Lansdowne

Empowerment – The Missing Piece of the Learning Puzzle

Richard Roberts Group 2, Participant Post ,

Walking into the March session with George Couros, I really didn’t have a clear idea of what innovative practice meant.  Throughout the day, I began to understand this concept and realize how innovation in the classroom (and school wide) allows students to feel empowered in learning.  As educators, we focus strongly on engaging students.  I still believe this remains a crucial part of the learning puzzle, but empowerment seems to be the missing piece.  Students need to become more invested in their education through practice and to effectively transfer new knowledge outside of the classroom in real life situations.
 
To help students further explore concepts introduced within the classroom, we need to provide them with the means to think critically, ask questions and seek answers.  Communication is key – allowing opportunities for students to converse with their peers and teachers promotes a safe environment where they feel comfortable taking charge of learning.  Conversations may even begin via social media sites.  Students can be resourceful by sending their questions out to the virtual world as learning happens everywhere.  Students can gain independence and build connections through doing so.
 
I think introducing the use of Twitter in the classroom is a cool way to safely expose students to the benefits of social media sites for educational purposes.  Being new to Twitter, I am looking forward to discovering ways to make use of the tool in the classroom.  I am willing to take on a ‘growth mindset’ as we continue forward with the sessions in this professional learning series.

Jillian Chaykowski
École Lansdowne
Cluster 1971

My reflection on the first session

Richard Roberts Group 2 ,

I believe it was Bill Gates who once said that, “technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.” This is how I view the use of technology. While I try to use technology as much as possible because it is, and should be a part of the daily learning of our kids in the 21st century, I try to motivate and engage the kids, not only with technology, but with fun and innovative activities that interest them; including hands on learning, inquiry projects, and things that I know I would have fun doing myself.

I don’t want to use technology just for the sake of using it. I want it to be a means to an end, and not an end in itself. When I was told ahead of time by my admin that at our session with George we would be signing up for Twitter, I was a little skeptical that this would be one of those times that I would be doing something just for the sake of doing it. My experience with divisional PDs has possibly made me a bit skeptical, as for the most part, they are just training sessions on a new assessment tool. I was skeptical that these sessions wouldn’t necessarily have any benefits for my kids’ learning. I’m glad that I was totally wrong.

In our first session I asked George the question, “How is me signing up for Twitter going to help my students, of 8 and 9 years old, learn?” George had some good answers. For example, I could show them how to safely use and understand this tool because they will certainly be using something of the sorts when they get older (whether it’s Twitter or not). He also explained that I could set up a classroom account and the kids could participate with the account by making posts that I can put online myself. This could be a great tool to share what is happening in our classroom with parents and other teachers. I thought this was a pretty cool idea. I was surprisingly unaware that teachers were using Twitter for their classrooms, as I always thought Twitter was too much of an “unfiltered” environment for an educational setting.

However, what really struck me as the major benefit of signing up for Twitter was that I could learn and get new ideas from other teachers similar to myself. In fact, the very minute that I signed up for Twitter, I followed another Grade 3 French Immersion Teacher; someone who I do not know, and otherwise would not have connected with, but whose ideas I immediately resonated with me. I immediately saw a picture of her kids doing an experiment in science that I would love to do with my kids; an activity which I think would engage them immensely. Right away, within 5 minutes, Twitter provided me with a 21st century solution to some of the problems of collaboration by helping me follow people with similar interests to myself.

In the end, after this first session with George, I now realize the benefits of using Twitter. It will certainly help me connect with other teachers, and to give me new and interesting ideas to be innovative in the classroom. It will also be a great place to share what is happening in my classroom with the outside community.

Ari Sarbit
Ecole Lansdowne
Cluster 1871