Teaching reflections
As a reflective teacher (I think I am) I like to think about my teaching practice and where possible think what things go well and where I can improve. In the following pages I will reflect on different aspects and with your help be able to figure out what works and where I can improve. If you think I should add other categories let me know!! For each idea use the following framework: explain it, give examples, provide evidence If you can I would be very grateful if you can add some comments. These will help me to reflect on my practice and hopefully become a better teacher/facilitator.
Teaching Philosophy
So what is my philosophy for teaching basically "To give students a passion for learning using modern technologies". From this is derived
- An understanding of what would interest them – this translates into working out what they would like to do for a living.
- A willingness to learn and indeed be taught
- An understanding that learning is life-long.
- An interest in how to use effectively modern tools
So how do I go about this
- Be passionate about what I teach (How can I expect the students to be if I am not?)
- Discuss the exciting things that are happening in the field being discussed (I usually start off each lesson with "What has happened in the past week in this area?")
- Try to "practice what I teach". As I do a lot of Interenet courses I am actively involved in using technology to deliver my content (this means hosting, installing and using internet based technology – primarily a MediaWiki wiki)
- Give students good exemplars to work from. This includes providing good past student example – encourages students to perform at a higher standard if they know their work will be displayed to the class or on a national or international stage.
- Endeavour to provide good models for students to copy from. For example, if there is an expectation that students use APA referencing, then I should also.
- Students can contribute to a lesson in a variety of ways – their knowledge is valued. In my case this is in a face to face class discussion, through the wiki, or via a targetted (#vmvwiki) twitter feed.
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