UBD Reading

         The UBD reading discusses the importance of Understanding By Design in planning curriculum. With UBD or understanding by design teachers plan lessons or units backwards by first focusing on what standards they would like to address and identifying the end result they would like to achieve. Teachers then determine what evidence they can use to reach this final or end result and go on to plan out how they will instruct and teach their students to reach the desired result. A concept that I found interesting in this reading about UBD was essential questions and their importance in UBD.

            Essential questions are questions that make students think and they have more than one answer as opposed to knowledge questions, which will only have one definite answer.  Essential questions lead to better understanding and student inquiry. They keep important questions alive, are meant to be explored, and are thought provoking. Essential questions are crucial in my content area of history because they are meant to have more than one answer or opinion and raise new questions. By doing this essential questions keep students interested and engaged. This is important in history because non-essential questions that just ask for dates and names can be boring.

            While reading about essential questions I found myself thinking about writing my interest inventory for class. While writing my interest inventory I found that it was difficult to come up with questions that would render more than a yes or no answer from students. I know that writing essential questions is something that I definitely need to practice. Through both writing my interest inventory and reading about essential questions I have learned how important asking the right questions and wording them in a way that is thought provoking can be in teaching students effectively. 

Play In the Classroom

In Wilhelm chapters one and two there are many interesting teaching and learning strategies that are discussed. One idea discussed by Wilhelm that I found interesting was that Vygotsky stressed the importance of play in learning.  Wilhelm explains that Vygotsky believed in play children are forced to learn above the normal level at which they would normally learn creating a zone of proximal development. Thus play creates growth and development in students.  Wilhelm goes on to explain that play creates a safe environment for students to learn and express new and different ideas. (Wilhelm, 23) Wilhelm also discusses the findings of Hillocks who argues that learning that is fun should be done in a way that is challenging, relevant purposeful, and supported in a way that makes success possible. (Wilhelm, 25)

            I did some further research on play and learning and found an interesting article by Anthony Colucci from Teacher Magazine. The article titled, “What Would Walt Disney Learn in School Today”, discusses how great minds such as Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, and Thomas Edison may not have lived up to their full potential had they been brought up in today’s educational system where standardized tests have such high importance. Colucci stresses that teaching critical and creative thinking through real life scenarios and play are crucial to learning because play helps to actively engage students and hold their attention.
http://www.thinkfun.com/content/what-would-walt-disney-learn-school-today

I agree with these ideas about play in learning. I believe that play is crucial in learning because it helps to actively engage students. I began to think about real life examples of using play in learning while doing this reading. One example I thought of was the anatomy class that I observed at Central Falls High School where students were given medical records and had to diagnose what was wrong with a patient. I think this is a good example of actively learning through play in the classroom because students were required to do something that is fun however, they will also learn from it.

            These ideas also made me think about ways in which I could incorporate play in the classroom as a future teacher. I remembered a great game that I had found on Pinterest that I hope to use someday. It’s the game Guess Who with all of the characters replaced by historical figures.  I thought this was a great way to make learning history and historical figures fun for students. I believe it is important to make learning about history fun for students through play because it is a subject that when taught monotonously will make students not interested. 

http://acraftyteacher.blogspot.com/2012/07/guess-who-american-history.html

In summation these ideas about the importance of play in learning of Vygotsky and Hillocks that are discussed by Wilhelm in chapters one and two are crucial to learning. Play in learning helps to engage students and makes them perform above their academic abilities creating growth. These ideas have made me reflect on how I can hopefully incorporate play in the classroom someday to become a good teacher.

Literacies Profile

For the past year I have been fortunate enough to work part time as a pound keeper at the Pawtucket Animal Shelter in Slater Park. Having been an animal lover my whole life I thoroughly enjoy going to work each day and love what I do. As a pound keeper my responsibilities include maintaining shelter cleanliness, feeding and caring for the animals at our shelter, and assisting in animal adoptions. My work at the animal shelter has enabled me to become literate in caring for the animals at our facility.  

Since I was a child I have always loved animals. When I was eight years old I emailed the same animal shelter that I now work for inquiring about becoming a volunteer. They responded saying that I was unfortunately too young to volunteer but to get back to them once I was old enough. Here I am many years later working at the same shelter where I have been able to become a skilled animal caretaker. I have acquired the skills necessary to become literate in caring for animals through learning from others, practice, and patience.

When I started working at the animal shelter I knew that there were many things I needed to learn. The most important thing I needed to learn was how to properly care for the animals at our facility. I learned how to properly clean, feed, handle, and maintain the overall well being of the animals at our facility primarily from my co workers who were very patient with me. I observed what they did while they gave me advice and answered any questions that they had about their process. Practice was also very important in my process of learning how to become literate in animal care at the shelter.

Once I had learned how to properly clean, feed, handle, and maintain the well being of the animals at the shelter I needed to practice to fully become literate in these areas. I remember feeling overwhelmed when learning how to do animal adoptions because there were so many things that needed to be done throughout the entire process. It took me a few months however I eventually learned how to complete the entire animal adoption process on my own through repetition and practice. While practicing these skills required in caring for the animals at the shelter I learned that patience is also key in becoming literate in a particular skill.

At the animal shelter we get mostly stray animals that are sometime extremely scared when they come in to the shelter and have never had any type of human interaction. One of my jobs is to try to socialize these animals and get them to be comfortable around people so that they can go up for adoption at some point. For some animals this can take some time and we need to move very slowly with them. The best feeling is when they finally let you pet them and give them the love that they deserve. Through this process I’ve learned that patience leads to great things and is key in literacy.

I have learned that the skills of learning from others, practice, and patience that I have used to become literate in animal care can be applied to virtually every aspect of my life and are skills that I try to always practice every day. They will be especially useful for me in my future as a teacher because these are important skills that all teachers should possess to be an excellent teacher. Who would have ever thought that getting paid to pick up poop and play with dogs and cats would help me to someday become a good teacher?

If anyone is ever interested in adopting from the Pawtucket Animal Shelter here is a link to our Petfinder (which is not always up to date due to the high turnover rate of animals at our shelter): http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/RI13.html
Also a link to our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PawtucketAnimalShelter