Part+2+-+Reflections

= Reflections on current my current teaching practices. =

I entered the field of education later than many of my colleagues. I began teaching after all of my children were in school. At the time, substituting was a perfect fit for my lifestyle. When my oldest began college I began teaching full time and the plan was that I would do it until the youngest finished school. Now my youngest is twenty-seven and finished school and I find that I love what I’m doing and want to learn more. What I have learned has not only come from the books and from the projects I have created for the many courses I've taken in the last decade, but from watching the way the teachers lead the class. I hope that I can create a classroom environment that allows my students to experience the same enjoyment of learning that I have.

I think these ideas do translate to an online environment. When I started with VHS I was given a course that was ready to go but teaching someone else's course doesn't allow the same sense of ownership. By creating some new activities and by putting my personal stamp on those existing lessons I think that I am allowing my students to feel my presence and get to know me as well as my face to face students know me. In many ways I think that some of my online students get to know me even more. In face to face classes there isn't often the time or the opportunity for extended one-on-one conversations but the Private Threads in VHS do give us that opportunity.


 * a love for teaching
 * interest in learning
 * a desire to help students reach their full potential
 * a knowledge of my students
 * ability to help students see the relevance between what they are learning and real-life situations

During the unit on child development the students learn about developmental theorists such as Piaget. They often have a difficult time remembering the stages and what concepts are associated with each stage. While collaborating online with other psychology teachers we developed an assignment that we thought would appeal to our students while giving them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.

The World's Best Babysitter asks students to come up with well-rounded, age-appropriate activities that are in line with Piaget's and Gardner's theories. To keep students from coming up with computer games and high-priced electronic toys, there is a budget of no more than one hundred dollars.

[|World's Best Babysitter Rubric]

The first year I assigned this project the students were confused about what they were supposed to do. Last year I created an example to help students understand the expectations.

media type="file" key="BabysitterExample.mov" width="300" height="300" align="center"

**//Click on the slides to advance.//** This worked so well that I assigned it instead of a child observation study that was an assignment in my VHS class, as an individual assignment.

[|babysitter1.ppt] [|babysitter2.pptx]

Another example that helps students make connections between their learning and real-world problems is our On the Couch - Analyze Your Patient assignments. Click on the couch below to view the assignment used during the lesson on Motivation.