As a learner, I believe it is important to take risks and try new things. If what I am trying does not work, then I know I am still learning and growing from the task at hand. I believe in hard work and never giving up. By continuing my learning, collaborating with others and being passionate about what I am working on, I will be improving and growing as an educator. I believe teaching is one of the most valuable and rewarding careers a person could ever choose to pursue because it requires you to be a lifelong learner, always looking to progress. I am currently expanding my learning by continuing my education in the Digital Learning and Leading program offered at Lamar University. I chose this program because technology is continuing to grow exponentially and I hope to learn more about how I can use technology as a useful learning and teaching tool, how my students can use technology for learning and to share my learning with others about how technology is beneficial especially in education.
To help students access information and use technology within our classroom, I have created this website, where I have resources available to my students to expand their learning. I also have created pages within the site to share my learning with other educators. As with technology, this is a continually developing project, as I am learning and expanding my understanding of digital learning and leading. This will be my platform to organize helpful resources for my students, to reflect on my learning though blog posts, and to collaborate with other educators by sharing my learning and asking for others' feedback.
One issue with digital learning today is that technology is new and always changing so people are often scared or less likely to try something new and different from what has been “working” for many years. This hesitation makes it difficult to lead others as well. When you are collaborating and others are objective to the change, it can make it difficult to make transformations to the systems within your organization. As educators continue to step outside the box, trying new approaches, integrating technology and sharing their experiences of how digital learning is working in their classrooms, I believe that we can relieve some of the nerves of using technology and implement it in a productive way. Technology is growing at such an exponential rate that we need to learn and share from each other in order to continue our own growth and development as educators in the 21st century. If we refuse to integrate technology and teach students its impacts, we are only holding them back in their future.
I believe education is at a turning point. Many teachers are learning that the traditional “industrial teaching” approach to instruction (Godin, 2012), is not helping students to be prepared for the world outside of the classroom. As Godin says in the TEDx Stop Stealing Dreams, we need to ask "What is school for?" with each lesson and project we are asking our students to do. By the time the students I am currently teaching are looking for jobs, there will be new jobs that I don’t even know exist yet. As seen in the film Most Likely to Succeed, some teachers and some schools are changing their approach to education to help students become 21st century learners. This change is in the works but there are still many that are not ready to make the transition. It is an educator’s job to teach students to be problem solvers, creators and innovators. We should teach them to collaborate, be creative, test theories, share learning and to try again. We should teach students how to gain information, not tell them what they should be learning. For a student to just complete an assignment requested by the teacher, the student may have little ownership of their work and just do what is asked of them. But by giving students the opportunity to create something new that they can share with the world, that relates to their world, students will begin to take ownership of their work. They will learn what it means to work together and collaborate, to dig deeper in their learning, to become engaged in their learning and to feel proud of the work they are producing. It is our job to prepare them for the future, even when we don’t know what jobs we are preparing them for. This work can start within the classroom, and at a very young age.
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I believe that with technology today, we have all the resources we need to meet all the different types of learners right at our fingertips. One way I hope to reach all of my students is to develop and begin implementing a flipped classroom design, as well as a time within the classroom for students to create projects and share their learning with the community. I will create Personal learning Profiles (PLP), as described by Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey in Make Learning Personal, for my students to find out how they learn best and then modify my lessons both in the classroom as well as digitally so they can learn from home. By flipping my classroom, I will become the facilitator at school and will allow my students to apply what they are learning within a project or performance. My goal is to start implementing this with a single subject at a time such as our phonics lessons until eventually most lessons in all subject areas are flipped. This would also allow for more time in the classroom for students to apply their learning (by practicing reading when learning phonics at home) as well as create projects they are passionate about and to teach students 21st century skills. Using the PLPs, I will learn what students are interested in and modify our classroom around what students are interested in learning about using technology to discover, learn, share and create.
Technology is limitless and will continue to grow and develop just as people are learning and improving themselves. My hope for my students is that I can instill life long learners and problem solvers within them. Students who want to help make a difference in the world and can be productive citizens with an understanding of how technology can help with their learning, growing, creativity and sharing in their lives. I hope students will be excited to learn and problem solve, enjoy life and to continue their learning and growing beyond the classroom walls.
Technology is limitless and will continue to grow and develop just as people are learning and improving themselves. My hope for my students is that I can instill life long learners and problem solvers within them. Students who want to help make a difference in the world and can be productive citizens with an understanding of how technology can help with their learning, growing, creativity and sharing in their lives. I hope students will be excited to learn and problem solve, enjoy life and to continue their learning and growing beyond the classroom walls.
TEDxYouth. (2012, Oct 16). Stop stealing dreams: Set Godin at tedxyouth@bfs. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXpbONjV1Jc
OnePotatoProductions. (Producers), & Whiteley, G. (Director). (2015). Most likely to succeed. [Motion Picture]. United States.
Bray, B., & McClaskey, K. (2014, June 6). PErsonalize your learning environment. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/explore/articledetail?articleid=11
OnePotatoProductions. (Producers), & Whiteley, G. (Director). (2015). Most likely to succeed. [Motion Picture]. United States.
Bray, B., & McClaskey, K. (2014, June 6). PErsonalize your learning environment. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/explore/articledetail?articleid=11