I really enjoyed watching Ms. Maronpot’s video about the
process of teaching. It was so interesting because of the way she handled
suggestions from Dr. Royce. When I think back to my high school career, I
remember the days when my classroom was being observed. My teacher would always
tell us at least a day before and then proceed to tell us to be on our best
behavior. I remember always feeling like my class was faking it and trying to
impress the person that was observing our class. That being said I feel like
failing in education is frowned upon so I really appreciated that Ms. Maronpot
took these suggestions or “critique” so well because as teachers we should
always be improving and learning new ways to perfect our craft.
The specific strategies all seemed to center around
engagement. The two points that stood out to me the most were getting the
students up on their feet and moving around the classroom and asking engaging
questions. This stood out to me because this was not always how my experience
was in high school and middle school. I think these are two crucial parts of
having a classroom that feels like a community. Asking the students what THEY
think and getting them moving around makes class feel like a safe space where
they can learn, have fun, and their opinion matters. In some of my classes this
semester we talk a lot about how important the way you phrase your questions
are and I agree. Asking questions that are engaging and really require students
to think about it and then share their thoughts is crucial. I think this goes
back to always improving our skill because that cannot be done without knowing
what is going on with the students you are teaching, what they like, what they
dislike, what kind of technology they are using, books they are reading, etc. The
key to keeping students engaged is being current and bringing them into a
community rather than a classroom.
339 Words.
It’s funny because I remember having the same experience as you. You made a very valid point by saying that students would be faking it because that is exactly what we were doing. Of course we would be on our best behavior because we would know that we would pay for it later if we weren’t on our best behavior. The reality is that when students pull that card it only hurts the teacher because it gives of the persona that everything in the classroom is fine when there is something that the teacher can be critiqued on.
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