Last week, my university supervisor, Dr. Kevin Curry, came to make his last visit at my cooperating center, Tri-Valley High School. If you have been keeping up with my blogs and read the one about "keeping it real" when an administrator or anyone comes to observe you, but I decided to change it up this time. Since it was my last observation, I decided to try something absolutely outside of the box so that I could receive some real feedback on it.
I am teaching a Natural Resources and Ecology class and am using a lot of the CASE curriculum that I received when I got the certification last year. However, for this lesson, I decided to take one of my own ideas and run with it. I decided to make an online scavenger hunt for my students to solve and work through related to drilling for oil, on land and deep water, as well as gas. I created a scavenger where students had to follow different website addressed and clues to learn the drilling process, from selecting the drill site to cleaning up potential spills. It was a brand new activity, but it was something spontaneous and would keep my students from getting bored or thinking that I am predictable.
This is a really important lesson because it could be really easy to coast at the end of student-teaching because its "the end." But, that wouldn't have me or my students. Instead, choosing to continue to challenge yourself shows commitment to becoming better. Thus, that is my lesson for the week; being spontaneous and never being afraid to try something new. It is important to set new goals, work towards them, and never get too "settled" into anything that you do.
I firmly believe that staying on your toes, challenging yourself with seemingly difficult tasks, and retaining an open mindset leads to higher quality education.