While I recognize this may be harder to implement with older students in much larger class sizes, I think it is still important to consider when interacting with college aged students. One way I think this can be achieved by a teacher in a college setting is by being approachable.

The activities this week made me want to add making learning exciting to my teaching philosophy. In my opinion students who are interested in the content will be much more likely to engage with it. One way to make the content more interesting is to present it in an fun way.

I would ensure that all students can participate by thinking about what limitations students might have. Once I brainstormed potential limitations, I would find the best active learning method to fit the needs of the class. Most importantly though, I would remain flexible. I cannot plan for everything and I think keeping an open mind and being willing to change my plan to better fit the situation can help me foster an active learning environment.

The preparty materials talked about how beneficial movement can be in facilitating active learning. Although I like the idea of a gallery walk, I can see how this might not be accessible to all students. If I had a student who could not do a gallery walk, I could have students pass their papers around the room. This would be significantly less movement, but I think it would accomplish the same idea. One other way I could make a gallery walk more accessible would be to have half of the group walking around and the other half sitting by their papers until they switch. This could also help facilitate more discussion!

In addition to movement, I think reteaching is incredibly beneficial. It allows students to reflect on what they know and explain concepts in a simple manner. It could also help students generate examples, which in my opinion helps students further understand the concepts. The above mentioned idea where half the students are gallery walking and the other half are sitting could give students and opportunity to reteach to their peers as well!

Consistent with the articles we talked about in class this week I find that smaller class sizes work better for team based learning. In SI, which would be a smaller class size, I notice that people often make more of an effort to be included and to include everyone. In regular class, there are often multiple members of a group who chose not to be included in the groupwork.

Overall, having smaller class sizes and if that is not possible finding a way to make classes seem smaller is something I would like to add to my teachong philosophy. Currently, as an LA, I should try to pull people into the groups if they are not involved.

Additionally, I love the backwards course design method. I think backwards course design allows teachers to create lessons and assessments that work together seamlessly with the desired learnig outcome. I think it is easy to lose track of the students learning being the ultimate goal and instead focus on good grades and exam scores. I am a firm believer that if a classes exam scores are bad then the material is not being taught well.

The principle that is about building new knowledge onto existing knowledge seemed incredibly beneficial. Whenever there is something that I do not understand connecting it back to the rest of the concepts really helps me. I have not considered applying this concept to help student learn, and it is something that I would like to do.

In addition the application and demonstration priciples seem very important as well. One thing that I have noticed in SI is that students often have a difficult time doing this, probably because it is not something that is practiced in class. I try to help them practice these skills because they are asked to apply and demonstrate on exams.

In general, the case study made me kind of upset. At first, I did not think about what the instructor could have done differently. I was just upset with how Joe responded to the situation. After giving it some thought, I realized that there were things that all the members of the team could have done differently to make the situation better or even prevent it from occuring altogether. Specifically setting explicit expectations and creating a supportive class climate.

In my group I honestly kind of felt like my ideas got a little bit railroaded occasionally. I think this has a tendency to happen when there is a person in the group who is the assummed leader, just like in the case study. Overall though, I liked the stay and stray method a lot.

This learning activity was beneficial because it used Columbia's Principle of enagagement and explicit expectations. It allowed us to choose our location/object and told us exactly how to reflect on it.

If this were to be a graded activity, the evaluator would need to look at the extent to which I immersed myself in the location/object and my reflection and analysis of it.