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I thoroughly enjoyed participating in Kolb's Cycle of experiential learning. I feel that it was a very different learning experience compared to usual, and therefore provided a new angle of learning. I was able to take a simple everyday experience and turn it into an academic question and experiment. In my experience, I took the presence of my stuffed bear and turned it into a question about memory. This process occurred solely through experience. From being present and thinking about a few guided questions. I think this is a great way to merge the line between life and learning. It showcases that learning can occur anywhere and just how much there is to learn in the world. I believe principals #8 and #9 were well touched on with this experience. This activity has the potential to draw out a lot of vulnerability. A good way to get students to thoroughly immerse themselves in this experience would be for the teacher themselves to show some vulnerability. This allows students to feel more accepted and encouraged to participate to the best of their abilities. Additionally, since this is a very qualitative form of learning, upgrading is applied since there's no simple way to grade such an activity quantitatively. Since there are no right or wrong answers, grading would be done more based on participation in the activity and how much learning was achieved.

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Students will be ready to learn by the start of class, through pre class materials and start of class activities.

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Create a welcoming environment

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Solving problems is best done in groups

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Set students up for success

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Everyone should feel equally valuable and included. Everyone should feel they have the power to speak up.

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What is the most effective method of assessment?

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Teach a wide array of perspectives

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Have a plan. Plan out your goals, outcomes, methods, assessment, even for each lesson.

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Students should be able to apply their learning to the real world

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Variety of materials (options) for every learner

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Interactive Padlet (particularly for online teaching)

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Everyone learns differently. Include diversity

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Re-teaching

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Help students be prepared for class

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External Thought Release prior to class

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Teaching should be engaging

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Working on the case study for this week's class reminded me of the unfortunate situation that many students and teachers find themselves in. For students, many may feel unwelcome and discouraged from speaking up. For teachers, its difficult to find and create an environment in which all feel equal and valuable. It is a frustrating situation for both sides. Throughout working on this case study, I realized the various small changes in a classroom that can create large shifts in the culture. For example, assigning roles to each member allows for a balance of power so no single person is left out or over powered. Another simple change is including multiple forms of pre lab material, such as a reading, a video, and a demonstration, that way more students will complete the material and be prepared for class. Students who may not like reading could choose to watch the video and vice versa. I will include the importance of diversity and of inclusion in my teaching philosophy. All students should feel heard and empowered, and making small changes to encourage that is key.

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For the case study, I would suggest to the teacher that they spend more time in class working on practice problems, in which the students can work on in groups. Since the exams primarily consist of problems based on scenarios, it would help the students greatly to spend more time practicing on problems in class, especially when they have the help of their peers and professors. For example, instead of dedicating the last 5 minutes of class to practice problems, spend at least 10-15 minutes dispersed throughout class. Additionally, instead of only having the students read 1-2 chapters before class, a variety of materials could be provided so that the students can gather a wider range of understanding on the topic. That way, class doesn't feel like simply a restatement of what the students have already read. Although I did not get to actively participate in class this time, I learned a lot about problem-based learning and learning structure. As I learned from the ADDIE model, how you format the course is crucial in providing effective teaching. Flying off the seat of your pants likely won't allow your students to effectively learn a topic. Instead, you must understand what needs to be learned, how best to achieve that, how to implement the idea, and how to evaluate what students have learned and what next steps need to be taken. I will certainly note this in my learning philosophy, as I believe the plan and the intention are nearly as important as the learning itself. After all, effective learning can't take place without a benchmark for what needs to be learned in the first place. I will also certainly include the importance of problem-based learning, as PBL allows for the application of learning. Outside of the typical benefits of applying what is learned to real-world scenarios, the greatest aspect is that it gives everything the students learn a purpose. Now, class is no longer a place to simply listen to information but rather a place to truly learn.

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I believe the outcome I wrote is slightly vague and could use some more specificity, but overall it still indicates a goal that I'd like to achieve with students in the future. The standard of my outcome was for students to successfully work through in-class practice problems. Unfortunately, this is a little difficult to accurately measure. However, at a basic level, I could simply observe my students and see if they are working on the practice problems. Interacting with my students would help me gauge their understanding of the topic and if they are understanding or struggling with the problems. Although this wouldn't be a perfect method of assessment, it would give a little insight into their progress. As for online learning today, I thoroughly enjoyed today's active learning method. Being a more introverted person, I enjoyed the more solitary-based work that was still engaging as a class. I felt that the interactive Padlet was a big hit, as it maintained engagement and participation throughout the class, which can sometimes be difficult in online formats. Today's class almost went by too fast, but I still learned a lot.

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Contrary to what I had hoped, I found this week's active learning model less effective than others we have practiced in terms of my own learning. I found it difficult to maintain focus while participating in this activity. That being said, I understand that everyone learns differently and some may find this method effective for their learning. The positive of this learning method is that it forced me to thoroughly search through the entire article, which I may have only briefly skimmed otherwise. Participating in this activity, however, has reminded me that everyone learns differently and I will definitely be including that in my final learning philosophy.

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I found that this week's pre-parties were the most informative and piqued my interest in terms of considerations for my learning philosophy. I learned a lot about exercise and physical activity being incredibly crucial for learning and overall cognitive health. This causes me to consider the inclusion of physical activity within my teaching philosophy, however, it becomes difficult to implement in a setting such as a traditional lecture. Contrarily, I will likely implement the method of re-teaching, as I did see the great benefits it had during class today. I found that at the start of my re-teaching, I remembered very little about what I had read and learned from the text. However, after a little while of re-teaching, I slowly began to remember more and more. Additionally, not only did I remember more from the reading at the moment, but I also continue to remember that information. It is as though speaking what I learned out loud helped me remember it better.

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Through today's class, I learned about many collaborative communication methods that could be implemented in a classroom or other teaching setting. The most interesting idea I heard was to allow time for students to release external thoughts to allow room for learning. In a smaller classroom setting, this could mean asking students questions about what's going on in their lives, what's on their minds, or addressing any questions they may have. I like this idea because I know many of us students come to class with other things on our minds that hinder our ability to pay attention and learn in class. This method would allow students to always be a little more ready to learn. I believe this is crucial because no matter what techniques you may use to help students understand and learn a topic, they cannot learn if they simply don't pay attention. It's like the saying "you can lead a horse to water but you can't force it to drink". The idea being that it is crucial that, to the best of our abilities, we help students be prepared to learn and pay attention as much as possible.

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Today I learned about two different active learning modalities that showed me first hand their impact on my own learning. I believe that both methods were engaging and "forced" us to think and participate in class. These activities simply expanded my teaching philosophy that teaching should be engaging, as I further understand the impact of engagement in increasing learning and participation.

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I believe that teaching is a method of passing on information from one person to another and is crucial in upholding generations of knowledge. Teaching should be done in an engaging and enjoyable manner, not in a torturous sort of form. If one is not enjoying learning, then there is not much you can teach. Teaching should also focus on emphasizing the why rather than simply memorizing facts. In this way, the learned knowledge can be applied to more than just a question on a test. Rather, the knowledge can then be applied to other topics, and even potentially real-world scenarios. We are teaching to better prepare others for the future and beyond. This is why teaching cannot focus on simply memorizing answers to a test, but teaching true understanding of the bones of the topic.