Teachers As Designers

  • What did I learn? 
  • What does it mean and what supports that position? 
  • What are the ways in which it might impact my practice?

Week 1 Reflection - Teachers as Designers
This week I learned that there is a difference between designing learning and planning lessons. When you’re a teacher who is lesson planning you are focused in on looking at the standards you are teaching and finding various engaging activities or developing direct instruction to help students learn the content. When teachers view themselves as designers they take a problem of practice and with a broader scope and idealized lense think about ways in which they might design learning so that students become more invested in the work they are doing. Before I had only really thought about how I might engage students on a day to day basis. With this new view of teachers as designers I understand better that I can be even more effective in my work if I strive to look at my work as a designer, not just a lesson planner. 

I believe that this new and continuously expanding idea will impact my work greatly as I move further into my teaching career. This is my third year of teaching world history so I feel like I’m finally getting out of the weeds of day-by-day or week-by-week planning. Now that I understand how designing might impact my work and now that I have more experience with my own content area I think I will start to view units of study or even whole concepts or themes with a larger lense. 

Comments

  1. music_teacherSeptember 8, 2019 at 8:49 AM

    The test worked! I am still thinking on these things as well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. FinleyDDLSSeptember 10, 2019 at 11:45 AM

    I too am working on refocusing to the mindset of design versus planning.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JeffSeptember 11, 2019 at 5:33 AM

    It is different to think of ourselves as designers. I never though of educators in that context. I'm still not sure what I think about it. I'm starting to wrap my head around the idea, but I'm still not there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. DDLSdoveSeptember 11, 2019 at 4:55 PM

    I think it is still very important to engage your students on a day to day basis and I think that as you are designing lessons, this will happen organically. Students will be engaged because the lessons have meaning.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Teaching Design Blog SDowdSeptember 22, 2019 at 9:53 AM

    I agree it's a different way of viewing ourselves. I never thought of myself as a designer, but as I start thinking from that mindset I think my lessons are becoming more meaningful and more interesting for students.

    ReplyDelete

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