How has your experience of school shaped you as a learner, and as an adult?
In what ways do you think your own schooling could have been improved, and what priorities do you think are the most important for schools today?
School is the first important environment you get familiar with after you grew up and your family has enabled you to become older and let you enter the outside world. Schooling is the most important experience in the life of a person, it means you learn, you socialize and develop skills and your character.
School is so important for our lives since we spend there years and years, some students go there only in the morning, others may spend something like 6-8 hours a day at school . Thus we should learn and become more and more involved in our school life and get connected with our schoolmates and our teachers. It is time spent on a process of developing skills, competences and getting inspired to become a better lerner.
Yes, school shapes our character and also our future life, if you love school and the activities that have been carried out at school you will continue loving school and life will be a nice journey where you will continue learning and learning forever .
I have been influenced by my teachers: most of them were good and made me realize that I was getting more proficient and what's more I decided to become a teacher, a person who wants now to share my experience of teaching with other teachers to help them in order to share tools, better techniques and also have more students love learning.
If......if...........if............... school still needs improvement, and my past life as a student is an example of a person who had good teachers and masters , but I also met difficulties. Some teachers were not friendly or open , they did not try to involve all the students, some students suffered, but again I admit that this is an experience we all have, because schools are made by teachers and students and human beings are complex and have different ideas about learning and teaching.
What are the priorities for schools today ? There is a long long List....................
- First develop a nice environment where students like to spend the time
- Use new media
- Teachers should be involved in self-development and be good supporters for their pupils
- Schools and education are part of the world, thus we should all have good technology at school and share the use of technology with our students who are more advanced than us sometimes
- Be in contact with the community and the families
- Develop projects where our students learn how to do something
- Teach critical thinking and 21st Century Skills
- Try to teach everybody and help them to develop their learning style
- Learn about other successful experiences
- Remember that we have different abilities and skills but we all should be important at school
- Teachers should work in team and share experiences with other schools and classes
- Develop Blended Learning
Any time I think about my past life as a student I keep telling me that a good Teacher is more than a teacher, good Teachers love and take care of their students, they are not NUMBERS.
A good teacher is someone who loves supporting you and can understand you if you have difficulties...........................................
Thursday 16th October 2014
Yesterday I went to a teacher's refresher seminar organized by our local Language Group for English Teachers. The topic was Objective: LIFE LONG LEARNING through REFLECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNER TRAINING. It was an interesting reflection made by a teacher who is working at university and shared ideas with us. We got back into our past life as students and we were asked what we liked and what we did not like when we were at school and were just learners. It was interesting to see how FEELINGS were so important. Professor ANILA S.Scott-Monkhouse of the UNIVERSITY of Parma made us think and I realized that once you get entrapped into the process of teaching and feel you are under pressure to cover the syllabus you do not Always think about your students in terms of people who are involved in your lessons. She left us by using these words:
Before you say anything Remember the educational importance of self-esteem.
I think that we should all rember that a good teacher does not destroy the self-image of the student, each student is different from the Others and each student is important. They learn little by little but we should encourage each person and tell them that they are important and they are the player of the lessons.
What makes a good Teacher? A good teacher can deal with the problems of the students who are Special, Today we have a lot of students with Special Needs, disabled students and students with dyslexia.
SELF - DEVELOPMENT What a good teacher can do in order to become a better teacher - use blogs and social forums for teachers - take part in conferences , webminars, special courses for teachers - work on his/her self-development in terms of courses or special webminars that might enrich his / her teaching tools - write a reflective diary - meet other Teachers and share ideas with them about best practices and also difficulties
I have had good and bad
teachers in my school life. Referring to the film DEAD POET SOCIETY
I should say that the teacher of
the film is a good example of
someone who is a greatsupporter for his students. He loves them and they love him
but at the beginning of the film they
may find him an unusual man and teacher.
Once they get to KNOW him and his approaches
they are involved and entrapped into his lessons and will discover the world of poetry. I had two great teachers in my school life :they
taught me Italian and History of
Art and I will never forget thembecause theycared and made me lovewhat they
were doing with us.
By quoting fromW.A.Wardwe couldsay" The great teacherinspires"(1) . Unfortunately in somecases our studentshave to face the coldness of their teachers, notalwaysteachers can bepeople whoinspirestudents, they may havedifficulties in establishing arelationship and interact with them.
Agood teacher is a person who changes gear when he/ she realizes thatstudents do notalways understand what he/she istrying to explain. Good teachers are able to maketheirteaching better by reflecting. Critical reflection shouldhelpteachers toapproach teaching and learning in a different way.
Teaching is an on-goingprocess and all good teachersshouldcope with the mainachievements anddifficulties andthink more aboutthe bestteachingpractices they should have. The classroom climate is also crucial for havingbetterlearners. "Outstanding teachers create an excellent classroom climate and achieve superior pupil progress largely by displaying more professional characteristics at higher levels of sophistication within a very structured learning environment. " (2)From the discussion wehad with otherteachers it seemed thatmost of the good teacherswork hard for theirstudents. This is true in many cases, I would also add that a goodteacher is able tocope with the complexities of life, in terms ofstudents and theirsocial background; in addition more and moreteachersmay findthemselves in the situation ofhaving students with disabilities and/ or special needs- in particularin compulsory education. The lesson can be planned, well-designed but when we enter the classroom we havedifferentstudents who might react ina different way, and it is ourduty to understand andhelpthem, especially the less able ones.To conclude a good teacher isa person whois used to thinking abouthis/her job andnever stopslearning to become abetter teacher . (1)http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/good_teacher.html (2)http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/4566/1/RR216.pdf_____________________________________
References for self-development
- Towards Reflective Teaching by Jack C. Richards Department of English, City Polytechnic of Hong Kong http://www.tttjournal.co.uk/
- Reflective teaching-
The Principles and the PracticesENGLISH TEACHINGFORUM- October2003
Reflect on your own schooling. Did you go to a "good" school? What "residuals" did you take away from your schooling, and how has it helped you subsequently? I have attended state run schools, but I was lucky to go to a special school from the age of 14 until I was 19. The school had an innovative syllabus and teachers who were eager to learn more and were experimenting new ways of teaching in the 1970s in the province of Reggio Emilia, in Italy. It was a good school because there were good labs, good teachers, students could choose the subjects they were interested in and later at the age of 16 they chose what courses they wanted to do. The school was modern and there were a lot of educational facilities: in some subjects we had no books and in many others we had the chance to work like biologists and carried out some experiments in the science or physics lab. Today the school has changed but old students still send their children there, it was a great experience we all learnt a lot. Today the school is 40 years old.................and it is still young
BUS PASCAL FROM REGGIO EMILIA IS 40 YEARS OLD
Now I am a teacher but I still remember the nice experiences I shared with some students and also some Teachers. I was a shy person but they gave me a lot of support and help and loved what I did in some subjects : languages, history of art, Italian, philosophy and lots of nice articles in English, German we read and worked on........................... They OPENED MY MIND !!
When I think of a model of school I can only say that every student should not only learn subjects but they should also learn values and how to work alone and together to build a better student's mind, the citizen of a modern country.
What definition of intelligence do I have?
Intelligence has nothing to do with good results at school.................................. some of the most important men of the XX and XXI century have not studied at university or have studied on their own and achieved great success................................. intelligence marks human beings and at school it is difficult to say why some students learn better than others.............................
My reflectionsafterweek 2
My past life as astudent and how I learnt
I do think ofintelligence as a
special gift given to very smartpeople.
I wasassessed in my years spent at
school and at university, butteachers
assessed my performance orally or in a writtentask. I was asked to write abouta topic, topresent a topic and
to answer about a topic. I had to do
this in all the subjects that I had to do and study. I never took any IQ tests:
my parents were not interested in them; I was a good student andI wanted to achieve a lot, butmost of all I wanted to be the best student.
Learning, studying, working on myown were
the main goals in my life starting frommyfirst years. I lovedlearning all the main subjects: history, art,
biology, Italian, maths, science, grammar, literature, French,
German................................later I went to university and I chose
whatI liked to study and learn:
languages and literature. It was my worldbut again I did not consider myself an intelligent person:I wasa student whowasproud and wanted to get the best and most out
ofwhatschool and university wereoffering me.I wasINTERESTED and this isthe main reason of mysuccess in achievinggood results, sometimes they were the best of
the class , sometimes they wereacceptable butI had learnt how
to run and organize my knowledge and now Ican say thatafter years of
learningI ama good learner. However, my teachers were
sometimes not good at encouraging my self-development and I must say that what
I learnt was more in relationship to my interests, some teachers were notgood teachers orthey did not care .One person I canremember is myprimary school teacher: she loved her job and
she loved us, she wouldfollow us in the
next years andwanted to know how we
were making progress and she loved to give us some advice.
In
terms ofeducationalfacilitiesI was offeredgoodand top level quality in secondaryschool whilethe university was a very traditional environmentwhere Ihad to cope withlow levelprofessors sometimes andI could notdevelop myself.What boringlessonsdid I haveto follow and
whatboringtexts to read!!
My
teaches nevertalked about myintelligence: they onlyrecognized thatI was a student who worked hard.
INTELLIGENCEANDSCHOOL
After reading thetexts about intelligence which have beensuggested for this course (1) I still believe that teacherscan make the difference:good
students canachievebadresults if thelearningenvironmentis low quality and ifteachers do
not know how to cope with them.Every student has a lot of potentialitiesbut it is up totheir tutors and teachers to help and
developtheir skills andabilities. I know that there are special schools forbright students, but I feel that the future
of education depends on how school systemscan cope withmore studentsand give themthe best in terms oftutors,
critical thinking andhelp in developingtheir mind. Maria Montessori is for me a great woman who has helped children to grow ............................................
Reflect on your previous Learning experience : before taking the MOOC " WHAT FUTURE FOR EDUCATION?" on Coursera.org
If you ask me about my first learning experience you should expect me to tell you much about what I did not like about it. I did not feel part of the community of children and I was only 5 years old.
Then I grew up and started to love what I was doing: I had met someone who was special, someone I could rely on and she was teaching in my class. This person was special and I realized that I could make progress and be happier and as time passed I wanted to be more and more involved in teaching. I wanted to be like my primary school teacher. She was a caring and loving teacher and she made me love school.
However, my life at school and my relationship with education suffered a lot in the years I became more and more demanding, I was a teenager and I wanted to be given the best. At that time I was in contrast with some teachers because they were not giving me what I was looking for: education with the best of knowledge........................ University made me realize that noone is perfect and also teachers sometimes make mistakes. Today I am a middle aged woman teaching teenagers who sometimes have difficulties in studying and learning but I have also learnt that learning goes beyond my best efforts. Some of my students will be successful and speak English well, their success depends on their interests and on what they want to achieve. Those who do not want to learn might decide later to improve their skills and maybe they will be able to cope with the written and spoken language much better in the future than with me now.
WEEK1
Based
on your experience as a learner, what do you think you will be able to get out
of this course? And what ideas do you already have about the future of
education?
I
have been a learner for a long time now:I was a learner when I went to school
and to university, I am still a learner because I am a teacher and I must cope
with the great demands that come from my principal, the other teachersand my students. I am a teacher of the XXI
century............I need to develop new skills and I have a leading role of being the one who
can choose what and when to do topics and WHICH content in my lessons.In my caseI teach English and German so I need to have
good competences to create new materials , assess the studentsandcreate an
interesting environment for my students . In addition mystudents need to copewith English writing skills, understanding and speaking English at school and in the future at work.
This is a great jobbutit is very demanding!!
I
havedecided to do this course because I
feel I am involved in education and should know more about the greatchanges that are going to shapeour school systems and whatthe future of education will be like . We
have entered a new world but not everybody is ready to face this change.
After
doing thiscourseabout the future of Education I hope I willhave learnt that the future is now and it is
under construction and it depends on us- teachers-........we need to know that the old blackboard and
the piece of chalkhave now been
replaced by new technologies and thatteachersare no more those who
only know. Building knowledge is getting
more and morecomplex but we need to
help our students to create a mental process through which they can learn
better andbuildfurthersteps in their process of learning which are worth doing and useful for themas citizens of the world community.
We
share our work with our students and their families: some students might be in
difficulties and need a special support , once more the teacherwill have to be competent and havea positiveapproach to meet special needs.The process of learning is individual : the same teacher will have
students who learn in a different way, thuswe are required to cope with complexity.I think that in the futureteachers will be able to deal with complex situations thanks to the new
technologies and a better education system from university.
To
concludethe future of educationwill besmart, cool andwe will havestudents who will learn in a differentway, following their own interests and also
special attitudes.
The
number of people involved in education will be bigger and thanks to the new
technologies and blended learningalso
people whoare notstudying todaywill be given the chance to study.
It
is and it will bea revolution and
thanks to the new technological devices wewill sharemore materials among
teachers and students will have more chances to work together and share their
knowledge.
The future of education has
just begun.
WEEK 2
WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE AND DOES IT MATTER?
The word intelligence comes from latin INTELLECTUS, meaning PERCEPTION.
What do I know about it? Every person is different from the others but
we say that some are more intelligent than the others. But at school we have a lot of bright students who are not successful........so sometimes for teachers it is difficult to build a good learning environment that meets the students' needs and some leave school.........., which is a pity.....
Education sometimes does not care for students who are intelligent......
Have a look at this video about education and intelligence
I feel that it is time to meet the changes of schools and education: teachers alone cannot do it but we need to provide a better way for Learning.
I consider myself a good learner, but I am not a beautiful mind , I am intelligent because I can learn on my own. I wish more students could learn and be successful in spite of today's schools which are sometimes losing appeal because in most state run schools there is no money for doing many interesting activities and students are not motivated...........
MORE REFLECTIONS ABOUT THE ITALIAN STUDENTS AND THE SCHOOL IN ITALY Today intelligent boys and girls do not always have a good school, we do need to cope with complexity without having the right tools and a nice environment. To develop good minds we should create a loving place where students come and love Learning. INDIRE in Italy analyzed the best schools and places where students of the future might work well. This is the video: it is a pity that my students cannot rely on the best technlogies and a warming place where they spend six days a week. A DIFFERENT SCHOOL......
