While revising my paper for class tomorrow, I was using my draft from last week as my guide. The comments that Mike wrote on the draft were very helpful. He told me to make the paper more about my own experience, especially the end. I was having trouble writing the last few paragraphs for my paper, and he suggested to write about how I would want my classroom to be. He asked me how would I want to teach if I could do anything? How would my classroom look? What would my own standards be? This made me think about my own vision, and how my thoughts of curriculum and education as a whole have changed.
I decided to end my paper with what I have learned, and how I plan to change next year. These changes may not seem drastic to my students, but they are drastic to me. Since this paper is more of an ethnographic piece, I think the reader would be interested in how I have changed as a teacher. The reader may want to know how I plan to use what I have learned from this research next year and in the future. I think this reflection of my own research will be a wonderful closing to my paper.
I believe I used the Japanese education model of discovery learning while working on this paper. I asked the big question of "Why are we behind?" and I used my knowledge as a classroom teacher and researched to find the answer. The question is challenging, but not too challenging that I got frustrated. Yes, I only looked at one aspect of the curriculum, but math is my own 'video game,' and in the future I may begin other games and try to make it past the first level. Also, the Japanese curriculum model is not the only answer, but at least it is a start. I can change in my classroom to better prepare my students. At least I am starting somewhere.
