Final Blog Reflection

It is finally that time were a semester is coming to a close. For the past fifteen weeks I have spent all of my awake time studying, reading, working, and striving. Most of the work I have complete since January has been for my Social Studies Methods course. At times I have gotten upset, frustrated, and overwhelmed by the amount of work I needed to complete for a certain time or day. However, this was one of the most reward courses I have had to complete.

Class discussions, online discussions, group projects, and group work has created a bond within the classroom that every class should possess. I have learned how to cooperatively work in the classroom and how to instruct others to do so also. I have always been great at time management when it comes to school work because since I was in kindergarten I was playing sports or in activity clubs, so all of my work had to be complete right away. This class has taken that to a whole new level! Now I sit and little by little over time complete work, because I realize now how important effort is and even though you are putting a lot of effort into an assignment if you are rushing to finish it the night before you will miss many of the things you probably wanted to incorporate.

From taking this class I feel more comfortable in the classroom. Since my freshman year of college, fieldwork consisted of observing the cooperating teacher to learn skills from them or assist them in any way needed. Instead of just observing I now was given the opportunity to be the teacher in the class. Alongside with my group we taught three times to a fourth grade class economic skills. Just thinking about this time in and out of the classroom brings excitement and accomplishment!

I have learned further about the three types of lesson plans that are used in the classroom: direct, inquiry, and cooperative. Direct instruction is more of a teacher focused lesson where the teacher is essentially reading from a script and instructing the students within the classroom. An inquiry lesson is somewhat of a prediction! There are two goals within an inquiry lesson. First, what the students will explore during this lesson. Secondly, what the student's reasoning or thinking is. Cooperative learning instruction (my favorite method!) focuses on the student's social skills by working cooperatively and responsibly together in the classroom.

Looking back at the beginning of the semester to now, I find that I have grown. I obviously always knew technology was a large portion of the classroom and schools these days because it is forever growing, but I didn't know how many resources there are! I cannot wait to have my own classroom and begin to creatively decorate the classroom AND the students' minds!

Every school year I would admire my teacher for their knowledge and guidance. This feeling still happens for me in college and I pray that one day one of my students will feel this way also. I have learned that teaching is more of a step by step process. Lesson plans, unit plans, projects, and assignments may take time but the outcome overall is completely worth it! I have learned how important it is for students to learn about history and what has come before us so that we can learn from the past.

The knowledge that I have acquired from this course is something that I will forever take with me. I have grown as a student and future teacher and cannot believe it is finally over. The semester and course can have come to an end, but I have forever learning!