As with all philosophies, they are subject to
change from external and internal forces. Creating and maintaining one with
ties to two incredibly large areas like education and technology is an
impressive and demanding feat. From my own experiences and interactions I have
only begun to formulate mine. Throughout
this course I have only begun to tap into the incredible multitude of
applications and apparatuses that can further my own ability to teach and
learn, but it has already started to enhance my future plans of teaching.
The purpose of education is to introduce those involved to new
information, concepts, and the relationships between them. By helping a student
develop a useable bank of knowledge and how to apply it, a full and complete
picture of any type of subject matter can be made clearer. Looking back, I can
see that two particular teachers helped me to reach this conclusion. My
favorite and best teacher, my ninth grade geometry teacher, taught me the
importance of learning the “rules of game” as he called it. After learning
these rules, or the basic concepts of geometry, I found that playing “the game”
was much less difficult and that I could rely on certain facts when trying to further
my understanding. Helping to solidify this concept, but in a less attractive
way, my high school physics teacher decided that “the basics” were common sense
and made little effort to establish their importance before delving into the
chaotic world of physics.
These two experiences also did much to help me
identify what role teacher and student should play. I can honestly say that my
approach to teaching shows my understanding that baby steps, topic connections
and relationships, real world examples and context clues are part of not only
the way I want to teach, but they’re also in the way I approach everything. I
take my physics teacher’s open ended class and pulled a need to prove and test
for understanding and not just assume it. I need direction in my class. I can’t
see myself allowing much of a “discovery” method of teaching to occur. This is
because I know the feelings of being lost and confused, and I feel that being
the source for those feelings would be infinitely worse. I guess that’s why I’m
always checking myself and my lessons for confusing tidbits and tangential
statements. I believe a teacher needs to aim to be slow and steady, and not
fast and heady. Concerning students, I want learners to not only take away the
basic knowledge from my lessons but also how that knowledge interplays within
itself to form their resulting concepts. More importantly still, I want them to
take away that they are responsible for 99% of their success, and I am only
teaching them how to be responsible for that last percent. They need to be held
responsible for their own improvements and understanding. This goal is something that I now realize to
be obtainable through multiple media and assessments that can range from being
communal to individually self-reflective.
From this I
find that I am a follower of realism. I believe in the necessity
of measuring understanding through assessment. I understand the need for
developing assignments based on the levels of ability present and how each
individual’s ability helps to represent their role in the assignment. I
believe that this all stems from the understanding that instructional
environment that arms the students with the core knowledge needed to perceive
more advanced information and concepts is key. I find that there is a need for
accountability in the classroom and this method clearly supports it by have the
student display their
knowledge through in-depth
and varied assessments. The way in which you teach to this method, lecture and
guided practices, is an efficient means to move through various concepts while
being able to make the needed connections between them. I choose the methods I use because they
make use of my own way of thinking. How could I teach art to someone if I
myself don’t understand it? I also find that making adjustments to my methods,
for the sake of my students’ understanding, is much easier when I understand
them best at their most basic parts. I can tell and show my students how I see
it if I teach them how I was taught. I can always try different less familiar
methods.
The
inclusion of technology into my classroom is made fairly easy by its saturation
within the system already. I would make heavy use of the burgeoning norm to
supply class internet home pages for each class. These home pages give students
access to everything concerning the class such as lesson outlines, homework
assignments, and procedural examples. I’d also be able to supply feedback and
support as well as an area for students to share ideas and questions over the
material. The same could be said for the
individual blogs I intend to utilize where students can answer prompts by any
means available and without worry of peer disapproval. The class wiki, where all relevant course
information is sorted, linked to related information, and useable as a means to
judge participation and expanded interests, would only work towards a better
informed and communal understanding of our goals in class.
This
philosophy is in no way concrete in its formation or its durability. It is not
only subject to change but attracts it due to its dependence on the ever
changing world. The only way for it to be plausible is for it to be pliable.
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