In the short interview with Tony Bates (2015), he uses the analogy of learning being like a garden. You pick the plant and the soil but you can't control how the plant grows. That is the plants job. Much like gardening, the teacher is responsible for creating an environment for the student to be comfortable and confident to grow in but the student has to be able to do the actual learning on their own. As a teacher, I think this is a perfect description of what learning can be. Like most teachers, I became an educator to watch my students grow and learn and for the "a-ha" moments. Creating the environment where my students feel safe and and encourages their learning is one of the most important goals I have.
Creating a significant learning environment is key to giving students the opportunity to learn and grow. Dr. Harapnuik (2015) states that a CSLE is student centered and focuses on mastery of knowledge through authentic projects. At our school, we do two different PBL projects a year. Although teachers are tasked with deciding the initial problem so they are covering TEKS, students are able to guide the project and find the solutions they think will work best to solve the problem. Just like the teacher that loved the first day of introducing Romeo & Juliet to his students every year, I look forward to these projects because I see the most growth in my students during these times. They are able to be creative and problem solvers, among other things, which are skills needed for future jobs.
When I was listening to Douglas Thomas (2012) in his TEDx Talk he mentioned how testing has taken over our school systems. I do think that as a teacher in today's classroom we are constantly struggling to do what is right for our students but with all of the outside influence I think it can be very difficult. In our district, we are constantly adding a new way to test our students. Thomas also mentioned how most teachers who are happy in their careers are below third grade and I can see how that would be true. I have only taught third grade but I have noticed that we have added at least one more way to test our students each year. We spend a good portion of our year preparing students for a test that will do nothing to prepare them for the world that they will live in and be in charge of one day.
TEDx Talks. (2012, September 13). A New Culture of Learning, Douglas Thomas at TEDxUFM [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM80GXlyX0U
Harapnuik, D. (2015, May 9). Creating significant learning environments (CSLE) [Video]. YouTube, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ-c7rz7eT4
ChangSchool. (2015, December 14). Dr. Tony
Bates on Building Effective Learning Environments [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xD_sLNGurA
Add comment
Comments