Reflection 4

Class was quite informative today, and helped me think about lesson plans, and teaching; not to mention I've been thinking deeply about this post, and what to say. I hope what I say here will be inspiring, and thought-provoking.

I observed in class the things Geoff said about lesson plans. Why do we need them? Well, he talked about the importance of having them as a guide ("lesson plans are just plans, not inevitable routes") to lead you as a teacher throughout the lesson. This was not new to me, yet at the same time, it was because I had not effectively used a lesson plan before. It should have been common sense that a lesson plan is merely a guide and not a strict plan. The next time I use a lesson plan, it'll be to guide my teaching.

We also talked about the Eight Effective Parts of Lesson Plans: preplanning, goals/content, guiding questions, assessment, learning connections, learning activities or tasks, teaching strategies, and lesson evaluation. The overall theme that was taught to us was "think about what the students want/are interested in, not what you think is cool." This was my problem: I was teaching what I thought was cool to me. That's not to say 'Teach Something 1' was a bad idea because we were told we could teach anything we wanted, but 'Teach Something 2' felt more restrictive. However, I did assess, or attempt to assess, what I taught in my assignments, so I was following the general guidelines of effective lesson plans, but not all of them. I'll have to implement the rest in the next plan.

What strikes me about all this is that there is a lot more to teaching than I originally thought. I used to teach primary as an assistant (not substitute) teacher. I looked forward to every Sunday because I loved it, and it helped me forget about my troubles that I was having at the time. I felt like I was doing something with those kids, imprinting the knowledge of the Old Testament into their minds felt like I was changing something, but back then, I only assumed that religious teachings could truly change lives. In a sense, that is true, but not entirely true because it does not encompass all the aspects of teaching in the world.

Teaching changes lives, more than just religious teaching, but any type of teaching—teacher to student, parent to child, priest to pupil. This is something I've been thinking about, and pondering: how can I change lives? My original plans were always to change lives through my books. While I have no intention of changing that plan, I can always add another one and become a teacher to help change the lives of the youth.

What would I teach? I don't know, maybe web design, maybe graphic design, all I know is, if I become a teacher, then I would want to teach High School because they tend to be more mature, and, I, myself had a terrible Middle School experience. Not only as a student, but also I observed how the students treated the teachers, I felt like the only one who actually respected and cared for the teachers. That's not an environment I want to teach in. However, I'm now coming into this major with an open mind and a softened heart to learn all that I can, and experience BYU like I've never experienced before.

Instant Gratification and Technology.

This is not a reflection, but this is something I thought about recently that I want to share with the class.

I was thinking about this after talking with my therapist about instant gratification. It seems like more and more, Technology is offering us faster and faster methods of getting what we want now. For example, phones are becoming more and more a 'do-everything' device. You can surf the web, listen to music, play games, etc., etc.

The problem lies within the fact that everything becomes accessible to us with such ease that, since we can get it now, that everything else should come now, instead of later. We lose true freedom this way as we get addicted to everything that we want, now. Real freedom is controlling what we want, and when we want it. Not just an impulse of 'now.'

Just think of certain things that are not good for people that could be easily accessed without blocks or tracking via instant technology--there are quite a few.

However, virtues and morals teach us something important: patience, and putting off instant gratification. Instead of getting it now, you wait. The reward and the feeling of getting something that you've patiently waited for is much more invigorating and satisfying than getting it immediately.

Good things come to those who wait, those who take the time to work at it, not to those who will give up if they can't get it now, or get angry when they can't get it now. Imagine all the authors in world, and what if they had focused on instant gratification instead of being patient in writing their books. If so, we wouldn't have very good books.

We're growing in a society that constantly teaching us that "now" is better than "later." Sometimes, this is the case. However, is this always the case? Is it necessary? I say 'no.' Especially since instant gratification has taken a bit of a toll on my own life. I think it also has probably taken other lives as well.

Perhaps the world needs a wake-up call before it's too late.

Reflection 3

Teaching Something 2 was hard. Geoff tricked me, and I thought we were going to plan to teach something as a group. So, I assumed we would all have the same lesson plan, that's what I understood. Ignorantly sinning, I went into Teach Something 2 not prepared with no lesson plan. Fortunately, I had my laptop with me, so I was able to make one rather quickly. However, my decision was not the greatest, it was based off what someone else did which was do Teach Something 1 again, except without the technical difficulties. For me, that meant I tried to teach StarCraft 2 again.

I think they were bored as I showed them the video for the second time. They sure looked like it, and I think I picked the wrong crowd for video games. Though, this time, I paused the video, asked questions (that they had a hard time answering, or answered with an obvious answer. Not good on my part), and explained what was going on in the video. I also explained my objectives clearly before I started teaching. This time it might have gone better had I prepared. Yet, I was more prepared to teach StarCraft 2 than I was to just teach something off the seat of my pants (though, T. showed it could be done easily when he taught off the seat of his pants).

I was originally planning to teach Wikidpad, a wiki creation program, but I went with StarCraft 2 again for reasons listed above. What I learned from this is maybe I should have tried to teach something more academic than fun—I had a hard time trying to find the "why are we learning this?" point for it.

On reflecting on the class, I must say I actually have to agree with Geoff. No, I'm serious, I am agreeing with Geoff about the moral dimensions, that you need to be invested in them in order to be a good teacher. Why? Because of the many things I've read that work about teaching and what doesn't work, and the four moral dimensions (PEEP) fit right into those ideas of teaching. Now, I'm not particularly interested in teaching, just becoming a good web designer/graphical designer to support me while I write my novels. However, I'm going to go with the flow and see if I like teaching.

When we talked about learning and expontential growth (and reading it in the book) made me realize what a sloppy learner I am. I hardly remember anything from my classes of previous semesters, and as the months go by, I forget more an more. I want to learn how to remember and apply. When I look at school, I look at it like a job: just get it done. I don't seem to have the love of learning that I ought to have in order to gain something from school. It's funny how I learned this now after being in BYU for five years, it sounds like it's time to change my attitude.

Reflection 2

To teach the class something was quite an experience. I know I didn't do as well as I wanted to, but it is what I want to reflect on this week. First, I want to reflect on preparing for teaching. When I was assigned the task of teaching something (anything within appropriate bounds) in five minutes, the first thing that came to my mind was one of my new favorite games: StarCraft II. I spent many hours thinking about how to do this because StarCraft is such a complex game. Eventually, I went to some StarCraft II websites I frequented and asked the members there for help. My original plan was to use the map editor, which came with the game, to edit a normal map (referred to as 'melee' maps), and add a five minute timer to it (That would prove to be a bad idea due to the feedback I received after teaching). However, it was suggested to me that I teach a few things by one member with a list that proved highly useful in my preparation, even though I did not use all his suggestions.

The most useful suggestion was to make a video and to compare the game to chess. Knowing that I had five minutes to teach, I set out to make a video that was, at the longest, three minutes. I decided to teach five things: Building buildings and units; Scouting; Defending a base; Attacking a base; and Counters. I turned a 10-15 minute game against a computer AI into a 2 minute and 12 second video. My plans were to pause and explain what was happening at certain points of the video.

As with all plans of mice and men, they did not go as planned. I fooled around with the sound too long, and ended up having to rush through my video, talking quickly with my back to the class. Not a great teaching experience, nor did I implement my philosophy of teaching.

Looking back on it, I believe I did some things correct. First, I announced what I was going to be teaching about; second, I clearly stated the things that I wanted my fellow students to learn. I don't think they clearly learned those things, but I did state out my objectives with clarity (which is something the Wong book strongly recommends for effective teaching). If I could go back and do it again, I would because I feel like I could do it better after reading and also knowing not to mess with the sound system, or preparing my computer to work with the sound system first before trying to teach. When I first posted my summary, I was very depressed because I felt like I had failed. However, after reflecting on it, I don't think I failed, I only learned; I learned what I needed to change in order to become a better teacher overall. This wasn't much reflection, but I felt like this is what I needed to write about.

So, what did I learn? I learned that you need to prepare for just about anything when you teach. For if you don't, you can easily disrupt the learning process of your students, peers, etc. Whoever you happen to be teaching will not get the full message and then you will have to start over.

Reflection 1

The first day of class was wonderful. It made me think of my philosophy of teaching. Now, my philosophy of teaching is far from being developed; however, I do have some ideas, and beliefs. Opening the class with scripture was a wonderful idea because I love the scriptures, and I love the things the Lord gives on teaching, like in D&C 42:14 as we started with in class. It reflects the importance of teaching and learning to the Lord.

Now, my first idea is that teaching should be an interactive profession. The teacher must interact with the students, and the students should react, and participate as well. The second idea is that the teacher and the students must listen to each other and understand each other. Misunderstanding can blow the point of teaching and learning out of the water; I've seen such things occur in Middle School and High School when I was living in New Jersey where the students lack of understanding would destroy the principles being taught because they were not reaching the students in any way, shape, or form. These ideas would be my foundation for my philosophy of teaching.

I agree with the belief, which was taught in class, that there should be a shared responsibility between the teacher and the students. It is up to them to perform, and to uphold the class. Without such responsibility, the class will collapse on them, and all efforts for learning and teaching will be wasted.

I never knew what the word “teacher” meant from its roots “child-leader” (peda+agogas). In that sense, a teacher is not only a school teacher, but a parent. This makes complete sense because a parent teaches a child. Yet, I'm not sure a parent would teach in the same way as a professor because of the relationship difference. The child is not the son or daughter of the professor, but is the son or daughter of the parent. Therefore, a parent will teach his/her son or daughter differently from the professor. I am rambling now, but I want to link this to my reflection—that as a parent, I will teach with love and respect, whereas as a professor I will teach with love and authority. Now, this may be an incorrect idea for teaching, and the two may meld more than I think. For now, that is what I've seen to work from my experiences. Love is a key factor in both of them. Without love, there is a loss of interest, motivation, and care for the learning and the teaching.

This fully reflects what I currently believe to be my philosophy of teaching and learning.