My Life in Education

I have learned so much this semester. About both myself and the profession of teaching. At the beginning of the semester, I defined effective teaching as a teacher who is able to connect with students and take on the roles of a mentor, friend, parent/guardian and know the most appropriate time to be each role. Now at the end of the semester, my definition has not changed much. I still believe that this is what an effective teacher does day in and day out. There are a few things that I have added to this definition after going through the block this semester. For instance, effective teaching requires flexibility and the willingness to always be learning. Students teach teachers too and you can learn a lot from kids. Being open and realizing that the role of the teacher is forever changing is very important as well. Also, the importance of making personal connections with the students to be an effective teacher is second to none.

This video talks about what effective teachers do and what qualities they possess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PskKsIsOAQ

This course has helped me in so many ways, it is hard to just talk about a few. When it comes to the teacher standards that this course helped prepare me for, two of them stand out in particular. They are Teachers communicate well and Teachers know how to teach. Both of these standards include the use of technology in the classroom. Technology is a great resource for teachers to improve their connections with students and is also a way to communicate with students that they find exciting. Knowing how to effectively communicate, both verbally and nonverbally, with students is extremely important as a teacher; and this class has helped me improve my communication skills. This course also taught me multiple different instructional strategies; all of which encourage a students’ development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.

The most significant thing that I learned this semester is the method of backward design. Backward Design is a process that teachers can use to design learning experiences that begins with the objective. This objective is what students are expected to learn and/or be able to do at the end of the unit or course. The teacher then proceeds “backward” to create lessons that achieve those desired goals. I love this video from class and I think it explains backward design really well.

I think that backward design is the most significant and most valuable thing that I learned this year because of how it can be used in physical education. Backward design can’t only be used in physical education, but it should be used in order to set realistic goals. Not many instructional strategies translate well to P.E. but backward design definitely does.

Finally, I plan on continuing to use this blog to talk about my feelings towards education as I continue to move closer and closer to becoming a teacher. This blog truly helps me talk about the things I am going through and is a great stress reliever. I am also going to make my social media accounts look more professional. Not that there is anything on there right now that makes me look bad, but there are things I can do to market myself better in the eyes of a future employer and my future students.