It took me until today with the craziness of the end of a semester in teaching, but I made it through the last of the COVA book this evening. In the DLL program, we are truly living through this book. I enjoyed the little tidbits that talked about the parts of the program we haven't gotten to just yet. Dr. Harapnuik's stories with his sons helped also to show how the COVA process works.
I can see the importance of COVA+CSLE based on what we have done thus far in the DLL program. It is definitely difficult for me to handle this type of learning still at the moment. Disruptive Innovations caused me a ton of stress because I have never ever had this amount of control over what kind of project I wanted to do and not a lot of guidance on how to go about doing it. I literally lost hair during that class because I felt so lost. I did learn a lot about myself in that class though. I learned that I can figure things out myself and come up with an idea that hopefully I can make work as I learn more in the program. I have learned how to express myself in a whole new way through my ePortfolio. I like how it reflects some of my personality and shows what I have been working so hard on.
The difficult part of COVA will be how to find a way to apply it to my own teaching. I am understanding more and more each time that I give a test that my students are not successfully learning the concepts that I am trying to teach. I know that high school math isn't exactly the easiest subject, but there are times that I feel like I'm trying to teach to a brick wall. I have a few students that are good at learning the traditional way, but so many of my students don't have a clue as to what is going on. I absolutely hate having to worry about a standardized test at the end of the school year. It forces me to have to teach faster than I want to and move on before my students have a grasp of the material. I teach how I was taught which I know isn't the best way. My problem is trying to find ways for my students to still learn the concepts they are supposed to if I give up the control. I'm afraid of what my students might do and how my administration will receive a new way of teaching. I need to find a way to incorporate authentic learning experiences so that my students can really see how they can use the algebra in the real world.
I'm hoping that as we continue through the program, I can become more confident in the process of COVA. I've got a great set of classmates as well that I can bounce ideas off of which is another great component of COVA. The ability to work with each other and help each other out is a definite plus to this program.
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