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Blog 7, Chapter 9, Creative Connector and Idea Illustrator - Stacey LaFountain


"Your best bet for improving your teaching is to practice teaching" (p. 191)

This is something that our teachers tried to drill into our heads while in undergrad.  In order to really improve your self you have to practice.  This is also something that the book talked about.  If you do not continue to practice then you are not going to become better at what you do. 

"A great deal of data show that teachers improve during their first five years in the field, as measured by student learning.  After five years, however, the curve gets flat, and a teacher with twenty years of experience is (on average) no better or worse than a teacher with ten". (p. 192)

To me this quote goes along with the top quote.  I recently was subbing in my old elementary school.  Some of my teachers are still working so I went to say hello to them.  They teach in the same manor as they did when I was 10 and in their class.  Not to say that their way of teaching is wrong or bad.  I feel that if a teacher is willing to try things in new ways they will continue to improve. 

"Make notes that include what you intended to do and how you thought it went". (p. 202)

During my student teaching the teachers that I worked with loved reflecting on how the lessons went.  This section about keeping a diary reminded me of that.  I did find that it was very helpful to reflect on how the lesson when and what went well and what didn't.  This was a good stepping stone as to how to plan future lessons with the same class. 

This picture is almost identical to the one in our book.  It shows up in this last chapter as well as in previous chapters.  Again, it shows how all three of these different things (environment, working memory and long-term memory) work together.

Another part of this chapter talked about how you need to have teachers who know what they are teaching and truly understand the material.  This math problem reminded me about how important not only understand previous units are but also that teachers really understand and know their material before the present it to students. 

This picture represents the fact that teachers have to work hard and also that they need to practice.  If there is continuous practice they teachers will go beyond just teaching the basics and help students to experience teaching in a different way.