While I am excited about this class because all my education classes for the most part excite me, I don't really know what to expect. What is Educational Psychology?? Since my brief encounter with this subject only consists of Education Psychology 201, I don't really have a firm grasp on it. The topics that we studied in that class were so broad which I guess is the cool thing about Ed Psych... it consists of all the psychology about education. Education is such a broad word not confined to school work but into gaining knowledge about the world around them so I guess it's okay to have a broad topics.
I am really excited to learn about motivation personally. My desire is to work with children who are in the urban setting and sometimes I have found that their motivation for increasing their education is very low. They have seen the patterns of previous generations settling for minimum-wage jobs that require little to no education. How do you motivate a kid to learn when he has never seen someone succeed. Hopefully we will examine how to improve someone's motivation in the classroom setting so that I can better implement that into my classroom.
Teaching strategies will also be very helpful. I am honestly very overwhelmed by the job of teaching. Everyone has heard the saying, "if you can't do, teach..." I couldn't disagree with that more. You are responsible for so many different aspects of a child's development and not only that but multiply that by 25 kids every year. I want so badly to be able to make a difference in these kids life and I think that comes through catering as much as possible to the individual. Learning multiple teaching strategies will help with that so much. Some kids may need expository teaching while other kids may need tons of hands on learning. Being able to incorporate that into a classroom for the benefit of all your students, seems huge! I am excited for this semester!
I would also like to learn more about motivation in this class. You make a good point about how a lot of kids do not have strong role models to look up to that motivate them to excel in school and go beyond mediocrity. As a music Ed. Major I would especially like to find ways to keep kids excited and motivated to take the time to practice and refine skills we learn in classes.
ReplyDeleteI understand your concerns with teaching completely! To think that I will be in charge of a group of kids and will have to keep them under control and make sure that they learn something can definitely be overwhelming. I hope to learn management strategies as well as multiple teaching methods that will help me cater to all of my students needs as well as keeping them under control.