Week 1 :Reflection on learning

So far, this class has given me the oppurtunity to reflect upon my values as a teacher and how I would describe "learning" in my classroom. I feel that learning is obtained best through meaningful experiences. Although I still feel that this is the best way to learn, I also did some reflecting this week and realized how rare this is to actually happen in todays schools. My school won;t even be able to afford to go on a field trip this year much less pay for the students to have the oppurtunity to "expoerience" their learning. Today we are so caught up in what is "scientifically based" that we rarely look at what worked for us in the past. We have a new reading series and while I think that it is great, it leaves little room to incorporate award winning literature that I feel like the children need to experience in order to develop a love for learning. It is also very scripted leaving little time to take advantage of those "teachable moments." Overall, I feel that learning has defenetly evolved since I was in school and while I believe students are being exposed to more in the way of instruction I feel that they are experiencing less that will truly help them learn.