myself as a learner, and most importantly, about how to adapt my learning and my perceptions of how learning takes place to fit
with a diverse classroom of students. When reading through the first goal, I was surprised, because as part of a generation where
Facebook, Google, and YouTube are turning into the common place for the exchange of ideas and information, not once when
lesson planning do I think of incorporating technology, especially in literacy. Thus, with goal one, I hope to fully address
technology integration in my curriculum, and using the technology available to both myself and my students to benefit them
the most. The technology strand of my development also reappeared in the second course goal regarding my pedagogy, and as
I continue learning about technology, and getting more into the Holt district curriculum, my goal is to initially think of
using technology as a resource.
For my second course goal, I hope that I learn to holistically self-assess. I want to know my strengths and weaknesses as a
learner, because each day I realize more and more how strong an influence my educational biases will have on my
teaching and my students' ability to learn. Within the context of language arts, I think this should be particularly interesting
because I love to read and value reading and literacy as an integral part of childhood. Also, in my family, reading was a
frequent activity, and I would like to find ways to use my own positive reading experiences to encourage my students' families
to read together and incorporate literacy into their own homes daily.
Another goal, which is more important since the passing of No Child Left Behind, is to learn how to work toward the state
and national educational standards, without being confined by them. I know teachers who teach only what is given them, and
when this is presented to the students, their enthusiasm drains, because the teacher lacks enthusiasm and ownership of his/her
own lesson. Nonetheless, all students are still responsible on standardized tests for the same material. So my overarching
goal for both this year and for my career is to continue to find innovative ways to teach the required material, so that it is
meaningful and powerful for my students, and most importantly, helps make language arts enjoyable.
Overall, I am hoping that this course in conjunction with my field work will help me to identify my own preconceptions
about education and learning, find new and innovative ways to incorporate technology into my classroom, and to teach the
standards without teaching only to the standards. My hope is that by achieving these goals, or working towards them for the whole
semester, I will be able to become an effective teacher for a diverse group of students, not simply students who are like me.
Through my own love for literacy, I hope to make literacy exciting for the students in my current classroom, and to observe,
develop, and adapt great literacy activities that will be useful for my future classroom!
3 comments:
As I was reading through your goals, I caught myself nodding my head in agreement with a lot of the things that you said! I think that you bring up a lot of really good points, such as the need to integrate technology for students who use it more and more in their daily lives. By integrating technology into lessons and helping students see the value of what they're learning in real-world, graphic and innovative ways, it may make the lessons more authentic. Also, I really liked what you said about trying to find ways to teach the standards without teaching strictly to them. That aspect is related to one of my goals to try to learn how to read and incorporate the standards into lessons. I've also seen a lot of teachers who teach only from the textbook and standards, and the kids always seem so bored. I want to figure out ways to engage students while guiding them toward meaningful learning, which seems like one of your goals too!
I fully appreciate how difficult and necessary it is to constantly question your beliefs and practices. It's so easy to become complacent with things that "work", or at least seem to. But, the best teachers constantly reflect on their own practice and call their choices into question.
JoAnne - I have no doubt that you will achieve all the goals that you have set for yourself. Technology is just going to get more complicated, and I agree with you that we should embrace it and let it empower our teaching. The more precise the tools, the better the job. I also can relate to your goals about standardizing education, because it seems to me that it is becoming more about how well students do on one test, than how much they actually learn and how meaningful that learning actually is. Especially with reading, we as teachers need to think outside of the box to create solutions to these seemingly strict and rigid guidelines.
Post a Comment