How do my own Beliefs and Views Impact on my Learners?

School in the Clouds

Gone are the days where learning is confined to the four walls of the classroom and went as far as what was in the teacher's mind. When the internet arrived it broke down those walls and opened the playing field to anyone who dared seek to find or ask a question.  

I believe every teacher, every person could learn from watching this. It has shaped my own practice and teaching and still does to this day. 

It is a reminder for us as teachers, that we are not the be-all and end-all. That we should not have all the answers nor want to give all the answers. That ultimately the aim of a teacher should be to make themselves needed less, not more. I like the term that we are teachers of thinking. Thinking is problem-solving - The key to self-driven learning.

It’s funny because the curriculum talks about the vision of creating life long learning. Yet life long learning is connected to passions, interests, self-motivation, questioning; however, the conventional curriculum promotes the opposite. It creates answerers, not questioners. 

I think the first step to changing our system starts with us - the teachers - and our mindsets… 

I have been taking professional development for Book Creator and using it for Literacy and I just wanted to share a conversation I recently had with a teacher in regards to this. It shows how relevant and important Sugata's points are.

Teacher:  “When am I supposed to have time to learn this? My students already have enough to do, how are they going to learn all this as well?”

My Response: “You don’t actually need to know how, all you need to do, is provide the opportunity. You will find they teach themselves.”

Teacher:   “I’m not giving my students something that I can’t help them with or give them the answer if they ask a question. Our kids already have anxieties and issues and I’m not adding to their stress.”  

My point is that what Sugata talks about is very real and still part of the mindset in which we need to let go and change. This clip would be beneficial for all, in the hope to spark thought and reflect on our own teaching practice and understand how we don't need to know everything in order to teach it. 

We are shortchanging our kids if we don't teach something, just because we don't know.

I think we have to be careful as teachers that we are not imposing our own views and anxieties on our students. This is dangerous waters and this clip is a good reminder to us all that it is ok to not know. Just relax and roll with it. 

The change in mindset comes from logic - The purpose of school and learning is to prepare us for our future. In a job you never have to ‘remember and recite 20 facts about Egypt,’ and it’s not just because I might have no interest in 
Egypt that I might not actually engage or learn. 

It’s that the focus is on the wrong thing...  

In a job, you don't have to remember 20 facts of Egypt, but you do need to know how to access that information, scan information, search for keywords and compare and interpret that information in your own words. You need to then know how to present that information in a range of ways with awareness for the audience and how you will present or display your findings will change depending on the purpose and purpose and audience. 

I have seen this video over half and a dozen times and it still makes me think every time. I continuously reflect and remind myself to step out of my comfort zone and explore the unknown and know, that too not know, is ok...

Here is a classic example of Kids' teaching themselves. I showed a student a video I had made at an advisory using a story. I did not teach how to do it and had intentions of teaching it next time as we had run out of time. So what does that student do... He gets his Nan and then spends pretty much every possible hour, up till after midnight teaching themselves how to do it and made this: It almost made me cry with how proud I was. 

Johnathon's Hunting Story