Teaching and Learning Reflections

I believe great teaching and learning happens when the lesson is hands on and is meaningful to the students.  Great teaching also happens when the teacher is able to make personal connections for the students threw what they are learning.  For example one of my most memorable teaching experiences happened last semester in my field placement.  I was in a third grade classroom, and as soon as my students learned that I lived on a dairy farm they became very interested and had many questions they wanted to ask me about living on a farm.  During this experience I had the opportunity to teach a lesson.  The students were learning about magnetism in science class so I decided to teach a lesson on the uses of magnets on a dairy farm.  On a dairy farm magnets are used to keep metal pieces from getting into the cows feed and if a cow does swallow metal they are given a magnetic pill that collects the metal in the cow’s stomach so that the metal does not harm the cow.  I taught a hands on lesson on this topic by bringing in plastic bags full of cow feed that also contained metal pieces.  Then it was the students’ job to place the magnetic pill into the bag and find out what metal objects the cow had “swallowed”.  The students had so much fun doing this and I think it really allowed them to see how the magnet worked, and the importance of it for the cow’s health.  I believe this lesson was successful because it was hands on which allowed the students to be actively involved in the material they were learning.  It was also meaningful to them because it connected what they had been learning in class about magnets to the real world situation.  The lesson also grabbed their attention because they were already interested in activities that take place on a farm.  My own learning experiences throughout school that stand out to me were also often taught in a hands on way.  I can still remember a project that I did in fourth grade on the planet mars.  I can still picture what it looked like and even some of the facts that I had to include.  I can remember this project so well because I was actively involved in what I was learning. 

I also believe that in order for great teaching and learning to happen the teacher must have a positive attitude and really love what he or she is doing.  The teacher also has to be willing to get to know his or her students at a personal level so that the teacher can prepare activities that relate to the interests of the class.  As a teacher I am going to strive to make learning real for my students so they can make real world and personal connects with the information they are learning.