I spent last week putting the finishing touches on a couple of assignments. I turned in my electronic portfolios (all of my assignments on CDs) on Friday. Yay!
I had planned on enjoying my last day of freedom; however, my new classes were posted online Friday afternoon, so I got right down to work downloading all of the class documents.
Joy.
Not.
On Saturday, I officially began my final term of EPI classes.
I’ve gotta say that getting up at o’dark thirty was a little easier with that fact in mind.
As I walked to my first class, I passed a door that said “Instructional Strategies.” That was my first class from my first term, and it was a bear, let me tell you.
I will admit that I smiled.
I also felt some empathy for the people entering that door.
My first class was Classroom Management. There is a core group of us who started this program in January, and we greeted each other warmly. I think we’ll forever be tied together because of this stressful experience.
We all agreed that we were much happier in the current classroom rather than the Instructional Strategies.
My second class was Diversity, and I had the same instructor as one of my field experience classes last term. She’s the director of the program, uber professional, but very easy to relate to.
This class consisted of us “veterans” as well as the “rookies” from the other class.
Their eyes were glazed over.
I remember my first Saturday class.
My eyes had the same look.
My veteran classmates and I tried to assuage their fears…all while telling them to say goodbye to their families and hobbies.
This class will probably be my easiest with a mere eight assignments (one per week).
After lunch at Panera with some of my classmates, I returned for my third class – Problem Based Learning.
Oh.
My.
Word.
This is going to be a beast of a class.
My instructor is one I had my first term, and I absolutely adore her (thank goodness). She reads her email constantly and responds quickly…even on the weekends. She even went out of her way to check out a question I had from a quiz during that first term (turns out that I was right and the test bank was wrong).
Problem based learning is where you take a problem/issue and work with students to create possible plausible solutions to that problem. Everything is standards based, of course.
The example we worked with in class involved an influx of mosquitoes and their resistance to traditional programs to remove them…how would students solve this dilemma.
We will create a unit plan around our chosen “problem.” We will create parts of the plan during each week of class.
It sounds easy, but there will be a lot of higher-order thinking going on.
Please say a prayer for me. I am feeling a bit stressed right now. One of the hardest parts is thinking of an idea that has enough depth to accompany the rest of the course’s requirements. I am going to have to be very forward thinking with the end goal in mind so that I select my problem wisely.
Still, I know that God will get me through.
Folks…I am eight weeks away from being finished! There’s light at the end of the tunnel! Woo Hoo!
Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: education certification, EPI, teaching | 4 Comments »
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