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.