I really should write more often my learning diary..

The christmas break was needed...

 In january we started a new subject: Guidance of learning and assessment.

Again a subject that I know nothing beforehand.  (I hate to start every task with this sentence.) This course we learned (and still continue) about how to guide students in learning process, how to use and study in different learning environments and about assessment. It seems that the assessment is the most hard and difficult thing in the whole teaching.

We did a presentation about learning environments in february. In a good learning environment are considered its physical, psychological and social aspects. Always the goal of the studies has to be in mind, what is the meaning and the wanted outcomes of the studying? How to organize the learning environment so that it benefits learning the most? In my teaching field, horses and equine industries, the best way and the best learning environment is working in the stable. Or to organize the events around horses, like trotting races or riding competitions. This brings me into planning my PTT course: Equine sports

The course is 5 credits in total but my part for the PTT will be 2,5 credits since the other half will be organized in the autumn. The course contains the different equine sports we have in Finland, how they are organized and the safety aspects included. Students will also learn about the rules of everymans rights considering horses and riding. I started the planning by trying to make the assessment criteria but it's too hard and I just have to get more knowledge about it before I can actually write them.  The other thing difficult (well everything about this is extremely difficult and I don't wan't to fail!) are the teaching methods and so on. We are now doing assignments about pedacogical content knowledge and I hope to learn something about the methods and how to apply them in real world teaching. It's so hard when I still have to learn these things my self and at the same time try to plan my teaching without being sure of what do these theories mean. Am I thinking about the right things even?