my goals were:
Learn more about student learning types, meta cognition and how to teach accordingly
Learn more about student motivation behind learning
Improve my own skills as a learner and critical thinker
I feel like I have learned much about differences of students, not only through reading, but through observation in real classrooms, and seeing the differences in our own classrooms as well. By creating lesson plans and assessments I have been able to differentiate in theory for students with differences and so I have learned how to play up different students' strengths.
I haven't focused as much on motivation of students as I thought I'd be able to be. Because we have been covering so much in class I don't feel like I have been able to learn as much about it as I would have liked. In order to learn more about student motivation I would need to take more time to study it and read papers and research about it.
I feel like I have been able to more accurately apply what I've been learning to the actual classes that I will be teaching since the beginning of the class. My critical thinking skills have improved and I feel like I have been able to choose correctly the best approaches in teaching different concepts to students. I still need to work to improve in all areas of my teaching and I know it will take experience, but I also need to continue to read and study about all different aspects of teaching in order to continue to improve. I need to focus on my personal learning type and play that up as I am in the classroom as well so that I can make more connections for myself to the material.
My motivation comes from my desire to be a good teacher that can relate to my students and teach them to appreciate literature the way I do and to accept the differences in others. I hope to be a memorable teacher and to continue to improve as the years go on. I think that where my motivation comes from is where it should, I don't expect to be a great teacher right away, or for every student, but I do hope to make a difference for some of them.
