We were asked for one word to define the first week of our hybrid MAET face-to-face experience, and without much thought I said “whirlwind.” While seemingly negative, I intended anything but. This week has been loaded with experiences and information that, at times, has been overwhelming, but the experience has also been a whirlwind of inspiration. From reflections on learning theories, to creative play, we have been put through a week of rigorous fun. While discussing learning theories, we’ve discovered that we are all a bit of a behaviorist, cognitivist, and critical in our learning. We all know the feeling of positive reinforcement, learning from others, and questioning long standing traditions. Ideally, we know the importance of seeing things from multiple perspectives, showing respect for cultural differences, and going into learning situations with an open mind and an eagerness to be better. Whatever better might mean for you within your context and experience. The course has seemingly been designed to reinforce these theories throughout the week. From field experiences to the Michigan State Capitol Building and even ice cream from the Michigan State Dairy Store incentivizing us to soldier through the more content heavy research portions, behaviorism is alive and well. This was combined with fun creative exercises that allowed me to play with pipe cleaners for the first time since elementary school. I gravitated to the pipe cleaner due to childhood memories of using them, and while my products were pretty bad, they were met with enthusiasm from my peers and professors. My context of having nostalgia for the medium allowed me the comfort to take a risk and that was supported by my peers and professors. Sociocultural learning was in full effect with the people around me inspiring new ideas, and challenging me to push forward, even with my elementary school art supplies. Professionally, I saw the value of thinking of concepts through play. While seemingly “simple” these creative abstractions allowed me to see my professional role in a way that could allow students time to “play” with concepts. The acceptance of mistakes and expectation to simply try new things has allowed me to consider how I can redesign lessons with this same philosophy. What relevance is there in students memorizing plot points and regurgitating those back in a typical multiple choice test when they could make something that connects themselves to the plot, characters, and themes. Isn’t that a more rich learning experience as they seem themselves in the text versus me simply telling them what is important and asking to hear it back? These connections are less point driven and punitive. This week has reinforced how much of a pleasure it is to learn in a low stakes environment while having fun and making connections with the content. I have always been self conscious of putting pen to paper. My handwriting is terrible and borderline illegible, my art has always felt underbaked and lacking in representation of what I set out to capture, but in the spirit of constructionism, and the social backing of my peers, I put caution to the (whirl)wind and just went for it. That is what I mean when I call this a week of rigourous fun. Rigor in that I am often outside of my comfort zone and fun in that the environment welcomes play, mistakes, and growth. People are many things, their context matters, their interests matters, and their prior knowledge matters. We are all whirlwinds, and with the help of others, we can hopefully figure ourselves out. References:
McGregor, D. (2022). Experiences [Photo collage] McGregor, D. (2022). Creativity [Photo collage]
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David McGregorI am an English teacher and cat lover from Genesee County, Michigan who is eager to learn new things. Archives
August 2022
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