http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiD1UqLPrOg
This has been the week of revelation for me! First of all I think I have officially decided I am a "half-millenial". I sort of fit but not completely, I am addicted to my facebook account and my husband and I don't even have a landline phone. I get irritated when a website I frequent doesn't have a blackberry application, and I am currently loading up my ipod! However, I tend to be fearful of group learning and tend to want to be independant. I am also still holding on to the idea that paper and pencil learning is good--isn't it?
The video from youtube did make me feel better about my teaching up to this point. I was teaching the way I was taught. I thought adding in a powerpoint assignment or a publisher assignment was teaching with technology--NOT! I now see that these are as outdated as my Dad's motorolla bag phone he is still angry about not being able to use anymore.
I am committed to going back into my classroom in the fall with a new focus on technology and how it can work for me. Blogging, activstudio flipcharts, and maybe even twitter are going to be my new staples. Do not fear I am not throwing out the standards, I am still very aware of the importance of testing and NCLB--but I am going to work hard to engage my students in ways that are meaningful to them and that hopefully have a positive affect on their learning. Youtube is my new BFF--what a wonderful wealth of information and entertainment all at one's fingertips.
Last but not least, I am done complaining about kids not engaging, and complaining, etc. I realize now why they were doing such things and am going to do my best to meet their challenge. Yes I realize it may not all be roses--but I can certainly aim for at least for being a 20 3/4 century teacher versus what may now seem like 19th century teaching!
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That was a great video. I saw a perfect example of this today when I picked up my daughter from summer school. I asked how school was and she said they were hardly in the building all morning. I asked where they were. She said the whole class spent the morning at the Zoo (she is taking biology) doing experiments and yes - worksheets- but these were only able to be answered by exploring the animals and exhibits and not answers from a textbook. What a great idea. Maybe teaching differently and engaging students doesn't have to involve a computer.
ReplyDeleteThis assignment was also good for me. I was explaining millennials to a 21yr old I used to coach and he said "yeah that sounds like me". One of the biggest parts that stuck out to me was the fact they feel they should get partial credit for wrong answers or trying. Not even 10min later we were doing a drill at basketball workouts and a kid from the team that lost the drill says "we got 5, don't we get anything for that?" I turned to the 21yr old helping me and said "see that is a perfect example of a millennial". It is scary to think how much things have changed in the 10 years since I graduated from high school and where we will be in another 10 years. My personal feeling is a lot of people will be driven out of the field because they are too rigid to adapt to the ever changing student body and their need to be engaged all the time.
ReplyDeleteYes, I too agree that video was eye-opening. Most of us teach the way we do because that is how we were taught. We have to realize that when we were in school to now is a lot of time and differences in education. We cannot just throw on a PowerPoint Presentation anymore and excite our kids. We need to use online sites and new technology to keep up with them. If we don’t, we will have behavior problems because kids will get bored and do their favorite things they do to annoy us. Technology is a wonderful way to use new programs, teaching styles, and help prevent behavior issues.
ReplyDeleteThere are some many teaching tools available for teachers who want to diversify their teaching to include technological aspects. As we learned this week in class students learn so much better using mediums that they are use to using such as computers, iPods, and e-mailing. Like you, I am going to look into incorporating other forms of technological media into my lessons. I guess it is time to cycle away from the traditional teaching of the past and phase in teaching using technology as the major facilitator of knowledge to students. It is also important to keep some aspects of the traditional method of teaching because these methods are proven and do work to some extent in educating students.
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