Teaching the research and the pedagogy courses are an ideal mix for me because I love both.
I’m still experimenting with my expectations in all graduate level courses. In FSA 651 this fall I added more practice in pulling apart research articles and learning terminology such as reliability, ethnography, positivism and grounded theory. I’m very grateful to Judy Bentley for giving me her syllabus and activities my first semester. The generally positive evaluations are a result of her generosity in sharing her materials and activities with me as a brand new colleague. I’m also continuing to evaluate FSA 600. NY requires teachers to obtain their Master’s degree earlier than in ME, so I’m finding many more students who have entered immediately after finishing their undergraduate program and who have little to no teaching experience. I’m exploring ways to engage students who are anxious to be “done” with school and help prepare them as thoroughly as possible for the variety of children and situations they’ll encounter.
As I continue to teach 651 I plan to
- Increase emphasis on helping students evaluate the findings in both quantitative and qualitative educational research articles,
- create more opportunities for peer feedback on literature reviews & paper drafts
- possibly replace the text with assorted articles and chapters
My goals for FSA 600 are to
- facilitate some student led discussion sessions and not always take ownership for planning every moment of class
- have students practice teaching and actively practice lesson design in class.
