Module 1 Reflection

In reading the chapters, I had this huge desire to want to make my classes different from those I had experienced in High School and College.  In all honesty, I don't remember having an extremely boring class in high school (except for that one history class), unless there was a substitute.  I thoroughly enjoyed all of my classes and teachers.  However, I want the students in my class to not only enjoy the class, but take something away from it.  I want them to actively engage in the class and learn and apply the lesson to their lives.  This is part of the motivation for me taking this "trip" and wanting to consider new approaches for teaching and learning.  

The students today are in no way close to being the same students I and my classmates were.  And they are even farther away from when their own parents were students.  The same teaching style that was popular twenty years ago, or even ten years ago, will not work for the students of the present.  It's imperative that I learn different teaching approaches and network with other teachers to discover new ideas.  

I am very interested in the project based learning approach.  I don't remember having many project centered lessons in High School, but I do remember having them in college.  They were very unique, yet sometimes exhausting.  However, to this day, I remember what all of my projects were about and how they each related to real life.  Students should have projects that make them think critically in terms of real life.  

I'm looking forward to reading more of this book and learning what else can become of project based learning.