Friday, December 12, 2014

Knowing what to expect made the second go round a lot easier.  My second time at HB was on the fourth of December, and yet again I found myself in in Mr. Hoffman's history class.  As I've stated in my final project as well as numerous times in class, I am a big advocate for technology being used in class.  I feel as thug if it is used correctly than it will be able to enhance discussion in the classroom, and therefore better the learning environment as a whole.  But at times over the course of this history class I felt as though it was more of a distraction than anything else.  Students often typed out the notes that were on the board or things that were being said by classmates.  The only problem with this is that once a question was posed for the class, there was no one to respond because they were all busy attempting to get the information down in their notes.  One of the aspects of the class that I enjoyed and will most definitely take into my own teaching methods is when Mr. Hoffman was able to link a story of his own life into the lesson itself, making it not only more entertaining, but also more relatable.  As a result the students felt more inclined to share their own stories causing for more class discussion and problem solving.  In order for classrooms to be successful it cannot just be the teaching standing at the front of the class attempting to shovel knowledge into the minds of the students.  The learners must be able to conceptualize the material themselves, and I feel Mr. Hoffman does a very good job of facilitating such a task.  I thoroughly enjoy being in Mr. Hoffman's class because along with the stories that he tells that are relatable to the topic at hand, he also has the hands on experience to deal with the awkward silences, and the abrupt halts that are inevitable while teaching a class.  I feel that part of a classroom is my biggest fear.  I must learn to overcome those silences and encourage engagement for the sake of the whole class taking away as much as they can from the lesson plan that I have prepared.

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