Well the time has come where I have reached the end of yet another course through Walden University. This most recent class, Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology, I have to say has surprised me with how beneficial it has been. I was actually quite skeptical of the course the first couple weeks because I had the impression it was going to be just another one of those classes where I read about all the same theories I have already read about during the earlier part of my schooling career. Much to my great surprise though, it has turned out to be one of the most beneficial learning experiences I have had yet throughout my graduate studies. Not because it caused me to recreate my personal learning theory; because that is still fairly well intact to the way it was at the beginning of the course. I still believe that students need hands on experiences and need to be able to make numerous connections between their prior knowledge and new the learning in order for deep understanding to develop.
So what is it that made it so good? While there were certainly many valuable lessons that I have learned, and will most definitely take each of them back into the classroom with me this fall, there were a couple of key points that I found particularly enlightening, and both just happened to be brought to mind by Dr. Debra Pickering in our video resource materials. The first lesson was that the thing that makes all these theories of learning and all the strategies that teachers use so successful, is none other than practice. We must teach our students how to use the learning strategies before we can expect them to achieve mastery. They need modeling, practice, and much guidance along the way. Technology tools like concept maps, venn diagrams, and word processing tracking options, all make it not only possible to help our students with this practice, but it also makes it very easy. The second adjustment I plan to make in my classroom this fall, is more of something that I was in desperate need of being reminded of. It was that we cannot expect our students to master every single learning strategy out there all at one time, just like we as teachers cannot try every teaching technique all in the same day. Sometimes it is easy to get wrapped up in all the great new ideas that we come across, that we forget to take a step back really give one or two things a shot before we move along to something new.
This brings me to the first long-term goal that I have set for myself. While it is important to really give our students the opportunity to master strategies, it is equally important to not just simply stay in those strategies that we are comfortable with. As a teacher, it is my goal to continue staying up on all of the latest technology that is out there to help me do my job better so that students are getting the most out of their education. My second goal is to not just use these new technologies as instructional resources, but to allow my students to use them as learning resources. Even at the 1st grade level, I need to allow my students to use the tools that are out there, and not just have them watch me as I use them. It have always been one to strive to have a student centered classroom rather than a teacher centered one, and this goal will help me achieve just that.
Magan
