Respect – how to teach it and how to show it

Successful Classroom Teachers EARN the respect of students by being CONSISTENT and HONEST in ALL student/teacher interactions! These teachers know that their ability to manage their classroom learning environment is founded on mutual student/teacher RESPECT.

Keep in mind that respect is not the same as obedience. Learners might obey because they are afraid. If they respect you, they will obey because they know you want what's best for them. The best way to teach respect is to show respect. When a learner experiences respect, they know what it feels like and begin to understand how important it is. A good saying to represent respect is, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Respect is an attitude and ultimately can lead to a learner’s success. If a learner doesn't have respect for peers, authority, or themselves, it's almost impossible for them to succeed.

8 ways to show respect in your classroom

1.    Be honest - If you do something wrong, admit it and apologize.

2.    Be positive - Don't embarrass, insult or make fun of any learner. Rather compliment, encourage or motivate them.

3.    Be Trusting - Let your learners make their own choices and take responsibility for them.

4.    Be fair - Listen to your learner's side of the story before reaching a conclusion.

5.    Be polite - Use "please" and "thank you" and greet your learners when you see them.

6.    Be reliable – Don’t make promises to your learners and be consistent by showing them that you mean what you say.

7.    Be a good listener – Listen to hear and not to respond

8.    Make sure that you are modelling respectful behaviour. Some of things you can do are:

-       Obey laws - Follow your own classroom rules and the rules of the school.

-       Be caring - Show concern for people, animals and the environment.

-       Avoid poor role models - When you see examples of disrespect, discuss them.

-       Teach your learners to respect themselves. Self-respect is one of the most important forms of respect. Once we respect ourselves, it is easier to respect others.

Interactive whiteboards as an effective tool for teaching

An interactive whiteboard is an instructional tool that allows computer images to be displayed onto a board using a digital projector. The instructor can then manipulate the components on the board by using his/her finger as a mouse, directly on the screen. Items can be dragged, clicked and copied and the teacher can write notes, which can be transformed into text and saved.

This is a powerful tool that ca be used in the classroom. It enhances interactivity and collaboration by allowing the integration of media content into the lesson and supporting collaborative learning. When used innovatively, they create a wide range of learning opportunities. However, in many environments they are not being used to their full potential.

Examples of the features available when using an interactive whiteboard:

•  Add annotations
•  Highlight text
• Add notes and drawings and then save them to be printed out and shared, or added to a virtual learning environment.
• Show pictures and educational videos to the whole class. You can label parts or highlight elements of an image.
• Demonstrate the content available on a website in a teacher-directed activity

Interactive whiteboards as a pedagogical tool

This type of tool promotes creative teaching and motivates students into absorbing information. Teaching with an interactive whiteboard allows lecturers to accommodate all different learning styles:
• Tactile learners get to touch and move things around the board. They can also make notes and highlight elements.
• Visual learners benefit from a clear view of what is happening on the board.
• Audio learners can participate in a class discussion.

Examples of how it could be used in science

• ·         On the topic of the human body, the teacher can show a photograph or a picture of a part of the body. They can annotate it, adding labels to demonstrate the key aspects. The finished drawing can be saved and handed out to learners. Most topics in science contains pictures that need to be labelled so this particular function of the whiteboard is very useful.
• ·         The whiteboard can also be used to show step by step processes of experiments.
• ·         If the teacher doesn’t know how to make a topic interactive, there are many programs available online to assist. 

Lets be creative!!! Meaningful involvement of the learners in the classroom

What is meaningful involvement and how can I incorporate it in my classroom environment?

Meaningful:

• ·         having meaning
• ·         serious, important, or worthwhile
• ·         Communicating something that is not directly expressed.

Involvement:

• ·         the fact or condition of being involved with or participating in something
• ·         emotional or personal association with someone

The above definitions indicate that meaningful involvement is not only on a intellectual level but on an emotional level as well. A learner should be involved in mind and heart so its easy or teachers to create a learning environment in which learners are taught new concepts for example but how involved are they really if their hearts aren’t in it. Learners have to “feel” the learning as well and that can only be established if the teachers sets the “feeling” first.

Here are a few steps that teachers can take to initiate a more meaningful environment in the classroom:

• ·         Being more available and accessible to the learners. This shows the learners that you are reliable and consistent which causes them to be more comfortable around you and once that comfortable feeling sets in, trust in you follows.
• ·         Create an environment of open communication where learner’s worries and concerns can be heard. Everybody (not only teachers) should learn to listen to support and not to listen to respond. Sometimes just listening and not offering any response unless stated that one is required can change a situation for the better.
• ·         Provide solid education in foundation skills such as reading and writing. Knowing all forms of communication is vital in a person’s life particularly with the new generation of learners.
• ·         Showing empathy and understanding for a learner’s current circumstance and provide them with the tools with which to facilitate a positive outcome. You cannot live a positive life with a negative mind therefore changing the mindset equals massive turn around in life. The sooner learners learn that, the better adults they will become. There are always going to be disappointments but it’s your response to that disappointment or negative outcome that has the power to make a difference.
• ·         Intervene when learners experience bullying and harassment. This is a never ending battle but learners need to know that humiliating another person or violating their space is not tolerated. Teachers need to set the standards and teach learners not only self respect but respect for others as well, and if learners don’t do this there will be consequences.
• ·         Promote pro-social bonding by remembering birthdays and family occasions or just by allowing your personality to shine through. This is excellent in creating a closer, more personal relationship between teacher and learner.
• ·         All effective teaching practices include academic, behavioural and social elements that create or encourage a positive classroom environment.
• ·         Engaging – prioritising learning objectives – being efficient with time and ensuring that learners are actively engaged and deliver specific helpful feedback.
• ·        Limitations occur when your philosophy, teaching practices and teaching theories cannot be reconciled with the curriculum decisions.

In conclusion, teachers should stop looking for excuses as to why learners don’t want to learn. They should start looking for solutions. An issue is not going to fix itself; it takes hard work and some brainstorming. I will end off with these few sentences from the article; “Applying Mindfulness to Mundane Classroom Tasks” by Abby Wills where she says, “I encourage honest, fearless contemplation on what is working in the classroom and what isn’t. This simple exercise can help you discover the mundane moments and tasks in your classroom that are just waiting for your creativity to transform them into mindful learning opportunities”.

BE CREATIVE!!!!!

I vote for self directed learning in schools!!!

I feel the need to open with the quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery that states, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men together to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea”.  Just let that settle in your mind while I quote from Hamilton, “a component of student-directed learning must be making; creative and imaginative re-purposing and renewing of old tools, concepts and methods and thereby inventing new tools concepts and methods”.

You are probably wondering how those two quotes connect. Well in my mind it goes something like this... The ship is the school and the educators are the men. You cannot build a school by telling educators to gather the learners and waffle on content from different subjects and by means of different assessments. A school full of learning is built from the educators and learners having enquiring minds and a keen sense of curiosity and adventure. The concept of student directed learning can be empowered by that. The fact that it should include creativity and imagination makes it all the more interesting. This is where I bring the independent project in. What makes the independent project unique? Is it the fact that it provides an opportunity for all different people from different backgrounds to get together and learn or debate meaningful topics or subjects and grow. Maybe it’s the differentiation in the teaching and learning that takes away mediocraty. The usual public school system forces learners to all follow similar paths and ultimately end on similar levels but learner’s shouldn’t be forced to this narrow minded system. Learners should be free to learn whatever they want to learn because there are teachers out there who lack passion and destroy a subject for a learner. Self- directed learning takes away that restriction and encourages or motivates learners who have boring, demotivated teachers. Self-directed learning keeps learners focused and interested and ultimately builds confidence. It induces a thirst for knowledge in all subjects of the school and allows learners a free space to constructively criticise and to receive constructive criticism in return.

I feel that this is a necessary step towards changing the education system for the benefit of all learners across the world.

To conclude, I feel that there is potential for tech-mediated self-directed learning as the learners nowadays are different to those of the past. By using technology as a tool and the content being what the learner wants, a sense of independence is put in place and this motivates learners. They want to know that adults trust them to control what they want to learn and in this way they are encouraged to do the best they can.  

Digital Pedagogy in the classroom

Its time teachers realised that social media is not the enemy and that using it in the classroom keeps the learners of this generation engaged and attuned to the work they are meant to learn.

In the article, “A Guidebook for Social Media in the classroom”, the author puts social media in a different light. Social media is the one form of writing that will get you into college or get you fired. It is how you use it that determines what outcome you have. Learners will only be cautious or think before they tweet for example if they taught that way. Teachers play a huge role in a learner’s life and if they want to change the world then they need to embrace digital pedagogy and use social media in the classroom.

This doesn’t necessary mean that technology must be used. My favourite example is getting learners to tweet in the form of post-its. Remember technology is the tool, not the learning outcome. It is important to expose learners to social media in a safe, positive environment. They will make mistakes in the future but if you as an educator guides them to use it in a way to make their lives better then you are already making a difference to their lives and by extension to the world.

Here are some examples of how teachers have used social media and technology:

• Remind: One-way communication from teacher to learners and its used to remind them about work due for the next day or inspire them in some way. This tool allows the teacher to share documents so if a learner has lost the paper copy they then have access to it on this group.
• Twitter: This is a great way for the teacher to communicate and share with the learners outside the classroom. Learners have used this to ask questions about work and prefer it over email because of how quickly they receive a response.
• Blogging: Writing and commenting about all sorts of topics and it allows learners to connect with people all over the world.

All these examples of social media used outside the classroom enhances learning inside the classroom. It also is the best form of communication with learners because this is the technology era and students love it.

Embrace the change!!!

Digital Pedagogy = Friend or Foe?

Digital pedagogy is being judged mainly by those who don’t like change or prefer the “back in the day” teaching. There are a few reasons as to why so to name a few:

1.   Digital pedagogy is misunderstood meaning that the first thought is often towards using technology or keeping up with the modern learner. These thoughts are not wrong but they aren’t accurate either. Digital pedagogy is the use of electronic elements to enhance or to change to experience of education.

2.   Digital pedagogy is new and different leading those who don’t like change to respond to it negatively. I am speaking in terms of the teachers who like the same old teaching styles

3.   It has limitless possibilities which sounds too good to be true

4.   Timeless as in it won’t be going away anytime soon

5.   Inspires creativity and a sense of freedom which some teachers might not appreciate

Quote from @slamteacher states that “pedagogy has at its core timeliness, mindfulness and improvisation. Pedagogy concerns itself with the instantaneous, momentary and vital exchange that takes place in order for learning to happen.

It fulfills the needs of all learners as it has place for all learning styles and involves learners with different capabilities.

The LMS (Learning Management System) is not pedagogical for a number of reasons namely:

1.    Its limited as it doesn’t use the full potential of technology i.e the internet

2.    It exerts too much control

3.    It was executed prematurely and is therefore seen as a mistake

4.    There is no creativity involved and its old in its ideas

I’m not saying that technology is the be all and end all of teaching and learning. I’m saying that the time we living in and the learners we will be teaching cannot be approached or taught like the old days. They are interested in technology and therefore we need to use it to keep them motivated. Technology is simply a tool in teaching and not a learning outcome.

I refer now to the quote from @jessifer that states that “pedagogy is the place where philosophy and practice meet”. My interpretation is that pedagogy involves the emotions and thoughts of the learners and the practical aspects of that, a combination of theory and practical ideas. Digital pedagogy then includes the interests of the learners because it is always going to involve them. They are the minds of the future and if we as educators don’t prepare them or help them become better, more equipped adults then this lovely world of ours will be lost.

My conclusion is that digital pedagogy is a friend and we should appreciate it. 

Teaching naked? What?

What makes digital pedagogy an effective tool in teaching?

This topic of digital pedagogy is way out of my league but that doesn’t make it any less fascinating. To answer my question above I first have to explain some terms. The first term is digital humanities. With some research and my own understanding, I determined that digital humanities is a collection of the following:

• ·         Learning material in a digital form e.g PowerPoint presentation
• ·         Learning that includes information about technology
• ·         Learning that is empowered by the use of digital methods or tools
• ·         Learning that includes experimenting with technology and
• ·         Learning that criticises or aims to improve technology

The second term is hacking which can be used to describe the productive use or manipulation of the technology that is available to you.

The link between my question and these terms is relatively simple. Teaching with technology is unreliable without digital pedagogy. You cannot be a digital humanist or hacker without applying some form of pedagogy. A purpose needs to be present in your use of technology in a classroom or learning environment.

I’m going to make use of an example in the article to explain this further. The lecturer made the notion with his class to have theory lessons on a Friday called “No-reading Fridays” The classroom activity involved a projection screen and the topic of discussion at that time was “The Question concerning Technology”. The learners didn’t read any material in advance, they simply took turns and read from the text projected on the screen during class. The lecturer then stated that after two Fridays, the class discussions he had with his learners had been motivating and informative. This shows us that even the simplest use of technology can add variety to a lesson and be a powerful motivator to learners to gain information which is what we as educators strive for.

I therefore conclude that using some form of technology makes digital pedagogy an effective tool but in moderation. If technology is over-used, the learning part of a lesson can easily be lost. What i like about using technology as a tool is that it targets all types of learners and it ensures that they all are engaged in the lesson 

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