Learning Blog #3

So far in this program we have discussed the different types of learners that exist and ways to accommodate every student’s needs. The way I understand it, an adaptive expert is a teacher who is continuously learning; who learns about their students needs and changes their lesson plans to suit that specific class. It requires much self-reflection and willingness to change. Becoming an adaptive expert is a long and difficult process. They must embrace the chaos and all the mistakes that they are sure to make and then learn from them.

It is easy to assume that everyone learns the same way and enjoys the same activities as you would, however we know that this is far from the truth. Specifically in my teachable subject- health and physical education- my professor has done a great job to emphasize how we need to recognize the diversity of students in our classroom. The reason this idea has impacted me most in the subject that I love is due to the realization that the things I loved doing when I was a student could have also been another student’s least favourite thing. For example, I thrive in a competitive atmosphere, but I now recognize that this type of environment could intimidate someone who has a low degree of physical literacy.

Collaborative inquiry and leadership is something that I would love to employ in my developing teaching practices. I have seen first hand how helpful it can be to work in groups in order to create lesson plans as well as to problem solve. Being able to get feedback on an idea you have or a situation you are struggling with will significantly help to lesson the burden felt by a new teacher.

This “discourse analysis” tool from the reading is something that I would like to test out. Knowing how much I like to talk, just like many other teachers do, I think this would be a neat way to limit talk time and to give each person a chance to explain their ideas.