Revitalized Unit Reflection

Learning: This project was a good summary and culmination of the concepts, models and strategies I learned in this class.  I really feel what I gained most from this class is a perspective change.  I think "less is more" rings true in the classroom because I feel IF I focus on developing their critical, creative, and metacognitive thinking skills, my students will take away infinitely more than if I stress both myself and them out in focusing on mastering all the specific information of the course.  This is the approach I took in creating this revitalized unit and the models were a huge aide in creating an easy way to facilitate deeper understanding of the concepts I have been teaching.  I feel like through looking at what I have been doing with the students in this particular unit and comparing it with the new information I have learned through this course, I notice huge gaps and lack of students' thorough understanding of the topics.  Students were mainly gaining exposure previously, whereas students actually gain deep concepts in my revitalized unit.  I can now see that it does not have to be impossibly difficult to create opportunities for students to consistently engage in higher level thinking; it can be a daily opener with the Williams Model approaches.  I am so excited about implementing this new unit and I think the kids will not only learn more, but have more fun learning while they are at it!

 

 

Evaluation:   I definitely feel I incorporated a wide variety of the models throughout the unit that clearly aligned with the goals I set for the unit.  I think I explained the models clearly and how much it differed from what I have done in the past.  I definitely looked for ways to implement technology to make the lesson more interactive and cause it to come alive, and I feel I connected the students with technological resources they can use once they graduate to help them set up their life and budget.  I felt passionately about the major strengths of the model, and I feel I justified their implementation well in my explanations.  For my video, the original turned out to be 16 minutes long!!  I re-recorded and made the material as concise as I could with trying to include the hows and whys of the models and strategies I was using.  I believe the 2nd video was much better!  I worked hard to organize and finalize the written material so it was clear and professional-looking.  I believe I deserve an A on this project as I demonstrate thorough understanding of the concepts in this class and have worked hard to create a plan to implement them into my teaching. 

Teaching Demonstration 2: Cause & Effect

Self-Evaluation:  I feel the most confident on my cause and effect model presentation than on anything else I did in this class.  I really liked the model, felt very confident in using it, and therefore I felt the presentation was strong and smooth.  My classmates were really engaged in the activity, and I think the topic was very relevant to their experiences.  It gave them a very clear picture of how to use the model, and they were thinking critically, creatively, and metacognitively.  I felt my presentation was very relevant and easy to follow, and I clearly communicated to them the importance of the skills practiced through the cause and effect model.  We had very good discussion of the strengths, weaknesses, and how it tied into the other models and ways of thinking, and they came up with good ways to adapt the model to fit the classroom.  Again, I think the only thing I would have changed was the time we spent on the activity, but I really didn't want to stop my classmates because they were having such good discussion and looking deeply into the topic.  I feel my quality of work and the presentation itself warranted an A on this project. 

Learning: I feel like I learned so much through diving deeper into this model.  I think out of all the models we have talked about, this one is the easiest to implement and very original in the value of what it teaches the kids.  If everyone in the United States thought this way, we would have an incredible nation free of the overwhelming struggles from which we suffer greatly.  I didn't realize before how easy it could be to teach students to think in such a profound, life-altering way!  I love the idea of looking at prior causes and subsequent effects.  People don't usually see that undervaluing of teachers can lead to a nation full of uneducated people with low self-esteem, but that's the type of thing you uncover in this model.  Also, the generalizing principal take-aways are so good, and students/people can learn important concepts they can apply to any occupation in which they work.  It is a very deep, critical and creative way at looking at life and people.  I also liked the thought process behind the sequence of steps.  I think initially, I would see it making sense to first do the cause, and then the prior causes; but upon reading the model details, I really see value in and appreciate going back and forth between the causes and effects.  I really enjoyed my classmates' ideas for how to apply this model in the classroom, and I feel that we all learned something as I was presenting. 

Teaching Demonstration 1: Creative Problem Solving

Self-Evaluation:  I felt that throughout this demonstration, I worked very hard to teach the model thoroughly and in a way in which my classmates would not only understand, but they could easily apply to their own classrooms.  My model was closely followed throughout the activity, and I felt my classmates were engaged and accomplishing all the goals of the model.  The one area I wish I could have done better in is the identifying the problem step.  Throughout the presentation, I emphasized how important that step was in the model, but because I felt so rushed during the activity, I didn't spend very much time on it.  I should have asked several more questions to have my classmates further breakdown the problem and restate the problem in a question form.  Beyond that, I think the activity went very well, and it was very appropriate for grad students as it directly applied to their situation.  I think my classmates learned from their experience our natural inclinations to throw out ideas before we even suggest them.  The "deferred judgement" aspect definitely provided a learning experience and they saw how important it is to practice this skill with the students several times so their creativity could be more and more free.  I really felt I covered the background of the model and not only explained the steps of the model, but WHY teachers should use the creative problem solving model with students.  I feel my explanation of the difference between creative problem solving and traditional problem solving gave my classmates a clearer picture of the goals and value in the creative problem solving method.  I really think the most important take-aways from my lesson were the values (free creative risk-taking and evaluation process) were clearly communicated to my classmates and they could see how the model would so greatly help any member of society no matter what their occupation is!  The heart and value were communicated I think that is most important!  I really enjoyed the discussion as I feel my classmates had great ideas and they were very engaged in it!  My handout was very reader-friendly and had all the most important information and also had appropriate APA citing on the bottom.  I feel I should receive an A on this project due to my hard work and accuracy in presenting.

Learning: This model was very interesting to me, and I feel like it has caused me to rethink problem solving in my classroom.  One thing I have been thinking about ever since I presented on creative thinking skills is not immediately shutting down my students' ideas if I foresee a problem, or allowing my students to do the same to each other.  I think I do this without realizing in my classroom, which most likely shuts down the creativity and willingness to take risks within my students.  This model creates a structure for creative thinking and allows for completely unique, unhindered thinking processes.  I feel like after learning so much about the value of creative thinking skills, this model allows for a practical way to encourage building these skills within the classroom, and I really appreciated digging deeper into its application and process.  I definitely have tried to promote creative thinking skills in my classroom, but honestly, I don't think I had much rhyme or reason to how we went about doing this.  I appreciate this method and having something to reference and modify according to what my classroom needs.  I also really like the step in the model where there is a clear method of evaluating and rating each of the ideas.  That is something that is transferable into all decision making models/activities.  I really see the value of instilling this process into students to become successful thinking adults.  When I was presenting to my classmates, I felt I learned a lot from their ideas and answers to my own discussion questions.  They had so many ideas of how to apply it to the different subjects and how to adapt it for other students, and it really got me thinking on how to best implement it into my classroom.