As society evolves rapidly, we too must adapt and change to make sure we stay ahead of the curve, in order to help educate and strengthen our future generations. When I hear that there will be a change in an area of my life, that sometimes makes me uncomfortable because that means that I have to step outside of my comfort zone and try something new. As a future teacher, I must see that not all change is bad and welcome change in my life. Academics and society are constantly changing and we must understand the history of where education started and where we are now. I think that areas that have changed in education are the importance of relationships over the importance of what they are being taught in the classroom. I think that it is crucial to focus on who the students are as people instead of just giving them a grade and deciding if they are smart based on a test score. In the Ken Robinson podcast, they mention that building relationships with kids is important and the importance of being a relationship-based teacher and not an instructional-based teacher. It is easy to sit in front of a class and tell them to grab a worksheet and do it at their desk and then the rest is homework. But a student will remember the teacher that creates fun activities and works through problems with the students.
The podcast also touches on the idea of age groups and academic intelligence. Do we need to stay in high school for 4 years and then continue for another 4 years in college? I think this is a question that can be answered when you build relationships with students and get to know who they are as people. Based on information about their intelligence and how they learn as people is how we can determine how long they need to be in school. I think that education should be very individualized for each student because we are preparing kids for their future. I think that age is just a number and does not mean that a student is fit for a certain curriculum that is applied to all students. Therefore, I think that since we have allowed rights to education to all, we must allow the appropriate education to each student. In the past couple of years, we have seen different types of learning styles for kids. For example, some people learn better in person and not online, and some people enjoy learning from home or on a computer. There are different ways that technology has affected education and many questions that come along with the change.
Technology has now given access to some of the best teachers and we can use these teachers to transform education. We are able to get in contact with educators and find unique ways to run our own classrooms. We also have devices that give you immediate answers to any question that you have. This is sometimes a challenge and the question of what are we teaching in the classroom cannot be found on the internet. I think that the answer to that is that we are teaching them how to become amazon human beings. We are able to tie in social-emotional learning with the core curriculums that are taught in schools. These are very important aspects of being educated and learning how to live in the real world. The classroom should teach more than just the core curriculum like math, science, and history, we need to teach kids how to become extraordinary people after they leave school. As a teacher, I want to make sure that I make connections with my students and the amount of time that they spend looking at a screen and looking into other people’s eyes or looking outside is at its best for the kids. I think that it is important to spend time with each other and learn inside the classroom and not just through a computer screen.
As I grow as an educator and learn new things about myself, I want to make school a fun experience for all kids, most schools program students to go from class to class using a bell system and give them sectioned-off time for each subject. I want to create a more engaging environment that will make kids feel like they are noticed and that they belong there. We must assess our quality of teaching and learning and how that is more important than how the curriculum is creating economic growth and academic success. We need to focus on problems that affect today’s world instead of a war that happened in the 17th century. Looking at my future in education, I want to create a welcoming environment where I can be a mentor to kids but also build a relationship with them that will help improve their overall quality of life. The education of the individual is what we need to focus on more than the education of a curriculum.
