ED 640 Reflection Blog 4

This week I gave the students a homework where they chose an organelle and had to find 5 facts about it. I have to say that the standard of work was noticeably higher than usual! I also continued the exercise by having students take precut bits of paper and wander the room to look at other students creations and give feedback. They had three bits of paper and had to say something they liked, something they thought could be improved and ask a question on each sheet and leave it with the homework they were commenting on. The whole thing was great! They were positive and constructive in their feedback, we had a class discussion that continued in the same vein, with many students saying that the feedback was spot on, and even in transition to the next portion of the lesson there were students continuing conversations on the exercise. It bodes well for my intention to increase project work, and with it, the discussion within groups that are required for such work. Intergroup discussion and giving feedback and reflecting on the work of others will also be something I hope to promote more often. There are also many apps such as Padlet, which are like group or discussion boards that were recommended as part of in house PD, which I was hesitant to use but feel more confident to try now. Long may these little successes continue!

Any time I do an exercise with discussion of past teachers who greatly influenced people I am amazed that content knowledge tends to be like an afterthought. People always mention fairness, honesty and other social traits which made them comfortable and gave them belief. I have been reflecting on this as I think I am most of those god things but there are times when I certainly am not a particularly patient person. I can hide behind the idea that students need to learn themselves, the consequences for their actions, but there are a multitude of grey areas between being too soft and too standoffish. To add more layers to it, I always remember my Dad, a Great Teacher, telling me that “you learn something from every teacher”. I take this partly to mean there are teachers with greater capacity to be pastoral, from whom the students will learn that, and my ilk, who might let them come face to face with the consequences of their actions in a more hands off manner. In writing this I think I will stay as I am. Just about my favorite quote, which I have heard attributed to Oscar Wilde, is “Education is a wonderful thing, but it is worth remembering from time to time, that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught!”

I hope it was worth it sticking with my stream of consciousness reflection!

As for semester goals, I just want to finish Grad school! Beyond that, as has been my goal for some time I want to increase the inquiry and project based learning in my class and reduce the ‘chalk and talk”! I will go against my base instincts to jump in with some large and unwieldy project and try and build smaller connected projects with the aim to learn and improve year on year. Fingers crossed…

Thanks