The Updated Classroom
My brain has been sparked by the post Teaching Ourselves Right Out of a Job over at weblogg-ed. It got me thinking about our role as teachers in today’s classroom, and just how that classroom has changed, is changing, and will change in the future.
I thought about many things, and the thoughts continue.
I thought about teachers as “Trajectory Managers” vs. our normal concept of teacher.
Are we really Trajectory Managers, or Trajectory Facilitators or Coaches? Is our role to “manage” or is our role to “suggest” and “nudge” and “encourage” and “equip”? Manage, to me, implies control and power. Contol and power in the wrong hands?
Posts of note around the topic of learning: Most classroom learning sucks from Kathy Sierra’s blog Creating Passionate Users.
Way more to follow…way more.
The Modern Classroom
Students are “Smarter and faster than we [the school] are.”
Learning is King
Students as Active learners [Active learning defined: North Carolina State University - University of Hawaii
This post is under serious construction…
I read your post and think it is a great exploration to undertake…the whole idea of what a teacher does…i agree that the notions of students being a tabularosa (blank slate) is a dated one, and i think that the educational system is attempting to change it’s dogma to math this change. I jumped on over to the site you mention at we-blogg-ed and they mentioned something that i thought was great:
” at some point, we’re going to have to let go of the idea that we are the most knowledgable content experts available to our students. We used to be, when really all our students had access to was the textbook and the teacher’s brain. But today, we’re not. Not by a long stretch. And we don’t need to be. What we need to be is connectors who can teach our kids how to connect to information and to sources, how to use that information effectively, and how to manage and build upon the learning that comes with it. That’s a much different role than “science teacher” or “math teacher.” Now I’m not saying that subject matter expertise is irrelevant and that there aren’t core concepts that discipline specific teachers shouldn’t teach. But they should be taught it a much wider context, not in the fishbowl this is our traditional classroom.”
The idea of a teacher as a ‘connector’ or a facilitator is a great one. I agree that we as educators need to humble ourselves and point students to the vast resources out there…i think it is einstein who said that ‘if i see any better it is because i have stood on the shoulders of giants’ or something like that. There are so many ‘experts’ available at our virtual finger tips that to not access them by introducing technology into the classroom and teaching appropriate use would be a dis-service to our students.
example: i am teacing the classic Beowulf in my Literature 12 class…and lo and behold there is a new film on Beowulf at the Toronto Film Festival. Checking out their website
I found interviews with cast on setting, the costumes, and a discussion by the director on the story of Beowulf. What a great resource! The problem is when the net is down, then you have to go back to being the ‘expert’ for the day (unless you have some great Lord of the Rings clips to use as examples!)
good post. thanks
Comment by J.M. — September 16, 2005 @ 3:32 pm
Thanks J.M.
Totally agreed. Our job is no longer that of a “Knowledge dumper” - but that of a connector. I like that. Tool provider.
I also liked what you said about how we are to be this:
Key words: Humble ourselves and point.
Are we as “teachers” willing to get out of the driver’s seat and help our students learn how to drive the bus themselves? Or shall we be forever content to hog the wheel and take the bus where it almost always has gone…into the wasteland of learner dependency, where when the driver hops off, the learning journey grinds to a hault.
Comment by Aaron Nelson — September 23, 2005 @ 10:34 am
Aaron,
I am enjoying the ummm, pointed-ness of this blog and your posts. The fact that it is aimed at a specific target, ie. teaching, is pretty cool. It is good to have discussions and explorations about current teaching practice and how/if it should change. If we don’t explore and evaluate where we are at, then nothing will change. It is a tough one as it takes even more time to try and implement new ideas or examine ideas that are ‘out there’, but i think it is definitly a worthwhile undertaking.
I liked what you said about the whole teacher role:
“Are we as “teachers” willing to get out of the driver’s seat and help our students learn how to drive the bus themselves? Or shall we be forever content to hog the wheel and take the bus where it almost always has gone…into the wasteland of learner dependency, where when the driver hops off, the learning journey grinds to a hault”
This is a tough one…the role of the teacher as the ’sage on the stage’ is way too easy to fall into. I am only in my first full year of teaching and i already see that temptation to become a ‘lecture style’ dependent teacher who is just ummm…. spewing out knowledge in some kind of grand diose gesture of self importance. I catch myself sometimes trying to bring out fancy terminology or things to impress my students with my ‘knowledge’.
I remember a prof i had once who said ‘is it your need to tell them, or their need to know that is driving you?’ Although she failed at following that example (constantly telling things she just needed to say…) i think those words ring true. I am often telling my class things just because i feel i need to tell them, not because it is info that they need to know.
A shift in drivers, following your metaphor, requires a change in our whole pedagogy and delivery. It is a risky maneauver (sorry for the spelling there) as it takes control away from the teacher in a way.
I am trying to work this one through…for example, in my literature class, what would this look like? I don’t know.
thanks for your comments
j.m.
Comment by J.M. — September 23, 2005 @ 2:32 pm