Exist Slip - Orchard Garden

Gardening can be used very effectively to encourage healthy learning. Gardens are great places for place-based learning that promotes inquiry. Furthermore, gardens can help build and maintain a more positive classroom envrionment. When done properly, there are many things students can learn from a garden, ranging from art to science.
However, there may be many difficulties in the creation and maintainence of a garden. The land is very hard to come by. Maintaining a garden also takes a lot of time and effort. Hence, not many schools have a garden under their name.
Regardless, learning in a garden can be used as an example for place-based-inquiry. One is not neccessary restricted to learning in a garden. Parks, nature, and other places will all have similar function in terms of place-based-learning and inquiry.

Entrance Slip - Orchard Garden

I am not really a gardening type of person. However, after reading this article and thinking about what I have learned in the B.Ed program, I am starting to like the idea of incorporating gardening into education. First of all, place-based-learning is a huge topic and focus for the new cirriculum. Place-based-learning is more than just trying to learn things about a certain place. Instead, the important part is the community that occupies the place rather than the place on its own. Hence, what better way to implement place-based-learning than to have students build and contribute to a garden as their own community? Moreover, as the article mentioned, gardening incorporates so much more than just gardening. One can easily combine the idea of food, culture, and language into the experience. Academically, we can teach them about the biology, earth science, mathematical symmetry, chemical composition of the scent, and many more.

Exit Slip - Praise

Praises should be used as a method to replace punishment, as a superior way of provoking students to work harder. However, priases can be really dangerous in the sense that they can make students become dependent on external approval and acknowledgement. I believe praises should be done in regard to the work students do and not the students themselves. Ultimately, it should stimulate and promote a sense of self-acknowledgement that may eventually boost self-confidence and encourage self-encouragement. The strongest individuals are those who are independent of others physically and mentally. I wish to show my students how to value progression in their learning rather than the end-goal.

Entrance Slip - Tact in teaching

"However, while interacting with their students and while presenting their lessons, teachers usually do not have the time or inclination to truly reflect on any of such questions."

- One of the theme from last week was that teachers are humans too, and there's only so much a teacher can do. I think it is totally understandable if a teacher, regardless of experience, becomes overwelmed to engage in those deeper thinking and reflective processes. That being said, however, it should still be every teacher's goal to push themselves further and actively think and reflect on the students as well as themselves.

"What makes true reflection in action difficult is that life in classrooms is contingent, dynamic, everchanging: every moment, every second is situation-specific. Moments of teaching are ongoing incidents that require instant actions."

- If the first quote describes or relates more to the personal/emotional state of the teacher as a person, then the this quote relates more to the techniqual or physical challenges, in terms of teaching in a classroom, that a teacher faces on a daily basis. I think in this case, every teacher will become more skilled at making those "in-a-flash" decisions, as Manen describes, with more experience in teaching.

"On the one hand, our actions are sedimented into habituations, routines, kinesthetic memories. We do things in response to the rituals of the situation in which we find ourselves. On the other hand, our actions are sensitive to the contingencies, novelties, and expectancies of our world."

- This phrase applies to much more than just teaching. I really love this comment because it applies to almost every profession in any circumstance. There's so much one can talk about with regard to what he mentions here, but the takehome point for me is that one must acknowledge the fact that our actions and responses are the result of a very complex network of forces, for the lack of a better word. Therefore, it is totally normal when we feel at times we don't know how to make the "right" decision, because perhaps there is never a "right" response. In the case of teaching, I guess it's OK if one doesn't know how to approach something, since so many other factors play a role and are interferring with one's thought process in various aspects.

Exit Slip - Flip Classroom

Flip classroom seems like a wonderful idea at first glance. It allows more potential and time for interaction and engagements among students and teachers. The pre-class lecture or video allows the students to prime and prepare their mind for the class. However, there are still many underlying problems with this approach. For instance, technological struggles are bound to be there regardless the region. More importantly, the biggest problem for me is the fact that students are lazy and unmotivated in nature, and they will most likley not to participate in the pre-class self-study. It is a very important issue that must be address in some manner so that kids will actually do the study ahead of time. Ultimately, there is no doubt that the current education system needs to improve and adjust along with the fast-changing society and world. Technologies are bound to be part of this change, and one way or another, a balance of integration will be achieved.

Entrance Slip - Reflective Teacher

I can relate to the part where the article says you will be bombarded in courses and practicums with suggestions and advice regarding the numerous techniques and strategies that we can potentially use in education. It is already happening and can be seen from personal past teachers. It goes back to the idea that all teachers have their own way of teaching, and there is no perfect teaching technique. Teachers teach who they are, and since there are endless combinations of teacher and students, there will also be many combinatons of teaching methods.

It is really interesting how Phillip Jackson estimated teachers engae in approximately 1000 interpersonal interactions on any given day. It is a number far greater than what I expected. As mentioned in the article, human actions are defined as reflective and routine in nature by John Dewey. Hence, Jackson suggested that just because classrooms are fast-paced and complex envrionments doesn't mean reflective teaching cannot be used. However, due to the difficulties of actually using such technique, some may argue that reflective teaching is not really necessary, as stated in Scheffler's view. 

Exit Slip

Education goes two-ways. The teacher can learn from the students just as how students can learn from the teacher. The understanding process goes both ways. A teacher needs to make sure he or she is understood by the students, whether it's pronounciation, content, or concepts. At the same time, the teacher needs to understand the students too. Rather than trying to forcefully steer the direction of study, going with the flow of the students can be also very benefitial. However, there has to be a balance between how much teachers stick to their ideas and how much they follow's the students. Hence, preparation, back-up plans, and multiple methods are important in teaching. 

How much should we adapt to the students? To what extend should we make them feel that we are close to them? There are underlying dangers and risks when talking about yourself and your story to students. One must consider not only the need of the students but also the parents, because of the related laws in that aspect.