One particular class that I remember well is high school Psychology. The teacher was witty and funny, but also very knowledgeable. It may be because the content was so new, but I felt I learned so much in that course. The culminating activity for the course was not a test. Instead the class played a game (similar to RISK or Diplomacy), but a little more complicated. The game necessitated group work, individual analyzation, strategy, and manipulation. It was very fun to play for that week, but especially incorporating all we had learned about how humans think and behave. After the game, we had to write a paper about how what we had learned showed up in the playing of the game. It was one of the most enriching educational experiences I can remember.
Like most students, I have also had many discouraging educational experiences that have made me not want to give any effort toward learning. I specifically remember one instance in my freshmen English course. It was so heavy on writing, more than anything I had experienced. Still, I did my best to write the pages each day. Each time I would turn in an assignment, the teacher would not even read it. She simply stamped it and put a checkmark in her grade book. The work was rigorous, but I never got any feedback. I started writing whatever I wanted in the essays and she never ended up reading them anyway.
I have learned a couple lessons from those two specific experiences. First, the project based learning in my Psychology course was extremely motivation. I was a shy and introverted student, but I excelled in the game, gave my best effort, and learned so much! Second, students understand when a teacher gives busy work. As an educator myself, I never want to assign work that I cannot give back to students with meaningful feedback. If I require them to put in the effort, I will do it also.
