My first Reflections on Learning experiences before I became a teacher of languages and now

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 teachers  and 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 case  I teach English and German so I need to have good competences to create new materials , assess the students  and   create  an interesting environment for my students . In addition  my  students   need to cope  with English  writing skills, understanding and speaking  English at school and in the future at work. This is a great job  but  it is very demanding!!

I have  decided to do this course because I feel I am involved in education and should know more about the great  changes that are going to shape  our school systems and what  the future of education will be like . We have entered a new world but not everybody is ready to face this change.

After doing   this  course  about the future of Education I hope I will  have 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 chalk  have now been replaced by new technologies and that  teachers  are no more those who only  know. Building knowledge is getting more and more  complex but we need to help our students to create a mental process through which they can learn better and   build  further  steps in their process of learning which  are worth doing and useful for them  as 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 teacher  will have to be competent and have  a positive  approach to meet special needs.   The process of learning is individual : the same teacher will have students who learn in a different way, thus  we are required to cope with complexity.  I think that in the future  teachers will be able to deal with complex situations thanks to the new technologies and a better education system from university.

To conclude  the future of education  will be  smart, cool and  we will have  students who will learn in a different  way, 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 learning   also people who  are not   studying today    will be given the chance to study.

It is and it will be   a revolution and thanks to the new technological devices we  will share  more 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......