Monday, February 7, 2011
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Responses to Merrill
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Responses to Merrill
Wordle Response to Classroom Managment 3
The most memorable learning experience I had was in high school. I had always struggled with math and was very disinterested in it. I had never got an A in math all through high school until my senior year. I had a teacher who really got through to me. It was my "AH HA" moment. I had always worked very hard to get my work done and to understand the concepts. My teacher took the time during class to answer questions. He wouldn't just sit up in the front and lecture. He would do a problem, then go around and make sure that we understand. He created practice problems before we moved on to the next step. This really helped me understand. I think that taking the time to break down the problems really helped. He genuinely cared about his students. He would come in before and stay after school to make sure his students weren't falling behind.
ReplyDeleteI guess what I am really trying to say is that having a teacher who cared about my grade and my understanding made it easier for me to comprehend. I hope to carry the qualities he possesses in my classroom.
One of my most memorable learning experiences happened in fifth grade. I had a teacher that really pushed us to learn over what we thought our limits were. It worked. We did an activity that mimicked a wax museum. Each student in the class had to pick a person from history. I chose Clara Barton, someone chose a famous baseball player, and someone else chose a famous person effected by polio as just a few examples. We then had to come up with a costume like that person would wear and do research. All of this research led to making a trifold filled with information and pictures. We also had to memorize facts about the person - almost as if we WERE the person. After all of this work we put together a 'wax museum'. Parents, the community, and other students were invited to go into the classrooms we were spread out in and push our 'button' to make us talk. This instructional strategy literally came to life in our fifth grade classrooms.
ReplyDeleteThis strategy has stuck clearly in my head ever since fifth grade. Having a goal of a final project kept me motivated and interested. It also helped getting to choose the person I would portray; my interest was already there and I could expand on it. This project was hands on the entire time, leaving no time to be bored. This is a strategy I would like to use if I am ever a teacher in the upper elementary grades. To this day I remember information about Clara Barton and have many books about her.
I, like the rest of the people who have commented so far, had a teacher who looked deep inside me and pushed me to succeed. In 3rd grade I was an average student and got through each day doing the bare minimum. However, my teacher noticed my slim motivation each day and finally worked with me each day to break through my shell, and see what I was really capable off. She motivated me to try new things, and experiment with the content we were learning. During that school year I started to progress rapidly and I began to understand that just because I had finished an assignment doesn’t mean I am done learning. Instead I focused on the concept I was learning and keep investigating to see what I could learn.
ReplyDeleteOverall, this instructional strategy really helped me understand the type of teacher I want to be, in that I want to motivate my students. I want to be a person they can rely on and trust. I can help them discover their abilities and look towards the future. There is no I end to learning in my classroom, and that is how I hope to impact my students in the future.
I think that overall, what sticks out in students' minds are those teachers who are motivating. I think that some of the qualities we describe in our blogs are those we wish to possess as future teachers. We want to be like our previous teachers and make an impact like we did. Being aware of those qualities is something we talked about in a class I am taking right not. Engaging in our emotional literacy is something that we all can continue working on.
ReplyDeleteChristy-I think you make an important point by saying there is no end to learning. That is something that takes students and even teachers awhile to grasp and incorporate into learning. I think it will be a challenge to make sure we are always helping our students to move on even if they finish an assignment before their classmates. Even after a unit is complete there is always more to learn.
ReplyDeleteKylie-The "wax museum" sounds so fun. This is a really unique way to make you do research on historical figures. It obviously made a huge impact on you which makes it fun for the entire class. I think looking at how having a final goal kept you motivated is helpful for later in our career as educators. I think its great that she let you choose your person also, it creates a connection to the topic.
ReplyDeleteOne of my most memorable learning experiences was in middle school. My eighth grade year I participated in a Science Fair at my school and ended up making it to the State Science Fair. I was never into science until this moment. My teacher had a passion for science. I can't think of one specific learning strategy she used, but a major teacher behavior that definitely made science a great learning experience was her passion. Everything we did in our science class was hands-on and she always made it relate to us in some way. I had some of my best memories at the State Science Fair. Who knew I would end up liking science.
ReplyDeleteI think as a teacher, even if you don't love a subject, you need to portray the passion that my teacher did. It makes the students want to learn so much more and helps motivate them to do their best work.
Anna-
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky to have had such a great Math teacher. I still struggle with math because I never had a good experience with it. I agree that having teachers that care and motivate you is so important to the progress in the students' learning.
It is important as a teacher to notice those students who are doing very well, but also to recognize those who need extra help. Both groups of students need motivating and encouragement!
My most memorable learning experience is in third grade. We were learning about different Indian tribes. We switched to a different teacher everyday. Each teacher had a different tribe and different teaching strategy. Among all of these classes we watched movies, read stories, make jewelry, and acted in a play.
ReplyDeleteI really liked that we switched rooms while learning about tribes. It was so cool to have many teachers and all the different activities we got to participate in. I had a lot of fun through this unit.
When I was in high school, the most memorable experience I had as a learner was in government class. We did a court case simulation. I can not remember exactly what the court case was about anymore but the general objective of this assignment was to take evidence that was given to us, study it, and draw conclusions about it on our own. We would then bring these ideas and conclusions to class and debate our personal opinions with those of our classmates. This required both critical thinking skills and common sense. The reason it was memorable for me was because this particular assignment allowed me to use common sense. Another student in the class was very book smart and she was used to being ahead of the rest of the class. She did not, however, measure up to several other people when it came to common sense. I was able to take the conclusions I drew and use common sense to win the case against this particular student. This was one of the few times I was able to show my own unique types of intelligences to the rest of my class. The teacher did this assignment to show that sometimes it takes multiple intelligences to fully comprehend some lessons. His strategy of showing us this was simply creating an assignment to help the students realize this lesson on our own.
ReplyDelete@Amanda:
ReplyDeleteI think that the learning strategy used for learning about the different tribes was very interesting. It is sometimes good for students to get up and experience different teachers because they all have slightly different teaching strategies and it is so important for the students to be exposed to this so that they can grow from this and learn what works best for each individual student.
The first thing that came to my mind was when I was in third grade. We were learning about pioneers and we had a day where we were able to dress like the pioneers. I remember wearing a flower print button up dress and a bonnet. This was a lot of fun because we all brought sack lunches and ate in our room. It was day full of activities the pioneers would have done. Our teacher walked around with a yard stick and would hit it on tables. I know that sounds a little intense, but all of the aspects really made it unit come alive.
ReplyDeleteThe teacher used many hands-on activities and focused it toward things that interested us. She had us do readings, watch movies, and have class discussions over how we felt about their way of life and what we found to be the most interesting thing we learned about.
Chelsea-
ReplyDeleteI can think of my teachers that had passion for what they taught and it really does have a positive effect on the students. I hope that I can help my students develop a passion for learning new things and make them enjoy certain subject areas that they find unappealing.
I think some of the most memorable experiences came from second grade. We had a unit about butterflies and another unit on meal worms. For each of these units, we had our very own caterpillar (or meal worm) and observed the changes from one day to the next. I can remember the day when it no longer was a caterpillar, but no was in its cocoon.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting part about having our own caterpillar or meal worm was that the teacher didn't just keep the container at the back of the class. The container was taped onto our desks for the whole unit. I don't really remember it being a huge issue, but then again, I was in second grade. If I use the same teaching strategy, I probably won't tape the container on the students' desk, because of the distraction it creates. I do, however, like the idea of having learning more tangible and hands-on like my second grade teacher demonstrated.
One of the most memorable experiences I had was when I was in 8th grade. We had classes that pertained to different life skills. One of the life skills was about corporations and running businesses. Our assignment was to get into groups of 4 or 5 and come up with a business. Our businesses would be selling food before, after, or during school. We got to choose the name of our corporation, what we would sell, when we would sell, and how much our items would cost. My group was called The Muffin Girls. We thought that we would make the most profit selling muffins and other breakfast foods and drinks before school. Each one of us had a certain job (President, Treasurer, Advertiser, etc). We also had to come up with ways to advertise our corporation. My group made a commercial that was played for the whole school after announcements. Each way of advertisement, spot to sell, time to sell, and other things had a certain price that we had to pay for. If we made any money in the end from our selling’s, we got to keep that money. I thought this was such a neat activity. We were pretty much on our own, and making our own decisions. This learning strategy was great for us 8th graders. It gave us a lot of responsibility. The teachers were there for support or if we had questions, but we were the ones who decided what we thought would be best. I think that hands on experiences are great instructional strategies to use. I will keep this is mind when I become a teacher.
ReplyDeleteKylie- The ‘wax museum’ sounds like such a neat learning experience. I have never heard of anything like it, but I think that it’s a great idea. Not only does it incorporate hands on learning, but the students also got to choose their topics. I think that these two things are important when teachers plan their instructional strategies. When students get a choice of their topic, or the kind of project they are doing, they seem to become more engaged in the assignment. I will definitely keep this instructional strategy in mind, and hopefully get to use it one day in my classroom!
ReplyDeleteOne of my most memorable experiences I had was in elementary school. It was my 4th grade class and we were learning about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Since in my home town there is a monument of Sergeant Floyd because that is where he died, we as a class took a trip to the monument and talked more about it there. After we visited the monument I could better understand the Lewis and Clark Expedition and it meant a lot more to me. I thought that it was a great learning experience because you could put pictures to the words. Making a field trip out of a topic we were learning about made everyone a lot more interested in it.
ReplyDeleteChelsea, I agree 100% with you. I think tht teachers need to show their love for teaching and that will make it a way more memorable class. It will also show students that you care, not only for the subject but also them.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most memorable moments for me was when I was in 6th grade. One of my teachers was forced to retire. We had many different teachers that year. Having all the different teachers taught me how to have better behavior. I didn't want to keep getting new teachers, so my class thought that if we were all really good one of the teachers would stay. We finally had one teacher who stayed with us until the end of the year, but it was really hard on my class to go through that many teachers.
ReplyDeleteChelsea I agree that teacher's need to be passionate about what they teach even if they don't like it!
ReplyDeleteAnna,
ReplyDeleteAs we get older, we sometimes lose our motivation and and excitement about school. It is important for teachers to motivate students and themselves to make the learning environment fun again.
One of the learning experiences I remember most was economics class in 12th grade. This was not a class that I felt particularly interested in, but slowly it became alright. The teacher was very enthusiastic about her class and more. Her enthusiasm was contagious. Her class and policies really prepared us for college (no late work accepted, etc.). We had a few projects in econ that allowed us to gain a better understanding of what we were learning. One project that I remember is the stock market. We chose and tracked progress of real stock. This was memorable because it pertained to the real world.
ReplyDelete