Noah's Learning/Teaching Philosophy Spring 2024 by Rachel Watson

My Teaching Philosophy (Week 1)

2024-01-29 21:32:55 UTC

One of the most important aspects to teaching and learning to me is doing. Whenever I was training junior sailors I would always show them how to do something then have them demonstrate. I think that the very act of doing something can really help set the act into memory. I also commonly encouraged them to ask questions because as we like to say the Navy "you don't know what you don't know". This is another major part of my teaching philosophy which is ask questions. Asking questions is vital to furthering your understanding and committing concepts to memory. The final aspect of learning and teaching I like to employ is to learn by teaching. This is a practice that I commonly do in my study sessions. I will take a concept that I wish to study and "teach" it to a peer or someone who is not even in the class. This helps solidify the concepts in my head and helps me expand upon the information I already knew.

29JAN24 Reflection

nyazawa — 2024-01-30 00:44:15 UTC

I learned that what I liked as an educator and student is called Action Learning and Re-Teaching. I think a lot these methods can be applied especially in STEM. Looking at it from the field I am going into, Wildlife Bio, I have learned so much from the field. I was given a lot of action based learning from how to handle certain situations, like losing a GPS, to how to properly handle a live animal. Another aspect I saw today was how to better implement some of these techniques in the classroom. I enjoyed being able to experience some of the things I read about, like the snowball activity. I would like to try to implement some new techniques I have never heard of before into the class I am an LA in. I think one of the easier things for me to begin to implement is the muddiest point since that can easily be done even as a one-one.

12FEB24 Reflection

nyazawa — 2024-02-13 00:44:11 UTC

The importance of emotions, stress, and body health on learning is something I never really thought about. Moving forward I think it I would like to incorporate ways to not only make my self more emotionally healthy, but try to promote the emotional well being of my students and peers as well. I also did not know that the hippocampus was home to cortisol receptors, but really thinking about it makes sense. After all in high stress situations one often forgets many things, which is why in the navy we drill things to muscle memory for high stress times. I think moving forward I would like to place a higher emphasis on destressing and not try to "valorize" stress. Finally looking at how physical activity can stimulate the brain. While I do know that physical activity outside of the classroom is important I think the incorporation of physical activity in the classroom can be of great help. Obviously this falls more in the line of simple movements like standing up and walking around in the form of something like a gallery walk or doing some actions that mimics something we are learning about like how a cell divides.

26FEB24

nyazawa — 2024-02-27 00:35:45 UTC

Through reading the articles it further reinforces my believe in the active learning model. For example I knew it was effective, but I did not know it decreased failure rates by over 50%. I also did not know that it closed the gap for underrepresented groups. I also think that some areas of study are still behind and should strive towards implementing active learning more in their classes. My experience at UW for example makes me feel like chemistry is still very dogmatic and very stuck on the "sage on a stage" way of teaching. I would love to see more classes implement active learning models and feel like both from a qualitative and quantitative stand point active learning is the best way forward for all classrooms.

04MAR24

2024-03-05 01:14:46 UTC

I think that by taking an this approach of backwards design it not only helps you structure things very nicely, but it also helps students understand the flow better. I really like how we can take goals and turn those into outcomes. I think I can take that and heavily apply to my teaching. By taking a basic goal such as "I want my students to learn more about bats" I can then turn that into "Given current anthropogenetic and zoonotic forces students can identify key problems bats face and can develop possible solutions". I also like how this method looks at how we asses things and how it does not always mean a GPA. I feel like too often in academia we only see things as grades. I fully believe that academia can one day transition away from grades and focus more on actual learning and assessing students based on what they learned in a manner that does not apply tremendous amounts of stress on them.

25MAR24

2024-03-25 23:34:44 UTC

https://padlet.com/rmimwatson/spring-2024-planning-your-sotl-bzygnn9mlqfw5bcw

01APR24

2024-04-01 23:53:28 UTC

This case study was an interesting activity for me. In general I do not think about inclusion in a classroom until I actually sit down and think about it. So, when it comes to this case study I can understand some of the actions taking place. Adam for example gave praise to Joe without recognizing that Joe may not be the one who brought up this idea. Furthermore it seems Adam did not pick up on the fact that Joe said "we" and not "I" which highlights the importance of really listening to what your students say to you. I also think this case study highlights how we can sometimes stereotype unfairly and without thinking. Joe for example thinks that Marie doesn't understand chemistry. This could be for a number of reasons. Maybe it is her accent or the fact that English is her second language which can cause some issues for her to fully articulate her thoughts. This can cause people to sometimes unjustly assume someone like that is stupid and therefore unable to contribute. It is important to recognize this and for us as educators and peers to push back against this idea. Just because somebody may struggle with fully articulating their thoughts does not mean we should dismiss them. We should actively listen to what they are telling us and make them feel like a valued member to our group. It may be the case that this person know more than we do. Also Joe may be thinking this because Marie is a woman. If that is the case I think this shows the value of highlighting important figures in our fields from a wide variety of backgrounds. So often due to systematic racism and sexism educators only ever really talk about the white male figures in science. This may lead to the idea that only white men are suited for science and that may be what Joe thinks. Which is why the education system needs to show there are more than just white men scientist. Both to educate people like Joe and to inspire other underrepresented people.

15APR24

nyazawa — 2024-04-15 23:44:22 UTC

Going through this process was very relaxing. Putting myself in a space that I am comfortable in and at ease in that allowed me to take a moment to myself was nice. Being in Wildlife Biology this process of being outdoors helps me examine the natural world around me and open my mind to ecological questions I may want to ask. I can see how this kind of place-based or experiential learning can open the door for many students to feel more comfortable in their learning environment. It respects everyone's lived experiences and can put them in a place that makes them comfortable and more open. By doing so it puts the student on the front foot rather than the back and allows them the opportunity to take charge of their learning. If this was a graded assignment I think that we would need to approach with an understanding of everyone's backgrounds. We would need to engage with them and ask questions and try to better understand the experiences that led them to this moment and outcome.