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!!!