Through this video, I have learned that it takes alot of planning to create an educational environment were all children in grades 4 and 5 can be successful. You need to provide activities, experiences, and literature that is meaningful to what types of thoughts and changes children are going through at this age. We also need to provide for rich discussion where children feel free to talk about how they feel without having other values and ideas forced on them. Children need to learn to voice their opinion as well as listen to the opinions of others in order to help form their own values and beliefs. I liked how the video included small group work and discussion to help students discuss things further and produce their own presentations for the class to show their understanding of what they have learned.
I do currently like to include classroom discussion, but I would like to incorporate more meaningful activities and experiences in my own teaching. I would love to have students create their own way to present their materials. I think this would be easier when I am able to have my own full time classroom. Things are much more meaningful for the students when they are able to help create the plan and the process. I would love to include situations where my students help me to create a rubric so that they can take part in creating their own criteria for activities.
I think that I would definitely need full support from my school and the staff to show that what I am teaching is meaningful. I think that when coming up with things that are meaningful to our students we might come across materials that some families might not value as educational resources. However, some of these materials should be accessible to the students so that they can create wholesome values. They may need some guidance to see different viewpoints, but our students do need to be able to hear opinions from many different viewpoints. If we only present one viewpoint we are letting our students down.
