As a teacher, when introduced to new curriculum I feel two ways: excited and exhausted. My district has recently implemented a number of new programs including Conscious Discipline, Cultures of Thinking, and Phenomenal Science, to name a few. Learning these new ideas and adapting your teaching to fit them takes a lot of time and effort, any teacher will tell you it's a daunting task. What we sometimes don't stop to recognize, however, is how important these new ways of thinking and teaching are. Without staying up to date on the latest and greatest ways of educating our students, we are doing them a disservice. It is, quite literally, our job to soak up this new information and ring it out right in our classrooms. Too often, teachers can get caught up in the day to day, same curriculum we've taught for years. We can forget that it's not just content we are addressing in the classrooms. Every single one of our students walks in with prior knowledge and more than likely some misconceptions. These new curriculums provided by my district are focusing on drawing out these misconceptions before introducing content. Lately, I've been researching what it means for a student to learn, for them to understand, and for them to experience a conceptual change. I explore these three concepts in an essay you can read here. You can also use this link to Bransford, Brown & Cocking's (2000) How People Learn: Brain, mind, experience and school to read more about these ideas, just as I did. Here's to #targetingmisconceptions!
Bransford, J., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R. R. (2000), How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368.
2 Comments
Gina Vetere
7/8/2019 01:25:28 pm
I love the ideas you shared in your blog post this week! I found it very easy to connect with as a teacher who is constantly being exposed to new curriculum. This upcoming school year, we are adopting a new math and reading curriculum and on top of that, I thought it would be a good year to change grades! It certainly can be overwhelming learning new programs, while keeping true to your own style. I agree with you that it is apart of our job to stay updated on the latest methods and best practices to give our students the learning environment they deserve. However, as you also stated, there is so much more we have to address in our classroom that goes way beyond content knowledge. Forming relationships and making connections with my students is one of the most important things to me. Taking the time to get to know each student, their background knowledge and misconceptions they bring, helps me understand what I need to provide for each student for them to learn, understand, and experience a conceptual change.
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Mackenzie Holsten
7/9/2019 12:19:42 pm
I like the idea of addressing misconceptions before moving into the curriculum so you have an idea of where your students are already at. It is definitely difficult to accommodate classrooms with students who have a wide range of abilities and that come in with different knowledge and views. I agree that it is our responsibility to guide our students through the processes of learning, understanding and conceptual change. In order to know where our students' are at in their learning, we have to build relationships with them. To me, this means creating a welcoming environment where students feel comfortable asking questions and sharing their ideas. They are then able to take risks and move forward without the fear of being wrong.
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