Learning Experiences
Throughout this month, I have had the ability to do multiple different things throughout the semester. This semester I was able to finish all of my individual clinicals. I finally taught my clinical for Social Studies methods and it went really well! The students really enjoyed the activity and having the chance to move around the classroom and really engage in the activity. I also finished my virtual museum. This was a really neat experience and I really enjoyed having the opportunity to fully develop a virtual museum. This took a lot of hard work but it was something that could be used in my future classroom. NCTCS 4d states that teachers integrate and utilize technology in their instruction. This virtual museum was a great way that I can incorporate technology in my future classroom. Especially if I am unable to actually visit a specific museum or have the chance to take my classroom there, I will have the ability to let them visit this location virtually. I loved doing this experience! I also was able to write a concept-based unit this semester! This was a huge task and a big challenge, but it felt so rewarding. Concept-based units are very important to remember and to focus on because they can really help the students achieve different learning experiences as well as doing a big project at the end of the unit. This gives the students multiple different opportunities to fully show what they have learned throughout the unit.
Outside Learning
For my outside learning and research, I found an article that discusses how concept based learning can be proactive for the students. I thought this infographic could be something that is very beneficial.
This article fully discusses the differences between concepts and topics, as well as what concept-based learning fully is. This article also really discusses how to adapt teaching strategies for including this concept-based learning. This also shows a nice infographic that discusses how concept-based instruction will look within your specific classroom.
Future Classroom
In my future classroom, I want to make sure that I am using concept-based instruction. This way, I am fully trying to make sure that my students are learning these broad universal concepts that will go with them throughout the rest of learning experiences. I want to make sure that I am giving my students the opportunity to demonstrate their learning through experiences and demonstration, instead of just having the students take a test. I also want to make sure that during student teaching and during my years as a teacher I am taking advantage of using virtual museums. This allows the students to use technology to learn different content, as well as see things that may be unavailable to them. I want to make sure that I am doing all of these things to fully make sure that my students are learning everything that they possibly can.
