During my time in the classroom, I was able to participate in the third visit that we conducted at Rockbridge County High School in Mr. Simms’ class. The participation was in an assignment based on eugenics, a form of genetic modification that allows a child’s parents to pick what genes that they want the child to have before they are born or to find out what kinds of diseases they could have a high risk of so they can make the choice to have children or not. I and Ron were placed into a group together and were given the chance to work on a small piece of paper on what aspects of being human we thought were genetic or environmental in the development of a child’s brain and being. Things like appearance, attractiveness, OCD, autism, criminal tendencies, alcoholism, etc. were posted on the form and we were required to fill them out to the best of our knowledge on the subject and then explain why we thought this way in the class discussion that followed. The class discussion was laid back, as we have seen from many other class visits, and allowed for students to speak, debate, and defend their points and why they would choose to have a child or not. I personally thought that this was an effective way of teaching the subject as it was able to get the students fully involved and many of them seemed to be more than fully invested in the subject matter by the end of the class period.

From what we have collected over the past three visits to Mr. Simms’ class, it has become evident that there is an extremely effective way of teaching that I never saw in my time in high school or even in my first few years of college. The ability to teach a subject through classwide research and discussion was something unheard of in the environment that I came from where the factory-like lecture was king and that was the only way of teaching a subject to the students. After seeing how Mr. Simms runs his class and treats his students, it has shown myself that the most effective way to teach the lesson plan that Ron and I wish to do is to involve the class fully in the discovery and research of the topics and to let them voice their opinions on the minor subjects that come up in the lesson. Not only would this allow for the students to gain a deeper grasp on the subject, but this would also allow for the EL Principles of the Responsibility for Learning and Collaboration and Competition to be met. By creating a group based final project for the section, Ron and I would allow the students to compete with their ideas on the subject and to take responsibility for their learning by having them effectively research and present the subject as a group.