For two of the first major assignments in my Junior Year Education Classes: Curriculum in Middle and High School and Literacy in Education, we had to design presentations using applications that many of us were not familiar with. In Curriculum, my class was asked to design a presentation using the app Explain Everything in which we discuss the education philosophy that matched our education and teaching beliefs. In Literacy, this assignment was to create a presentation using Adobe Spark Page that discusses what literacy means to me as an up and coming teacher, as well as what it means in the technological age.
Performance Criterion 4.1: Candidates accurately communicate central concepts of the discipline.
Performance Criterion 4.2: Candidates accurately address common misconceptions of the discipline.
The Performance Criteria tagged above are two of the aims of the assignments that I believe fully encompass the learning goals of the two assignments. In Curriculum, the goal of the semester is to develop an entire unit within our discipline and to teach a lesson that corresponds to our unit. Our research that was then culminated into the Explain Everything podcast, which explained in great detail what our education philosophy is, what it is not (but what others may believe to be true about it), and how we are planning to stay true to our philosophy when planning our unit. Essentially, this presentation was a way for students to build the base of his/her teaching strategies and methods for the rest of their lives. In Literacy, the assignment was designed to understand the fundamentals of what it means to be literate across various medias in the 21st century, and what further implications this will have on our teaching in the future. This project also explicitly asked what were our common misconceptions regarding exactly what literacy means. Essentially, this project allowed students to develop an understanding and a base for the core topics that will be discussed throughout the year.
These assignments were very similar in the sense that a new application was to be explored through research and analysis of the core topics within each of the two classes. Specifically, both projects encouraged students to develop an essential understanding of one aspect of their teaching. In curriculum, this was the methods, techniques, and teaching habits that are unique to each student (and future teacher). In literacy, it was focusing on fostering literate students of the 21st century. Still, the connection may seem to be slightly abstract. However, the Curriculum assignment was an exploration into our physical teaching practices and the “how” behind ensuring that students will be learning, whereas the literacy project was developing an understanding of evidence that the students have learned (essentially developing literacy skills within a teacher’s discipline over time). Thus, Curriculum was moreso the teaching skills to be developed over time based on one’s education philosophy, whereas Literacy was determining how to assess and develop literate students. Curriculum enc-mpasses the teaching skills and practices where Literacy is the language and student skills used to assess the learning.
These skills and central ideas of the two courses which have been discussed above are not a typical kind of projects. These projects did not just allow students to develop an understanding of the content within each of these classes, rather these projects were an exploration of teaching methods, practices, and assessments that will create the base for our teaching in the future. These skills will constantly be expanding, changing, and differing. But, having an open-minded, concrete understanding of the fundamentals of our education philosophy and what it means to foster literate students in the classroom, is essential to become an exceptional teacher.
