Day 4

    We watched some good clips today of leaders in the education field, Sir Ken Robinson and Dan Pink. Both showed interesting insight into education today. Sir Ken believes, as I do, that learning is an organic process and needs to change from the "fast food" approach. We need to personalize education because every student is different and the cookie cutter approach is not working. In my classroom I will take an integrative approach to teaching, and my students voice will be heard. When students have to show me what they've learned, they will be the ones deciding how it's presented. It could be a creative movie, or an essay; anyway a student feels they can show their creativity and knowledge at the same time. Furthermore, Sir Ken says we need to tread softly when dealing with students because they are still dreaming and we don't want to take that away from them. That is something I never want to be accused of doing. I am here to support my students in whatever field they want to go in, regardless of what I think. So often teachers will give their advice when all a student needs is somebody to listen to them and not judge. That is the type of teacher I want to be and hope that I succeed.
     Dan Pink discussed motivation, which was also talked about in our child psychology class. I believe that there is no such thing as an unmotivated child; we just haven't found what motivates them. When students choose their path and have a voice in their education they will be more engaged and take a pride in their work. It's our job as educators to be their guide and take an Aussie approach and loosen our control we have over our students. I want to have a freethinking classroom where ideas are expressed with a feeling that they will be wrong. I will let students be creative and express themselves without fear. They will be self-directed learners and take charge of their own education.
     We also did a bit on digital storytelling, which is another great tool for students. It's one that will be available to my students when they do a project or presentation. I will definitely be looking into that more so I'm more of an expert than my students, if possible.