Future Teacher, Forever Student

Somewhere on my bookshelves, sandwiched between worn copies of literary classics and young adult novels, rests my collection of the title On Writing and other memoirs focused on the craft. Several authors have attempted to make sense of their adopted art, and even more have tried to guide others through their creative processes: Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, Sol Stein, Ray Bradbury, and George Orwell, to name a few. While many of the memoirs composed by those who have found great success in their writing highlight similar themes when discussing the elements of their work, each writer also offers a sort of defense for his or her own approach in connecting a pen to paper. That, of course, is the beauty of writing: an author has freedom within some set conventions, and even these boundaries can be broken if the right time presents itself. After four years of undergraduate study, I think the biggest takeaway from my experience as a pre-service teacher is that education

Throughout my undergraduate career, almost all of the courses in my education major started the semester with some type of reflection on philosophies in education. Since my courses on child and adolescent development (running in my second and fourth semesters respectively), I have identified most strongly with John Dewey’s Theory of Progressive Education. Progressivism has therefore been a common theme in my blog posts, and today’s reflection will continue my growth and strengthen the philosophical foundation I have built for myself as a progressivist teacher. Of course, other theories in education are worth consideration: behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and humanism all offer insight on how we learn from various perspectives of study. However, I find that progressivism (if adopted fully) takes the best points of these theories and blends them together, creating a student-centered learning environment where student needs and interests are at the forefront of their educationa

In my search for great teacher resources following my education program’s transition to independent learning, I have found several websites and blogs run by educators currently or recently working in the field. Last week, I dove into the wealth of knowledge available on Cult of Pedagogy. This week, I’ve spent a lot of time on the 3P Learning website, and although it is geared more toward housing elementary education resources, a majority of the classroom management and general teaching strategy articles are relevant to educators in all grade levels. 3P Learning’s mission is centered around the use of enthusiasm and online gaming to engage students with their learning: “We create award-winning learning resources that are aligned with dozens of international curricula, matching engaging and gamified learning content to the standards, outcomes, and requirements of schools across the world.” Personally, I am a huge fan of pairing iCivics with social studies curriculums, so the idea of