Jeremy Doose

EDUC 346
8-4-2020
Reflection #13
My Story Now

Throughout the time of this course, I have experienced multiple different obstacles in life

that I had to overcome. Whether it be the global pandemic, criminal injustices, or just personal

challenges in my life, I like to think I have overcome quite a bit this year. With this in mind, I

really focused and emphasized having an open mind after all the events that have transpired. As

such, in reading the text from Couros, I have focused on taking the text in stride and applying the

advice within into practical means that could be used later on in the future.

When I first started the course, I thought that teaching would come naturally to me. I

assumed that I could develop simple lesson plans in a clear and effective manner, but lacked the

general insight of tools to use in order to achieve my goal. I figured that I would cross that bridge

when I reached it, but lacking the hindsight really affected the way in which I could tackle the

means effectively. In taking this course however, I feel that I am better equipped to handle

whatever tech resource issues may come my way. Having seen all of these digital resources and

how to use them properly really helped me put into scope what I would need to do in order to

achieve an organized and well thought out classroom, and as such it has affected my ideals in

terms of how to address the general classroom setting.

In terms of what I intend to reform in my classroom, I want to change the general focus

of how I grade in the class. When I was a student in high school, our teacher would lecture on

Microsoft PowerPoint, and minus minor deviations such as projects or research essays, there was
next to no deviation from the formula. This made the course rather predictable in nature, and as

such it was not hard to not try in that course. I consider myself to be proficient in social studies,

but it got to one point where I was able to complete my 160-question U.S. history final in 15

minutes and scored a 96% on it. It was rather focused on the material from the text, which made

it easy for me to predict what would be on it. Once I had this broken down, I did not even need to

study for tests, usually scoring an 85% or higher on all my tests. If I were to address any changes

to typical curriculum in the social studies classroom, it would be to take away the general focus

from the events in the text and instead develop it into critical thinking skills and projects to work

directly with historical events or features.

In doing so, I want to transition towards having a more online resource focused approach

rather than just using the core text for the classroom. While I enjoy the resource that a textbook

is, it generally only fixates on the events rather than the details of the events. As such, I plan on

utilizing online resources in order to properly educate my students in an informative manner. I do

not intend to control the thoughts of my students, but rather reach their own critical thinking

skills at the end of each general class period. In doing this, I intend to keep my online sources to

a general minimum, because there can be issues when it comes to using too much text in the

classroom. In an article from the New York Times, it mentions multiple different issues that

come along with overburdening students with technology rather than using it in moderation.

These issues can range from distraction to a general lack of focus from hopping sources. In doing

this, I need to ensure that students have everything they need prior in order to ensure proper

classroom discussion.

In conclusion, ever since the start of this class, I have started to notice more and more the

general issues in the social studies classrooms and possible ways to break the issues found within
them. It will require work and definitely be a challenging process, but in the end I hope to

achieve a medium that will be best suited for each one of my students.

Link- https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/does-technology-in-the-classroom-ever-

get-in-the-way-of-student-learning/