My Top 10 Takeaways and 3 Additions to the Class

1. During my time in class I have realized that education and psychology go hand in hand with each other. The psychology behind teaching and interacting with a student of any age is enormous. Whether it’s the psychology behind learning for a test, having the motivation to study and complete homework, or having the right mindset. Almost every learning experience can be explained by a psychological term or idea.
2. Every child is different. While every teacher would want every child to be the same, especially when it comes to how fast they can teach a certain topic or how they all behave (hopefully the best they can), no one child learns or behaves the same. I’ve come to realize this at my Village Project site in the classroom and I would say it adds to the fun and challenge of being a teacher.
3. Understanding how impactful you can be as a teacher. During my time at my VP site, I never knew how much of an impact on my students I’d have until the last day. To the students, I was a role model and leader they could look up too. I learned that I can make an impact on a student’s life. As a future teacher it would bring meaning to my profession if I can just reach one student.
4. In addition to this, teachers can also be a facilitator of motivation learn. I’ve learned in class that teachers can get students to focus on the learning rather than performance which allows the students to develop a learning a learning orientation. Developing a learning focused orientation allows students to put forth more effort, persistence, and interpret situations to allow them to be more productive.
5. I’ve also learned that younger students and learners require more support when it comes to learning than older people. Adults have more mature neural structures and networks which allow them to retain more features of an original experience than younger students. This is relevant to teaching younger students because it make take longer for students to catch on to certain topics compared to older students with more mature brains.
6. I’ve learned about the important of organization. As younger learners develop, memories also become more deliberate and strategic. This means that they impose increased organization in the amount of information they remember. Along with this, they also become increasingly aware of their own and others’ memory processes. This is relevant to teaching because being able to recognize when students have properly organized the information they receive to recall later is important when it comes to taking tests.
7. I’ve also learned about the importance of motivation. Motivating students is key when it comes to teaching, but it is a very delicate subject. Giving out a task that is too easy will make students fly through the assignment or task without challenging them to learn or think about it. However, making a task too difficult will make students frustrated and give up. So finding the sweet spot will allow students to learn and be motivated to complete the task. This is relevant to teaching, because I will have to put myself in the shoes of my students when designing assignments, projects, and tests.
8. In addition to motivation, I’ve also learned about the Self-Efficacy Theory. This theory indicates that your beliefs in your ability to accomplish tasks relative to your skill is central motivation. This is relevant to teaching because I need to get my students to believe that will succeed on an assignment or test in order for them to put forth the effort and persistence.
9. I’ve also learned how important interest is. A learner’s interest is an important consideration for educators because they can accommodate those interests as they design curriculum and select learning resources.
10. Finally, I’ve learned about the Self Determination Theory which can be defined as the theory that posits that behavior is strongly influenced by three universal, innate, psychological needs: Autonomy, Competence, and Psychological Relatedness. This is relevant to teaching because teaching strategies that use rewards to capture and stimulate interest in a topic, that provide the student with encouragement, and that are just perceived to guide student progress.

3 Additions To The Class

1. I would like to see the course change by adding more in-class projects. In my opinion, in-class projects are a great way to learn, work on presentation skills, and enhance your collaboration and team work skills.
2. I would also like to see the course change by continuing to let students work on padlets to write down key ideas while the teacher lectures. This will allow students to share their ideas while the teacher lectures and allows other students to see what other students are thinking.
3. My final change I would make would be to continue to give students more feedback on assignments in order to let them know what they did good on and improve where they can. This is important because it can allow students to get a better sense of how to grow in the areas they struggle in and refine what they are already good at.