Week 6 - Teaching in the Middle Grades
Time to wrap up what we have learned during this course. It is hard to imagine that we are wrapping up our sixth and final week. I didn't know what to expect with this class but I remained optimistic. I enjoyed reading the AMLE book as it gave me great perspective on the development of the middle school. It also gave me great confidence in each of my son's experiences during their middle school tenures. I like seeing that my tax dollars are being put to progressive use and that the middle schools do not rest on their laurels. Reading AMLE's directives truly interested me and made me rethink the possibilities of teaching at the middle school level. My youngest son took entrepreneurship during 7th grade. He had no opinion of it going into the class but as the class progressed he disliked it more and more. He said it was boring and it was not exciting. When I asked why, he said the teacher just talks to them and forces them to work on boring stuff. It made me chuckle when he considered the subject matter boring. I told him that would be a class I could potentially teach. He raised his eyebrows and told me I will need to make the topics more exciting and do more group projects where they could choose their teams or partner. He also said I would be more interesting teacher because I like to have fun and would get to know the kids. I can say that this exploratory teacher is young and new and most likely testing what techniques will work and not work. I made sure to explain that to my son and give the teacher a chance.
I enjoyed the various projects we executed and really enjoyed the movie review. I had watched a few of the movies and decided to re-watch one so I could gain a different perspective. It was enlightening to watch the movies after taking the numerous education classes with Trinity. I look at teachers in a different way now, even as a parent. I have a greater respect for their time, commitment, dedication and hard work. Teaching takes into account many things and is constantly changing and trying to find a balance between keeping kids engaged, making connections, including the parents or guardians, working with their fellow teachers and administration and balancing the demands of standardized testing. The movies highlight different situations and scenarios during different time periods. The movie's perspective can be unique whether from the teacher or the student. I think we can learn from these scenarios as they can make us question what direction we want to take with our classes and students or inspire us with ideas and new techniques for instruction and assessments.
Upon relfection I think this class would be just as interesting in person. I would be curious as to what direction our classroom discussions would lead. I enjoy the discussions and perspectives and not that I am not able to get this from our weekly blogs but there is something to be said for the interaction. Just as we are in this COVID world and debating about in-person teaching versus a hybrid model versus all remote, I can understand the need for the genuine classroom interaction. It allows for students to bounce ideas off each other and gain reactions to your perspective. It tells you whether you may be on the right path with your thoughts and ideas and instruction. I feel for the administration and staff making these decisions since I think there is not one correct way to handle the situation. I am thankful I have choices for my instruction at Trinity and have seen the benefits of technology put to use. It would be intersting to have some time for an interactive Zoom meeting with my classmates just to see how it would work. I realize that may be hard though since we are in an adult studies class with various personal lives. Overall I have enjoyed this class and value the assignments we have done along with our various blog posts. I look forward to my eventual new career and wish everyone the best in their future.
I agree that I think this class would be just as interesting in person, if not more so! I think the conversations we could have in person and the spiral they may go on would be great.
ReplyDeleteThe conversation you had with your son is great!! I think it's great to ask the students what they think. One of the readings we had for this class talked about asking the students to complete a survey and not just at the end of the class but during it to see if there are changes that could be made. I think that could be beneficial!
I definitely agree with you that this class would have very interesting conversations in person. I agree also that oftentimes I feel that I gain more insight and understanding from discussions with other people because you can bounce ideas off of each other. In fact, this is how most of my English classes work as well (I'm English Ed) and I feel that the most creative ideas occur after a class session where everyone is bouncing ideas off of each other and countering them. It helps create good discussion skills because you have to think about why you think something and have to find a way to back it up. With being online and creating discussions, while I feel that I did have some good discussions from reading the blog posts, I think that there is still a more interactive way that could happen. Like you mentioned, Zoom calls would have been hard to coordinate. I appreciated that this class was more lenient on deadlines than my other classes from the Traditional Undergraduate program because even though I'm 20 and live with my parents for the summer, I'm still working full time and have other life responsibilities as well. Also with Zoom calls, not everyone has great internet connection (I know I don't always) so that could also make them hard. One of my classes had discussion forums where the professor would post a topic to discuss and then we had to respond and also respond to at least one student. Basically, it was like a mini blog, but since all the comments were in one place, it made it easier to feel that I was in a discussion with other people since I could easily see what everyone else was saying. Todd pointed out in his blog that there was an unequal distribution of comments to blogs. I think one way that could help combat this could be to maybe possibly have a discussion post where people respond with their thoughts for everyone to see then maybe have another discussion post where you have to summarize the comments that you saw and reflect on them. Then, from there, people reply to specific people. That way people could feel more included in online discussions. Maybe even having an on going discussion that gets discussed week by week, a theme if you will, that then could incorporate the specific topics of that week. That way the ideas could build on each other more and the last person to post could still be included and responded to in the following week.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more - I do wish we could have had these classes in person, especially due to the discussions. Since I currently do not work in a school, my personal school experience has come from my own learning experiences, and through some observation hours. I love hearing stories from professors and others in class who currently work in schools and have that type of real life perspective to bring to the discussions. With that being said though, I do think this class flowed so well as an online course. I think the assignments really encouraged us to dig deep, and reflect upon our readings and personal experiences, and because of this, we'll really be set up for success as future teachers.
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