EDUC452 Inquiry II Teaching Philosophy update
During my 10-week practicum I found that the students are eager to learn new skills. Besides guiding the students through lessons I offered a guided website and provided lots of hands-on learning. I realized that as long as the students recognized that I was a friendly and caring teacher, that I could push them harder to become better students and that it was my intention to help them succeed.
At the end of the drafting lab the students launched their custom airplanes, here is a video of one of the launches:
I created a website for the students to use as a resource for my labs. Each lab scaffolded their knowledge on 3D modelling which ultimately allowed them to design their own airplane.
Samples of their work:
An addition to my philosophy of teaching is from my International CFE in Japan. During a lesson, one of my teachers mentioned: “there is no wrong way to do aikido“ and what she meant was that even if a student makes a mistake doing a technique it is still not wrong because the student is still learning aikido and will continue to improve by repeating the technique over and over. So, from the very first attempt to the 100th attempt, each attempt is not wrong. I believe in this philosophy for my classroom as it does not impose any self-esteem issues with the students that they are not capable or not good enough if they are making mistakes. I have told my students during my practicum that I believe that every student is capable of completing the tasks that I am presenting to them. Some will take a short time to learn and others will take a longer time but there is no such thing as a wrong attempt, just continued practice.
EDUC451 Inquiry Blog Post #1
My Teaching Philosophy
I believe teaching begins with learning the basic skills and developing these skills into more complex skills and abilities to ultimately allow the student to apply these skills in their own creative way to create deeper learning. My role as an educator is to facilitate the learning in a way that is learning by doing. In my classroom, I consistently try to make learning visible. This means that students will be able to show their skills and abilities as they learn them and build on their self-confidence to be able to take more risks. Through experiential learning, students will develop more intrinsic motivation and more likely to become highly engaged learners.
Although I have not had a lot of technology education experience in high school or junior high school, I can relate to new students learning new skills. My approach to learning has been influenced by my experience learning as an apprentice. After high school, I was training to become an aircraft maintenance engineer and I found that I learned the best through hands-on training. The Teaching Perspectives Inventory confirmed that my perspective placed a high value on teachers that displayed skilled performance and guided learning. Although I will not necessarily be teaching apprentices, my philosophy will lean towards teaching from the apprenticeship perspective. The student and teacher relationship will be that the teacher will provide guided instructions on the basic and simple tasks eventually providing more complex tasks as the student gains mastery. Successful teaching means that the student will then take agency of their learning and look for ways to apply their newfound skills.
When students leave my class, I want them to be able to feel belonging in my class to want to return. I hope to accomplish this by creating belonging in a safe and inclusive classroom environment. I have experienced all types of exclusion throughout my life. I have seen the perspective from an Asian minority, age minority, gender minority, financial minority, and it is these experiences that I can show empathy towards inclusion. Adaptations and modifications for special education students, English language learners, and gifted learners will also allow me to create a safe space for all types of learners.
My classroom management philosophy is based on a leadership philosophy which states that leaders manage ‘things’ and lead people. Therefore, instead of classroom management, I will be applying classroom leadership. As each student becomes more accountable for their leadership skills I will spend less time on managing behavior and more time on leading their growth. Eventually, students will learn how to self-manage. I look forward to being able to share my experience and passion with the students on their technology education journey.
EDUC451 Inquiry Blog Post #2
Unit planning – I am planning a unit in a drafting class that I will be teaching during my long practicum.
Arnel unit plan 3D modeling v4 draft
As a drafting unit, I decided to add a hands-on application of 3D modeling using project based learning. Students will be in teams of two to design and build an airplane out of styrofoam to be launched with an air compressor launcher. Once they have completed their 3D model on Autodesk Fusion 360 they can start construction.
One specific change that I have made to my unit plans since my short practicum is to build 15 minute lectures into my teaching methods and activities. I am trying to keep everyone engaged and keep everyone busy with activities. This means that my instruction has to be short and succint.
EDUC451 Inquiry Blog Post #3
Lesson Planning – During my short practicum, I developed a lesson plan for Automotive relays. This lesson was designed for grade 10-11 Automotive class. I designed a relay demo board that demonstrated how a relay works.
I found that I had over prepared and didn’t get to cover some details that I had planned to share. This lecture was too long and even though I planned for an activity at the end, the instructions may not have been as clear as I had hoped and I still lectured too long. Next time I will focus on the big ideas that are more general and provide specific details as necessary. Consciously getting rid of material is much more difficult than just arbitrarily reducing the lecture material amount to fit within a certain timeframe.
EDUC451 Inquiry Blog Post #4
Inquiry – During the career fair I met with the Delta School district representative and they showed me the Spiral of Inquiry. I noticed that this spiral has a very similar process with the Design wheel.
| Spiral of Inquiry | Design Cycle |
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Where the Design cycle is primarily used in the engineering fields, the spiral of inquiry can be used in any other field where learning and transformation can occur. The three big picture questions in the Spiral of design guide the learners and teachers:
- What is going on for our learners?
- How do we know?
- Why does it matter?
As I design my units and lesson plans I will be focusing on these big ideas to determine what exactly I want the students to learn and determine the appropriate assessment to find out how much they have learned.