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.