Mary Lugg

Place-based Education: Dr. Karla Eitel

Portfolio Reflection

My goal is to become a natural resource manager/educator at the end of my time

at the University of Idaho. The class Place-based Education was important to my

development as a future manager/educator because of the practical pedagogical

content knowledge and teaching skills I gained. The class culminated in a

curriculum planning and design project, in which I used professtional skills to create

curriculum for an imagined educational program. The curriculum included

development of an education philosphy, theme of the program, desired results

which included established goals, identification of audience and need, essential

questions, driving concepts, evidence of understanding through performance

tasks,and a learning plan which included times and activities. Through this project, I

learned the importance of intentional curriculum design and planning to ensure

personal and academic success for my students.

Personally, I believe that striving to create personal and academic success for my

students is the most important part of being an educator. The first step to creating

successful and fulfilled students is through purposeful and meaningful curriculum

design. Because of this belief, I want to focus my reflection on the skills I used to

design my educational philosphy, learning activities, and assessments. Through this

class, I was able to develop my education philosphy which I used to guide the

creation of Heart of the City. I value student centered, hands-on learning, that

creates community parternships to inspire, engage, and transform students of

diverse backgrounds. Each learning activity I designed was with these qualities and
learning goals in mind. For example, I used the Learning Cycle to include students of

all learning styles and explore understandings with appropriate depth (BEETLES,

2017). I used multiple means of representation, action and expression, and

engagement in accordance with Universal Design for Learning guidelines

throughout my lesson plans (CAST,2017). The assessment of learning goals were

primarily performance tasks in accordance with my educational philosphy.

Students would be continually asked to apply and actively reflect on learning to

prove mastery of new skills and content.

This was an important class and project because I will have to design and plan

curriculum as part of my career. Skills I must have are to be able to design specific

learning activities and assessments that actively reflect my schools educational

philosphies and learning goals. This project allowed me to get hands-on experience

with this important process. Additional, this project was important to me because I

hope to continually reflect and refine my personal educational philopshy. I want to

be the best teacher I can be because I want my students to be their best. To do this, I

believe I need to be a continual learner for the rest of my life.

Heart of the City was my first opportunity to design and plan an entire

curriculum based around an educational program I created. Through this

assignment I showcased my professional skills in curriculum design and planning. I

also got to showcase my knowledg of content material surrounding natural

resources and conservation and teaching techniques. My future classroom,

wherever that may be, will reflect what I have learned in this class and project.
References

BEETLES (2017) Teaching with the Learning Cycle. Retrieved October 21,
2017 from http://beetlesproject.org/resource/teaching-with-the-learning-
cycle/

(CAST) Center for Applied Special Technology (2017) About UDL: What is Universal
Design for Learning? Retrieved September 13 2017, from
http://www.cast.org/our-work/about-udl.html#.Wbqr6SMrIy4