Nicole Willis-Linder

Working in a field where critical thinking can be a decision between life or death and now teaching the importance of it can definitely be trying at times. Creating a space with problem based learning(PBL) where the students have to work together to solve problems and understand especially in health care there is never one right answer to a situation. Combining learning tools to engage the students like letting them be the expert through role playing and giving them activities where they have to assess their peers and themselves I find is very helpful.

What I've learned is that active learning and blended classrooms are definitely a modification of the traditional classroom. Being able to accomplish activities like flipped classroom, giving the student control of their own learning environment and being the director instead of the facilitator or gate keeper of the content. Opening up their minds on how to cover the subject materials outside of the classroom environment and teaching them how to execute skills like time management in order to activate their learning experience. 

Limitations and misconceptions seem to be the pillar of the educational community these days. My classes are on ground with an online component and keeping the student active is always a struggle for both portions. I have had students in class wanting me to lecture (talk at them) for hours but when you ask them questions they can't even tell me what I just said. My course is mostly critical thinking and when they sit for any quiz or exams the questions are not directly from the lecture but they have to critically think in order to answer. I am… >>>

What I've learned from this section is the importance of active learning. although I teach mostly face to face, but we do have some online assignments and it is hard to get the students engaged and actively participating in those assignments. I've been incorporating the assignments into my ground class to help them see the importance of accountability, and making the assignments a group project or an active discussion helps them to see what they are capable of doing when putting in the ground work.

I enjoy being able to set the precedence through storytelling, of why the information I am trying to teach is relevant to their field of study and the importance of knowing the information through real life experience. This leaves the students intrigued to want to know more. 

Storytelling can unlock the students imagination when it comes to understanding the content being taught it also opens up room for discussion especially about other peer experiences.

I plan on implementing soft skills in my class by holding myself as well as my students accountable to conduct themselves in a professional manner at all times, while verbalizing and controlling the situations at hand.

I've learned that there is three domains to human development. Cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. and that the cognitive deal with recall, recognition of the knowledge and development of intellectual skills.

I've Learned that Intrinsic motivators is vital to the students sense of security.  

I thought it was very interesting that the students two main issues is security and Autonomy. I've learned that positive reinforcement and freedom to make mistakes so they can learn as a group, helps with their retention of the information.