TCR - Week 15 - Brief Reflection

What is/are the most significant thing/s that you learned which you plan to use in some way in the future?

Well, I was hoping to have developed a teaching website with everything we discussed in the way of online persona this semester; however, once again, I have overestimated the amount of time I'd have to work on this endeavor.  My goal is to significantly develop the website I already have, posting my teaching philosophy, CV, teaching videos, etc., and cultivating an online a more professional persona over the next six months.  I'll likely seek advice surrounding this project in the future.  By far all the conversations and advice surrounding professional development and teaching we received over the course of the semester, was the most significant things we did.  I really appreciated the guidance we received in career development.  I haven't had that kind of support in any educational setting I've been a part of until now.  This really spoke to me about the investment instructors here at Tech make in students.

The class discussions surrounding educational philosophy and how to teach composition was really important to me as well.  I feel I need to take another semester to research and think more about my own educational philosophy, especially in light of my own concerns about hyperconnectivity and 21st century-readiness and how our changing contexts will affect students.  Though these examples are super cheesy, in the future, I might create a video teaching philosophy similar to the following:

Of course, I would also maintain a print copy of my teaching philosophy, but given the changes in our world, being able to express our teaching values and emphases in multimedia can only help to deepen our understanding of relevance and audience.  This might be an interesting assignment for a 5060 class.  

I really wish we had a second semester of this course with more professional development that integrated teaching practices.  Had my life not been so chaotic, I surely would have requested to take this course for the three units.