Students' passions can play a key role in their learning process. There
are various types of passions, some of which students are well aware of
but a students' passion may be still hidden from his or her own
self-knowledge. Students want their teacher to care for them and respect
whatever his or her passion might be. This helps the mutual respect
between teacher and students'. A teacher cannot just touch the surface
when it comes to their students' passions and rely on that. They much
delve deep and learn it in much more detail. These passions are the
routes in which partnering teachers can create individualized learning
that will actually stick in the students' minds and be of some value in
their lives. If you can do this then you leave them wanting more.
Student learning and work can be filtered through their personal
preferences, likes, and dislikes.
Marc Prensky and I appear to be right on the same page in regards to passion. I want my future students to actually have knowledge that will be relevant in their lives and be able to attain this knowledge and present it in a way that works best for them. I can guide them towards where they can go, but it truly up to them to decide their own directions and where they will end up at the end of their academic career. Student's want a voice in the classroom and I believe they deserve one. If that means working with technology that they love or teaching the class then I support that. However, I cannot speak for all teachers because some are not comfortable with letting their students explore the content in a way that suits them. Prensky is a big proponent of allowing students to explore the technology and this can be so vital to partnering.They can teach educators, which many teachers are hesitant about. Teachers, often, do not like to allow their student's to use technology that they are unfamiliar with. However, a student that is passionate enough about a certain type of technology could teach me or the rest of my class and we would all probably benefit.
A classmate of mine, Mary Owens, pointed out an additional article that I had read from a previous class called “Lessons from Skateboarders”
by Richard Sagor. It described different kinds of motivation and the
need to incorporate this in our classroom. The article pointed out how a boy might spend 4 hours
after school practicing tricks on his skateboard. He or she might fall numerous
times, but he continues to get up and try again. This same child might
not do his homework or participate in class. Maybe he’s labeled
“unmotivated” and yet, he seems so motivated after school. Teachers do not realize that their students are highly motivated individuals. They just need to find a way to tap into the motivation and a great way is through exploring what the students are most passionate about.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Teaching Digital Natives: Marc Presnky and Partnering in the 21st Century Classroom
The book utilized in my college course takes an interesting look into a new wave of education that is modeled around using the new technology available in our world to assist in educating youth and changing the typical roles of teacher and student. Marc Prensky, the author of the text, believes that teachers need to prepare their students for the future. He believes that creatively using technological tools as a way to achieve academic goals will give them a better development in a world where technology usage is growing rapidly. He believes that partnering is the way to achieve this. When it comes to partnering in the classroom, some teachers are hesitant in approaching this concept. Marc Prensky, from Chapter 1 of his "Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning," points out that an alternative to direct instruction would be no whole-class lecturing. This would come as a shock to many teachers in public schools that rely heavily on this, but as Prensky points out this is becoming highly ineffective. He believes that the teacher needs to only give students questions to be answered and the tools or places to start. The ownership or responsibility to cover the required curriculum of the class is on the students. This can definitely be met with some resistance as well. Not everyone is willing to try new ways of teaching and some people feel more comfortable with a direct instruction approach. Partnering is never something that can quite happen over night, but will start to change as the way we teach is adapted to the 21st century. At least I can only hope so.
Students can surely adapt to this new way of learning. I, especially, believe that students would be willing to make a larger commitment to their education if they believed they were doing something that could change the world. The power to find out on your own what you need to know and choose the technologies that suit you will give students a sense of autonomy that is often missing a great deal from the classroom. Students want to learn and adapt their knowledge to help aid the future as well as the here and now. As a teacher, I hope to adopt some of these new roles. I think serving as a guide, questioner, and designer of learning is something I should strive for as a young educator.
The great thing about partnering, which I must point out now, is how students' are able to follow their own individual path. They may all be given the same set of questions but how they arrive at the answer or how they present their findings is entirely up to them. They can follow their passions. This is something else I will bring up in another post. We all have passions and these students' in our future classrooms are no different. They should be given the opportunity to explore them because it will give much more meaning to the learning process.
Students can surely adapt to this new way of learning. I, especially, believe that students would be willing to make a larger commitment to their education if they believed they were doing something that could change the world. The power to find out on your own what you need to know and choose the technologies that suit you will give students a sense of autonomy that is often missing a great deal from the classroom. Students want to learn and adapt their knowledge to help aid the future as well as the here and now. As a teacher, I hope to adopt some of these new roles. I think serving as a guide, questioner, and designer of learning is something I should strive for as a young educator.
The great thing about partnering, which I must point out now, is how students' are able to follow their own individual path. They may all be given the same set of questions but how they arrive at the answer or how they present their findings is entirely up to them. They can follow their passions. This is something else I will bring up in another post. We all have passions and these students' in our future classrooms are no different. They should be given the opportunity to explore them because it will give much more meaning to the learning process.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Sir Ken Robinson: Do School's Kill Creativity?
After hearing him lecture, I was intrigued to hear more of Sir Ken Robinson's views on the issues of education. I began to explore more of his videos lately. With the recent discussion I had on the need for creativity in the classroom, I came across this lecture of his from TED in 2006. Again I was very impressed.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Web 2.0 Resource List
Here is an annotated list of all the Web 2.0 Resources that I found interesting and would like to use in my classroom:
Capzles is a site that allows users to upload images, video files, and documents to create an animated timeline that can be shared and annotated. Great for making historical timelines and interactive multimedia presentations with or for your students.
http://animoto.com/education
Capzles is a site that allows users to upload images, video files, and documents to create an animated timeline that can be shared and annotated. Great for making historical timelines and interactive multimedia presentations with or for your students.
CreateDebate is a new social community debate platform. Teachers and
students can use CreateDebate to make and participate in polls and
debates relating to any topic that they choose. It is an easy tool to
use, and one that many educators will find very useful. Users can
create for or against debates as well as perspective or discussion based
debates.
Oh Life is a very simple to use web tool that helps users create online
diaries (or at least that was the intention). Oh Life sends an Email
each day asking you what was going on and when you reply to the Email
the response is cataloged by date as an entry in the digital diary site
that is automatically set up for the user. Users can search by date or
by content. This is a great way to get people blogging or journaling on a
more constant basis. It could also be used for character studies for
English class, a science experiment journal, or so many other things.
A web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos using high end motion design. Each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music. Users can produce, remix, and share as many as they like.
A book centered social network where members can catalog, tag, review, and discuss books. Create virtual bookshelves for books that your students have read and will read. Teachers can use it to recommend books to their students. Allow the students to comment on the books that they have been reading in class and allow them to write their own reviews.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Sir Ken Robinson
The RSA animated feature that I was able to watch on youtube.com was phenomenal. I enjoyed watching the visuals portraying what the speaker was trying to explain. Sir Ken Robinson detailed how education is still based around the enlightenment period and the idea that if you work hard and get good grades you will get a job. However, this is no longer true in these economic times. Also, education reinforces the idea that some are smart while others are not smart. This is reinforced by those that believe our job types determine our level of intelligence, which could not be further from the truth. A gentlemen who makes a living delivering packages and sees a stock broker who has a better living blames it on their lack of intelligence. This is unfortunate because it is not necessarily true, but because education places emphasis on being smart and not smart they are left with no other conclusion.
What really got to me was the mentioning of using medications to alter children's attention, which appears to have a parallel with the growth in standardized test scores. As the need for standardized test scores has grown, so to has the need to prescribe pills that help with ADHD. The need for it also shows trends on a map, as you move close to the East Coast of the United States the more children are diagnosed with this disorder. I cannot stand this truth because I know how easily it is to attribute ADHD as the reason for children not paying attention in class, which sickens me. I was misdiagnosed with the disorder in the 3rd grade and did not get off the medication until my sophomore year of high school. I felt like a zombie and could barely get any sleep. I really blame my teacher in the third grade who recommended to my mother that I speak to a doctor about this potential disorder. The material she was teaching was boring that is why I was distracted. I was probably busy thinking about wanting to go home to play baseball, but no it could not have been that! So, as you might be able to tell I am not a fan of ADHD and Ken Robinson did a wonderful job in showing how drugs (Ritalin, Concerta, etc.) are being used to help boost the all important standardized test scores.
What really got to me was the mentioning of using medications to alter children's attention, which appears to have a parallel with the growth in standardized test scores. As the need for standardized test scores has grown, so to has the need to prescribe pills that help with ADHD. The need for it also shows trends on a map, as you move close to the East Coast of the United States the more children are diagnosed with this disorder. I cannot stand this truth because I know how easily it is to attribute ADHD as the reason for children not paying attention in class, which sickens me. I was misdiagnosed with the disorder in the 3rd grade and did not get off the medication until my sophomore year of high school. I felt like a zombie and could barely get any sleep. I really blame my teacher in the third grade who recommended to my mother that I speak to a doctor about this potential disorder. The material she was teaching was boring that is why I was distracted. I was probably busy thinking about wanting to go home to play baseball, but no it could not have been that! So, as you might be able to tell I am not a fan of ADHD and Ken Robinson did a wonderful job in showing how drugs (Ritalin, Concerta, etc.) are being used to help boost the all important standardized test scores.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Hello
Hey EVERYBODY and Kyle,
This is my first time blogging and I am not really sure what to say other than the fact that I am enjoying this class so far and think it will be an invaluable tool towards making me a better teacher.
I feel my biggest reason for taking this class is that my subject matter, social studies, is often taught through presentations and lecture with very little integration of technology. I hope to enhance my students learning with the new tools I find.
This is my first time blogging and I am not really sure what to say other than the fact that I am enjoying this class so far and think it will be an invaluable tool towards making me a better teacher.
I feel my biggest reason for taking this class is that my subject matter, social studies, is often taught through presentations and lecture with very little integration of technology. I hope to enhance my students learning with the new tools I find.
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