When I saw this, this reminds me of my internship experience as a music teacher in an elementary school for three months. It was a memorable experience. However, I didn't get much improve from that internship. I only got one feedback from one students.
We all need people who will give us feedback. Teachers do need feedback from others. This is very important. Some teachers may believe that they are giving their students everything they need, however with someone watching, they can let that teacher know that they may need to add something to their lesson plan or expand on a point that is important to a certain subject. It is also very important for students to give their teachers feedback. A student perspective can truly make all of the difference.
Okay, let's go back to see what this program-MET looks like in action.
I think this could be classified as humanistic. Sarah said she is able to learn a lot from her video, she can grow as a profession when she actually get to see this. So her learning is self-directed. Self-directed is one of basic principles of humanistic curriculum. And having the notes a part of her thinking process, she discovered what she's seeing as she's writing. Another basic principles of humanistic curriculum - "self-evaluation". Also, Humanistic educators believe that both feelings and knowledge are important to the learning process. From video, Sarah think it is a way to exemplify and illustrate things that we cannot convey in a lesson plan, things you cannot convey in a standard, things that you cannot even sometimes convey in a book of pedagogy. Sarah's feelings, as well as knowledge, are important in the learning process. This is what humanistic talk about too.
Humanistic educators insist that we learn best in a nonthreatening environment. According to Bill Gates, he mentioned some teachers aren't immediately comfortable with the idea of a camera in the classroom. But their experience with MET suggests that if teachers manage the process, if they collect video in their own classrooms, and they pick the lessons they want to submit, a lot of them will be eager to participate. So MET did make a nonthreatening environment for teachers to better improve themselves.
Now, I have some questions for you:
1. What's your opinion about MET? Do you think that help teacher improve?
2. What worked and what might be missing?