The Final Paper

     Over the course of 3 months, there has been many lessons learned and ideas discussed.  The past months have given me insight into teaching, learning, and design.  There is a relationship between each that I have learned to see in my progress.

I have experienced new and challenging obstacles that will make me a better teacher and learner.  I discovered that you must have passion for what you are doing in your life.  That “thing” that you are doing is taking up most of your time anyway, so why not be great at it.  Being great at something usually requires constant attention to it.  This course forced me to pay attention to what is happening on a daily basis.

You have to be committed and dedicated for a long period of time.  When you first begin something new, you are excited about learning and exploring new things.  Over time, you get used to a flow and that flow can and will become not very interesting.  Having new and exciting ideas through the timeframe will help you through the tough times.  That’s why in teaching, you must come up with new activities to keep students actively engaged and excited about what they are learning.  One way to accomplish this task is to design the class for them instead of for you.  Think about all the things that are interesting to students and put them in a little bag for later use.  To keep students committed in your classroom, you must find a way to keep them committed for a long period of time.  To accomplish this, your teaching should be designed in parts.  Each part should play a major role in completion of the entire class, the whole.  If students are constantly having learn a new idea and apply it to the entirety of the class, the more committed the students will be in learning and applying each objective you are teaching.  Have you assignments be part of a whole. 

     Resources are great to have and refer to.  Whether they are resources from the teachers, peers, or from past students who have completed the class before.  Having something to refer back to and get an idea of what direction you should be headed in will give students confidence.  Setting up a meeting place where students can discuss the assignment and see other questions students are having will limit the confusion of the students.  When students are confused, they are less likely to want to work on the assignment.  Being available to my students through any time of the day will also help aid in the education of students.  When students feel that they are able to reach the teacher at anytime there is a question and responded to in a reasonable time, they feel important. 

     When designing a lesson, you have to be able to take yourself out of the design process.  You are not designing it to be interesting to you, but of interest to the users.  When it comes to pictures, colors, videos, activities, it must be adjusted to the interest of the students.  Your design should consist of many different ways of expressing that content.  Each student has a different learning ability and no student should be left behind because of the teacher’s dislike of an idea or concept.  If a teacher believes that pictures are a waste of space, then students that learn with pictures will be handicapped.  If students have a hard time reading in plain black and white text, then students will be left behind if the teacher does not want to take the time to add color.  If it’s difficult for a student to read a lot of material at once, the teacher should accommodate those by having a podcast or video available. 

     Hands on learning should be implemented with every objective that you want your students to learn.  I believe that is the only way to know if your students actually learned what they were supposed to.  A written test shows no understanding of what was learned.  It does show the students ability to memorize the material.  In the long run, memorization will only carry you so far when you have to build on what you have learned to find a solution.  Even if the hands on assignments are short, students need to experience what they learned in action. You will get a greater understanding of the objective if you have to design it from the ground up.  Students will realize the planning, organization, and commitment that are required to do the job. 

     Communication is something that should be taught and practiced in education.  In the world today communication is everywhere and being able to communicate is crucial to ones success.  There should be activities that require students to read, lead, or watch for understanding and comment on.  Groups should be formed to help provide support in areas that one may lack but others may excel in, or visa versa.  It’s easy to get confused or misinterpret information that is presented when it’s not face-to-face communication.  Being able to interpret what you are reading is a skill that needs to be developed.  Being able to communicate your opinions or answers will make you think about what you are writing for others to see. 

     This course has taught me that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but reinvent the presentation.  There is so much information out in the world of education that is readily available at the click of the button.  Your ability to take and use that information is the challenge we are faced with today, instead of being faced with having to create the wheel from scratch.   How can we take the information that we found a present it in a new exciting way? 

     I have never had to experience education without being graded.  Completing assignments without thinking of what my grade will be has made me concentrate more on the assignment than thinking about what grade I’m going to get for it.  This approach will stop students from completing just enough to pass, and stop overachievers from adding information that is not relevant or that is a repeat of something they said already.  Its not about the quantity of the work anymore, its about quality.  As a coach you don’t have to practice for 3 hours a day when you can practice for 45 minutes.  Cutting down practice will allow the athletes to give you more energy and focus to what skill we are working on.  Instead of working on drill after that drill that, losing the focus of the athletes because they are tired.  Not physically tired, but tired of doing the same repetition.  The same goes when students must present information to the class.  Give students a chance to explore with new option and ideas of presenting things.  Be flexible in allowing the presentation of what they have learned and by not by how many slides or pages that they have. 

     Allow the students to take responsibility for their learning.  As a teacher, we want to control every aspect of the classroom.  We confuse that with classroom management.  Allow the students to play a larger role than just the student.  Give the students more teacher related activities and watch the excitement and learning dynamic change.  You will see life in the eyes of the students instead of the blank stares.  Students want to play a larger role, so make it available to them.

     Don’t be afraid to ask for help or opinions of others on work that you do.  Its better to have others look and critique and give you feedback.  Remember we are designing for them anyway, not you.  Be able to take that feedback and decide if its worth changing for improvement, or should it be left like it is.  Asking for assistance does not show a sign of weakness.  It shows a commitment to excellence, a willing to do what it takes to produce a great product.  It’s about being resourceful and using what you have at your disposal.  If you are creating are designing shoes for Michael Jordan, would you not want his opinion or input on how he would like the shoe to look and feel like?  It’s the same in education.  Ask the students how they think the class should be designed and try to accommodate their request if at all possible.

I have learned that no matter what you design, teach, or learn, things are always changing.  Develop a network of like professionals and share in experiences.  What you are having trouble with, someone has already been through it and may be able to provide you with support and tips to fight through.  Don’t be afraid to fail or of being different.  Were we not created to be the same, so embrace it.  Be flexible, patient, and open-minded.  There are always ways to do it bigger and better.