Methods of teaching #1

First off as many of those who know me know I am not much of a reader. I managed through high school by picking books that just so happened to have a movie with them. With that said college has been a challenge considering these texts do not have movies. Readings for the week literally take me all week to get through since reading is a tough area for me with my comprehension issues.

I was quite surprised though, this first weeks reading was informative but in a different way for me at least. By this I mean that even though a lot of it was common sense or already a known factor it was a reinforcement for me as a teacher candidate. Most of what stuck out to me was texts from Newcomb in the first two chapters.

The first thing that really stood out to me that hit hard was in the first chapter where it talked about study skills. One reason for this is because high school to me was a piece of cake, I never did homework if it was not graded, studying "what's that?", and tests were easy. So going to my first college course freshman year as I sat in Bio 110 in shock that overwhelming feeling comes over you like what am I going to do. Than you have those smarty pants kids who are like do we need to know this this and this and the instructor is like no this is basic biology. I am still sitting there in shock. Moral to the story is I was never challenged enough to learn how to study nor was taught how to study in a productive way and still have trouble. For me as a teacher and going through this first hand I want to be that teacher that prepares them for the life outside of high school know matter what path they choose to take.

When reading through chapter 2 and going through all the principles I related to number twelve, students learn what they practice. Considering my lack of study skills and all that I was a student where telling me what to do was like talking to a brick wall. Now if we talked while physically doing the task at hand I would pick it up like nothing. I am a firm believer in hands on because that is the true test to learning or mastering it. Many can read and know it in their head for a written exam but can they physically do what they know. This is where for me SAE plays an enormous part in the learning process in the agricultural education program.