There is so much work to do lately, I think my head might
explode-so I'm going to keep this one short. For some reason this November is so full of assignments and tests and what-not; I think teachers must think that
we don’t need to sleep. Or that we have clones that help us do our work. Or
something along those lines. This has caused me to become a person who is a
ball of stress, consistently at the verge of unravelling.
Again, I think this all comes back to marks; I'm sure I wouldn't be so stressed if we weren't so focused on getting those 90’s.
Recently a phrase has been popping up every so often amongst my friends in
fourth year: “C’s get degrees”. Although
this is true (and it really shouldn't be marks that we’re concerned about), I
for some reason can’t seem to stop myself from worrying about getting the best
mark possible. And make note on this: I did not say that I was focused on doing
my best, or learning the most. It’s about getting the best mark, because that
is what reflects our “learning”. However I am becoming more and more frustrated
because I don’t think that I'm doing anything that will actually help me. All
of these theories and practices we’re learning, without the experience to back
it up I just feel like another student working towards the grades, who isn't
really prepared for the real world that’s out there. And as a future educator, this is not what I
want to happen to any of my students. I hope to be a teacher that actually
causes them to learn, and not just care about marks.
However, this reminds me of the living contradictions that
were briefly discussed in chapter 6. In this, it talks about the idea of “I
used to think” versus “I now think”. This is an interesting concept where it
explores the idea of what teachers think before they're teaching, compared to
what it is actually like in the classroom. I think through all of our classes
it’s easy to say that we have certain ideals that we plan to follow in our
classroom. We talk about our power bases, or having a student-directed
classroom, but when it comes down to it what we might actually do in the
classroom could be completely different. We may think that we want students to
actually learn, or explore their interests, but what happens when it comes down
to the time crunch of including everything that the curriculum requires? More
importantly is the main focus of the contradictions, which is the need to
scaffold learning, while also challenging students to discover things on their
own. We know from our discussions in other classes that one of the most
important aspects in fostering higher level thinking processes is the
opportunity to explore. However, teachers need to find a way to balance this
while also fostering their learning through clear information. And I think that as students that have always
been focused on marks, as well as mostly having information given directly to
us (lack of exploring), that is something that we will struggle with, as we may
fall into teaching in the ways in which we were taught.
However, project-based learning, or an inquiry based
approach can be a very effective way for students to actually be engaged in
their learning within the classroom. Kids are naturally curious, and instead of
schools killing this curiosity, we should have teaching methods that instead
foster that want to learn. Below is an interesting video that I found very
relatable to the idea of inquiry based learning as a whole. Instead of
reverting to the ways in which we were taught, and continuing to put the
emphasis on marks (and therefore stressing students out instead of causing them
to be excited about learning), we need to look at new ideas to be a 21st
century teacher.
So, to circle back to the beginning of this post where I
talked about my stress, I would instead like to leave everyone with something
that I am interested in and excited about. Though it may not necessarily be
learning that I'm excited about, at least I'm enjoying something….and have
something to take my mind of the stress of getting good marks! So here it is, the
excitement of the upcoming minion movie!
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