As I continue my journey in the college of education, I am constantly reminded how important it is to be not only a lifelong educator but to be a lifelong student as well. I have a thurst to learn more and absorb as much knowledge as I can, especially before my internship year, in order to help me in becoming a more educated and well-rounded teacher. Therefore there are several aspects of my learning and development that I would like to grow in, in the hopes of blooming into an incredable teacher. One of my goals for myself throughout this course is to continue developing my pedagogy. I feel that developing my own pedagogy will help me to really understand myself as a teacher. It is my hope that by conbining readings and class discussions with prior knowledge, as well as field observations and active participation, my teaching pedagogy will become stronger and more clear. I think one of the best ways for me to develop my teaching pedagogy is through the participation log. Field is the time for me to do some reflection and serious observational analysis of both the content in which is taking place in the classroom as well as my own responses and actions. I hope that by developing this stronger pedagogy now, my trasition into my internship year will be strengthened as well. It will hopefully prepare me, in some respect, to teaching in an urban setting, such as Detroit. This will be a new experience for me and therefore I want to learn and grow from it as much as possible. Absorbing knowledge about good teaching habits and techniques, espeically in language arts, will help prepare me for this journey.
While preparing for this journey in teaching in an urban setting, I would like to learn how to teach to students of lower achievement levels. I know this is something I will encounter not only in urban placement but in schools across the board, and therefore feel it is important to understand and acknowledge. I feel that I tend to gravitate towards students who were like me, high acheivers and had a substantial parent and family involvement. However, I would like to focus on students that are different from me in order to push my thinking and teaching. I think I will be more knowledgable to do this after taking this course, through the field, readings, and class discussion and reflection.
My overall goal for myself is to greatly enhance the already present desire and passion that I possess to become a teacher. The greatest way to enhance this, I feel, is to take in this course like a sponge, and not only learn the concepts and technicalities but also reflect upon them and embrace the teaching of all students.
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Gina,
ReplyDeleteYour passion about teaching really comes through in this writing. I can tell from your words that you're really dedicated to using this last semester before the internship to really take advantage of all of your learning opportunities.
You've isolated the development of you pedagogy as one of your main goals for this semester. Now think about what aspects of your pedagogy you would like to develop. These specifics will come to you over time and as you learn more about instructional methods, but as you reflect on your time in the field, consider what your strengths are - think about what you feel comfortable jumping right into in the field. Then think about what you might hesitate to do are feel a little unsure about. Those things that still don't feel natural to you might be what you want to focus on. Ask your CT about those aspects of teaching or management. Get her take on it. And you're absolutely right, your participation log is a fantastic place to work through those aspects of your pedagogy.
And we all tend to gravitate toward the known for that exact reason - we know it. Sometimes we have to force ourselves to go beyond that. Maybe dedicate one day in the field to shadow a student in your classroom learns and behaves completely differently than you do. Use that day to get a sense of how he or she operates. Look at the day from their perspective then write about it in your participation log. I think that would be fascinating.
Very thoughtful entry Gina!
Sarah :)