Reflection For Brave New World

This video takes place within an English Honors classroom. The students have strengths in Math and Science but find language arts to be challenging. The teacher assigned Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World and excerpts of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Life afterwards. They are gathered together in a Socratic seminar to discuss ethical and social issues such as cloning genetic manipulation, and government control. What were your reactions? The students were able to apply what they read in Brave New World to real world events in history. One student discussed how the Russian people were able to stand up for themselves when their government was engaging in price gouging of blue jeans. He compared the actions of the Russian people to two characters

: All students had access to laptops which was an effective way for the students to closely observe Max’s art. The teacher also gave all of the students an inventory of Gardner’s multiple intelligences to determine their learning styles. This was an effective way for the teacher to establish the best approach for her lesson plan. She also used Bloom’s taxonomy when forming her lesson and she determined that with her lesson the students would be able to progress from knowledge to evaluation. The teacher was also able to arrange for the students to go to a field trip to Peter Max’s art gallery. They were able to meet the artist in person. This made the lesson memorable and

At one point a student asked the teacher what the “M” on the frosting tip stands for. The teacher replied that she didn’t know. She then moved on with the lesson. This was a teachable moment that was missed in the classroom.

What would you have done differently? If a student asks me a question and I do not know the answer I think a more proper answer would be, “I don’t know the answer to that right now but I will research it and come up with an answer for you tomorrow.” Or I would tell the student, “How about you research that question yourself and give the class an answer tomorrow.” This way the student will have some responsibility for their learning and the class will benefit from the acquired knowledge.

How does this relate to how you see yourself as a teacher? I really appreciated how the teacher and the classroom formed a close knit community. The students’ even gave the teacher the nickname “school mommy”. I would like to foster that kind of environment where I care about the students’ wellbeing and home lives. The teacher spent extra time visiting homes and having meetings with the students. I think this is a great way to get know my