ED 327 Reflection 4

November 15, 2012

Observations…

Today was an interesting one. Mr. Pitcock was spending the day in service meetings, so we had a substitute teacher Mr. Akbar. The students we engaged in project work. They had been given a project where the students had to design a plan for a town in which the town engineers had quit. As a result, the students had to act as engineers and design an energy plan for the city. The students had a specific design plan for the project which they had to fill out and then they could set up their presentation. After looking at the design plan, I decided it was far too structured for the students. At first I appreciated Mr. P’s propensity to structure, but now I am concerned it prohibits creative expression (Developmental Need 4). In speaking with many of the students, they said they would rather have free rein to develop the finished product for the project how they wanted instead of in the form of trifold poster where the layout had been previously determined. I have to admit, I am slightly disappointed with Mr. P here because I had been so impressed previously, with another project where he demonstrated great concern for creative expression by allowing the students to create whatever they wanted for the final product.

In other conversations with the students, they noted that they felt Mr. P’s class was boring. And when pushed to answer how it could be better, they thought Ms. Monroe’s class was better. I asked them what made her class better and if they could change this class what they would do, and many of them said they would add more labs. I know from research and my personal belief about education that labs are a great way to encourage student focused instruction where students construct their own knowledge base (Vatterott, 21). I want to take this information with me as I plan my lesson for the class (INTASC 7&9).

I appreciated the opportunity to connect with these students a little more without Mr. P around and while they were engaged in group work (Developmental Need 1: Positive Adult Interaction). It gave me an opportunity to develop personal relationships with them which I think will be useful for when I instruct the class. I am excited to plan something that helps Jared, a student who is very intelligent and inquisitive, Lauren, a talkative socialite striving for approval, Sophie, the quiet bookworm who always looks overwhelmed but always knows the answer, Martel, a quiet athlete who seems to need some positive encouragement that he is capable of understanding the material, and all the other students in the class. So although it may be difficult to engage all of these very different students, I hope that by collaborating with Adam and Dr. M, I can come up with something to do which engages the content in a creative manner, and allows for each of these students to construct their own knowledge through self definition. We will see if it works!

Comments are closed