Yvette- Response to TED The Child Driven Eduation by Sugata Mitra
To begin, I have always felt that all children can learn given the right “equipment”. This video was amazing. The lesson I learned from this video, is children are not frightened by technology no matter where they live and are not “scared” to try it. They are curious by nature and just jump right in. I felt that children in our country were brought up in a techie world and it was just part of their life. However, these children had never dealt with computers and just got right to it. It was amazing also, that it was not even in their native language. It shows that children are naturally inquisitive and will work to find the answer. Maybe we as teachers need to pull back. The other fact that was astounding was the retention of the information over time. I know this is a problem I face daily. Students learn the material for the moment (for that almighty test). I give weekly tests in math which cover “old” material for this reason. I sometimes have a hard time convincing parents that this is necessary to make sure the information is not lost by the end of the year!
The implications for my teaching will be to look at more inquiry-based, project-based learning. I find that my students want all the answers given to them. I’m really not sure how they would have done given these situations presented on the video. I feel many would have just given up, especially if it was in another language. I loved his approach, “I don’t know the answer, see you later!”
Two quotes I liked were “Children will learn to do what they want to do and If interested, education will happen. “
Hi Yvette, I like that quote also. Children have such a wide variety of interest in my class of 26. It would be so nice to take each child's area and do a mini lesson on each. Even in Kindergarten, I feel we are tied to a set curriculum which leaves us very little time to explore what the children want to learn about rather than what the state says they should be learning. I was also impressed by the video and excited to learn more. Michelle
ReplyDeleteGayle responding to Michelle's response to Yvette
ReplyDeleteMichelle, in response to your comment about being tied to the curriculum: I was fortunate enough to be asked by my current administration to sit in on the interviews for my current position (since I will be moving into administration next year). Four of the applicants we saw are currently teaching in public schools. I was, well, shocked when we spoke about the Core Curriculum that the State of Louisiana is moving to. I was again shocked at how much more time they are required to spend on paperwork than on teaching. For all of them, it seemed that the main focus of education was making sure that teachers were following that "Bible", the curriculum - rather than making sure they were teaching the children the skills they need to know and, more importantly, that the children were actually learning those skills. It is a sad state of affairs when the concern for education has moved away from student learning and towards following some mandated way of teaching and making sure that all of the paperwork gets completed.
Gayle, It is sad but reality. On all of our lesson plans, we are required to list the GLE's from the State Curriculum Guide and the SAT's to make sure that skills are being taught and tested. So much of our time now is spent on Assessment. Fox in the Box skills, weekly tests, Pre-test, post test, that there is little time left for fun well planned lessons. So much documentation has to be recorded to insure that we are covering our bases in all areas that it makes true teaching for the love of the art of teaching limited. This is why so many young teachers are disheartened due to so many guidelines and paperwork. They thought they were majoring in Education to teach, not work in an office environment. Michelle
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