Practicum Post #6

 I just wanted to give an overall reflection of my practicum. I am really happy I got to experience and community that is quite different from my own. By going to Mid-Prairie I got to experience what it is like to teach in a conservative and religious district. This is a district where my cooperating teacher has to have a conversation about evolution and fight back against the whole earth history unit. I know I don't want to work in a district where I have to worry about that, but I may have a few parents that force beliefs on their kids and it provided me with an educational opportunity and conversation about how to approach these topics. When talking with John about our lesson we got to discuss that the best way to approach teaching science in these communities is to come at it from the idea of you need to know this is what science believes and it is ok if you don't believe that, but you need to understand the perspective science take on these ideas. Thinking about it from this way is so much better. It makes it so you are not closing your mind off as a teacher, and also keeping that door open for the student. It also has it so you focus on the idea that the student has the capability to think for themselves and make up their own mind on these topics, which is my biggest goal as an educator. I ultimately want to teach my students to think critically and question the world around them. 

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