I think everyday I try to get a little better at being a good teacher. I know it is a long road, a never ending one actually, to being a great teacher. One goal each day is to make sure I ask my students inqury based questions. Ask the students why, how come, is that important, and how can that be seen in your everyday life, allows me to gain insight on what my students truley need.
Inqury based instruction I feel gives the students a chance to explain what they know, and infact gives me the opportunity to realize what they do not know. Having the students justify their reasoning allows me to gear my classroom and instruction towards what they are missing. If I just ask them if they "get it" I am gaining no feedback.
Bill, If you're using inquiry type questions in your class, I think you're on the right path to "changing your curriculum." Yesterday, in class, you asked how we can do more "problems," when they are not readily available for teachers...but if you're asking your students questions that they are not going to find the answer in the book, you're stepping in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteJust like any changes in what or how we teach, you just have to remind yourself, you can't do everything at once.
My masters is in Adult and Higher Education, and with that, last semester I had to take a Curriculum Development class--which I was annoyed about, because I've developed curriculum with every teaching job I've had. It turned out, this was the most useful/applicable class that I've had so far. We learned about the Understanding by Design model, and different methods for Differentiating Instruction. And the thing our teacher kept telling us was, "No matter how great all this seems, and how beneficial it will be to the students, don't try to do it for every class, all at once. Start one day at a time...and do one lesson for each class, each semester, and build from there."
Just keep asking inquiry based questions. Any example you do in class, eliminate the need for intermediate answers, so students can reason their own way through the problem. And let them work in groups to bounce ideas off of each other. Put lower students with more-abled ones...and you'll start to see changes. It takes more than just one teacher to change the curriculum!