Irony
There's been a lot of talk about 21st Century Learning and Personalized learning. My favourite quotes from last night at the Education and Program Standing Committee meeting were "Learning styles are as diverse as fingerprints." and "Teaching is the most complex job on the face of the earth."
I found it ironic this morning while in French when a international student from Germany asked if he could use his phone as a dictionary because we don't have German-French dictionaries in the class. The teacher who I shall not name, but am not very fond of sounded appalled "Absolutely not!". I find it quite interesting how there has been so much talk about technology in the classroom and how can we take it to the next level, yet something as simple as using a cellphone for educational purposes is absolutely unacceptable.
We talked today in DSLC about keeping balance between technology use and still focusing on the fundamentals and relationship building. We discussed how it's crucial that teachers encourage teamwork and using diverse personalities to our advantage. It has been proven that students learn great deals from each other, so collaboration is very beneficial, yet this same teacher refuses to let us talk to each other. This is outrageous; we're learning a second language in silence. You are not to speak at all, it's like we're learning sign language.
Teachers have a revolution to create before this "21st Century Learning" ideals are reached. Here is a list that we came up with today of things we need to see from our teachers:
- engaging students to the global world
- assignments being able 24/7 and accessible anywhere
- creating balance between fundamental skills, technology and personal relationships
- flexible curriculum that works with for a variety of diverse students
- a Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
AND all this, while the budget is rapidly decreasing. All this while the class sizes are sky rocketing. And what I find the worst- all these young teachers who are passionate about changing the education system, and all the young teachers who are innovative and creative being laid off while the old, pen and paper, textbook teachers are continuing to teach the way they like- not what's best for the students.
Anyways.... on a lighter note here is a treat from Ben Lee. I love this song- it's a breath of fresh air, with every song these days revolving around sex, drugs and alcohol.
I found it ironic this morning while in French when a international student from Germany asked if he could use his phone as a dictionary because we don't have German-French dictionaries in the class. The teacher who I shall not name, but am not very fond of sounded appalled "Absolutely not!". I find it quite interesting how there has been so much talk about technology in the classroom and how can we take it to the next level, yet something as simple as using a cellphone for educational purposes is absolutely unacceptable.
We talked today in DSLC about keeping balance between technology use and still focusing on the fundamentals and relationship building. We discussed how it's crucial that teachers encourage teamwork and using diverse personalities to our advantage. It has been proven that students learn great deals from each other, so collaboration is very beneficial, yet this same teacher refuses to let us talk to each other. This is outrageous; we're learning a second language in silence. You are not to speak at all, it's like we're learning sign language.
Teachers have a revolution to create before this "21st Century Learning" ideals are reached. Here is a list that we came up with today of things we need to see from our teachers:
- engaging students to the global world
- assignments being able 24/7 and accessible anywhere
- creating balance between fundamental skills, technology and personal relationships
- flexible curriculum that works with for a variety of diverse students
- a Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
AND all this, while the budget is rapidly decreasing. All this while the class sizes are sky rocketing. And what I find the worst- all these young teachers who are passionate about changing the education system, and all the young teachers who are innovative and creative being laid off while the old, pen and paper, textbook teachers are continuing to teach the way they like- not what's best for the students.
Anyways.... on a lighter note here is a treat from Ben Lee. I love this song- it's a breath of fresh air, with every song these days revolving around sex, drugs and alcohol.
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