What Makes Teaching Great?

 I could not tell exactly way teaching is great. It is hard to place such a feeling. Perhaps is it the smiles you get from the students when they are learning something new. Maybe it is the feeling of getting to see the next generation grow before your eyes. Or it could even be just the feeling of teaching, that satisfied feeling of giving your knowledge to others. It could even be all of the above. Teaching is just something that you cannot take away as it is need by everyone. It is what makes it so malleable. 

In my class, there were many teaching strategies that we went through in order to learn ourselves. Some of them I enjoyed and others I found more difficult. Here is a list of my top five strategies for learning and why I think they are good.

Number Five:

Word it Out

I thought that this lesson was rally creative. I liked going through the videos and articles to find sentences or phrases that stuck out to me. Adding them to the word it out was fun too, I got to design the words and colors to be exactly as I intended them to be. I think I enjoyed the creative side of this project, and it gave me a sense of nostalgia, as I remember everyone making art like this from way back when. I also added my word it out from class that I did to this blog.

• Link to Word it Out website: https://worditout.com/
• Good examples on how you could use this method: https://teachersfirst.com/single.cfm?id=10707

Number Four:

Black Out Poem

I remember doing blackout poems in high school and just for fun, so I enjoyed this lesson strategy. I liked going through and adding or deleting words in order to achieve the effect I liked. I had just earlier posted my own blackout poem and that is the one I refer to. It helps with seeing the base words of any article, reading, song or novel. When you take away the words that help make the sentences you can see the message behind those words. Sometimes there is meant to be one, and sometimes you can just make you own out of the words.

• A good article that helps explain blackout poems: https://writers.com/what-is-blackout-poetry-examples-and-inspiration

Number Three:

Blogging

Blogging is something I enjoy in general. I like to just get my thoughts out on the page. I think that I liked having a way to express how I felt about the lessons that we were learning at the time. I also just like to speak freely and not feel as though there is a limit to what I can or can't say. Or even feel as though I have to write a certain way. Blogging is a good way to show others your true ideas and what you really think. Sometimes it helps to know that you are throwing your thoughts out into the world where others can read them even if no one does read them.

• An article that explains the benefits of blogging in general: https://firstsiteguide.com/benefits-of-blogging/
• The benefits to having students blog: https://www.teachthought.com/literacy/benefits-of-student-blogging/

Number Two:

Literature Reading and Discussion

For class we were all assigned groups and each group had a book to read that we would discuss after. The book that my group had read was Melissa by Alex Gino. It was honestly one of the greatest books I have ever read. I liked the book, and then seeing how everyone in my group had reacted to it was fun to do. Usually, I am not itching to give my opinions on books, as I feel they are personal, but I liked to hear from others and express what I felt reading it. Perhaps it was due to the selection of books, but that made it all the more fun to do. I enjoyed reading other opinions on the book in real time as I finished it. 

• How to help students with a book discussion: https://www.weareteachers.com/better-book-discussions/#:~:text=The%20most%20successful%20book%20discussions%20occur%20when%20everyone,film%20about%20the%20story%20if%20that%20is%20helpful.

Number One:

Selecting Golden Lines to Determine Importance

At first, I did not understand this assignment, but as I read and reread it made sense. Going through the material and taking notes on what lines stood out to me the most was easy and interesting. Usually, you go through and take note of everything but in this case, it was just the things I found that stood out. Then creating a poem based on all the lines I had pulled from the material was so cool. I liked the idea, and I will definitely reuse this method of learning, whether it is by using it take notes or by teaching it to students myself.

• This article helps explain how to recreate the lesson and why it is used: http://www.teacheremmyanne.com/learning-stategies/the-golden-line

What makes teaching great is that there are all these methods that I named that are really good for learning, and yet there are thousands more ways to learn. I appreciate that learning can come in any form and be for anybody as long as they are willing to learn. I think that is what makes teaching great.