Practicum Reflection: Week 7
There were many times when I was in elementary and secondary school where I would question the teacher about the relevancy of the work we were doing. How or when am I going to use this in the real world? Now as a teacher and young adult, I can definitely see the merit in the content being taught to the students, however it still remains true that much of the work we do in the classroom may not be like the real world. Wouldn’t it be great if it were?
Including real-life applications into the curriculum may not always be the first thing that comes to mind when planning how to teach a lesson, but it should definitely be intertwined with everything we do. Allowing students to interact, manipulate, explore, collaborate, and discuss openly about real-life applications leads to a greater depth of reasoning and creativity. Essentially, it’s learning that sticks.
This week, I achieved my goal of making more real-world connections in my teaching in multiple ways. In our health unit on alcohol, students created and displayed public service announcement posters related to the topic of teenaged alcohol consumption. They were engaged in their learning, they actively researched various facts, and they were motivated by the fact that other students would see their work once it was posted. They turned out great!
After the success of the alcohol public service announcement posters, I challenged my students to encourage others to live more sustainable lives, thus extending our environmental units in geography and science. They did this in two different ways. Firstly, they demonstrated their understanding of subject matter by writing a letter to the local newspaper. They discussed human effects on the environment, why living more sustainably is a good thing to do, and how people can change their behaviours. Not only did the students learn the subject matter, but they exemplified a real-world social justice application of their learning. Secondly, the students created public service announcement posters related to the topic of sustainability.
This shift in my teaching was apparent in all subjects, especially in math (measurement). Not only where students more engaged in their learning, but I found myself doing less ‘formal’ teaching and more coaching, which was also beneficial for me! When students are engaged in real-world problems, scenarios and challenges, they find relevance in the work and become engaged in learning important skills and content.