I realy enjoyed this course
at Walden. As the class progressed I was able to add several new
strategies to my teaching style. As I have incorporated these lessons
I have seen a major change in my students. They come to class excited
and ready to learn. I truly belive that the reason for this change is
the involvement of my GAME plan lessons and new technology.
At the beginning of the
course my main goal was to become a more reflective teacher and teach
my students the art of reflection. I feel that today I am one hundred
percent better at reflecting on my daily lessons and making
adjustments. At the end of each day I sit down for about five to ten
minutes and jot down what went well and what I need to adjust. This
simple process has allowed me to be more prepaired for the following
days lesson and make sure I am reaching all students. My students are
getting better each day at the reflective process as well. I have
opened a class blog and at least three days a week I am asking the
students to reflect on their learning and discuss areas they still
need help. Each time we do this the students get better. They have
also given other students in the class fantastic advice during the
process. I feel that student reflection has been the greatest
addition to my classroom. Their reflections help them understand
their learning and it helps me see where they still need help.
My GAME plan lessons have
worked well in my classroom. The lessons do take a little longer than
lessons of the past, but the students are gaining so much from them.
Each lesson I have got better at incorporating student reflection and
using their reflection to do my own reflection. I have already seen a
change in my students with these new lessons. Students are fully
engaged and learning how they can use their daily learning in the
real world. I will continue to incorporate these lessons into my
daily classroom. My goal for the future is to continue to learn new
strategies involving how to incorporate technology into the classroom
and to continue to involve project based learning in my classroom.
As I said above, I have
learned these strategies can take a little bit more time, but in the
end it is worth it. I feel the most important part of teaching is
teaching kids how to survive in the real-world. The strategies I have
learning in this class allow for this to happen. I look forward to
seeing more positive results from my students as I continue to
involve my learning from this class in future lessons.
