This semester has been an eye-opener, to say the least, in regards to so many things, including aspects of 21st Century teaching and learning. I have learned about new ways of teaching, as well as, technology. When I started, I was not reluctant to learn new things about technology, even though I knew that I had much to learn. I did use technology in my classroom, as well as, in my personal life, but I was by far an expert. I was comfortable with what I knew and also with what I didn’t know. What I mean is that, when I applied to this program, I knew I would have to be open to learning and using new technology. This semester pushed me beyond my comfort zone and I was able to try new things, that I would have otherwise, never tried. I feel like it was all a positive learning experience for me because I was in a safe zone, where I could play with new things and make mistakes. I have been given the opportunity and have been encouraged to use things without the fear of making a mistake. I have grown so much as a result of all the knowledge I have acquired.
I believe my thinking has also undergone much change. When I completed my teaching credentialing program (Many, many moons ago! J) I was taught to think and teach in a particular way. Many of the years I taught in a regular classroom, supported what I had learned about teaching. After a few years, I feel, like many changes began to unfold at our school and some of us moved slowly along, while others were “stuck in their ways”. It is not until this semester that I truly realize how much change was occurring in the realm of education and at what a slow pace our school site has been moving along. If I decide to move back into a regular classroom, I have “a bag full of tricks” that I would like to try. I am interested in learning more about meaningful ways to incorporate technology into our classrooms. I think our students could benefit to a great extent from the knowledge and grown teachers acquire. I am also glad that a few of my colleagues are undergoing the same process in this program because it gives me hope that with more of us having knowledge of 21st century teaching and learning skills, we can get the wheels rolling at our school site, with much more ease. This class has left me wanting to learn more!
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Flipped teaching and Challenge Based Learning were new concepts for me, up until we began to explore them in our course this semester. As a result of my change from being a full time classroom teacher, to working part-time as an intervention teacher (for the past five years), I have not had to participate in our professional development, nor other training at our school site. I feel like I am definitely out of the loop when it comes to all of the new things going on in education.
Now that I have learned more about Flipped teaching and CBL it has sparked and interest in me because I feel like they both provide more engagement and more motivation for students than the traditional structure of learning. They provide the opportunities needed for students to be active learners and producers of knowledge, rather than merely being consumers of knowledge. As much as I would like to try to implement some of the aspects of Flipped teaching and CBL, I feel it is almost impossible to fully implement them, given the intervention placement that I am currently in. The amount of time I am allocated for each group does not really allow for additional incorporation and I am to deliver a particular curriculum for intervention. However, I feel like I can integrate some of the 21st century skills need for our students. Thinking from the perspective of a regular classroom teacher, Flipped Teaching and CBL seem to be an exciting way of engaging our students. Yet, I can’t help but think of our students that do not have the necessary technology available in order to do flipped teaching. I feel like Flipped teaching (in this program) was a bit of a challenge for me, at first because it was new, yet I do feel the positive impact of being able to learn the material beforehand and having class time for more interaction and questions that arise are more meaningful. I believe that CBL is a great way to produce better prepared 21st century learners and truly teach the whole child, so that we can improve humanity over all. We must not forget, our students are not only leaders of their education, but they are also the leaders of the future! John Seely Brown
This presenter starts out by saying knowledge is personal; it is socially constructed. He also mentions something that was news to my ears. The best predictor of how well a student will do in college is his/her ability to form or join study groups. John also talks about the surfer boys who all became champions. He points out that the boys were able to succeed as a result of not being afraid to try and fail, and then try again. They also used technology which was very important for them to be able to improve their own skills and that of the other group members. Howard Gardner Gardner discusses his five minds; the disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind, the creative mind, the respectful mind and the ethical mind. He also mentions how the creative mind is not afraid of failure. He mentions how the ethical mind is not taken for what it is worth. In this day and age kids have very different ethical perspectives. He also touches on technology. Sir Ken Robinson He makes a few points. He also touches on the idea that children are not afraid of being wrong. He points out that if we are not prepared to be wrong we will never come up with anything original. He firmly believes that we are educating children out of their creativity. Daniel Pink Pink talks about the candle problem and how we need to think outside the box. As well as how incentives and punishments work for 20th century tasks that have a simple set of rules and a clear outcome, but rewards narrow our focus and destroy creativity. He mentions we need a new approach for 21st century learning which includes more intrinsic motivation. It is important to include autonomy, mastery and purpose. When I think about my own students and my previous experience within education, I realize that everything that I have been taught in the past, was definitely geared for 20th century learning. It was based on wanting success for students, with very little mistakes involved. Providing students with knowledge that they must use and show acquisition of their knowledge thought assessments whether it be class assessments, school assessments, or state assessments. Truly squashing children’s creativity and guiding them to doing things the same as all of the other students. It is only more recently that I have heard more of the notion of allowing students to be the drivers of their own knowledge. As all of the, speakers touched on, it is acceptable to make mistakes and fail at something, because only in that manner will original ideas come about! We need to truly educate our students as a whole being, not just parts of them. As an instructor/leader, I think we need to teach students that thinking outside the box is better that restricting yourself to thinking inside the box. If we think inside the box, there can only be one answer and one method for acquiring that answer. Yet, when we think outside the box, there night only be one answer, but varied ways of arriving at the answer. I think we need to teach out students that it is okay to make mistakes, and try again. Only in that way can we truly comprehend what we are learning. |
Teresa BarronI love teaching because it makes me a life long learner. Archives
November 2017
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