Possumus Facere Id Labans
We can make it work
I am a believer. I entered education because I believe it is critical to creating a good and just world. I believe that education is the foundation of everything. The path that I have followed to become an educator started in college as a tutor when I discovered a talent for instruction that was most effective when done shoulder to shoulder with my students. After college I worked as a sales professional where my days were spent teaching people about finance, budgets and investments. One day I woke up, rolled out of bed and looked in the mirror and realized that I could no longer be a sales professional and that I was a teacher in my heart. That day, I quit my job and enrolled at
Technology and I have a love affair that is as wonderful as it is rocky. In today's world, technology is everywhere: the roads, the stove, our living quarters, our clothes are all forms of technology. While technology is unavoidable, I still live without much of what is considered standard. My house is devoid of a TV, a Radio, DVD's or many of the other modern amenities that we have come to think of as essential to our lives. My personal feeling about technology, particularly entertainment technology, is that it dehumanizes us to each other and promotes separation. An example is the person that goes home after work, sits down and turns on the TV. Chances are that that person's night will be chewed up by the TV and before they know it, it is time for bed. Never did they realize they were alone. What of people that live together? When was the last time you had a meaningful conversation with the TV on? More than likely you haven't. I say turn it off and talk to one another and be social. Get up, go out and have a new experience. Meet new people and discover that humans are as alike as we are different. This opinion is a personal one and it is this opinion that makes my relationship with technology rocky. My love affair comes from my laptop and bike. These two wonderful pieces of technology follow me everywhere. On any given day, I can be found biking somewhere with my laptop secured to my back. My laptop keeps my in the loop. I get my news, do my homework, email my friends abroad, and generally dig up information on my laptop. It is nearly impossible for me to imagine a world without it. It is a core of my day to day.
In the classroom, my rocky love affair continues. My preference is to talk to my students and to instruct them while among them. Often times I feel that laptops and computer labs are used as ends in of themselves and are put in my classroom because they are viewed as a magic bullet or their absence is viewed as hindering. Never will I sacrifice the education of my students and the interpersonal connections I develop for the sake of technology. That does not, however, mean that I will not use it and often times I do. The internet is a wonderful research tool and I always take the time to teach my students how to use it. Because of this class, I am considering using blogs rather than my traditional journals and wiki's will make their debut in my math classes as a way to teach math history and advanced theory. The important part is to keep the students connected to each other and to the teacher. This will take some effort to make work, but the power of technology will be amplified if it brings students together.
My teaching philosophy is heavily influenced by Larabee's idea of Democratic Equality. That is to say my main concern in my classroom is not whether or not my students leave it prepared to enter the work force but rather are my students able to learn and think critically? I want my students to leave my classroom knowing that they are smart and well educated and able to learn anything and adapt to any situation. This class introduced me to the ideas of Authentic Assessment and I have to say that when I first read it, I thought someone had written down my ideas. Students need to be dynamic, creative and fluid beings not static, dull, myopic automatons. I want to prepare my students to do what they dream of and give them the tools to see it through. In my perfect world, the teacher does not lecture to his students but rather discusses content with them. The students are free to ask questions at will and the teacher doesn't give answers but leads students to them. There is not an attempt to get the students to sit in straight rows and raise their hand. In my perfect classroom, students can and do openly express their opinion and focus on their reasoning rather than the “right” answer. It is an open classroom. While I know that the world isn't prefect and my philosophy will, by necessity, change, I hope to work for an ideal.