It seems odd to blog now since we haven't taught in weeks, but I can certainly write about my excitement for this final practicum period! It's pretty hard to believe that just 8 days and 5 school programs stand between me and the end of this program. It's fun to look back on how much I've grown personally in my teaching abilities over the past 10.65ish months. Coming in, I definitely held the idea that teaching was standing in front of a backdrop of some sort (blackboard, projector screen, forest, pond, etc.) and lecturing for 45 minutes or so. Since then I've learned the value of inquiry, student-led learning, Socratic questioning, and other valuable (and far more effective) teaching strategies. Seeing the difference in how the students respond to these other methods has been so exciting! What a great reward for the time and effort we've all put into honing our craft here at Merry Lea.
I also wanted to touch on the volunteer training that was just held in the Barn on Monday. I have very little knowledge about the autism spectrum, and even less experience working with individuals who are on it. This workshop was really valuable to me. I now have a much better idea of what to look for in determining if someone is on the spectrum, and I feel much better-equipped to give those students an effective learning experience. It was also a somewhat painful workshop for me. With this new lens of understanding, I was able to look back on some of the students I've worked with this year, and realized that there were a few who probably were on the spectrum and I should have worked with much differently. Of course, we're learning (at least) as much as we're teaching in our practicum, so I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on myself, but it's hard not to wish I could go back and do some things differently. Oh well, at least now I have a greater sensitivity to the condition and a bigger, better set of tools to work with those individuals: be sensitive, be transparent, be consistent, be literal, and tap into what motivates THEM!
PS-Here's to a strong finish everyone! :)
You are right on the money with the value of inquiry and student-centered learning. It makes so much sense and for some reason the majority of curricula used in our public education system do not incorporate it. Why not? They want everyone to be zombies. We must not let this happen.
ReplyDeleteNO ZOMBIES!
ReplyDeleteOnly real zombies, but right - no zombie inducing teaching. I got a lot out of that workshop too Tom although I've read a lot about autism spectrum. It is hard to recognize at times but now you have a little more information to work with. You are great with kids! I think having this sort of training should be definitely kept in the program.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised, too, at the lack of inquiry and student-centered learning. But I understand the difficulty in conducting a lesson in such a way. Our History of Issues class probably had the largest inquiry-based portion of our own classes, and we had to spend around two class periods just planning everything out. I believe it was worth it, and I think we still accomplished the course objectives, but it takes the right kind of teacher - and the right kind of subject matter - to really pull it off.
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