EDCI 5065 T2P Week 3

Adventures with a Swede, a Russian and an American 
T2P

Observations on the Human Guinea Pigs in Group 1

Taking risks with lessons and units is an essential part of learning how to become a "successful" teacher (someone who enjoys the success of students as an affirmation for their work). The days class in Week 3 was certainly new to all of us a pre-service teachers as well as an experiment by GNA Garcia. While it was slightly hectic, it did show all of us that chaos and plans breaking down can create something new and important. While the real guinea pig of the lesson were in class Monday, the refined experiment today helped to show all of us the importance of change and the risks and rewards. As witnessed by the class in another class, Jigsaw groups are good tools for teachers to use and can create interesting results.

With the plan of the day calling for various groupings of students, it allowed people to practice transmitting information as well as mixing different content areas together. Its always a shock to hear how people without the same skills and background in History that I have explain theories to me. That kind of collaboration is always different, but in-keeping with an important theory of teaching, working with different learning styles (Gardner etc).

Big if....


Following todays class I was concerned with my ability to come up with a cause-effect statement that would be comprehendible to me, much less others, but when in doubt, shoot from the hip.

If students are presented with a complicated, trying task then it is important to provide an opportunity for collaboration and discussion because often it is other views and other ideas that may be foreign to individuals that provides the most interesting answers.

Teaching new lessons and trying new approaches is similar to trying to pose 10 puppies for a picture, you end up with not exactly what you wanted, but it can turn out alright.