It's not the destination, it's the journey

      As this course comes to a close, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the kind of teacher I want to be, and the way I will run my future classroom. I’ve talked on this blog in the past about the importance of preparing students for “the real world”, giving them plenty of authentic experiences, whenever possible. In lecture, Dr. Lane spoke about engaging students as partners in their own learning. As necessary as it is that teachers maintain that position of authority in their classroom, I absolutely agree with the idea that students should have a sense of agency in the direction their education takes. When teachers and students work together, amazing things can happen. When I think back to some of the memorable moments from my elementary school years, the times that come to mind are those where we were either allowed to have significant input in to the lesson, or when we were able to actively engage with the material in some unique way. 

      It’s all well and good to get caught up in grand ideas of inspiring students and making their education a positive experience, but in order to accomplish this, it’s necessary to get some perspective. One of the most important concepts I’ve learned about in this course is the role Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings play in 21st century teaching and learning. Planning out a curriculum unit has been such valuable practice this term, as I got to see, step by step, just how to convey those Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings, which, at first glance, seem like intimidating concepts to have to teach to elementary school children. Backward design makes so much more sense, and honestly is what put my mind at ease. Rather than jumping around from big idea, to the most minute lesson plan detail and back again, it presents a logical way to step by step lay out an entire curriculum in a way that not only makes sense, but that will keep you on track for the rest of the unit. 

(Murphy, 2007)

      That is perhaps the most practical, and useful thing I will take away from this course, but it’s not the part of teaching I’m most excited for. As I’ve said in past blog posts, I love getting my students excited, meaning that I was thrilled when we talked about Inquiry based learning in lecture. 

(Crombie, 2014)

      This is so precisely what I loved as a student, when someone would say, off-hand, “I wonder why/how/what/where/when/who…” and that would spark a discussion that sometimes even led to a whole project. Some teachers even had these kind of projects already planned into the unit, allowing us to take an idea and run with it however we chose. The final end product in these instances isn’t even the point usually, but it’s the learning that occurs along the way, the surprises and the “oh, I didn’t know that!” moments that happen. 

     In this sense, I suppose I really do take a constructivist view when it comes to teaching, which, it was comforting to learn, is preferable in the modern classroom. What we've talked about this term, with regards to the importance of multiple literacies and meaning-making has really struck a chord with me, and despite some doubts about teaching I've had, that I'm sure many of my fellow teacher candidates have experienced given the current job market, it's topics like these that remind me why I want to teach in the first place. 

     I'd like to finish off this blog post with an anecdote that I feel really summarizes a lot of what we've talked about in this course over the past few months. 
    
     In the summer, I work in a preschool, helping out in the different classrooms as needed. Last year, one of the children commented on the number of caterpillars on the playground outside at recess. He then asked one of the teachers why they never saw any baby caterpillars. When the teacher responded that those were, in fact, the babies, and that they would turn into butterflies soon, the little boy was shocked and ran off to tell his friends. The teachers and myself naturally found this to be very funny, but one teacher then took it a step further. The next week, she proposed to our supervisor that we order a butterfly kit, and the whole school would take part in this inquiry-based project. Caterpillars were delivered to us with the necessary supplies to see them all the way through their life cycle, hopefully so that we would be able to release them as monarch butterflies. 

(Monarch, 2014)

      The children took part in the daily care for the caterpillars, giving them food and water, and we tied in so many different lessons to this topic, including reading, counting, and science, among others. We even had a school field trip to the library, where we not only found books about butterflies for the children to read, but taught them how to use a library and find books as well. Unfortunately, our caterpillars never made it past the cocoon stage, but it didn't matter. The children were so excited to come in and learn everyday, that I really got to see what was meant by the saying "it's not the destination that matters, it's the journey." 

      I have very much enjoyed this journey the past few months, and look forward to taking with me the lessons I've learned about teaching 21st century skills in a meaningful way to my students. 

Learn Always in All Ways

A concept teacher candidates are often faced with today (so far as my experience has shown so far anyways) is this idea of the “modern classroom”. We must be “prepared to teach in the modern classroom”, to know what to expect, what’s expected of us, and so on. What is the modern classroom though? It’s a rather ambiguous term, which, when taken at face value, can simply be referring to the place where we will be conducting our teaching. When considered more abstractly however, things get interesting. 

So far as I have been able to determine, the modern classroom is a context in which we can prepare our students for the outside world, to help them understand the time and place in which they are growing up, and to create responsible citizens. 

Here, again, we have a rather vague term in “responsible citizens”. To me, this means that I would like to inspire my students to not just want to understand society, but to want to participate and be the next movers and shakers. I hope that I am able to show them that they don’t have to simply passively function, but that they can contribute and interact with all of the activity that surrounds them, on a local and global scale. Given the discussions I’ve had with my fellow teacher candidates, I’m not alone in this.

Okay, that’s a nice idea, but how do we do that?

(Bradfoks, 2015)

cultureandcommunityliterature.wordpress.com

The idea of being a fully literate member of society seems to encompass that ideal rather nicely. Multiple literacies have been identified and are still being identified, and integrating curriculums to cross subjects and teach on a broader scale seems to be the best way to accomplish the afore-mentioned goal. There are so many different literacies that touch on such a wide range of topics that it would be impossible to cover them all properly in just one blog post. Dr. Joie Austria (2016) does a wonderful idea of introducing the topic here: http://joieaustria.blogspot.ca/2016/01/what-is-literacy-but-most-importantly_31.html

What seems to be the main concept behind them all though, is the idea of being informed. It’s the idea that you never stop learning, nor should you, that there is so much that occurs on a daily basis that to be the ideal responsible citizen, you should make the effort to know what is happening in the world around you, and to know how to interpret what is happening. It’s the idea that you have a responsibility to make meaning of what’s put in front of you, and equipping yourself with the necessary resources to accomplish this effectively. 

(Austria, 2016)

http://joieaustria.blogspot.ca/2016/01/what-is-literacy-but-most-importantly_31.html 

The more I’ve learned about multiple literacies, and the evolving meaning of the word “literacy”, the more I’ve become convinced that this is the exact right direction education need to move in. Because really, that’s not how students have been taught (for the most part) is it? Absolutely there are plenty of amazing examples of teachers who have done this, who have managed to create an authentic, rich learning experience for their students. But when I think back on my own educational experience, I don’t know that I encountered the idea of multiple literacies and deeper understandings very often. 

Rather than being disappointed by this, it makes me excited. I want my students to be familiar with the idea of being connected to society, to understanding a single issue on multiple levels, and because I don’t feel that I personally experienced this, I want to do it well. I feel motivated to go above and beyond, and to help create the next generation of teachers for whom this idea of multiple literacies will be commonplace, and even expected. 

(Sue, 2016)

https://www.emaze.com/@AOQZRTTR/Multiple-Literacy-Strategies-copy1 

So going back to my question of how do we do this? ….I really don’t know yet, but I am so excited to find out. I think the best thing we can do is keep our minds open to learning. Learning in every form possible, whether it’s through reading, talking, listening, and above all else EXPERIENCING. If we can model for our students the kind of authentic engagement in our societies that we hope to see from them, I believe we can honestly say that we have done all we can. And then we see if we can’t try to do a little bit more.

I'm Back! New Year, New Course

I am so excited to be back on this blog, and look forward to adding more of my thoughts over this term! 

Last class we watched a video that I had seen several times before for other education classes, but was more than happy to view again.

This video, which explored the educational system today, voiced a lot of the doubts that I have felt, both as a student and as a future teacher. The way students are viewed in many classrooms by the powers that be tends to be more of a product, like something that is tinkered with and shipped out, as though the school was a factory. The classroom is no place for mass-production, and I am all for taking an individualized approach, putting the student's needs first.

Another concept I really enjoyed that we discussed was this idea of multiple literacies. I admit that walking into this class, which is supposed to focus on the topic of literacy,  I rolled my eyes, thinking that I was going to have to sit through a few hours of reading and writing tips. I was pleasantly surprised however, to find that we were going to look at literacy in a broader sense, exploring the different kinds of literacies and what this means in the modern classroom. Just as the idea of the "classroom" is expanding to include, essentially, the whole world, this definition of literacy has expanded as well. I look forward to seeing exactly what this means, as I really don't know yet, but I love the idea of it and can't wait to learn more!