Concluding Remarks

As this course is coming to an end, I took time to reflect on this course and what it has taught me.  There are many new concepts that I have learned throughout the course of this semester that I believe will make me a better teacher.  Interdisciplinary learning, the KBD umbrella, integrated thinking are all aspects of the course that were very important to learn and I'm glad I had the opportunity to learn through EDUC 4P19.  Also the discussion between the class that was created through the course in terms of blogs and curriculum groups was a great aspect to the course.  It allowed us to hear other peers ideas and opinions about education and the education system as a whole.  It opened my eyes to a wide variety of ideas that I have never though of before.  The group work in this course was very appropriate and beneficial.

Last week the class participated in Genius Hour before this class this concept was new to me.  I think it is a great idea, it allows students to share what they are passionate about.  Not only does it help them as they learn researching skills, but an aspect that I didn't realize it benefited as well is their public speaking skills.  Public speaking is hard for anyone to do, let alone a student doing it in front of their peers.  What better way to make the students comfortable with public speaking then Genius Hour.  It allows them to present something they are interested in and most likely have background information on therefore will feel more comfortable presenting.  I am very glad we learned about this in class, it will definitely be something that I incorporate into my classroom one day! You can find all the information you need on Genius hour through this link: http://www.geniushour.com

My favourite outcome from this course is the curriculum aspect.  This has opened my eyes to a whole new world in teaching.   I have never even seen a curriculum document before let a lone had the opportunity to create my own.  Because of this class I now have a better understanding on why teachers do what they do in order to make the curriculum creative, and that is what I hope to do in the future.  It is important for students to be interested in what they are learning, and with the curriculum already being set in stone for the teacher it can sometimes be difficult to keep it creative in order to keep students interested.  During the time I spent with my group discussing curriculum, and thoroughly going over the geography aspect; I was already making mental notes on activities that I could do with the specific sections in order to engage the students and have them enjoy the topic.  This is done quite often in elementary school; an example I can think of from my personal experience is Grade 4 medieval times section.  It is important to keep units within a class fun, new and interesting.  And that is what I want to do as a high school teacher, keep the excitement in the units like elementary teachers are oh so well at.  This class has taught me more about teaching then I would have ever expected in a class and has inspired me to be the best teacher i can be.

Concurrent Education at Brock

This past week a friend of mine who is in Outdoor Rec at Brock University asked me for help with one of her assignments.  I thought that it was strange considering I have never taken a class in that department.  When we met up I found out that it was a lesson plan that she had to conduct, she asked me because I'm in the concurrent program.  This was a real eye opener for me, because I have personally never wrote one myself.  It was a real struggle trying to help her because I had no idea what I was doing.  Being a 4th year student in a education program, I should have lots of experience with planning lessons and the curriculum behind it all.  Truth is that prior to this course I have never even thought about creating my own lesson plan and where to even find the required information that needs to be covered. I feel as though this is why I am struggling so much on the current project we are working on in EDUC 4P19, because it is a totally new concept to me.

You'd think that creating curriculum and planning lessons would be something we were to be focusing on from the beginning, not starting in fourth year.  After making an attempt to help my friend and not being able to succeed, it got me thinking about the concurrent program here at Brock.  For the first two years we had to take classes in Child and Youth Studies, which I do believe is important.  However we learned overlapping material in many of the classes, and much of it is totally   unnecessary for an aspiring teacher wanting to teach at a high school level.  In many of the earlier year CHYS programs we learned about theorists such as Piaget and Kohlberg, which is something that we went over again this year in EDUC 8P19.  I understand that it is an important concept to know, however learning it once would have been sufficient, and I believe that we could have made better use of some of the times spent in CHYS classes with learning about curriculum or having another chance at a placement.  I'm not trying to rip apart the Concurrent program, I just feel as though there are ways that the program could be adjusted to better prepare students for a teaching setting.  

One thing that I believe would be beneficial would be more placement opportunities within our classes.  Over the four years I've only been placed in one classroom, which was Grade 4. I learned a lot and it was a great experience, however I am in intermediate- senior, therefore this placement was not really relevant to my previous life goals of becoming a high school teacher.  Also I believe that it would be very beneficial to incorporate a class or part of a class about curriculum and lesson plans.  I feel so lost when looking through curriculum documents, seeing as it was my first time doing so the other week.  I wish I had the chance to learn about it before this class so I would have a better understanding of what is going on during this class, and would have been able to help out my peer with developing her lesson plan.  Con-ed is a great program, and I really appreciate the opportunities that it has given me.  I just wish I felt more comfortable with knowledge around curriculum and had a chance to have a placement within a high school.