What Do We Do Now?

I was so looking forward to starting class on campus this week and meeting the Professor and my classmates, however, this week was yet another snow storm brought class to us online.

From the text, I have read a lot about the Inquiry style of teaching, science itself, and how to engage children not only in science but to be able to relate it to math, and life in general. I think most children by nature have a sense of exploration and figuring out the “unknown.” These new concepts can either be stunted or built upon depending on the style of teaching and one’s attitude towards teaching a particular subject. I would hope, as a teacher, that I would be able to provide students with the tools to explore the world in front of them and expand their knowledge along the way.

One personal thing I noticed from the readings, is that while I question a lot of things generally speaking, as an adult I tend to “look” at things more instead of observing them. I hope this will help change my view.

This past week’s readings also brought me back to the initial drawing we were asked to draw the first night of class. Our scientist! I realized that my drawing was the perfect stereotypical picture of a scientist. Apparently, my subconscious brought that out, even though I was raised in a house where women were thought to be able to accomplish anything.

Science has not always been one of my strong suits. However, the first several weeks reading assignments have made me excited about the prospect of teaching young minds. My new experiences, thus far, have given me positive attitude in my potential to help children learn through hands-on experiences and in allowing them to expand their potential of being lifetime learners.

As we've been developing our lesson plans for presentation, I have not only read information about them, but I learned the importance in creating them everyday as a guideline and goal in what you have to accomplish on any given day. Lesson plans ensure that we as teachers have day-to-day programs for our students along with activities that coincide to optimize learning. It also accounts for individual education plans when necessary and how to accommodate students so that we can provide them with equity-based learning. Lesson plans have an initial topic in which to engage the students, it stipulates objectives, and in what way they will be accomplished, goals for the students within a particular lesson and ways to measure the goals have been met. Unit plans, however, may have several lesson plans within the specific content. Unit plans identify the content being taught and the goals for learning. The rationale provides a reason to why you are learning particular lessons. Did students do poorly on a pre-assessment, do they lack knowledge of a particular topic, etc.? I've learned thus far, that preparation is essential. As teachers, we can't "wing," what we are going to teach each day as distractions happen and they can assist us in staying on track. They also account for what information students have learned and provide guidance in how different types of students can be assisted in the process, for example, presentations and all other materials will be read aloud because some students may have reading difficulties. 


I have a lot to learn, although I am tackling the information and running full speed ahead. I’m nervous to start student teaching next week!!! Not to mention, it’s been a rather odd start to the semester not having been IN class yet. But I’m also excited at the opportunity for a new and rewarding career.