Reflection 4

Something that I have been thinking a lot about lately is PURPOSE. When planning a lesson to teach I believe that having the purpose in mind is vital. It is very important to figure out what you REALLY want your students to learn and revolve your material and assignments around that. Because there is not standardized testing for the subjects that we teach - we pretty much get to choose whether we are going to have our students mindlessly performing busywork or if we want to teach them values and skills that will last their life time and help them in their other subjects. The Gong book that we have been reading also mentioned this. It reads " We need to demand more and less. We need to focus on the important and central ideas and really ask the students what it takes to learn them . And we need to cut out any busy work that doesn't contribute to our focus. " As teachers we set the bar that we want our students to reach. It is our obligation to keep the most important things in mind and expect the best out of our students. We must earn their respect and in turn expect more from them so that they reach their highest potential.