As I approach the end of my
undergraduate degree, some may think that I am almost done with my education,
but this is not the case. Just because I am ending one chapter of my learning
experience doesn’t mean that I am done learning in general.
Both of
these picture explain exactly what I am talking about when it comes to me not
being done learning. These quotes show that even though I am going to
physically be done learning in a formal setting, I do not know everything that
I need to know about the world around me.
With this being said, there is still so much I need to learn about the
world, myself and my teaching. While reflecting deeper on these quotes and the
idea of lifelong learning that Aviva Dunsiger presents in her teaching blog, I was able
to come to terms with the idea that in life we tend to think that we need to
get to a specific end point and sometimes when individuals are so focused on
the end they forget to focus on the present and the importance of what they are
doing and learning now.
Thinking
back to my last blog where I posted about the child who had no motivation to
learn maybe this is where I was going wrong, as I tried to encourage him to
want to learn for his future. Maybe what I should have done instead is tried to
motivate him to learn for now and every day of his life. I think this is
important because we need to connect students to the here and now, rather than
just having them focus on what their end goal is. This does not mean that I do
not think it is important to have goals, but I think that in classrooms we need
to make sure we teach our students how to make goals, while not getting caught
up on the idea of just reaching the goal and forgetting about all the lessons
and experiences they have gone through to reach their goal. So, maybe I should have talked more to this
student about why the concepts we were talking about were important for him now
and how he could apply them in his world today, while communicating and working
together to learn.
With
all this being said, what does everyone think about showing students that you
are not perfect and do not know everything as the teacher. Or stepping back and
allowing yourself to learn from the student? How important do you think it is
to open up communication with your students, in order to help them with their
journey and their ever changing destinations?
I
believe that it is important to show students that you as the teacher do not
know everything and you are going to make mistakes too. I think that when
teacher’s show their students that they are still learning too, they can teach
their students about lifelong learning and let them know that throughout life
they themselves and their students are going to have experiences that shape and
reshape the path and the goals in which each individual has. I also feel that
it is important to open up a good line of communication with students and truly
listen to what the students are saying they want and need because both the
students and teacher can learn from each other.
As a
result of my reflection of the idea of lifelong learning, I have come to terms
with the fact that I myself and my students are going to continually be
learning and experiencing things that are going to change our ideas of
different concepts. I also realized that none of us our perfect and we all have
to be willing to listen and learn from each other. So, in my future practice I
want to model and teach my students to reach for their goals, while also
enjoying and learning from the experiences they have now and every day in their
future.
Excellent point Katie! Learning truly is something that is life long and I believe we are always growing and shaping. This is especially prevalent for teachers since we are constantly changing our approach based on curriculum expectation and changes, resource we are given, the needs of our students, and anything else that may come our way and impact our ability to teach!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point about recognizing our mistakes in front of our students. I think it is important for students to see that we all make mistakes but that we learn from our mistakes and are not ashamed to make them. Perhaps this is where the fear of making mistakes comes from, because often teachers who make a mistake either ignore it or attempt to justify it oppose to simply embracing it. I think if more teachers were willing to accept their mistakes and model to students how to grow from and accept those mistakes it will motivate students who struggle in school and lack motivation to participate if the classroom fosters growth from mistakes rather than displaying them as embarrassing.
Great post Katie!
Katie,
ReplyDeleteI fully agree that learning occurs outside of formal education. I think that we will learn more once we enter the field then we have in the 4 years of our undergrad. There are so many things that you cannot fully understand or learn until you have experienced it. I know many theories related to education, however I have never led a class, or had to deal with a difficult student, or adapt lesson plans for a student with exceptionalities, and I feel until we actually encounter these things we will not fully understand them or know how to deal with them. This reiterates the fact that we are constantly learning, whether we realize it or not.
Addressing the questions that you posed, I believe that it is important that students know that everyone makes mistakes and that no one is perfect. I feel as though when students understand this they will feel less shame and disappointment when they make mistakes themselves. I believe that it is imperative that we, as educators, learn from our students. In fact, I think that it is impossible to be an educator and not learn from your students. It is incredibly important to have open communication with your students! Without open communication your students they may not feel as though they can come to you with problems.
Learning is a lifelong journey for everyone. The expression ‘you learn something new everyday’ is no joke!
I really enjoyed the discussions that you and Aviva have had surrounding the idea of lifelong learning. I love the fact that we never stop learning. I find that it can be so easy to fall back into the thinking that learning takes place in a formal classroom setting through the transfer of information from teacher to student. Learning is so much more than that! It’ not just the academic content, but its life skills, new experiences and much of this is captured outside the education curriculum through the 21st century literacies. Education and learning has so many different dimensions and layers, yet is such a simple beautiful process. In this regard being an educator is such a privilege. For some students, the excitement that their teacher has for learning can be what they need to be excited about their own learning.
ReplyDeleteHi Katie: You have touched on one of the crucial issues in education. how do we inspire or enable intrinsic motivation (as it is the only thing that will carry on into lifelong learning). The only thing I know for sure is that the goal needs to be relevant for the student. You have an interesting analysis about the importance of process and product. I wonder if we need to realize that teacher-made goals are so different from student-created goals but that also the goals will change on the way. Great connections with Aviva. Relevant images.
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