Week 3 Reflections

“No matter how patiently I explain things to my students and no matter how often I repeat the explanations, I cannot learn for them.” 

I found this to be a very interesting quote from the chapter we covered in class this week. I think that this quote has to do with the theory of constructivism. Constructivists believe that in order to understand a concept, individuals must be engaged in the active process of making sense of their experiences. If a student just "knows" something, it doesn't necessarily mean that the student actually understands the concept. So basically students need to put their own effort in, and they can gradually understand ideas by turning them over in their minds and reflecting on their experiences. Students can not learn from simply having everything handed to them by their teachers; they need to be actively engaged and put in a substantial amount of effort in order to benefit from what they learn. I agree with the constructivist way of thinking, but I do believe that it's a little bit intimidating. I'm definitely a little bit scared that in the future, not all of my students are going to want to be active participants in the classroom. 

Another topic we discussed this week was whether or not students have written something on a test or essay just because we thought it was the answer the teacher wanted. And I have to say, I'm definitely guilty of doing this. I remember doing this mostly in middle school and the beginning of high school, but I haven't really done this recently. I think it is very common among students, especially if students don't understand a concept. I know that when I was younger, if I didn't understand something I would often just memorize everything, and then write it down on a test. But I definitely didn't benefit from this, because this was just straight memorization; and I wasn't able to get anything out of it. I know better than that now, and now if I don't understand something I will always ask questions, and I know to use my own opinion now on exams and essays, rather than just the teacher's opinion. I think if a student is able to formulate their own opinion on something, this shows that they were able to develop their own understanding and they can benefit greatly from that.

In the story "Icicles" in our text book, the teacher, Mr. Wilson, sat back and let his students form their own experiments and their own way of thinking. I believe that Mr. Wilson didn't want to correct the students' procedure because he wanted to give them the freedom to experiment. He wanted to act as a mediator for their experiment, rather than instructing them the entire time. Mr. Wilson probably believes that students learn better by having the freedom to be wrong and then exploring further until they are right. I agree with this theory, and definitely believe that students learn better by experimenting and trying to figure things out on their own. Then after experimenting if students still do not understand something, then the teacher would help them. But I think its always good to let students try on their own first.

One thing I am definitely looking forward to for when I become a teacher is being able to bring in various aspects of nature from where I live. During the fall I can see myself bringing in leaves that fall off the trees near my house. I can also have my students bring in leaves from where they live as well, and we can see who can find the biggest ones. During the spring we can do another activity with leaves and see all the different colors and the different types of trees the leaves fell off of. I can also bring in icicles in the winter, just like Mr. Wilson did. I think students will really enjoy these activities.