Learn For Love
Education
“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.” ― Ignacio Estrada
(Thesis redesigned)
The loose-leaf idea
When I think of education its in a loose-lead term. Not in a full-on educator's view because for me I don’t think we ever stop being the student in life. Even the teacher is still learning ways to let students experience how to gain knowledge.
When we learn it is the habit of repetition, skill, focus, and understanding of a subject to the point that we understand it more. I find myself consistently in the stage of learning as a way to gain improvement, motivation and drive when it comes to propelling myself forward in life. I don’t believe anyone on Earth is uneducated but there are some countries that are not as advanced as others.
People become educated through different methods and techniques because no two people will learn the same way. In third world countries, survival is a skill that must be taught, trained, and practiced within the people of a village as a way to stay alive.
Education acts as a foundation for a society where people learn how to integrate themselves into society as humans, and ideally to find a placement where we can procure a life as an adult.
“The teacher must be an actor, an artist,passionately in love with his work.” ― Anton Chekhov
Real Times Desire Real Measures
Our present world is riddled with distractions from social media, constant internet access, binge-watching television, and partying. Rarely, do people willingly sit down to learn something new or educate themselves on facts about the world around them.
All of these distractions have caused complications for teachers in the classroom as students are now turning more impatient and charging headstrong into instant gratification. Learning should never become instantaneous. It is a process. A process that will one day click in our brain. But the importance of education will never cease to exist because it is meant to change what one believes through the process of learning.
While at first all of these distractions look like a steep battle uphill for a teacher and the end looks like it will be giving students a grade they want because you can’t get through to them. Boy, do I have news for you. Whenever we are faced with a mountain there must be a way to climb up. I call this meeting the students halfway in what they want to learn and less about what we are told they should learn.
We have an arsenal of ways to teach our students and we should be utilizing this arsenal like weapons when it comes to facing our youth. Some teachers use a hands-on approach allowing students to try their hands with the knowledge they have already before progressing deeper into the subject material. Other styles include blended classrooms with technology and good old chalkboards, repetition, reading content, writing, and overall lesson styles. No two teachers will approach their students the same which is why education is a gift in the world.
After researching the billions of ways to teach, I wish to implement a multicultural style, with blendings of technology with traditional style teaching and adding in a splice of critically engaged teaching as a way to provide interesting material for my future students to learn with. I plan on utilizing these styles by integrating a culturally diverse classroom with video materials, books, websites, web design, blogs, papers, and discussions on numerous subjects that involve Asia as a whole. I would do all of this while making sure that I am available to help them.
“We cannot create what we can’t imagine.” ― Lucille Clifton
Tempting Diversity is important
No two people are the same. We are not born to be the same. We are born to thrive off of being different from one another. If everybody had the same sameness about them then our world would follow a strict pattern, maybe boredom, but each person would already be attuned to one another. What a world that would be? I think a world like that would drive me nuts. How about you?
I believe in pulling out diversity and moving it forward. A foundation for multicultural teaching is in the equity pedagogy. Equity pedagogy has been defined as “teaching strategies and classroom environments that help students from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural groups attain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to function effectively within, and create and perpetuate, a just humane, and democratic society” (Banks ). We need this in every teacher inside schools, and we need this spirit to spread to our students. Not through harsh lessons of the past, but through using our own natural issues that have occurred in recent years. It is easier to relate to material that is happening right now than from what we witnessed in the past. By having eager students who respect one another makes learning easier for everyone. We all desire that synergy in our classrooms.
Tempting diversity in our classroom can lead us into a multicultural pedagogy by allowing equity to build the foundation for culturally significant lessons that open up talks about students’ heritages and backgrounds. The class will learn a lot about each other through communication, language, history, and behaviors of one another more than they ever will from a teacher.
Additionally, bringing in a multicultural perspective will provide students with my own personal exposure to diversity and cultural aptitudes that are necessary when dealing with bullies, friends, loved ones, teachers, and the job market in relation to our world. Accepting each other regardless of our appearances is important in a classroom. This would be the foundation of my dream classroom.
“If you cannot find a reason to be grateful for today, be grateful for you have the sky.” ― Dragos Bratasanu, Ph.D.
Rising From Diversity
Rising from tempting my class with diversity, I would then approach implementing a blended classroom. Blended classrooms are defined by Michael A. Pizz “as an approach to education that combines online educational materials and opportunities for interaction online with the traditional place-based classroom methods.” A classroom that allows for both the physical presence of the teacher and the student with elements of student control over time, place, path, or pace.
However, often educators fear giving students these kinds of tools because the internet has been known to proactively distract students. But I think if we put up firewalls, and make sure students are accessing only material meant for that course we can help create stronger leaders that are preparing to enter a dominant world that is gradually leaning towards a tech-based world.
When students are eager to learn then they are starting to enter into the teachers engaged pedagogy. Engaged pedagogy is a type of teaching that brings students and teachers into the thick of learning together. Examples of this are when teachers reach out to students for feedback or do projects with students, and actively try to offer a helping hand. In fact, the critical part of this teaching style is how a teacher responds to giving feedback.
I believe in being open for the students during class hours, and if a student really needs help they can contact me through web, email, text, or phone call to hold a deeper conversation about an assignment that needs improvement on or to clarify my own reasoning for a grade. However, my door will always be open for any conversation as long as it does not intrude on important parts of my daily life.