Comments for Teachers #2

C4T #1

I had the privilege of commenting on Edna Sackson's blog. She lives in Melbourne, Australia. She writes some very informative blog post and they reflect her personal thoughts and opinions. The first one that I was able to comment on was about the Power of Communication. She was talking to a fellow teacher and was suprised how the other teacher dismissed the idea of her students using drama to improve their second language skills and a group of the students applying their knowledge through tech tools. It seemed that she liked her students to all be on the same task and under her control. She didn't want to share the control with them. Edna decided to approach the situation by discussing with the fellow teacher about her own two kids. She talked about how they both learn in two different ways and that is when Edna asked her how they would do in her class then. The teacher immediately saw what she was doing wrong and was open to exploring ways to change. This helped her see how the gradual release of responsibility could improve her students and her classroom.

I commented about how I love the approach that Edna took to talking to this teacher about changing. I said that Edna has helped me learn that not all students will learn the same or at the same pace and that I need to be ready for that and always have something for the students who finish early to do. I talked about how I like that Edna used something personal to the teacher so that it would hit home with her. I also like how the other teacher took it as constructive criticism and did not get her feelings hurt by this. This post gave some great points about what a small conversation can do to impact your teaching style.

C4T #2

Edna then wrote an amazing post about how change isn't easy and how it can be difficult at times but how it is very necessary. She gave many valid points to how to change from one scenario to the next. My favorite statement that she made was to shift from focusing on teaching to focusing on learning. This is such a major thing that most teachers do not even think to change. She also said that learning new ways is challenging and its going to take patience, openness, time and resilience. She ended it with saying that as educators, in the business of learning, we need to be learners ourselves.
I couldn't agree more with all that she said. She made so many points that as teachers and future teachers we need to always remember. By this I realized that education is going to change and that we need to learn to adapt with it. As a future teacher, I can't be too set on a certain teaching style or way because it will all be changing. Technology is one of the biggest types of change the school will be seeing and as a new educator I want to instill in my students lives that my classroom is based on learning and that I will try to share the responsibility with my students and let them help out with making their experience a successful one.