Friday, March 11, 2011
Ch 7 Cognitive and Instruction
As I was reading this chapter under Research on Teaching and Teacher planning and decision making, many things kept on popping into my mind about how the decisions I made when I was trying to teach teachers how to used photo story in the classroom. I had to give a training to teachers and I had this plan in my mind on how I was going to deliver my instructions and everything would work out how I wanted it to. The teachers would learn how to use photo story fairly easy but then when I had my first session with teachers not everything went according to plan. Some motivational concerns I had to deal with were that some teachers were more tech savvy than others and some teachers had already used photo story, while others did not have a clue how to use it. To make a long story short, I had three sessions that day and I think my last session was the best one I delivered because I kept on modifying my teaching methods and took out things that didn't work and added things that did work. My question to the class is has anyone done this before in their instruction? Have you delivered a lesson to one class and found that if you tried a different approach with another class more students will understand the objective you are trying to teach?
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Juan, I have definitely been in your shoes and experienced this one or twice in my career. It is so easy to get caught up in writing down everything we want to go over and making sure we include it in the presentation that often times we overlook the small details. Knowing who our audience is or what exactly their needs are is critical in making a presentation motivational and engaging. If we are over their heads then they are lost and if we set the bar to low then they get bored. I have found it helpful to make my presentations adaptable to various learners. I try and incorporate visuals, audio and wording in the presentations and so that everyone can become engaged. If possible, grouping learners by their prior product knowledge would be very helpful as well.
ReplyDeleteHaving always been in a small school district, I have only had the opportunity to teach the same subject in multiple periods once in 14 years. However, I found that I "had it down" by the third time I taught the concept that day. By that time, I had experienced and determined how to handle any "bumps" in the road. Practice and experience make it easier.
ReplyDeleteOh wow…I can tell you that every single day of teaching is like this. This is especially true in a high school where teachers possibly teach the same thing to 5 to 7 classes in a row. For example, I previously taught Graphic Design to high school students and had five 50 minute classes daily. If I was introducing a lesson or demonstrating how to complete something in Photoshop, I would learn from each class as I went what examples were best, what concepts students needed more help on and how to time my lesson so that I was not going too fast or two slow. Each class helped me modify how I was teaching and by the end of the day it was always “like butter.” It was easier and I knew exactly how to reach my kiddos.
ReplyDeleteThis is one reason that I always wanted to teach only one subject instead of all of them. I always noticed, that by the end of the day I had simplified the lesson, and adapted to the new groups. We are creatures that learn from our mistakes, or misconceptions, and that helps us learn and become better.
ReplyDeleteJuan, I teach the same lesson to 4 classes of the same grade. Monday is a rough day in the class room and by Wednesday my lesson is smooth and flows great. Thursday I'm bored and I start all over again with a new lesson on Monday. I love that I can learn from my mistakes. I am also happy that my Monday students are so forgiving with Ms. Reynolds.
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