There are many things that can make a teaching effective. Some of the ways could be good communication within the class and also while correcting papers and giving feedback, having good classroom structure where the flow of the class is smooth with transitions and the professor is well prepared with their material, assignments are straightforward and explained thoroughly for clarification, the instructor is enthusiastic about their material, the instructor creates a sense of mutual respect with the class and also creates a comfortable learning environment. On the first day of class I think my thoughts were more geared towards how the teacher is socially, or how they are when they are actually talking/teaching the class, opposed to the attributes like class structure and good assignment feedback. So I definitely think that my definition of effective teaching has changed.
I just mentioned how a class should have good structure- this video highlights some points on why it is so important to have good structure in a classroom- and the point that stuck out to me was routine. The speaker in the video mentioned how a good routine is comfortable. When I am involved in anything- a basketball practice, a day camp, my normal week at my house- a routine is comforting. You can mix around what happens within the routine to make it exciting, but the generalized structure can stay the same which can be really reassuring, and like I mentioned, comfortable. I believe that structure can make the day go much smoother for the students, and especially the teacher.
I believe that taking this class has helped us be prepared for standard 4-Teachers know how to teach, and standard 6- Teachers communicate well. I believe that this class has prepared us to know how to teach for the fact that we learned that there is all different learning styles and some students will learn better when a lesson is geared more towards that learning style. I also believe that this class has taught me how to communicate well. It is more by a first-hand observation from how Professor Weber was very informative about what we did well with the material and then also with what we could have done a little better. I believe this is important because it promotes better direction for the students to do their task better in the future.
I think that the most significant thing that I learned this semester was how to use the backward design method of teaching. The more I got into the assignment that we did with our lesson plan, the more I could totally see myself using this in the future because it removes all of the unneeded material that may be interesting and a fun, but wouldn’t pertain to the actual goal of the unit/lesson. It’s “starting with the end in mind” and that train of thought would really keep me organized in the future.
I believe that being able to keep my online identity going would be a great way to get future employers interested in me for a potential job. In general, I feel more comfortable with someone that I’ve chatted with and someone that has opened up to me a little or has allowed me pick their brain a little bit and see what their thought process is. I believe a blog post is exactly this, and allows future employers become comfortable with you and know you better. If they like what they read, essentially they like you as a person because they are reading your thoughts- which could be huge in getting that job. So first I will get a picture where I am well dressed and have that as a profile picture, and I will most likely post about things pertaining to my future job, which is physical education. That would be most likely what I post about anyways! And I think when you write something, you really need to know your material at hand before you post it, so I think this would allow me to learn more about my future career also.