A mixture of things

Thursday's visit was short and sweet. We went to Timpview high school and observed a group of 22 students learning how to use a wood lathe. Many of the students were very creative in their designs and it seemed that a handful caught on quickly to the dynamics of the tooling with the machine. They impressed me. Furthermore, the shop impressed me. I think it was a wood shop comparable to the quality of our university's, and in some cases even better. I think that the kids there have a wonderful opportunity to learn a lot about woodworking from a highly qualified teacher and also get the chance to use a handful of great machines. They are more lucky than I was at their age. I am beginning to realize how hard it is to teach a large group of young students such a discipline that has so many dangerous aspects. I learned a lot in our little visit about some things that I would like to include in my teaching styles for the subject. I know that not all of the students are going to be as curious or interested in the subject as I, but I learned that it is important to ratify that interest, at the most possible, so that they can bring out different personal characteristics and skills, and so that they perform safe procedures. I am going to have to make a log of the ideas that I have concerning these things.

Today's class was good. I got the chance to learn more about Dewey and his fatherhood to teaching theories and strategies. It helped me to understand more today about the importance of scaffling, or recapping material previously learned by students to get their minds to make connections. I also enjoyed learning a little more about the importance of a lesson plan. I think that lesson plans are a great way to keep yourself organized and on task. It also helps you to make yourself know the material better because you can't just follow the plan exactly; students' learning or questions may invoke something other than what's on the lesson plan. So what I really learned from this was that I need to be organized, but not be too sticky about following the lesson plan directly. I hope to learn Geoff's lesson plan better (cause it is the best one out...) and how to apply it to my teaching so that I may get better.