ED 240 #5: Who cares?

So I've been trying to answer the question that I try to answer for my students when I prepare a lesson plan: "Why do I care about what's being taught?"

This program has thrown us a lot of fast balls, more than a few curve balls, and a couple of wicked knuckleballs...and honestly it's been really difficult to even get a hit, let alone a home run. Well, okay, I can't say that I've completely struck out, but it has been challenging.

So baseball metaphors aside, why do I care? Is it because I want the prestige of a Master's Degree? Do I honestly care about bettering myself and "mastering" the skills I need to become a passionate, powerful teacher? Or do I just want the pay increase? Or is it a little bit of everything?

I find that, as long as the content seems relevant, I enjoy learning. I honestly enjoy stretching my mind, my intellect and doing the work that will improve my understanding of my new profession. I wish I had been like this during my undergraduate days. My grades would have been a heck of a lot better. Be that as it may, I have honestly enjoyed learning about the technology tools available that I can use to better instruct my students. I would have never used Powerpoint to create an adventure type presentation...because I would not have known that was possible. I now use Google docs for just about every assignment in all of my classes. In my other classes I have learned how to conduct my own research and how in many ways science had changed history and how history has driven scientific discovery. As long as it is relevant I stay interested and I try to learn it.

I guess that is the lesson for me over all, and the one I will take into the classroom with me. The content being learned has to be RELEVANT to the students in order to keep their interest. It seems like a simple concept. Keep it relevant. But as a wise many once said, it is the simple things which are the most difficult to accomplish.