2nd High School Visit

So far this was my favorite class to shadow. We shadowed a juniors and seniors photography class and even though they were working on individual projects and there wasn't much lecturing going on I loved to see the creativity of the kids and just the various projects they had going. Photography and media arts is what I am most interested in for this major, even though I am just barrly starting to acquire experience for this field of work I feel like I am learning more every day and this class made me even more enthusiastic about up coming projects and even just about gaining new knowledge on my own.

while we were there it was also club day, in which every student in the school went to at least on club activity. We were right in the middle of the photography club and everyone went outside to take pictures of a classic cheve truck. Just the flexibility of the subject makes it such a fun subject to teach. Think of all the different subjects for photography and in each subject everyone has their own interpretation. One tool that the teacher used that I liked was he took over every students screen when he was lecturing and every computer was showing his screen so you know that the kids weren't on the internet just messing around as the teacher spoke to himself. With this tool every kid was paying attention and could see more clearly what the teacher was talking about.

Teaching STL's

For the past couple of weeks we have been having students teach STL's and one lesson that stood out to me was Lindsey's lesson on Thursday. Like Geoff said she did an awesome job at layer teaching! She never had to tell us directly what her STL was she just "teased it out". Like when we did a couple of equations on excell she never said we are learning about the different computer programs, she just taugh about one and got her point across. Also it made the lesson so much more interesting and she was really confident.

One thing that I noticed about some students as they were teaching, even myself, is that we are self conscious when we teaching up infront of everyone. As a result of that we are thinking more about what other people are think and not focusing on what we are doing at the moment. We sit there and critic eachothers lessons and know what would have made other students lessons better, but when it comes down to it some of us find it hard to apply good teaching methods.For example we forget to check for understanding or we say umm a ton, or we even end with the forbidden, "any questions"? I previously have this problem with preforming and one thing that helped me in those situations is the frase,"Be present in what ever your doing". Not just physically present but mentally be intune with what you are doing and trying to accomplish in that moment.

High school!

When I was a teenager I knew I loved high school more than junior high and I guess some things never change. Not that I didn't enjoy my observations of Junior High but this week, when I went to Salem High School I had so much fun.

We observed a broadcasting class and it was a blast! The kids were getting ready for the morning announcements that they have turned into a type of news show. I was really impressed with how much responsibility the students had and how much initiative they took. Not to say that the techer didn't have enough to do but the kids were really enthusistic about the show and were constantly suggesting new ideas for improvement. This is where the teachers' job came into place. He created an environment where his students could come up with new ideas and incorporate their own individual style with some respectable limits. Also he spoke nothing but positive things about his students and i realize that keeping your students self-esteem up might be half the battle of getting them to be enthusistic about their education. Also one thing that I noticed about high school is the students are there for 4 years, not just two, and they gain a better relationship with their teachers during that period of time. Which I feel like mad the teachers a huge influence in the students' lives, if the teacher put forth the effort. I could definitely see myself being in this type of teaching position and loving it.

Vista Heights Jr. High

I think that Gongs book "Learning and Teaching for Exponential Growth" has been my favorite reading so far. From the beginning when Gong explains that learning is a three person situation with the teacher and learner gaining knowledge from eachother and then teaching someone else their new knowledge, completing the triangle, I felt I had already known these theories. How many times do we hear speakers at church express that they feel they learn more as the teacher than as those who are being taught because they have to study the material more carefull? It's very true that if we all were to take the knowledge that we gain in the attitude of teaching someone that information later we would research it more thoroughly and retain the information more completely. My only problem is that it's hard for me to be that compassionate about everything I am learning.

Also this week we had our second Jr. High visit and I feel this experience was almost contrasting to the experience I had last week; aside from the diversity in kids. This week I observed Jay Anderson and another techer who I can't figure out how to spell, but his students call him Mr. B. Both teachers were very organizeed and even though they joked with the kids it was in a much more structured situation. Mr. B had a layout of the next 5-6 projects for the kids so they knew what to expect and Mr. Anderson had a similar schedule with different projects planned.

I noticed that each teacher did something to inspire thinking at the binning of class that was just a little fun for the kids. Jay Anderson puts a riddle up at the beginning of everyday and Mr. B puts a geometric type of brain teasser up to get the kids attention and to get them to start warming up their thinking caps for class to start. It's a good and effective routine and I also noticed that it took some of the potential monotony of the class.