Education and
learning are ever-progressing; it is a necessity because people are constantly
progressing as well; it is in our nature. The goal of education is to help
foster life-long learners and to ultimately, drive people towards what they are
passionate about and allow them to express themselves. Education is about respect and understanding:
on the part of both the teacher and the student.
As an educator, it
is my job to facilitate the needs of the students. Not every student is going
to be interested in what I am passionate about, and that is okay! My job is to
ensure that they can still take in the information I present and to do so in a
way that helps them achieve their goals. To paraphrase Sir Ken Robinson,
education is about passion. We need to move away from industrial education and
move on to an agricultural process. We must create conditions under which
students can begin to flourish. It is extremely important that
we personalize education to the people we are teaching!
I am a strong supporter of
independent learning and project-based learning because of this. I think that
students learn better when they are engaged. I don’t think many people will
argue that point. Students learn best by doing, and doing things that they are
most passionate about multiplies that effect. If they use the information that
I give them and evaluate it in a way that is most comfortable for them, they
are more likely to retain the information. This outcome is far more preferable
than just regurgitating what I told them and forgetting it shortly afterwards.
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| Aristotle and Confucius believed in hands on learning: it can't be that bad! |
I cannot claim to
be passionate about something, and not be excited about it as well. That is
something that I bring to any learning environment I am in. If I am not excited
about my subject, history, then why is anyone else? The way I facilitate
education is equally as important as what I help facilitate! As an educator, I
also need to make sure that I stay involved in modern society and keep up with
the ever-changing technological advances, because, students know when something
is archaic.
Technology can help us turn education
into a democracy, not a dictatorship; as it is in many classrooms today.
Learning is fluid, and each child is different. Technology helps us realize
that, and utilize each child's strength. It gives every child an outlet. You
have a shy child who fears speaking aloud in class? Technology can help them
still have a voice in the community until they learn to become comfortable with
the classroom, like with programs like Padlet. Technology can help students keep track of their homework, with
teachers posting things on a personal website, or programs like Powerschool or Blackboard.
The options are only limited by what humanity creates, and with the rate we are
going, that seems endless.
Education should be organic, and help
humanity achieve everything that it is capable of. Learning doesn’t end outside
of my classroom or outside of the school walls. We learn for the entirety of
our lives. My job, as an educator, is to provide students with tools and
resources to foster that, and to help them continue to learn long after they
are in my classroom.
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