Monday, October 26, 2009

Active learning

Active learning is taking learning into a new direction. It is going outside of the box when it comes to learning. Learning is done by doing and experiencing different things, like seeing different point of views. By trying to think like someone different, one will become an active learner. To be an active learner, one has to put oneself out there to the world by trying new things and getting out of one’s comfort zone. An active learner will strive for more than what is expected, and will do different task to get more out of learning. Also, one has to know how to work with others in different situations, and to adapt in different situations.
I discovered that throughout my Loras career I have experienced active learning in many different ways. Almost every class I took dealt with some kind of active learning in one way or another. The classes that involved active learning the most were: Democracy and Global Diversity, clinical, and beginning reading. These three classes have transformed me into an active learner. Even though I picked these three classes, there are others that have developed me as a learner, too, so I have experienced active learning almost every semester.
During my sophomore year I was enrolled in Democracy and Global Diversity. At first I was dreading taking this class because I did not think I would get anything out of it, but I was wrong. By having to role play and getting involved during class has taught me a new way of learning. Democracy and Global Diversity has taught me active learning because it made me go outside of the box. Democracy and Global Diversity showed me a different way of thinking, showed me different point of views, and different way of looking at situations. To get the most out of something it is best to look at both sides or to look through someone else’s eyes. The artifact that I decided to use from this class is a paper that shows my point of view from a modern democrat. By having to play the role of a modern democrat from Athens I had to think differently than I usually would. My paper topic is over how people in power should be selected by lot rather than having certain requirements for people in power. http://myweb.loras.edu/es377975/LIB305/paper 2.doc
As I grew as a person so did I as an active learner. In my junior year at Loras, active learning was a big part of my day. Two classes that involved active learning are clinical and beginning reading. These two classes gave me the biggest taste of active learning because they involved me doing more active learning than I was used to. Each class taught me a different part of active learning; which helped developed me as an active learner. These two classes made me get out of my comfort zone and try different techniques when it came to teach to see what would work, what might work, and what would not work.
First, clinical for this class I had to be in an elementary classroom for 60 hours for the semester. While I was in the school I did different task each time I went. Some of the tasks included: teaching a lesson, tutoring, and different variety of tasks. By being in the classroom I was able to try different strategies. By doing different strategies I would be able to know what would be a good way to teach the subject so the students got the most out of it, different ways of assessments, and all the different ways students learn. This is good because I was able to try different things rather than just write it on paper, and I when I become a teacher I want to have some ideas of what would work the best for my students.
My artifact is one of my journals that show everything that I did on that certain day. It shows how active I was while I was in the classroom. It shows the different tasks that I completed. Some of the tasks I did that day were: explaining my math center, assessing students, and tutoring. At the end of the journal there is a reflection part which I was able to get my thoughts out on how everything went or how everything is going. http://myweb.loras.edu/es377975/LIB305/weekly journal format8.docx
My last artifact comes from my beginning reading class. In this class I did a lot of group projects and developed lesson plans for the second graders that I tutored for reading. Without this class I would not be the active learner that I am today. This class was all about active learning. Everything I did involved developing and testing different strategies for reading or making lesson plans.
This artifact contains working with a group and teaching students the lesson plan that was developed by my group members and me. When I worked in this group it taught me many different things because I had to think about what the others wanted, it was not all about what I wanted. I also had to think about the students that we were developing the lesson plan. After we developed the lesson plan and tested it with our students we quickly realized that we had to revise our lesson plan. If we did not actively teach this lesson we would not have need realized that what we thought would work did not. So this taught me that by being an active learner I will get more out of a task rather if I was not an active learner. http://myweb.loras.edu/es377975/LIB305/guided reading lesson revised.docx
Before I came to Loras I did not do much active learning, so I have to say that Loras has developed me as an active learner. I have received different tools that will help me in the future. Loras has put the tools of being an active learner in my hands which give me an edge on different ways of doing think, thinking, or even learning. By having the opportunity experience active learning this will give me an edge in my future career as a teacher. I will be able to accommodate to different tasks. I have a diverse way of thinking which is important because then I will be able to look at both sides when making a decision. Also as a future teacher I will have the tools to help my students become active learners. So I would have to say that I have grown on being an active learner.

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