Trautwein

URL:  http://wedderburn-college.blogspot.com/

Anne Baird, in her blog entitled "Being Creative" writes, "This morning I went into the Grade 3/4 classroom. We began yesterday by setting up a wiki for the kids to create and post their ideas and reflections about what they are doing in class. In planning for this session I had a chat with Tanya, the class teacher and she told me that every Tuesday afternoon she challenges the students to be more creative by having them design, create, problem solve and produce an article or plan that addresses a particular problem or issue that she poses. For example she has asked them to design the best handbag for a teacher, or a farmer or a carpenter...As she was telling me about this I firstly thought- what a fabulous teacher- someone who values creativity and expressive thought and gives it the due time that it needs. It's no surprise to me that Tanya was once a pre-school teacher. But I also thought about how we could use the wiki as a repository for their ideas. We could scan the ideas that the children draw. We could have students descibe and explain their plans and upload the audio files. We record students demonstrating their inventions. I'm really excited about what we could achieve with just a little bit of effort and imagination."

My response:

Wow! I think it's great that in a 3rd and 4th grade classroom, students are already being introduced to wikis and are taking part in creative activities like designing handbags. I'm continually amazed by how much younger students are when they start getting exposed to technology. I also think it is so important that as teachers we do not focus on the facts and knowledge we are teaching students, but focus instead on how they are learning and the skills they are acquiring. If we do not allow room for creativity in the classroom, if we do not encourage it, then we will never see the great potential in so many students. When I become a teacher, I hope to promote creativity in my students by incorporating more hands-on and interactive activities in the classroom. I think that interaction with other students and the compilation of ideas really can help students who struggle with letting their creative side out to formulate more ideas and to see that they really are creative.

URL: http://practicaltheory.org/serendipity/

Chris Lehmann wrote in his blog entitled "Coaching", "I loved the classroom, but I think I did my best teaching on the court and the field. When we do it right, we teach sacrifice, we teach community, we teach honesty, we teach patience, we teach listening, we teach learning by doing, we teach humility, we teach passion, we teach love, we teach so many of the personal skills we hope our kids will embody when we coach."

 My Response:

I've played competitive sports for at least ten years of my life, including volleyball, basketball, and cross country in high school. I played basketball for two years at a small college, but then chose to study abroad and pursue a career in French at a different school rather than continue playing ball. Reading your blog brought to mind a lot of great memories I have from playing sports and reminded me of how much I miss it. I've learned so much from sports about working with teams, about devoting so much time and energy to something you love, about successes and failures, about patience and endurace-- things that I never would have learned in school, at least not to the extent I did through playing sports. You've reminded me of my desire to continue with sports, only as a coach instead of a player. I hope that I can teach my future players as much as I learned from my coaches. I also hope that as a teacher, I can promote learning experiences about working as a team with peers and dedicating time and heart to accomplish a task.

URL: http://practicaltheory.org/serendipity/

Chris Lehmann, in his article entitled "Don't Blame the Victim-Creating Systems of Innovation" writes, "I don't doubt that there are those teachers who refuse to learn. I powerfully, powerfully doubt that those teachers are our biggest problem. Our problem is that there is little about our current educational system that encourages innovation."

My response:

I definitely agree that the educational system today does not exactly encourage innovation. My educational experience has been very structured with guidelines and detailed rules of how to carry through each assignment to the point where it did not allow for any creativity. Now that I am in college and am receiving open-ended assignments that ask to include a creative component, I get stuck and am not sure how to start the assignment. All of my life, my creativity has been slowly stifled out of me to the point where I now automatically think "I have no creativity." I know that is not true, everyone has creativity in them.
As a teacher, I want to encourage creativity in my students rather than stifle it out of them with strict guidelines that allow no room for innovation. I think technology can be such a great tool to promote creativity, but yes it requires proper training for teachers to be able to implement it. I am willing to learn, as I am sure many other educators are, so I can teach to the best of my abilities.

URL: http://practicaltheory.org/serendipity/

Chris Lehmann, in his article entitled "A Reminder of What's Important" writes, "The success of what we do is measured by the difference we make in the lives of the students in our charge. It starts with the care we show them. It starts with the joy with model for them. It starts with the relationships we develop with them." 

My entry:

I was blessed to go to a high school with many teachers who had a joy and enthusiasm for the subject they were teaching. Not only did they love their content area, but they loved high school students, and they truly cared for and showed an interest in each student. Because of the interest they showed in me, I actually enjoyed learning for the most part. When I got to college, I found that it was a relatively easy transition and I think I have my high school education to thank for that.

I have chosen to become a French teacher, not only because I have a love for foreign languages and other cultures, but because I love students and I want to share my enthusiasm for learning through the relationships I  develop with my students. Everyone needs to have someone who believes in them in cares for them, and as a teacher I really want to be that. I agree that success is measured by the impact you have on your students, and I hope that when I am a teacher I can influence students for the better through the care I show for them.

Our Classes are Leaking

URL: http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/

David Warlick, in his post entitled "Our Classes are Leaking", writes, "We often talk about how small the world has become.  But on a personal level, our children's world is probably larger than for any generation of youngsters ever.  They are accustomed to commanding a global digital library, mixing selected content and publishing it on their social networking sites, in collaboration with or for the benefit of friends who may well live on other continents... Now they are returning to school, which is almost entirely about limits.  We contain them in classrooms.  We contain them with schedules.  We contain their access to each other - "No talking!"  We contain content inside the covers of textbooks and the walls of libraries, and when we give them access to the Internet, it is so highly filtered that even teachers are frustrated by the valuable content and applications that are blocked."

For someone who is not very techonologically savvy, it continues to take me by surprise as I see newer and better technology emerging into our world. It surprises me even more to see how many kids are using technology and how much more they know about using it then I did at their age. It seems like the age when children have cell phones or ipods is getting younger and younger as well. When I was in Slovakia last summer, I was shocked to see five first graders pull out their cell phones after summer camp to call their mom to pick them up! I agree that a child's world today is a lot larger than any generation of children in the past. Technology plays such a huge role in children's lives today, so much more than it did even just a few years ago. They are exposed to a lot more because of all they have access to with the internet, and are probably quite a bit more proficient at using techonology than we were at their age. As teachers, we need to be aware of the fact that technology has such a huge part in a child's life. If used correctly, technology can be a great tool.  We should not try to discourage the use of it, although it is important that technology is not used simply allow to students to be lazy, or to do tasks for them that they need to learn to do themselves. We should encourage the use of technology in positive ways by implementing it into the classrooms in many different forms.