I felt like I had not been in class for a long time even though we only missed one class period due to M.L.K. day it felt like and eternity.
Class began with Brian giving his presentation on Teacher Development and I really liked some of the ideas and points Brian brought up for example, "How can we expect our students to grow if we do not grow as teachers?" I think that was a very valid point and it emphasized the point that the H.D.B. and M.C.M. readings were trying to make. We worked individually during Brian's presentation to self evaluate our teaching. Some of the questions I could honestly answer and evaluate myself but many of the questions were moot because I am not yet a teacher. I found myself thinking that I want to aspire to be just what the evaluation described and perhaps I can use the evaluation as a guide to set my goals as a future teacher.
We then broke into groups and discussed questions we had about the proposal and possible questions we could ask our supervising teacher. I liked the questions that JoAnn and Chao brought up and now I am curious about the same things, especially needs assessment which brings me to the next thing we did in class.
In the G.L.L. we discussed our proposals. I switched groups as it seems my group was pretty enthusiastic about technology in the classroom and the sight of a computer makes me cringe. I joined Charlie and Nate's group and although Charlie and I butt heads I look forward to working with him. Nate is new to the class but I think he already has some great ideas that he can contribute. We will be studying needs assessment and I am SOOO excited about that! I have been wondering how teachers actually narrow down what the students need and want. A chapter last semester briefly skimmed the surface of this topic and now I am looking forward of digging deeper into the subject. Needs assessment appears to be the foundation of a classroom environment because without it the students may lose interest and not benefit from the class.
Overall, I was glad to be back in class and find out more information on what is expected of me in the coming semester.
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Which chapter was that that briefly skimmed our subject? I'm glad you're looking forward to it even though we "butt heads". I think that since we come from different points of view we will then have a more well rounded and complete project ;). By the way, the yellow highlighting is hard to read.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Brain brought up many good points with his presentation that he did. When we broke up into our little groups, I thought that it helped a lot with clarifying the questions that we all had. I was glad that we had time to revise our proposal at the GLL. It helped me a lot to know have a better understanding of what exactly I wanted to find out!
ReplyDeleteI found myself in the same situation as you when evaluating the teaching and this made it clearer to me how hard it is to become a competent teacher...
ReplyDeleteAlso, i really like your idea of looking into the issue of needs assessment in teaching. In my opinion, student needs, if identified correctly and appropriately met, will contribute a lot to success in language teaching and learning. I look forward to hearing about your findings as you do the field experience.
I didn't mean to highlight that random word. I am sorry you cannont read it very well, but I can't seem to get it off of there. I think it was Chapter 24 in H.D.B. that briefly covered needs assessment.
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