What I learned from this class...

When I came into this class, my very first education class ever, I had no idea what to expect. Having never written a lesson plan or even taken an introduction to education class, I felt a very much behind everyone else.
Not only did I have to write my first lesson plans in this class, I also had to do many other firsts, such as: teach a lesson, be evaluated, observe in a class, write a blog, learn reading strategies and incorporate them into the lesson plans I crafted. I admit, this was a bit frightening to me, and there is still much to learn, but I feel much better now than I did the first night of class.
I decided I was going to just "wing it" so to speak, and got to work. Once I realized how to incorporate reading and strategies into the lesson plans and how they were to be written, it was fun and exciting to try to come up with lesson plans for my content area, art.
Finding a book to start the lesson was like going on a hunt, and I thoroughly enjoyed raiding my daughters bookshelves to come up with the most fun and creative ideas I could.
As far a learning what teachers actually do to prepare for class and coming up with ideas, I have come very far. I look forward to everything else I will learn as I continue my journey in education toward becoming an art teacher.
I especially would like to thank Dr. Steffes for being so patient with me through my endless questions and for her encouragement and kindness. I appreciate it more that she will ever know.

Zigsaw

The zigsaw technique is a strategy that groups kids together to have them teach each other words or phrases within a text. The instructor places the kids together in what is called a "home group". The students in the "home group" decide which vocabulary words or phrases are important within a certain range of pages.
Groups are then split and each person within the group is sent to a new area to join in with an "expert group". The expert group, comes up as a group, with the best way to teach the home group the information that they are assigned.
Once this is accomplished, the students head back to the home group to teach their lesson. This strategy is a great way to divide up the work and to give the student representative from each topic area collaboration to be certain they are coming up with the best way to teach. They can also take ownership in their given topic and feel excited about being the expert about their topic.
I would definitely use this strategy in art, as there are often vocabulary words or phrases that need in-depth explanations.