Its over...and I'm surprisingly upset

I thoroughly enjoyed EDUC 4P19 with Susan Drake. Mainly because she was the only professor that directly cared about her students, that she designed the course around our needs, desires and interests. I can’t say this for any other courses, EDUC 4P19 was definitely unique. Everything about the course was useful and applicable to us as future teachers. Ex. Designing curriculums, Genius Hour presentations, blog group discussions, integrated curriculums are all very useful to name a few. Susan Drake tried new things with us even though she was not comfortable with it (google documents) and sometimes we were not comfortable with it (popsicle sticks). The exit cards were awesome because they allow for feedback from students or questions from students who didn’t have time to ask. I really want to incorporate exit cards because it gives shy students the opportunity to ask questions and state their mind. I will definitely incorporate exit cards in my class someday.

Susan Drakes course was my favourite course in university thus far. Thank you Professor for making a course in university useful to my life. Sounds harsh towards other courses but it is very true.

I really enjoyed blogs because it gave students the opportunity to collaborate on a topic and express their individual outlook. There were agreements, disagreements and great discussions. I think the blogs were effective because it allowed students to become comfortable with their colleagues and ultimately comfortable to express their own opinions.

I also really enjoyed Genius Hour because over the course of my school life, I was never given time to research a topic that interested me. It was awesome to present my interests with the class. Presenting, even the smallest things, is a useful tool as a teacher. I am getting more comfortable over time presenting in all my education courses. Which is another reason why I appreciate this course. I mean…I don’t get the opportunity to present in a Physics course…ever.

Another great portion of the course is the creation of our own science curriculum. It is another realistic aspect to the course because obviously, as teachers, we will need to collaborate and come up with ideas and design a curriculum that follows the grade expectations.

As I said in my first blog, communication is the best way to learn. And everything Susan Drake incorporated in the course involved communication. I would like to thank Susan Drake one last time for a memorable experience through my struggles as a student in university. 

Integrated Curriculum Limitations and stuff

In the sciences and mathematics, there are interesting things happening in project based learning that will definitely improve student attentiveness and learning. As a high school teacher, it is difficult to appropriately implement project based learning in an integrated curriculum. An integrated curriculum may be difficult to implement in a high school class, specifically, because it focuses on one subject as opposed to involving knowledge from other courses and interweaving them in one lesson. However, if I was an Elementary school teacher, I would have an integrated curriculum because it is so profitable to students in many ways. Maybe I am just biased because I am looking to become a Physics and Mathematics teacher in high school. I will not be able to appropriately use an integrated curriculum to its full benefits because I have limited time with my students, as opposed to an Elementary school teacher who has all day work with their students and get to know them. Also, in high school, every students schedule is different and students have different knowledge on different subjects. So, in high school how can we use a subject within a subject if students have separate knowledge and students may not understand a concept while others do. But, in an Elementary school, the students should be on the same page with their knowledge and the teacher can used this to their advantage when designing a project based activity.

Basically, I don’t like integrated curriculum even though I see the benefits in an Elementary school setting.

As a teacher you need to change your methods, but it is difficult to change when you are brought up in this traditional teaching method environment.

I really enjoy working together in a group environment when designing our curriculum. Finally some collaborative work periods where students can design a project based activity inside their designed curriculum. I am thankful that we get to apply our knowledge in group work. In the past 4 years, it seemed to be all about learning in a classroom and how to apply it. Now, we finally get to apply it in a teambuilding curriculum activity. I am thankful that we get time in our groups to discuss what we talked about in class and what we feel would be an effective method in designing a curriculum. By gaining this teambuilding and collaborative skill, we can use it as future teachers when we need advice from other teachers, in a school environment.

Thank you Susan for this opportunity to discuss and apply instead of being fed information. Thank you for the change of pace.