Flying Home
Day 18 (of 187) – September 27, 2018
I’m already a day behind my daily blog of learning. That’s ok. I was advised today to keep by daily blog of reflections short and focus on the BIG IDEA of the day. I appreciate the challenge. It’s not easy, but this is an opportunity to practice what I preach. I am learning all of the time and I am open to feedback. The day begins and ends with my EDUC 360 class. I want to go with the flow and be led by student learning versus teacher pulling. I guess that’s what I could do. I have done that for years and I guess at some level, students expect that. On the other hand, how to you maintain student led learning?
I was asked today in class to post the PowerPoint on Blackboard before the class so that students could pre-read what would happen in class. I said no… because I was led by their learning and wanted to go with the pace of the class as we moved forward. I have not adhered to the exact PowerPoint based on what we have learned or covered that day. I saw some nods of heads believing that my students understood what I was saying. I have no idea if they do or even if they are telling me the truth. In higher education, you create a course syllabus anticipating what the class would know and would be like. Sometimes it’s a hit and sometimes it’s a miss. I’m torn. Do you just plow through what you your syllabus regardless of the students in front of you? My thinking is disrupted.
Students are so accustomed to the teacher telling them what’s up or down. You can’t create on the fly because there is an expectation of what should be versus of what could be. I guess I have to be ok with the student’s need for certainty. They want the tables in the same place, seating plan to remain unchanged, and I guess the teacher telling them what to know whether if they like it or not. Is it like Buckley’s the cough medicine? It tastes awful but it works? Truth. We did not get to where I had wanted to be in my course syllabus at this point in time. I wanted students to take the time during class to make sense of the Core Competencies before we headed into lesson planning. Maybe I just should have “told them” what it is to “getter done” so we could move on…
What I know for sure is, you have no idea who will be in your class, what they are going to know, and what they are going to want to know. Moreover, you have no idea how they would like to learn it. So how does one ever know if the course is too redundant, too easy, or too hard? We work in our own classes. SILOS. The only one’s who know is the student. I will ponder this idea. I’m heading back to Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast. Time with family. Time to reflect. Time to meet with others to lead and learn. I will continue to ponder about this… teaching & learning. It’s more complex than I imagined.