An Open Letter to Educators
I, like Morgan, cannot stand lecture, listen, and take notes classes. I am a Socratic learner. I need to be able to bounce ideas off instructors and students to fully learn. Granted I can memorize and "burp back" information very well. I am a flash card making fool, as I like to say. But I do not like to learn that way because I feel like nothing is retained.
There is no way I would have dropped out of school like Dan Brown. Granted I find his annoyance validated, but dropping out did not solve anything. I think I'll follow his other videos and see how it has worked out for him. Like I have said a thousand times in past blogs I have considered just throwing the towel in on this college thing. But its not what I want for my life.
Don't Let Them Take the Pencil's Home
I liked the metaphorical pencil. In my brain I thought the pencil could be replaced with laptop, iPad, iPhone, etc. Anything a student does not have at home and they see in school or anywhere they immediatly think "Oh cool, what can I do with this?". That exploration and play often leads to learning. Just because the student is not using a tool in a structured maner does not mean it is mindless play. Often when I am comfronted with something new my immediate response is to mess around with it and see what I can do with the object and how it works.
A topic that keeps arising in these blog assignments is standardized testing nd test scores. The land of education is so caught up in test scores that students are no longer people. Instead they have been dehumanized into, as Mr. Johnson said, drill and kill test takers and score producers. I, as a future educator, want to keep my students human. I want them to learn and not memorize and vomit. This, in part, is the reason I chose language arts. There is so much up for interpretation in literature and I want my students to know how to think and learn.
Two Questions That Can Change Your Life
What's my sentence? What a crazy thought, putting myself in a sentence. A great thought though. My sentence is "I will teach children how to use their own minds to interpret literary works, also to unleash their own literary creative ablilities." I want my students to look back and say "Wow, she loved and cared for me. I learned so much from her."
I really agree with your comment about not learning in a lecture type of environment because I find it very difficult to learn that way. I want to interact with my teachers and other classmates. I didn't really agree with the thought on Mr. Johnson's blog post because technology shouldn't be the main thing in education. Technology can fail and having being able to teach the "old fashion" way is something I want to be able to do.
ReplyDeleteI think we all get frustrated at times with the amount of information we use and lose just for school. I also like how you incorporated laptops, iPads, and iPhones in comparison to things students not have access to at home. Your sentence is also creative and it is surprisingly hard to sum yourself up in a sentence. Good Luck with your classes.
ReplyDeleteSharon,
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you are not "throwing in the towel on this thing." College is definitely worth it, and I know you will succeed if you keep up the work and have a positive attitude. I too like discussion in a classroom. It is interesting you mentioned Socrates because I was just reading about his questioning technique used in the classroom. I didn't even realize that this was one way I learned.
I also like to pick up new tools and figure out how to use them. I definitely agree that students should be interpreting and discussing. When there is interaction, learning has to take place. I am also an English major so I completely get your point!
I love your sentence! I hope my future students will be able to say the same thing about me. I cannot wait to get in a classroom and start helping students find their way. Have you ever seen the movie Freedom Writers? I aspire to be that teacher!