Final Growth
“Go crazy with details”. As a student in Education 353 we heard this statement day in and day out. Dr. McCarthy’s words will stay with me from now until I retire from the teaching profession. Some students found it annoying or a hassle because of how detailed everything was or how we had to follow everything to a “T”. After taking this course I now understand why Dr. McCarthy had us do things his way. It made life and teaching infinitely easier. All the details that we had to provide in our lesson plans make executing them in a classroom setting that much easier. He showed us that if we put in the extra work now, it will pay off in the long run.
Some of the most important things we learned form Dr. McCarthy weren’t necessarily book related, but more how to act and treat others. One thing that will stick out in my mind was the video on bullying that we watched as a class. I personally liked the way he dedicated a whole class to just watching the video and that’s it. He wanted the video to sink in and let it resonate with us. I think it had a greater impact on us to let it sit in our brains for a few days. It had a greater impact on us future educators. As a teacher we must always be looking for signs of abuse or bullying. Students can become extremely hurt by these pointless acts, and can permanently damage them. Seeing that video really opened my eye how to act when you even think there’s a hint of bullying going on.
Technology is becoming more and more important in the classroom today. Growing up in as a Millennial child, I have been surrounded it my whole life. Making this class very technology based was a huge asset. In previous courses teachers have used Blackboard, but none ever used it as much as Dr. McCarthy. Learning all the in’s and out’s made completing assignments infinitely easier. Having all my work saved on Blackboard also made organization much more efficient. I have always been worried about making a Portfolio for when I do my student teaching, but becoming familiar with weebly.com will make this much less scary. Even though the name of the website is not as professional as some others, it creates great websites and takes what could be a very boring portfolio and puts it over the top. I enjoyed using all the different types of technology and learning about some different social medias.
Some classroom procedures that I would like to use in the classroom is for presenting. I like the “carousel” technique we used. I would modify it for my students and groups. Instead of having four or five students in a group and having each of them write a separate idea, I would allow the groups to come to an agreement and only require that each group shares one thing to the discussion. I would do this for a number of reasons. First of them would be so the chart paper doesn’t contain any repeats. Also, sometimes students would put down the first thing that comes to mind, and this might not be the most correct idea from that chapter.
Even though I feel like I have made some great improvements and strides as a learner and educator, there are still some things that I must continue to work on. One being I still do not plan too far ahead. I feel this comes from my personality and that I only worry about events that are in the present or very near future. I need to become a little more organized and learn to manage my time a little better. Some of the smallest things can separate good teacher from a great teacher. And learning to plan ahead and manage time can be one of the few small things. One would think that after all the nights I’ve stayed up late finishing my work instead of sleeping, I would have learned, but I continue to push off work until the last minute.
This last paragraph can be cliché and almost have an underlying tone of sucking up, but I mean everything I write. I have thoroughly enjoyed this class, and have learned a great deal. This is evident, by when I go into the field I actually know what is happening and what my cooperating teachers are talking about. Even thought we didn’t have any written test, which I’m not complaining about, the information we learned is more valuable than any textbook definition I’ve memorized over the years. This is information that we will use in the classroom every day. I’m grateful for Dr. McCarthy as a professor and what he has taught me over the semester.
Some of the most important things we learned form Dr. McCarthy weren’t necessarily book related, but more how to act and treat others. One thing that will stick out in my mind was the video on bullying that we watched as a class. I personally liked the way he dedicated a whole class to just watching the video and that’s it. He wanted the video to sink in and let it resonate with us. I think it had a greater impact on us to let it sit in our brains for a few days. It had a greater impact on us future educators. As a teacher we must always be looking for signs of abuse or bullying. Students can become extremely hurt by these pointless acts, and can permanently damage them. Seeing that video really opened my eye how to act when you even think there’s a hint of bullying going on.
Technology is becoming more and more important in the classroom today. Growing up in as a Millennial child, I have been surrounded it my whole life. Making this class very technology based was a huge asset. In previous courses teachers have used Blackboard, but none ever used it as much as Dr. McCarthy. Learning all the in’s and out’s made completing assignments infinitely easier. Having all my work saved on Blackboard also made organization much more efficient. I have always been worried about making a Portfolio for when I do my student teaching, but becoming familiar with weebly.com will make this much less scary. Even though the name of the website is not as professional as some others, it creates great websites and takes what could be a very boring portfolio and puts it over the top. I enjoyed using all the different types of technology and learning about some different social medias.
Some classroom procedures that I would like to use in the classroom is for presenting. I like the “carousel” technique we used. I would modify it for my students and groups. Instead of having four or five students in a group and having each of them write a separate idea, I would allow the groups to come to an agreement and only require that each group shares one thing to the discussion. I would do this for a number of reasons. First of them would be so the chart paper doesn’t contain any repeats. Also, sometimes students would put down the first thing that comes to mind, and this might not be the most correct idea from that chapter.
Even though I feel like I have made some great improvements and strides as a learner and educator, there are still some things that I must continue to work on. One being I still do not plan too far ahead. I feel this comes from my personality and that I only worry about events that are in the present or very near future. I need to become a little more organized and learn to manage my time a little better. Some of the smallest things can separate good teacher from a great teacher. And learning to plan ahead and manage time can be one of the few small things. One would think that after all the nights I’ve stayed up late finishing my work instead of sleeping, I would have learned, but I continue to push off work until the last minute.
This last paragraph can be cliché and almost have an underlying tone of sucking up, but I mean everything I write. I have thoroughly enjoyed this class, and have learned a great deal. This is evident, by when I go into the field I actually know what is happening and what my cooperating teachers are talking about. Even thought we didn’t have any written test, which I’m not complaining about, the information we learned is more valuable than any textbook definition I’ve memorized over the years. This is information that we will use in the classroom every day. I’m grateful for Dr. McCarthy as a professor and what he has taught me over the semester.
