The world is changing and we must change the way we think about teaching students, or teachers in my case, in order to prepare them for a world that does not yet exist. In my current position, I do not teach students, but I can have a direct impact on changing the culture of learning at my school by modeling in my trainings.
As I watched the Tedx video “The New Culture of Learning” by Douglas Thomas, one quote in particular resonated with me. The “teachers job is creating context where we can cultivate imagination, where we can honor passion and where we can help people connect their passion to the things that they need to learn.”
I feel it is important for teachers to understand the difference between content (facts) and context (putting something in perspective). We are a one to one campus and every student has a device that they can “fact check” a teacher’s content or simply look up content on their own. Students naturally use many sources to find the context and this should be encouraged as it helps them to prepare for the future. In order to promote a culture of learning, I will model this during my trainings.
One great way to help cultivate imagination and passion is letting the students choose how they want to demonstrate their mastery of a topic. In my trainings, whether as a group or one on one, I introduce teachers to technology resources that they can use in their classrooms. As they learn about more tools, they become more comfortable with letting the students choose how they want to demonstrate mastery. One thing to remember is we cannot limit students to the tools that the teacher is comfortable with. We must let students select the tools they are comfortable using to show mastery in order to cultivate imagination and passion.
Sandra Negro 