From University to Third Grade

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TPACK Lessons

This week in Educ 250 we learned about incorporating TPACK into our lesson planning. It was very interesting as I began to think about the need for technology in my future classroom--if I am a teacher until I retire, some of my last students will be born in 2050, graduating in 2068! The world in which they live will be vastly different from my own, and I need to prepare them as best as I can for their adult lives. I agree that incorporating technology into my lessons is an excellent way to keep students engaged and help them see the relevance of subjects. If they view subjects like math as something that can only be done on pen and paper, while everything else in their life is done digitally, they may not respect it or see its relevance. The TPACK lesson definitely gave me a bit of anxiety as I thought about what life might look like in twenty years. I am honestly a bit skeptical about how much more technological progress the human race is capable of making due to the current stress it...

My K-12 Observation Experience

During the past few weeks in Educ 250, we have been visiting different schools to observe a typical hour of instruction at various points in the K-12 progression. We began at Crest High School, where I was placed in an American Civics/Economics class with about twenty students. Although they were definitely bored out of their minds (some were even falling asleep), I really admired the level of deeper-thinking that the high school students were able to reach. Instead of the teacher having to explain every sentence of the US Constitution, he let the students read for themselves and then guided the students in an academic discussion. Students were learning from each other, and his input was only there to guide the students' thought processes. While student-centered teaching can be implemented at any grade level, at the high school level, students are generally mature enough to have an intelligent discussion on a topic without getting too far off track. Although the student independenc...

The Need for Professionalism in Schools

As I take a moment to look back and reflect on the past month of being in Educ250, the thing that sticks out to me the most is a conversation we had during orientation about the requirements of professionalism. Although the discussion about professionalism during orientation is the most prevalent in my memory at the moment, I remember also talking about professionalism when we went over the standards in class. The need for teachers to be professional is referenced in Standard 1e, "Teachers demonstrate high ethical standards." During small discussions in class (usually via whiteboard tables with the people sitting near me) I have begun to "hash out" the link between professional teachers and successful students. If my goal as a teacher is to provide a safe and nourishing environment for all of my students, I must treat them all in a similar, professional manner. There must be no favoritism or partiality in my future classroom, despite the fact that I have always ...

Hurricane Preparation

A massive hurricane is rolling its way to North Carolina as I type this. Many universities and towns across NC have evacuated. Gardner-Webb University has decided to allow students to willingly evacuate, but they also have the option to stay. I would like to go home, but because I work for housing, I do not think that I can.