The following post was written on March 3rd in Education 400. The posting was about the individual lesson that we have made a Backwards Design Template for; I will be teaching part of this lesson either this week, or next.
1. Describe your current ideas about the individual lesson that you'll be teaching at your PDS.
Since I am at my PDS while my host teacher is in a history classroom I will be teaching a lesson about the War of 1812. It was hard for me to come up with something creative to have the students do while learning about the war because I had forgotten about ever learning about it myself. When I was reading online articles about the war I was easily distracted because it wasn't something I was interested in as an english student. I think that by having students complete a journal/diary entry from one of the soldiers or a letter to one of the soldiers from a loved one would be an interesting insight to see if the students really did grasp the concepts. In my backwards design I wrote that I would have the students complete a time line. This time line will be done in class so that the studets can self assess themselves in class. They will not be able to use notes for this and will complete the time line as best as they can. I think this is important because the students need to understand some of the main ideas in a war such as, when the British took over our trade, when the war started, when the Star Spangled Banner was written, when the peace treaty was singed, and when the war ended. Students also need to understand why the war happened in the first place. British citizens were in American for 30 years after the American Revolution.
2. What concepts have you considered in relation to a personal educational philosophy?
I have considered self educating. I think it is important for teachers to keep studying education and their specialty area. Students change and learn different ways and teachers need to find how they learn and make their lesson appeal to the student. Today, it is through technology. WV has a strong foundation and certain CSO's to cover this technological need. As a teacher I will familiarize myself with texts and technology they are dealing with at the time.
The wondering I had, and wrote about in my Exit ticket had to do with special education students in the mainstream classroom. I wondered how to test this students accurately and if placing them in an inclusive classroom helps their scores. Branching off my Education 400 post I wonder what is the best way to keep things "fresh" for students. Does a good and effective teacher attend conventions and try to keep up with young adult literature? And is it hard to keep up with the technology that students use when you are an older teacher?
Nicole
