Over the course of the semester, I have learned how to become a good educator and what it takes to get the most out of students. I think that the most essential factor, is the ability to build relationships with my students. I believe that students will be engaged and motivated to do their work and succeed if they have a good relationship with the teacher. I have noticed during O&P that some students who are always complaining about the teacher, don’t put in the work to get a good grade in the class. I also learned that classroom management is vital if things are going to get done in class. Determining how to handle disruptions, disobedient students, etc. is one skill that comes with experience in the classroom.
This course has helped me understand how to achieve the standard of teaching a variety of lessons. I think the backward design activity was a good opportunity for me to come up with a lesson plan that I might teach in the future. I liked how I had to plan the whole unit, from activities, daily work, projects, and assessments because being prepared as teacher is vital to success. That is just one way to plan a lesson and there are many others that might work better for some subjects and worse for others.
Lastly keeping my online identity going is a good way to stay connected to what is current and is a place for my future employer to look at in the hiring process. I think that this blog was a good way to reflect on the topic covered in class but also think about how I will apply it in the classroom. Also, this course helped me learn how to incorporate technology into the classroom and keep it as an asset rather than a distraction. Overall this class has been very beneficial in my pursuit on becoming a teacher.