Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Category: Teaching

  • Sugata Mitra speaks truth but…

    “Teachers are the way they are because of the examination system in schools. They don’t have a choice.” Professor Sugata Mitra

    I agree, our examination system is ancient and horrible. Not to mention demeaning. It helps school communities to exist parallel to the ‘real world’ with the false assurance that we are preparing learners to eventually make the leap over to it.

    We can talk about changing the evaluation and we will change teaching – and we need to talk about it. In the meantime, we are faced with the reality of the end of course evaluations and really? We don’t have a choice? That’s a cop-out if I ever heard one. Very easy to wash my hands of the whole matter and continue teaching irrelevant material to a roomful of bored, unchallenged, disengaged students.

    Pfft.

    When teachers tell me “I don’t have a choice but to teach the way I do”, I cringe. When they allow a test to be the sole indicator of the direction in which they will guide their students, I want to weep.

    And when people talk about teachers as if they have no personal control or choice over how they teach, I want to scream.

    You, Professor Sugata Mitra, have just given teachers the option, the permission, to float along and teach to tests and say it’s not my fault until the examination system gets changed. Bravo.

  • A culture of reading (+ technology)

    I have had a series of conversations with different teachers and other educators about reading. Invariably the notion of a culture of reading comes up and just as invariably it is pitted against ‘technology’, as if it is something we need to save from the onslaught of technology.

    Reading programs at schools and centres often want to focus on book reading, as if that is the only reading worthy of being part of the culture. I met with some educators who had implemented a ‘drop everything and read’ kind of program at their adult education centre and asked them about reading on devices – mainly phones and tablets. They proudly said, Oh no. This is a break from electronics – no devices allowed.

    I have a difficult time seeing reading as something separate from technology. Of course, it is something that I used to do before I had a computer or ereader or tablet or smart phone but now I see those things as deepening the culture, widening it.

    Yesterday, I wrote an article at one of my other blogs about how a culture of reading exists in my house that included a review of a phonics and vocabulary app called Endless ABC. Reading is an important part of my life and I share this with my two year old. I can’t imagine telling him that some reading is better than other reading. That some formats are better than others.

    What do you think about a culture of reading and how it is fostered in schools, classrooms, homes?

  • A more appropriate method

    When a student complains about his teacher’s less than motivational teaching style, his school board replies that he did not complain appropriately.

    How can he complain? What outlet do students have to express their concerns about their teachers? What is a more appropriate method?

    If they are lucky they have found an adult at their establishment that they can confide in but even then…they are being heard but what is being done?

    People (in schools) do not like to hear complaints about teachers. A public school teacher is still very untouchable.

    University courses and professional development sessions always end with time for anonymous feedback to be given via evaluation forms. What if we did that in public schools? An evaluation form could certainly be adapted for different levels.

    Could this help change teaching practices that don’t touch our students hearts?

  • Some essential questions for teachers.

    What do you teach? Whether it be math, English, French, science, History, economics, computer science… are you allowing your students to use whatever tools they need to be successful?

    • Are you allowing your students to use their own technology to learn?
    • Are you allowing your students to record themselves (or you) with their phones or tablets?
    • Are you asking all of your students to do the same thing at the same time during your class?
    • Are you doing most of the talking in your classroom?
    • Are you allowing your students to use their phones or tablets to look things up in class?
    • Are you asking your students to write all of their work by hand?
    • Are you questioning your students and expecting them to conduct their own inquiry?
    • Are you providing your students with all of the answers that they need to memorize to pass a test?

    Whether your answer is yes or no to those questions… follow it up with

    WHY?

    (and here is the biggie…)

    Are you questioning yourself and your teaching practice on a regular basis?

    WHY?

  • The human touch of tech

    Today I read this, written by Nathan Smith, Director of Technology at the College of Education & Human Services of Utah State University.

    “…Connecting with our students in meaningful, positive ways – making each of them feel wanted, important, safe, valued, and needed – is to me the real “art” of teaching. I call this aspect of teaching “the human touch.” Technology used in education needs to enhance the human touch…”

    What Nathan calls the human touch, I refer to as relationship. I just love how he put it. It is so simple, so true. If we use technology (and really, that phrase ‘use technology’ is so contrived and artificial) to help our students succeed in ways that make sense for them and what they are learning then we are living and practicing in the realm of human touch. That will forever be my goal.