Week 5 Blog: Reflective Teaching

Reflective Teaching and Educational Traditions:

Right out of the box, on page 50, a reflection on teaching: Remembering past lessons, watching a videotape of our own instructional practice, talking with colleagues about challenging teaching issues, and watching others teach material we have taught (or never taught) before – these are all routes to reflection.”  For me, I see all of these as great tools to put in my bag of education. As someone that is on the other side of teaching this year, I’m allowed to sit in three or four different classrooms a week with three to four different teachers. I have the opportunity to watch and see how each of these teachers comes across to their students. I do miss not being in front of the classroom, but I think that I’m learning more from this side after teaching for the past three years.

Teachers, traditions, and teaching: All labels that can be used for good if we, as educators, think outside the standard box. Tradition is a great place to start from. I feel that we need to go with the flow sometimes. If a student does not understand the way we are teaching, then educators need to rethink what would help that student. I do love the line on page 52, “we may value the child’s perspective and still insist that certain bodies of knowledge and skills need to be conveyed and mastered. In teaching we tend to mix some of the different traditions together.” This is talking about going from a traditional viewpoint and making adjustments along the way for each student. “Change over time”, educators are changing after each lesson they teach. Once they know the student’s reaction to that lesson is they can start the rethinking process.  Would the students benefit if the lesson were presented using a different technique? It could lead to a better understanding of the material, which would enhance the student’s effort and knowledge in the class.

Love, love this “ Learning is risky business; it requires one to absorb unfamiliar and often challenging ideas, and it frequently requires one to change one’s mind.”

Self, Student, and Context in Reflective Teaching:

Amy asked me a question from last week’s blog “I also enjoyed your comments about mentoring and wondered if you see a difference between "mentoring" and "teaching"?  It’s an interesting thought and one I contemplate often. Kathy and I are currently doing research around the topic. :)” My answer was, “I want to say they are the same thing, but come from different angles.” Teachers are mentors, with the purpose of teaching a subject and mentoring comes from helping someone move through the world with experienced insight. I might not be right, but it’s a way for my mind to see it. Reading on page 77 –“What is the role of the teacher in teaching? We further delineate distinct understandings of what it means to SERVE students.” If we are serving student’s needs, we have to come from our own experiences in life that makes us also mentors in the classroom. On page 78 “Teachers draw upon various resources to engage in the daily efforts of teaching.” In other words they are mentoring them through their job of teaching. So does that make us professional mentors? After reading chapters 5 and 6, I don’t have the answer for her question, but I do see myself reflecting on the way I see myself as the teacher. I’m there to provide each student with the best education that I can give them through the experiences that I have been through.

Chapter 5 Marzano

Reflecting back on my own classroom, I see many great ways that could help me in the teaching process. Having a daily journal or a weekly one would help me remember the way I thought through something and reflect on each student and they way each one learns and assess individual progress. Also, by adding a student survey/ feedback form, the teacher can evaluate what they liked and what we need to focus more on. This would be a great help as I teach more than one class a day. I cannot imagine teaching six classes a day and teaching them all the same thing?

During my VTS class with Mary last semester, we had to videotape our classroom with the students during the VTS lesson. Going back over those tapes was a great way to help change my teaching style. I used the videotapes as a classroom tool to help me find ways to developed different teaching styles.

As you view your own process of art making which you filmed, do you notice process’s emerging that align with any of the traditions discussed in the reading? Explain? I see my artwork changing all the time, see someone else’s work, talking it over with a group of peers, or walking through a gallery. My artwork and I are constantly changing, growing and is a major challenge to me personally. In the book it talks about where our viewpoint comes from, mine is always in a state of flux, trying to make it better than the last.

How do you think your own artist process inform will inform how you teach? Describe what you noticed about HOW you learn and process when creating artwork? Learning is a major think tank for me within the process of creating artwork. The more I talk about the work, the more I need help in changing what and how I see the artwork develop. We, as artists, have to understand what is going on within the artwork, but also we, as teachers, have to understand what we are doing.  It will transfer to our students. They see us working or having an art show.  They will process this as a way for them to find new meanings within their own work. For me, teaching is a way to try new things that I might not have tried. Within the classroom we get to experiment with things outside of our normal practices.