Question 1: What does the following quotation from an experienced teacher mean? “No matter how patiently I explain things to my students and no matter how often I repeat the explanations, I cannot learn for them.”
The quote “no matter how patiently I explain things to my students and no matter how often I repeat the explanations, I cannot learn for them” primarily means that it is up to the students to want to learn and remember the information. It’s almost like the quote, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” What this quote is saying is that it is up to us to make learning engaging, fun, and understandable. We must hook the students into the lesson by making them pertain to things that interest them. Make it fun by giving them control of the activity, giving them a sense of ownership over their work. Making the information understandable means to be able to present it in many different forms, certain children learns things better from visuals while others are auditory learners. In addition to being able to present it in different forms we need to be able to reword the information if it’s just not clicking in one way, all of these skills are needed by a successful teacher.
Question 2: Did you ever write something in an essay or exam simply because you thought it was the answer the teacher wanted? How common do you think that is?
Of course I have. I think that the majority of children learn that in order to get the best grade you put down what the teacher wants you to put down. I know that this is horribly wrong and everything we do is trying to give the children the opportunities to let them be heard, but the reality is that some students don’t care about getting heard, but about getting the best grade possible to bring home to their parents. It’s these students that we need to work most with in order to get them to put their original thoughts down on paper, one way to do this is to give them the option of how they do an assignment. Giving the students more choice more often will eventually have them putting their own words into their work and not the words the ‘teacher wants to hear’.
Question 3: In the science story “Icicles,” when some students weigh the icicle incorrectly the first time, why doesn’t Mr. Wilson just correct the procedure? Many people think it is a waste of time to let students explore on their own. What might happen if Mr. Wilson stopped the students from proceeding with their plan?
In the science story “Icicles,” Mr. Wilson does not correct the procedure for a few reasons. Mr. Wilson does not correct the students who weigh the icicle incorrectly the first time because the students need to learn from their own mistakes. It is important for students to correct their own mistakes and test how they are making the mistakes, finding why thier alternative conceptions aren’t working out. The teacher won’t always be there to help the students fix their mistakes and students need to find out on their own how to solve problems and their mistakes. Students can ask their peers to help them instead of turning to the teacher. One of the goals as a future teacher is to create a community of learners, such that they can look to each other for support and help. If Mr. Wilson stopped the students from proceeding with their plan then the students will never learn new things or won’t be able to create new ideas which will stop their creativity and problem solving. Students need to always be creativity and always problem solve. I think that it is important for students to explore their own way of doing things as long as the teacher is there to guide them if the students get stuck or confused or need help or have a question. When students explore they open up their mind to new ideas and different ways of looking at a situation. When exploring, students can find new things and new discoveries.
Question 4: Considering where you live, what artifacts of nature might you bring into your class one day?
I live right on the coast of the Long Island Sound so I have plenty of neat things that I can bring into the classroom for the students to explore with. I could bring in fish, crabs, seaweed, water samples, and beachwood. There is also a bird sanctuary near where I live, so I bet I would be able to find nests that were knocked out of the trees and abandoned, or pieces of shell from hatched eggs. Since I live close to the beach, I could bring in samples of sand and rocks and explain erosion to my kids. I also live in a community with a bunch of different types of flora and fauna. I could bring in a few samples of these to teach about vegetation in certain ecosystems.
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