While tonights class seemed to be very term heavy, I do feel as though I came out of it having a better understanding of the many acronyms that come with being a classroom teacher. Assessments are still something that I feel like I am working through as there are so many options for ways to determine if students understand the information.
As someone who still thinks that I want to teacher the younger grades having the two kindergarten teachers come in and talk about how they implemented a DBQ and all of the components that come with it into their classrooms was extremely helpful. Seeing that this is very much something that I could help create in my future classroom was very encouraging. Learning the process of scaffolding of a big idea, such as would you rather be a Pilgrim or Native American allows it to be placed on a level that even the youngest learner can understand. Being reminded that students can think deep when we teach them to is so encouraging as I begin to think about how my style of teaching will develop over the next few years.
Looking forward I am interested to see how I could take some of the standards that are in the grade that I teach and implement something similar to what we saw presented tonight. It seems as though when you have the ability to step a little bit outside of your comfort zone the possibilities that it will create for yourself as the teacher and your students are endless.
Caroline, I appreciate knowing that you are becoming more comfortable about stepping outside of your comfort zone after seeing the kindergarten teachers present their DBQ. I think it is easy to limit what we try with the early elementary students because there is assumption they will not be able to achieve certain tasks. I think our guest teachers proved that theory wrong. When I took the course Reading in the Content Area I was still a middle school classroom teacher. When I began to try some of the strategies out with my students I was in awe with what my students could achieve when given the opportunity. I learned: NEVER ASSUME :0). Thank you for your reflection.