Work in Progress
“I tried so hard And got so far But in the end It doesn't even matter”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVTXPUF4Oz4So I made it. There were moments along the way that, if I am honest, I doubted that this would happen. You know how it is; life just gets in the way. Now I am here I can reflect on my time within this course, and whatever the final outcome of this unit, I have learnt a lot. For me that is the only reason to do a course, if you do not learn and develop what is the point of the emotional pain!I love teaching but I find that we can spend so much time time looking at and reflecting on teaching theory, that we do not get the time to look at our own practice. We need time to reflect and develop. I may have hated it at times, but the blog posts in Coetail gave me the opportunity to go this, and for that I am grateful. It forced me to reflect upon my teaching, my current knowledge and where my knowledge needs to be.So what have I learned from this experience: Firstly there is an amazing network of people out there who want to share their experiences and from whom I have learnt so much. Secondly it has given me the confidence to try new ideas in the classroom and reflect upon what I have learnt from this. Finally to think about the theory behind the activities that I have been practicing for years and thinking to myself, “OK what are the students really learning from this?”To refer back to my quote, I have enjoyed the journey, enjoyed developing my own practice and have had many “fails”, things that do not work. But that is OK. In the end “it doesn’t really matter”. Perfection is an illusion, you have to dust yourself off and keep trying and developing; as long as the child is at the centre of what you are doing then all is good!Ahhh you might ask, but where is her evaluation of the current unit? Well my video is a little longer (only by 3 mins so no need to panic) and I have added it there.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaL_JOYf0OwOn a very personal note I would like to publicly thank my Department at ISZL (Linzie - @MsLStephenson, Ian and Seb) for all their support, love and kindness. With their support I truly feel like I can take on any challenge, tackle any project and be a better teacher (and I think person!). They are just wonderful people! I watched a lovely Learning2 talk on the teacher’s heart by Paula Guinto @paulaguinto and I think that being surrounded by people (in the physical and virtual world) who make you happy can only be an amazing thing!OK enough of that mushy talk . I hope in my video I have fully explained - What I did? Why I did it? What the pupils produced? What I thought about it? If not feel free to ask
I also hope it is clear that I continue to be a work in progress. Maybe if you give me 10 years of iteration then maybe, just maybe I will be a finished product…….who am I kidding, it has taken me 15 years to get this far so I am a constant work in progress!. Just in case (to use, add to or ignore). Here are:
- Ubd shared on previous post
- Link to the folder with all the PowerPoints, this will keep developing
- Link to the Padlet