Personal Learning Experiences
Here you will find a description of personal learning experiences I have had throughout my life.
Elementary School Learning Experience
I remember learning long division in fifth or sixth grade. My teacher and the math coach/interventionist were co-teaching. Co-teaching has many benefits. It can be a really valuable way for students to gain expertise from two skilled educators and it can be great for the educators as well for a multitude of reasons. We used base ten manipulatives (blocks of hundreds, tens, and ones) to demonstrate the division and then showed our work with paper and pencil. We would check each problem with an adult who would help us work through any confusion or inaccurate answers. Oddly enough, I can’t remember how the blocks were helpful to doing division, but I do remember that they were of huge assistance. The classroom was noisy with talk and blocks making noises, but I remember being focused and the entire classroom being engaged in math work. I also remember that the concept was challenging enough to be tricky, but the tools were a helpful way to make sense of the math. It was a “just right” challenge for me that I enjoyed. As students gained proficiency, we would use the blocks less and less until we could do the division without needing a tool or assistance. Learning math that way was quite a bit of fun and it felt great to master such a challenging concept.
College Learning Experience
I took a college level Anatomy and Physiology class in my senior year of high school designed for nurses. I was planning to attend college to be a teacher but I took the class because I needed science credits and it sounded interesting. I figured understanding the human body would be helpful to any human so it was worth my time and effort. However, since the class was designed for future nurses, I struggled to continue to be motivated throughout the course. The class was intense, especially since I had rudimentary prerequisite knowledge. Further, this was an online class. It was the first or second online class I had ever taken. I was learning to navigate the online learning platform while also trying to absorb confusing content, so that was a challenge in and of itself. The learning activities included a textbook to read, discussion boards to be posted on, timed multiple choice quizzes and tests, and papers to write. The textbook was incredibly thick yet fascinating and most of our learning came from the book. It was tough trying to teach myself anatomy and physiology out of a textbook with minimal support online. Without any 3D models or in-person discussions, I struggled through the class. The timed tests were also quite stressful. I managed to get an A in the class, in the end, but it was a long road getting there. That experience taught me that knowing your student population and their needs is critical to effective teaching. I have also taken many more online courses since then and I now know that learning online does not mean one must simply absorb everything from a textbook. There are many other ways more effective and engaging ways to learn while utilizing technology.
Professional Learning Experience
At the beginning of each school year the school district that I worked for at the time provided all the teachers with professional development that the school district deemed necessary. This can be problematic because, while some teachers saw the purpose, many found it to be irrelevant and a waste of valuable time. The first year I was working at this district, three presenters came in to talk about trauma-informed teaching. I was a relatively new teacher and I was not familiar with that terminology. As the presentation began, I was entirely unsure of the topic being discussed. I caught on quite quickly, however the whole lecture would have been more informative if I had the vocabulary to begin. That is a reminder that knowing an audience’s prerequisite knowledge is key to their understanding what is being presented. The topic will be confusing if a student doesn’t have background knowledge. Alternatively, I find it exasperating to go back to basics during a professional development workshop when I already have the background knowledge. Finding that balance based on the population of students is critical for engagement. For the trauma-informed presentation, the speakers were psychologists who had experience in schools working with children who had been through trauma. First, teachers attended the lecture. Then, as a school we met with one of the psychologists to make a plan for the upcoming school year. Having been prepared to meet with the psychologist and having had time to think about student needs ahead of time would have been extremely valuable because I could have used the psychologist’s wealth of knowledge more fruitfully. The final part of the professional development included site visits to the school. Throughout the year the psychologists would consult and visit our classrooms to help us implement the plans we had made. Getting assistance during the experience was the most helpful part and helped my colleagues and I grow as professionals and better support our students.