Week Four- Pedagogy as an Artform

To be a successfull student at the University of Waterloo I focused on memorizing the facts, consequently I thought that is what I needed to do to be a successful teacher. While the facts are important, I'm learning that how you use them is more important. It wasn't until I had a chance to see my associate teacher in action that I was able to realize how important pedagogy is.

I am quite certain that she has eyes in the back of her head and can mind read. She always knows just when to supply students with information and knows the best way to convey it to them. To me that is the most important part of good pedagogy: Finding the best strategy to facilitate study learning. The difficulty is decided what strategy to use when.

Week Three - It's All Connected

While I often found my undergraduate courses disconnected and often wondered what they had to do with each other, I'm finding that the pre-services courses are all connected. In both Math and Science we discussed the importance of creating a hands-on learning experience and then in Social Studies we learned about how we could create history activities that would reinforce literacy skills. While initially, I only thought about being a Math or Computer teacher, I can see now how I can use my love of math and computers to foster learning in other areas.

Week Two - Putting the Pieces Together

I can see that it is all starting to fit together. For most of my classes this week we were provided with an overview of the curriculum for each of the subject areas. When we received our curriculum guides the first week, I thought we would have to memorize everything in the dozen booklets we were given. Now I see that most of the coursework is more about how to implement the curriculum and less about memorizing the content. I look forward to Wenesdays and Fridays where I will get a chance to watch our associate teacher implement the curriculum that we are becoming acquainted with.

Week Two

System Overload Continues
While the amount of information we are expected to process has been reduced this week, I still feel on the verge of a system overload. It probably has less to do with the information provided and more with my anxiety about actually teaching. This week we found out which school we will be placed in for our internship. I am glad to know that this will also be the same site for Block I.
By this time next week I will have meet my students. That still sounds strange to my ears, but by the end of Block I when I will have been teaching for almost 100% of the day, they should feel like MY STUDENTS.

My First Week

While I know teaching is a complicated process, I had no idea there would be SOOOO much information to process in just two days. At least I'm not the only one feeling overwhelmed. My fellow students in my counselling group also feel that they have had their brains stuffed to the max. Luckily we have two reading days and the weekend to sift though all the information provided. While I am looking forward to classes begining next week, I hope I don't crash from a system overload.