Embracing Change

With the semester coming to a close, our class has been asked to reflect on the following quote: "The illiterate of the 21st century will NOT be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn."

This quote brings to light the fact that the world is constantly changing. Technology, research and the changing dynamics of our society require us to be flexible citizens who are open to continually learning new material/methods etc, so as to better meet the needs of our world. One only needs to look at the medical field to fully understand this. We do not use the same methods/procedures etc to treat people medically as we did fifty and even twenty years ago. I have heard that the best dentist is the one who just left medical school, because they are equipped with the most up to date information.

In terms of education, teachers must continually open themselves up to new material/information and implement these in their teachings. If you look back at your schooling, you will appreciate this sentiment. If I think back to my schooling, I can remember when we used the old green screen Mac computers, and we were taught all the coding required to get into the programs. By the time I was in grade 5 and 6, new computers had been brought in and it was a new system. I can also remember taking several classes when I was in grade 2 and 3 to learn how to use the card catalogue in the library - now all of this information is computerized and quick and easy to access. Teachers and students had to unlearn the previous way of using computers and learn the new way. Technology and the introduction of internet to the 'regular Joe' requires people to be flexible and welcome to change. We are now teaching our students more word processing and how to use the internet much earlier than we had previously. Presently, schools are working to equip their classes with 'Smart Boards'. Teachers are attending in-services to learn how to not only operate this tool, but to do so in an effective manner. Concordia has a component of their lesson planning class dedicated to the use of the 'Smart Board', something that was not there three or four years ago. The hope is that if the newer teachers know how to operate this tool, they can go into the schools and teach the teachers. This requires everyone involved to be open to this new technology and adapt their teaching.
In summary, this quote does not simply apply to technology. It also applies to the changing needs of the classroom, such as the inclusion of special needs and ESL children. Teachers need to be open to these students, learn how to effectively interact with them and lead them to success. Someone who is not open to change will become stagnant and this is dangerous not only for those who interact with that individual but also the individual. We all need to be working on continually bettering ourselves and our world.

Monitoring and Adjusting

I thought the 'smart board' lessons were very well done and creative. In terms of monitoring, I noticed that when the class was not 'getting it', the teachers used verbal prompts to help get things started, and this really helped. When the 'smart board' was not working, teachers had to work directly off the computer which I could tell had some teachers (including myself) doing some improvising. I also think some teachers omitted or went through their material a little quicker than planned towards the end due to the time limit. I think everyone just worked with it instead of panicking, which is a good quality to have considering students and technology are unpredictable. Teachers need to be flexible and think on their toes because at the end of the day they are responsible for teaching their students, and if a teacher is unable to change things up to ensure the class is going smoothly and material is being understood, the students will lose and the teacher will get frustrated.
Lesson Plan on capitalization and punctuation: If I had a second chance at my lesson, I would like to try using the 'smart board' features. My lesson required the students to come up to the board and use the pen and touch screen, and when it was not working, I did more of an oral lesson with me circling and dragging because I needed to right click the mouse to change between the pen and select option. However, I think I was still able to accomplish the task at hand. If I were to change a component of my lesson, I would put the grey screen on the actual interactive screen and work through the paragraph line by line. Although I asked the class why we capitalized the first letters of names, I failed to ask why the pronoun 'i' should be capitalized.
I enjoyed the lesson plans and got some good ideas from them. I really appreciated my classmates willingness to participate and be actively involved so as to not leave the teacher hanging. I think it also served as a good class bonding exercise because we saw the creativity of our classmates.