Activity 1: Inspirations and Dispositions for Teaching
In this activity I watched some videos of inspirational speakers and the importance of having a growth mindset. I watched and annotated the videos and discussed them with my peers. I also took a a "Mindset Quiz". I found the quiz quite interesting and got a score of 42/60 which means that I have "Growth Mindset with some Fixed ideas". Personally I would agree with this. I want to develop more of a grow mindset.
This activity discussed student-centered learning. This is a topic in which I am very interested. In my lessons, I always try to minimize teacher talking time and try to make the lesson as student centred as possible.
This activity discussed student-centered learning. This is a topic in which I am very interested. In my lessons, I always try to minimize teacher talking time and try to make the lesson as student centred as possible.
Video 1 comments
00:30
I agree with President Obama that education needs to be universal. There should be no barrier of entry for education. Every child is capable of learning in their own way and deserving of education.
00:58
Motivation is important. The humanistic school of thought tells us that teaching an unmotivated student is useless and that learning will not take place in such a setting. Motivation is something I have thought about a lot and struggle to go in ESL as it is often hard to motivate some students without speaking their L1.
02:02
I agree with this point of view. Afterall, we grew up with teachers saying "You won't be walking around with calculators" as a reason to memorize times tables. Now just about everyone has a calculator viz their phone on them at all times. How wrong they were. THis is why I think 21st century skills are of such importance. Teach children skills, not facts.
04:10
Failure is a very important part of learning. I think it's really important to get students away from a fear of failure. I know personally I struggle with this sometimes, which is why I really want to have my students have a more healthy relationship with failure.
05:17
"The absence of the teacher" leading to students learning more proficiently is certainly a very interesting view. I'm not sure if I agree the complete absence of the teacher would be a good thing, but certainly I believe that the teacher should be acting as 'a guide to the side' rather than as a 'sage on the stage'.
06:50
I agree that we as teacher should be teaching higher order thinking rather than lower order skills. When designing lessons I try to make sure I'm hitting the higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy rather than only the lower ones (though I do think rote learning has a very real place in language learning!)
07:25
This sounds like it would have been great for me as I was shy in the classroom growing up.
09:13
This just goes back to the start of the video that shows that universal needs to be universal. However that doesn't mean that it must (or should) come in a one size all approach.
11:45
Without getting overly political, this really struck me as being important. As a teacher in China, it's saddening to see the indoctrination that students get. I want to help turn my students into critical thinkers.
00:30
I agree with President Obama that education needs to be universal. There should be no barrier of entry for education. Every child is capable of learning in their own way and deserving of education.
00:58
Motivation is important. The humanistic school of thought tells us that teaching an unmotivated student is useless and that learning will not take place in such a setting. Motivation is something I have thought about a lot and struggle to go in ESL as it is often hard to motivate some students without speaking their L1.
02:02
I agree with this point of view. Afterall, we grew up with teachers saying "You won't be walking around with calculators" as a reason to memorize times tables. Now just about everyone has a calculator viz their phone on them at all times. How wrong they were. THis is why I think 21st century skills are of such importance. Teach children skills, not facts.
04:10
Failure is a very important part of learning. I think it's really important to get students away from a fear of failure. I know personally I struggle with this sometimes, which is why I really want to have my students have a more healthy relationship with failure.
05:17
"The absence of the teacher" leading to students learning more proficiently is certainly a very interesting view. I'm not sure if I agree the complete absence of the teacher would be a good thing, but certainly I believe that the teacher should be acting as 'a guide to the side' rather than as a 'sage on the stage'.
06:50
I agree that we as teacher should be teaching higher order thinking rather than lower order skills. When designing lessons I try to make sure I'm hitting the higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy rather than only the lower ones (though I do think rote learning has a very real place in language learning!)
07:25
This sounds like it would have been great for me as I was shy in the classroom growing up.
09:13
This just goes back to the start of the video that shows that universal needs to be universal. However that doesn't mean that it must (or should) come in a one size all approach.
11:45
Without getting overly political, this really struck me as being important. As a teacher in China, it's saddening to see the indoctrination that students get. I want to help turn my students into critical thinkers.
Video 2 comments
00:44
This very much describes me growing up. I loved documenting my past successes and was given well-meaning, bit misguided praise for being smart. As a teenager I stopped trying as hard in school and my results suffered. I thought that because I was 'smart' I wouldn't need to study as hard, when in reality, the reason I did good in earlier years of school was because I was motivated, diligent and hard working.
01:31
A love for learning is obviously important. I try to instil this believe in my students. I have found the younger students are, the easier it is to instill this belief. People inherently love to learn, but after several years in the machine that is school, some students incorrectly think they dislike learning, when what they mean is they dislike turning up to school being forced to learn about something in which they are not interested.
02:24
Life goals: Be less like Jay. Be an Ann. I remember my first semester of university about 15 years ago. It was a graphic design and my tutor was picking my work to pieces. She could obviously see I looked a little crestfallen and told me that it wasn't ME she was taking issues with, but MY IDEAS. She said she knew I was capable of more and should be thankful for the feedback. She said that a graphic designer needs to distance themselves from their ideas. Since that day, I've had a much more healthy approach to constructive feedback, and now I get annoyed if a teacher observes my class and just gives praise. I know I'm not perfect. And I want to get better. So how can I get there without constructive criticism and feedback? Now I love feedback!
03:28
Effort is a key takeaway here. From my life experience, most companies would much rather hire someone who is hardworking than someone who is smart (whatever that means!).
03:49
Learning a second language is a great way to demonstrate this. Some students look at the vast complexity and challenge that it will be to learn another language. Then after a short period of time, I like to show them just how much they have learnt and how much they will continue to learn if they keep trying just as hard. The brain is a muscle that will grow when you allow it to, however sometimes we don't notice it growing as it's not something we can physically see. That's why I think it's our responsibilities as teachers to show to our students just how much they have learnt in our course.
04:32
This reminds me of something that I tell my students on the first day of class. "I have a secret to learn English twice as fast. Can anyone guess what it is?" Students have lots of interesting answers but I've never had them guess the answer yet: "Make twice as many mistakes". We all make mistakes and as long as we learn from them, we'll continue to improve.
04:47
Yes, I think it is possible. Actually I know it is possible, as I am living proof, however I still have some ways to go.
00:44
This very much describes me growing up. I loved documenting my past successes and was given well-meaning, bit misguided praise for being smart. As a teenager I stopped trying as hard in school and my results suffered. I thought that because I was 'smart' I wouldn't need to study as hard, when in reality, the reason I did good in earlier years of school was because I was motivated, diligent and hard working.
01:31
A love for learning is obviously important. I try to instil this believe in my students. I have found the younger students are, the easier it is to instill this belief. People inherently love to learn, but after several years in the machine that is school, some students incorrectly think they dislike learning, when what they mean is they dislike turning up to school being forced to learn about something in which they are not interested.
02:24
Life goals: Be less like Jay. Be an Ann. I remember my first semester of university about 15 years ago. It was a graphic design and my tutor was picking my work to pieces. She could obviously see I looked a little crestfallen and told me that it wasn't ME she was taking issues with, but MY IDEAS. She said she knew I was capable of more and should be thankful for the feedback. She said that a graphic designer needs to distance themselves from their ideas. Since that day, I've had a much more healthy approach to constructive feedback, and now I get annoyed if a teacher observes my class and just gives praise. I know I'm not perfect. And I want to get better. So how can I get there without constructive criticism and feedback? Now I love feedback!
03:28
Effort is a key takeaway here. From my life experience, most companies would much rather hire someone who is hardworking than someone who is smart (whatever that means!).
03:49
Learning a second language is a great way to demonstrate this. Some students look at the vast complexity and challenge that it will be to learn another language. Then after a short period of time, I like to show them just how much they have learnt and how much they will continue to learn if they keep trying just as hard. The brain is a muscle that will grow when you allow it to, however sometimes we don't notice it growing as it's not something we can physically see. That's why I think it's our responsibilities as teachers to show to our students just how much they have learnt in our course.
04:32
This reminds me of something that I tell my students on the first day of class. "I have a secret to learn English twice as fast. Can anyone guess what it is?" Students have lots of interesting answers but I've never had them guess the answer yet: "Make twice as many mistakes". We all make mistakes and as long as we learn from them, we'll continue to improve.
04:47
Yes, I think it is possible. Actually I know it is possible, as I am living proof, however I still have some ways to go.