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For my concrete item, I chose a book I carry in my backpack called About Becoming a Teacher by William Ayers.

How does the item/setting smell?

It smells like a library, very similar the library from my hometown. Fresh pages give thoughts about school and learning.

How does the item/setting feel? (texture, warmth etc...)

The cover of the book is laminated so it feels very smooth. The pages themselves are very thick, which could trick the mind into thinking two pages are stuck together. The book is fairly new, so it doesn't have the usual creases and wrinkles that a used book would have.

How does the item/setting make you feel? (emotional, physical etc...)

It makes me feel empowered and hopeful, as the book discusses what a new teacher to the field should consider in order to teach successfully. My item also makes me feel proactive as I am choosing to read a more informative text to better myself as a teacher down the road. There is an element of self-care that comes to mind when looking at it.

It also makes me laugh when I think about the story of the author, who was a political activist during the Vietnam War, co-led an organization that did targeted buildings with bombs. It's ironic that he could have that kind of past and then write a self-help book about becoming a great teacher.

Ask a question that is evoked by the item/setting or the experience you are having with the item/setting. What makes you curious?

Can the background of an author take away from the meaning that a book can have? Why?

How can simply reading something invoke such motivation to one's mind?

Reflection:

I really liked this idea simply because of the depth that a simple experience could bring. Sharing our artifacts and explaining the significance really allowed us to open up about ourselves and get to know each other better.

This activity reminds me of certain aspects within UDL, more specifically the relationships that we form within a class, and how we feel can impact our learning experience. Taking a very simply concept and expanding on it to reveal the story behind brings us closer as a class and allows for us to explore other tough topics.

In order to grade this, an additional that could be made it creating blank table on a sheet/ electronic device and have students go around and interview each other on their chosen artifact. This would allow for the entire class to collaborate, which also supports the relationship building that is important with UDL. Regarding the prompt, it might benefit to state that we should choose an artifact that has some kind of sentimental value, to really draw out those stories from our students.

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Assessment: Backwards design is key, and assessment should drive instruction (3/10 Reflection). Starting with what we want our students to know ensures that there isnt a waisted minute in class

Pedagogy: (2/10 Refection) Activities within class that encourage discussion. (4/7 Reflection) The 3 stay, 1 stray idea is one example of where students take learning into their own hands.

Outcomes: Feedback, healthy communication skills, great critical thinking, and accountability for ones own learning.

Values: Collaborative Learning, Universal Desing for Learning. Methods within my classroom that encourage student engagment. Rooted in disucssion. Straying from traditionally lecture in some cases (3/3 Reflection).

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I loved today's lesson and activity! Universal Design for Learning was such a refreshing concept, as it reassured me that, regardless of the content, we can still make learning enjoyable for our students. The activity we participated in was incredibly engaging. The '3 Stay, 1 Stray' idea was brilliant, and it's something I’ll be taking with me to my classroom—both as a Learning Assistant and as a teacher.

It helped create a collaborative environment that fostered trust among our group members. Not only did we need to work together to ensure our message was accurately conveyed, but we also had to take detailed notes to teach the "stray" what they had missed.

Within my LA class, I would love to use this as an activity to deepen student understanding. It would resemble a jigsaw in many ways, but it would help my students better understand different structures of the brain or education theorists.

Overall, it was a great day and a great lesson!

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In this experiment, we explored student engagement and the most conducive environments for engagement. Our original methodology involved administering a pre/post-test to identify themes within a classroom that promote student engagement. The pre-test took place at the start of the semester, and the post-test would occur two weeks later to determine if those themes had changed the outcome of class participation. If we were to change something about this experiment, we would include a control group within the classroom. For the first half of the semester, no changes would be implemented to encourage student engagement, business would be usual. Then, after the midterm, we would begin our pre/post-tests. The first half of the semester would show what little intervention does for student engagement, and then the intervention during the second half of the semester would show what change in student engagement.

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Considering both the ADDIE model and Merrill's Principles of Instruction, it is evident that both frameworks require teachers to design their instruction with a focus on student engagement. Encouraging students to immerse themselves in the curriculum, especially one that is relevant to their daily lives, can foster a deeper level of understanding and reinforce the purpose and potential of education.

Concerning my teaching philosophy, these instructional models go hand in hand with what I believe about school. The more student-centered our instruction, the more beneficial it is to their overall learning. We seek ways to explain why students are in school, and the answer lies in these instructional models, for this gives them the best chance to engage with the material and find out for themselves.

These models allow for deeper-level thinking, as well as a deeper understanding. Instead of just focusing on content knowledge and remembering items for a test, we can have our students engage and synthesize with the material. Collaborative learning, as well as problem-based learning, allows our students to apply what they know and learn what they don't. That type of instruction is so valuable for their development as people in this society.

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Despite online learning being hit or miss (in my experience), I felt as though today's online learning was very engaging! I enjoyed the padlet that was utilized, and it helped me better understand the work that goes into producing quality objectives for class.

Online classes can be tricky because it reshapes how discussions commence, especially since the traditional hand-raising technique doesn't translate very well to an online platform. However, this padlet gave us a chance to instantly collaborate without taking away from the overall lesson.

The lesson today, and my objective, reminded me of how important it is to know where we are going in teaching. Assessment drives instruction as one of my favorite teachers would put it, and I think that is something we should be mindful of always when teaching. Not only will that guide us on what to teach our students, but also our assessments will better reflect student learning.

To assess my students, I will compare the activities they create to the stages that they have chosen. I will look for elements within their activity that support their students in that particular stage of cognitive development. For struggling students, I plan to scaffold ideas and examples to get their minds thinking about how they can better accommodate their students.

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Today was another reminder of why active learning is significant for the classroom. Looking through Freeman's article, it was crazy to think that colleges (for the most part) have been using the same style of traditional lecture for the better part of 900 years. As important as lectures can be for understanding the material being taught, it's crazy to me it hasn't been normalized to dig deeper.

Utilizing different strategies like double entry journals gives students a chance to establish their knowledge, and then explore it further. Whether they elaborate on it, or question it, this strategy gives students room to grow on said knowledge.

Our learning is multimodal because we utilize different parts of our brain when we learn something. A majority of our senses are used when learning, and effective teaching aims to implement those senses because that is what helps the working memory (more specifically the limbic system). Within today's lesson, we used the following senses: sight, hearing, and touch. All of which help as we engaged with the article, and unpacked it to either ask questions or further elaborate on.

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Learning about neuroscience today got me thinking about the power we as instructors could have if we understood the brain better. My teaching philosophy focuses on student-centered learning, but I feel as though I could still do more good as an LA and as an educator if I understood how the brain learns, and what parts of the brain do what when it comes to learning. Given this student-centered learning approach that I have adopted, and the fact that physical activity assists these neural pathways within our brain, I want to make it a goal to get my students up and moving when it is relevant to our discussions. Anything from snowball activities, to even changed seating, these bits of movement in our classroom can help our students better in the long run when incorporating active learning.

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I see a lot of overlap regarding this class's activities and how it adds to my teaching philosophy. Collaborative communication is something I feel as though every teacher should incorporate in their classroom, and I very much enjoyed it in today's class. Within the classroom that I LA for, we try to integrate some kind of conversation in our everyday lectures, but one mustn't forget the power that communicating with your peers can have for learning. Going forward I plan to work collaborative communication more often into our daily lessons, to promote rich learning opportunities.

To ensure this, I want to try and start and end the day off with some kind of question that engages with the material of the day. Call it a bell-ringer/ exit ticket if you will, but I really want to give my students a chance to not only engage with the material to deepen their understanding of it, but I also want them to be able to scaffold off each other to ensure there is a deeper level of thinking going on between all of them.

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Today's class gave feedback on each other's teaching philosophies, and it really resonated with me how important feedback is. Education today puts too much emphasis on grades/ test scores, but quality feedback is how we bridge the gap between a student's grade and the chance to improve and get better. On top of reflection, learning different active learning strategies is great because it adds to your teacher's toolbox. This toolbox can be used in the future to further engage your instruction. Whether you incorporate activities to engage your students or accommodate them with strategies that help struggling learners, this toolbox is beyond helpful to the learning environment.

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My philosophy is that education should be fun and full of meaningful discussion. From my experience, I believe that student-centered instruction provides the greatest opportunity for student learning and accountability. It allows educators the chance to promote active learning, as well as meaningful classroom culture. In my eyes, this strategy is the most effective and allows us as educators the chance to really connect with our students.