Heather's Response-2

This reading made me really think back and evaluate my own education and how these things were implemented into my education. I realized that if my high school drama teacher (and other teachers) had not have followed the INTASC Principles and Bloom’s Taxonomy (whether they knew they were following them or not) I would not be where I am in my education right now. I realized that the only reason I love theatre and understand all the elements of theatre and am able to create my own pieces of theatre is because my theatre teacher made sure I learned building upon each of the element of Bloom’s Taxonomy. I want to make my theatre classroom the same way to instill a deep understanding or , and hopefully love and respect for, theatre. Doing this comes back to what we discussed on Friday about breaking everything down in the beginning and teaching theatre from scratch. By breaking it all down into smaller parts, I think it becomes easier to build upon it, and see that each student is learning at the same level and at the same pace and really learning, comprehending, applying, etc.
Along with the concepts in Bloom’s Taxonomy, the INTASC Principles are so interesting to me! There is no way a teacher can teaching using the taxonomy without first applying the INTASC principles. I’ve realized I need to know what I’m talking about and use my love of theatre to inspire my students. But I can’t just teach them in the way I learn, or assume they know things about theatre that I know. I need to teach them according to their learning styles, but varying my instruction methods. I need to learn how to communicate with different types of students, to practice motivating them, and loving them, and making sure they are able to learn in a safe environment within my classroom.
These two short papers that I’ve read have really re-opened my eyes to all that I can/need to accomplish in my classroom. It makes me really excited.