We are living in a world where things are constantly changing. Most importantly technology is always changing and being updated. Technology plays a key part in our everyday lives and we as teachers need to take advantage of that and use technology to help us teach our children. We need to take control of our teaching once again and make it fun. We can not just teach to the standards by lecturing and standing in front of our students. We need to get them involved in their learning by making them accountable for their learning, making them own their learning, and allowing them to have a voice. As human beings we are meant to learn through investigation, play, imagination, and passion. Let’s let our students do just that and start learning through play, investigation, and imagination once again. I for one am tired of teaching to my students and not letting them learn the way they understand best. Jean Piaget said it best when he stated, “When you teach a child something you take away forever his chance of discovering it for himself.” This really hits home for me because I am a kindergarten teacher and I find myself always trying to create a reason as to why I am allowing my students free choice time to play and discover rather than teaching them my standards I must hit before they go onto the next grade. I am tired of trying to find time in our busy teaching day to fit free choice time in. It should be a must just like teaching the standards. When my children are playing in the kitchen area I can hear everything that they are learning and seeing in their day to day lives. When I watch my kids play in my science area and hear their conversations about the different objects I know that too is learning. I don't need to be up at the board teaching for my students to learn what I want them to learn all I need to do is give them the resources and let them invent/discover it for themselves and then and only then will they truly learn.
In my innovation plan I will be having my students learn through different steam activities. It will engage their curiosity and let them discover new concepts through hands on learning. From A New Culture of Learning, I hope to also create peer-to-peer learning through these steam projects. I plan on doing this by finding shared interests and opportunity for the students to interact and participate with one another on common grounds. It is so amazing to watch the students get so excited about learning and actually get others just as excited because they are so openly intrigued about what they are learning. The only way they will truly learn is if they invent for themselves and not through myself or others. To build this environment and create peer-to-peer learning I feel some of my struggles or obstacles I will encounter will be getting the space and designing this environment to make it learning centered. I need to practice being more of a coach or mentor rather than a teacher, and I also need to make sure I am giving feedback that helps lead the students into deeper thinking. These obstacles take time but I am willing to do whatever it takes to get my students back to loving learning and doing it through play, imagination, observation, and peer-to-peer learning.
Harapnuik, D. (2015, May 8). Creating significant learning environments (CSLE) [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ-c7rz7eT4
Thomas, D. [TEDx Talks]. (2012, September 12). A new culture of learning, Douglas Thomas at TEDxUFM [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM80GXlyX0U&feature=youtu.be
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, KY: CreateSpace.
In my innovation plan I will be having my students learn through different steam activities. It will engage their curiosity and let them discover new concepts through hands on learning. From A New Culture of Learning, I hope to also create peer-to-peer learning through these steam projects. I plan on doing this by finding shared interests and opportunity for the students to interact and participate with one another on common grounds. It is so amazing to watch the students get so excited about learning and actually get others just as excited because they are so openly intrigued about what they are learning. The only way they will truly learn is if they invent for themselves and not through myself or others. To build this environment and create peer-to-peer learning I feel some of my struggles or obstacles I will encounter will be getting the space and designing this environment to make it learning centered. I need to practice being more of a coach or mentor rather than a teacher, and I also need to make sure I am giving feedback that helps lead the students into deeper thinking. These obstacles take time but I am willing to do whatever it takes to get my students back to loving learning and doing it through play, imagination, observation, and peer-to-peer learning.
Harapnuik, D. (2015, May 8). Creating significant learning environments (CSLE) [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ-c7rz7eT4
Thomas, D. [TEDx Talks]. (2012, September 12). A new culture of learning, Douglas Thomas at TEDxUFM [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM80GXlyX0U&feature=youtu.be
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, KY: CreateSpace.