Rabbiea Manzoor Dr.

Mckenzie EDUC 424 9 February 2014 I think the best theory we reviewed on Tuesday is Social Constructivism. One of the main reasons I want to become a teacher is to make learning interactive and fun for students because I used to hate sitting by myself everyday doing worksheets. I want my students to work through problems together and share their ideas. Ive always benefited from being able to explain what Ive learned to my peers, so I think this theory would best allow my students to talk through their learning and teach each other. I would also incorporate the other two theories, because students cant just talk to each other everyday. There has to be some days of just instruction, like Tuesdays class in Dr. Mckenzies class. We just learned new information so that we can start to use it and discuss it with each other in the future. Class would also probably get boring if students just did group work everyday, so I will make sure to change things up and have different kinds of activities for my students. I think it is important to build off of students prior learning and allow them to make connections to the real world, so I will make sure to ask questions that make them think about What is this similar to? and Why is it important to me? Once Im actually a teacher I will make sure to have my lesson plans ready at the beginning of each week so that Im prepared. I will have my materials ready ahead of time and give myself time for materials that have to be prepared the day of the lesson. I will also leave my lesson plans on my desk each evening before I leave

so that if for some reason I have to miss a day my lesson plan will be ready and easily found for a substitute teacher. Thursday class wasnt entirely lecture. Dr. Mckenzie asked our opinions on definitions and examples and made us think about what we have learned in our past education classes. The concept maps that we looked at can be used in all subjects for elementary students. They could use it to connect main events/battles in the civil war to show who was involved and why it was important. Elementary students wouldnt be able to meet outside of class time to finish theirs, so I would have to plan for enough time for them to brainstorm and then complete the concept map. I could also give each group a different event or battle to do a concept map on, and then take them all and connect them as a class and use The Civil War as the central concept. I also plan to use other graphic organizers in my class, like Venn Diagrams, that I can then hang around the room for students to refer to throughout the year. If we were learning about plants then students could begin growing their own plants, and then one day they could make some kind of graphic organizer to describe the process. They could use their plant as a model to look at and think about how it has changed and why.