Learning experiences as a student that were the most memorable to me was in the first grade. My teacher Ms. Cornet was the best. She was very patient with each student. She took the time to get to know what each student knew in relation to the curriculum that would be taught . She was interested in each student’s interest inside and outside the classroom and a great problem solver. I remember a situation that occurred at recess. There were six tricycles and nine children wanted to ride the tricycles.
With her quick thinking, she gave the students a word problem which was one of the curriculums she was teaching. Each student had three choices for an answer. The children who raised their hand for the right answer was able to ride the tricycles first. Looking back over that experience, I thought that her teaching and problem solving skills is soothing that I would use in my teaching experiences. That was the best year of my learning. I walked away from that class and several years later I remember a lot of the lessons taught especially taking the opportunity to use teaching in every experiences.
In my sixth grade class, my learning experience was least engaging. I felt distant from the teacher and my classmates. Every lesson seemed dictated as if we were in a lecture hall. It seemed like we had nonstop teaching except for lunch and recess. The students seemed distant because everyone was trying to keep up with the notes and going over them to make sure there was an understanding of what was taught. I never enjoyed robotic teaching. It is boring and harder to comprehend the lesson being taught.
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As an educator in the current standards driven environment I don’t feel like there is ‘creative license’. I don’t feel like teachers are given the professional freedom to explore and experiment in their environment because of standardization. ‘something that happens in districts where teachers are given scripted pacing guides, district-wide assessments developed outside of the schoolhouse, and required practices that must be implemented'(Loveless,2016). “in a largely standards-driven educational climate, educators are challenged to navigate the tensions between standards-based, scholarly pursuits and the more experiential, student-driven techniques of technology-enabled global education.” (Klein, p. 481)
It is possible to utilize developmentally appropriate practices to create a learning environment that sparks curiosity, engages the students and yields positive educational results. Developmental appropriate practices go hand in hand with intentional teaching. “Intentional teachers have a purpose for their actions; they make decisions for a reason.” (Bredekamp, p. 76) These decisions include planning learning experiences raise curiosity so children will desire to learn and master new skills and having the ability to expound on these techniques to administrators and decision-makers for approval.
I have no personal experience as an educator creating opportunities to create engaging, student centered learning within a standards driven environment . I’ve had the opportunity to observe Ms. Mikell, at Word Tabernacle school who have demonstrated this type of connection. Some of the things I remember observing was allowing her students to demonstrate what they learned daily through different projects. I thought that was creative because you got to see how the students reacted to and understood the lesson. I watched how she Integrated technology into her classroom. The children were very excited to create graphs on the computer. It’s amazing how excited children become when they have web tools at their disposal, their participation seems to be 100% in several class activities.
Some of the students handed in the same assignment more than one time. Ms. Mikell explained to me that it allows for the student to master the assignment before going onto something new. Bredekamp gives some creative ways that teachers can foster while limitations are placed by curriculums and standards for an educational environment. “Creates a caring community of learners, teaches to enhance learning and development, utilizes curriculum to reach important goals, assess children’s learning and development, and establish reciprocal relationships with families.” (Bredekamp, p. 98)
