Fall 2021 Week 7 Investment

Hey Hey! Welcome Back to another week of my #TeachAg experience. Already, we've entered October which means some pretty exciting things are soon coming my way! Here's my 3-2-1 for the seventh week of the semester, enjoy :)

3. Connections to Student Teaching

1. The chapter mentioned Dewey's contention that "knowledge is socially constructed and learning activities must be flexible to allow for student engagement and problem solving. I think this connects directly to my student teaching experience because it explains how I need to make my instruction as individualized as possible for my students. In my classroom, I want to create an environment that promotes true learning, not just the learning of facts and other materials. By being as flexible as possible with my content, I allow students to better engage with the classroom content and draw their own significance/ meaning. Further, relating to what I blogged about last week, "You cannot reap the fruit of individuality in your children in you clone their education" -Margaret Howshall 
2. Another aspect of this week's readings that I think connect to my student teaching was Rhoad's point that effective teaching is when students are perplexed but not totally confused. The reason I think this related to my student teaching is that I worry about finding this balance. Having never taught before, I think I will struggle trying to find the balance between challenging my students and completely losing them. Looking at student teaching holistically, I think this skill is one that I will build overtime though I still have my nerves about it.
3. Another aspect of the reading I think connects to my student teaching was the concept of ill versus well structured problems. essentially, an ill-structured problem is a problem that has many courses of action whereas a well-structured problem is one that has a definite number of correct answers. While I will be using both types of problems in my classroom, I find it advantageous to use ill-structured problems as much as possible. These types of problems encourage my students to think more creatively and form their own connections to the specific to the material. Alternatively, well-structured problems are more concrete and black and white.

2. Connections to other Courses 

1. While this isn't one of my AgEd classes, I found connections in this week's reading to BISCI 3, a class I took freshman year and ultimately ended up TAing for. Nearly the entire basis of the class was centered around metacognition and reflective thinking. The chapter spoke about Dewey's version of problem solving (reflective thinking) and how it was analogous to the natural learning process. In this course, we spent a majority of our time reflecting on our thoughts and opinion, i.e. "do we really believe that or do we think we believe that". This teaching method allowed me as a student and eventually a teacher, to better formulate my own opinions and therefore get better use from the class content. 
2. More generally speaking, I think this week's topic of Problem solving relates to my AgEd experience as a whole. Especially this past semester, problem solving has been a huge aspect in nearly all of our coursework. While this may be more mentally taxing, I think this will better prepare me for teaching which in itself is problem solving.

1. Triangulated Connection

1. A triangulated connection from this week's learning comes right from the website 2 of our assigned readings came from. MyPBLWorks.org provides problem based learning materials for many topics such as science, STEM, and health. These resources while not specifically AgEd, might be useful in the classroom!

Enjoy this super unflattering picture from week 6 in AEE 350 as we practice our hardscaping skills!