From the couple different readings done this week, I was
able to gain a great deal of knowledge about cooperative learning, field trips,
individual coaching and asking questions . When I was reading the article on
field trips, I reminisced on my past field trips. They were the best days in
class, because we weren’t actually in class!
I was always interested in our
field trips because we would go to environmental areas, National Parks, or
other science based program. This is, when I look back, where I began my love
for the environment and my idea of becoming an educator. Taking students into a
non-formal setting is one of the best ways for them to learn. After the
article, it was so clear why I liked field trips the most, and why I gained a
lot of information. There were pre-trip, trip, and post-trip items covered
which made everything much smoother once we were actually on the field trip.
Getting an agenda, timetable, and list of information about the place was a
great resource. Teachers have to do a lot of work for students to simply sit
back and only have to worry about learning on the trips. I hope to do as many
non-formal lessons as I can, because students respond to new environments with
new mindsets to facilitate growth.
Going along with facilitating field trips, group work is
right up there in importance. Whenever I think of cooperative learning, I get
this idea of students letting one of the members do all the work, but that is a
fear of all teachers I think. This cooperative learning technique gives way to
open many doors that students benefit from. I honestly believe that most of the
learning should be done in small groups or as one large group in class. I think
singular learning is very scary for some students, and I can think back to
times when I was nervous in calculus class because I had no idea what was going
on, and the teacher just kept telling us to do everything on our own.
Teachers are many things to students. We have to play
numerous roles in teaching, extracurricular activities, personal life, and many
others. It is a tough balance, but using variability with field trips, group
work, and individual coaching make each workday important and valuable. I value
the role a teacher plays in student’s lives. Understanding how students learn
and like to be taught is an art form, something that takes time to craft and
mold, but worth all the effort in the end. Hopefully I will learn enough to create my masterpiece of teaching some day.
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