A Collection of Steps

Day 42 (of 187) – November 1, 2018

Yes… it’s true. SNOW on November 1st… in Prince George. This is about the amount of snow that we get on the Sunshine Coast, BC. I know that this is just the beginning.

This is a nice segway to my daily blog of learning. TEACHING IS LEARNING. I had an awesome teaching moment today. Students facilitated their learning activity today based on a lesson play they created within the time constraint of half-an-hour. They put their planning into action and I appreciated that my students can realize or “experiment” what their lesson plan could look like. The best part of that experience was asking these students to reflect on what they had achieved and determine if they were successful with their lesson plan or not. They took the time during class and returned back to me after class and said that they did but it could have been better if they added “why” to their questioning to deepen learning. Wow!!! I am always learning as my students learn.

I know that I am “the teacher” or “the instructor” but really what that means to me is… I AM A LEARNER and I am imparting some of what I have learned but I continue to learn. It also reminds me of the messiness of teaching and learning and if we are to MOVE TOGETHER during this learning process, sometimes the course syllabus has to change, adapt, or modify. As a result, it looks REALLY MESSY, which can be scary because it may look like that I’m not planned in a detailed way. Sometimes I hesitate to create a course syllabus that is too detailed because you don’t know who will be in our class and how they will respond to the contents of your course syllabus. It’s a true dilemma. Stick to the syllabus or adapt to student learning??? The struggle is real but I choose the latter.

Choosing student learning versus sticking to the course syllabus is a risk I’m willing to take but also a skill that I am learning how to hone. What I mean by that is, I hope to develop syllabi that won’t require me to make too many adaptations. I am also learning that STRUCTURE is really important to student learning. This is more than the time that the course is being offered and how tables are set in the room, but students do appreciate the comforts of structure to know what they have to do and need to learn to succeed. I understand that too. I hope that making these adaptations does enhance their learning experience in my course, but only time will tell. Taking it one step at a time.