Ramble #15

Greetings! This is my final blog post for the Internet For Educators course! We have come a long way! As we all think towards graduation I think this week's video should reflect that...

This week's talk from Dean Shareski from Discovery Education was great!

One of the things he mentioned that resonated with me was the fact that teachers are increasingly tasked with not just teaching content but also providing social-emotional needs. He stressed the point that it is important that new teachers understand that they are so much more then just content delivery vehicles. They need to be passionate about working with and for children. To this point, I completely agree. As we have learned in this Education program teachers are social welfare agents just as much as they are "teachers". 

He also talked about the idea of bringing wonder and curiosity into the classrooms as much as possible. He pointed to the fact that the best teachers are the ones who model curiosity and wonder to their students. Essentially, if we as teachers claim to be "life-long learners", we must actually follow through with this claim. Students that see their teacher wondering and learning everyday will be inspired. We need to figure out the best ways to model this behaviour for our students. Personally, I agree, but I think that a lot of teachers have big trouble being vulnerable enough to admit to their students that they "don't know".   

I think it is so cool that Dean takes a "photo a day". That is honestly something that I might consider doing in the future. It is a mindful practice in itself. It forces you to slow down and notice things that you may not have noticed before. Additionally, it takes wonder and curiosity to find new and interesting things to take a photo of each day. 

Lastly, he mentioned the notion that schools often miss out on the opportunity to create and foster a community. He believes that teachers nowadays should focus more and more on building a community of social learners in their classes rather than just delivering content. Students no longer need teachers to learn content because it is all on the internet, right in their hands. Therefore, teachers should strive to transition their efforts more towards building strong relationships with their students and relationships among students in your class. I completely agree!

Until next time,

Justin