ACP_Ronald Albright_merged_ePortfolio

Ron Albright
ACP - Fall 2018
Professor Dr. Janie Filoteo
11.05.2018

Reflective Essay

As an Adjunct Geography Instructor and Adjunct Certification Program (ACP)
student, I have walked away from an eye opening and enriching experience. In my two
years as an instructor, this outstanding program has given me a wealth of teaching
insight and excellent tools to use to further my growth as a competent and successful
educator. I now realize what is means to engage the interest of a student and effectively
teach using proven methods of instruction. To plan, strategize, and assess while
utilizing the latest instructional technologies.

I have always considered myself to be an organized person, however the ACP has
really shown me the necessary means of planning for higher education. For example, it
is important to start with a well-developed and thought out syllabus. To put together a
“snapshot” of my syllabus. This gives the student a “one-stop-shop” or single page with
all the course key points. Another example, is to plan and use student activities for
student lessons. These lessons should be planned to engage each student and have
strategy built into each activity that will address the course student learning outcomes.
The activities should include a pre or post assessment to analyze the material and
comprehension of the specific class lesson. Further, these activities must motivate the
student and cover both the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation type of student. For
example, using a classroom assessment technique (CAT) like “The Minute Paper” at
the end of class that simply asks two questions.

1

1. What was the most important thing you learned this class?
2. What important questions remain unanswered?

The results from these questions should determine what part of the lesson each student
found important and whether they understood the lesson or not. I can then adjust the
lesson accordingly or start the lesson over using a different approach.

Another powerful education tool that I encountered was using a new technology
that meets my student learning objectives. I chose Kahoot technology with a 15-
question multiple choice quiz (with maps) for my lesson. It was very user friendly and
can be used at any point of my BOPPPS lesson plan. I also like the fact that most
students entering higher education today are now connected in some way, either with
mobile phones or laptops. Using a technology like Kahoot may break the ice with my
students and may make even make them more comfortable using a “connected”
technology, rather than a standard pen and paper quiz.

The most critical part of the program for me was using the BOPPPS model to
plan my lessons. The planning incorporated the six elements: bridge in, learning
objective, pre-test, participatory learning, post-assessment, and summary. I really did
not truly understand how effective and how much knowledge it takes to properly
incorporate this model into a lesson plan. Specifically, incorporating Bloom’s Taxonomy
cognitive framework into the questions for “in-class discussions.” For example, it is
critical to use both lower-level and higher-level questions within the framework of the
six-specific cognitive domains. The six-domains are ranked lowest to highest levels
focusing on a higher-order of thinking: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application,
Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. To demonstrate, a lower-level, I used Bloom’s

2

Knowledge with; “List all ten world regions on Earth.” For a higher-level, I used Bloom’s
Analysis and Synthesis with; “How has globalization affected culture, religion, and
economic characteristics in each world region?” Resulting in each students’ ability to
use his or her knowledge from the lesson to cover a range of cognitive processes. A
very powerful technique that I will now incorporate with all my future lesson plans.

In summary, as a new instructor of higher education, it is apparent that I have
plenty of room for professional growth. I have already introduced my new technologies
into my current classes and have had great success. Further, I hope to use the new
teaching techniques I gained from the ACP and continue to improve, explore, and
develop my career as an educator. Coupled with the new insight I gained into student
engagement, student motivation, and student learning styles; should all contribute to my
effectiveness and as an educator. The end goal is to successfully motivate each student
to learn and know that every student can take their knowledge and apply these
concepts in life.

3