique in comparison to the usual book, worksheet, overhead note taking, or monotone class discussions. Learning should be a fun and educational and challenging experience. As a teacher I will be sure to allow my students the leverage to take a chance and be original and creative in the classroom so that their learning will become more personal through personal learning experiences. I will focus on making my lessons challenging, fun and educational for students so that they will remain engaged somehow! The more challenging it is the more fun it is and the more (nonchalantly) educational it is!:)