The way we learnt is so different than the way our students are learning nowadays. Technology is a good tool to engage and motivate students in this century. In this era, teachers must have some special skills. Skills that are different, innovative, creative, technological, research-based. Technology allows us to communicate from anywhere no matter where we are. It allows us to go to unknown places, meet celebrities and people from other centuries. It allows us to find information quickly and easily. “Technology allows to get more done in less time” For teachers using technology is a great tool, there are several websites where find information is so easy, backchannels where students have the opportunity to say something but refuse to open up in class discussions. Students have to handle different types of feelings like fears and insecurities. If teachers help them to face and manage these emotions, they can develop skills they will use in the future and in the real world.
“The right lesson in school, the right article online, the right video, might have sparked a fire and changed the course of someone’s life” (Matt Miller), with digital tools teachers can find pages of information on topics that interested students and contributed to his success, it is very important teachers have strategies can open student’s minds to new possibilities and a good tool is through the tics”. The teacher’s role today is to be a mentor, to guide students to find their passions, their strengths and learn to manage their weaknesses while learning to live in a real world where it is essential to know how to find and apply information and knowledge. This is important because many people think knowledge is power.
I´d like to recall chapter 4, titled EMPOWER STUDENTS TO FIND THEIR PASSIONS. The author conceives the school as a place for imprisonment experience or punishment. I don´t really agree with him, It is true that most of our students attend schools because they´re sent there by their parents. It is also true that our students in public schools lack of attention and concentration; but the idea exposed by the author.. . ¨yeah that one that leads us to the conclusion that students are told for 10 years what to do¨ shouldn´t be so radical. Teachers assign homework according to a certain content they select from the first week of the year. We don´t tell students what to do, we just do our work by giving them the knowledge we consider they need for their future. Discipline is in crisis nowadays, students disrespect parents and even worse, they disrespect us inside the classrooms. We can´t let students decide for us, we can´t give students so much freedom- Imagine we ask students what they want to do in class, 95% would surely say “nothing” , “free class” . The author suggests that they would look for information on web pages on topics that interest them, well I find this hard to believe in our context in Medellin.
Now I want to tell you my friends about chapter 5, it is about the change we must generate. We can´t change education at once but if we don´t do anything about the way we teach, we put our students at loss. Long time ago teachers owned the knowledge, now we administrate it.
Although technology elicits changes, we still depend on photocopies and textbooks, step by step, one day we´ll combine both paper and technology. I guess that is a reasonable balance. Otherwise how are we supposed to control 45 students in a classroom without the enough technology? It is not as easy to go digital as the author says.
Hi everybody, In chapters 5, 6 and 7, the author talks about the same education pattern that we have had for a long time and he refers to the importance of reinventing our education patterns. To break paradigms is not easy, especially in a system where discipline is for following orders and many times students don’t need to think. It is a big challenge to make schools and classrooms relevant. According to Matt Miller one of the most important roles might not be answering questions but helping students discover the right question and showing them where and how to find the answers themselves and guide them in this technological era where the illiterate of the 21st century will be those who cannot learn-unlearn and relearn. “As teachers we must motivate and guide passion for learning” (Matt Miller), maybe our students won’t learn how to use some grammar structures at school but when they need them, they are going to apply these concepts. As I said before changing paradigms is not easy especially when we were not born in this century. Our students are native people in technology and this is a challenge for us, we can learn-unlearn and relearn. Another good point that Matt Miller makes is about not answering questions to students but according to him is helping them to discover the right questions and showing them where and how to find the information and answers themselves. Many times we want to change the world and change other people but when we started with ourselves we can change our world and our classroom experiences. “Our students need a teacher as a travel guide who helps students find their Passions, they need mentors and guides to help them discover what they want to learn and who they want to be” (Matt Miller) When we go to the classroom, not only the students have the opportunity to learn. We learn from them too. There are some characteristics that we need to develop in our classrooms, skills for 21st century: critical thinking(solving problems), communication (understanding and communicating ideas) collaborative work ( working with others), creativity (producing high quality work). Another skill that is important to someone is listening and being attentive to new ideas. As I said before, learning should be meaningful , we can start a class with a question according to our students’ lives for example: which place is bigger San Antonio de Prado or Itagui?. Which food is more delicious: empanada or mazamorra? I am talking about our context at the same time. It is important to talk about the world especially in this era where technology makes the world smaller. In our classrooms students know when you love and have passion in what you do. Matt Miller says in his book that is important not to teach a lesson, but to create an experience where dreams are very important is someone’s life.
---I strongly agree with this “kids don’t learn from people they don’t like” (Matt Miller). When we feel afraid or stressed the learning process is more difficult. Our brain needs to be reaxed to learn easily. However emotions play a very important role in learning. I talked about some teacher characteristics in this century but there are other important characteristics that teachers should have for example being respectful with others, treating each other right, recognizing our mistakes, among others. When something is meaningful and relevant in our lives, we learn easier. Planning a lesson is a journey where travelers are our students, is important to think in goals, interests, students’ experiences. As teachers we can use some technology according to our resources and needs. Technology is a tool, not the goal. Be flexible. We don’t need to be perfect, we can be learners too.
---Having experiences and having knowledge and information is important but it is more significant to share this with other teachers or people through blogs, lectures, speeches. Sometimes we think that we don’t have anything to share maybe because other teachers are better than us but every single teacher has good and bad experiences doesn’t matter how many degrees has, and every experience in a classroom is an adventure, which is significant and relevant.
---“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original” (Ted: how schools kill creativity) Desires and needs are essential in motivation. Motivating students in learning is an important key, when we think in motivation there are five important aspects called, the five C’s: choices, challenge, curiosity, cooperation, competition. These five C’s can help us develop students’ motivation. We live in a technological world but many of our classrooms do not belong to this era. Iin many cases we don’t have computers, tablets or access to internet. Most of our students have a smartphones. Instead of fighting with them because they use facebook , chat in class, listen to music or play a game, we could use them as a working and learning tool.
--- As I said before we are not digital natives. Sometimes we feel afraid because we don’t know much about technology or we think it is very difficult but “you are your own best professional development. You, you know your strengths and weakness best. You know what you need to capitalize on them.” page 155 Go and learn. Nowadays there are thousands of web pages where you can learn and it is free. Some websites where teachers can obtain information are: twitter.com, Google plus, Sanderling.io, Pinterest.com, ESL Printable. As teachers we must create a good atmosphere where students feel comfortable and want to learn. “Four ways to get students’ attention: don’t ask for more than you give: talk to students, go to their activities, make them feel important, reward them with something sugary, add value, write shorter sentences, paragraphs, posts; engage in the conversation.” Michael Hyatt.
---Using technology in our classrooms is a really good tool. Through technology students can develop certain skills. Technology can facilitate our job. There are lots of ideas and websites that we can use as teachers but it is important consider our context, our reality and our resources. We can develop our creativity and adapt these technological ideas to our reality. When we think about contents, it is important to consider student’s interests. I agree technology is a good tool but at the same time text books are a good tool in my opinion. It is important write on the web but it is really important to have hand writing. It is important have a chat on Skype or Facebook but it is more important to chat with someone face to face. We can’t forget the human being.
I want to see some evidence of all the marvelous ideas that the writer professes.I am not a wowser! , on the contrary, I dream of this innovative ways of teaching, but this book was only a desirable state of classrooms that tired teachers wish for. Unfortunately there was no link to any project,video or blog where I could realize that this works well. I feel a strong subjective point of view, it was based on the writer´s experience.
Nowadays, there is a wide tendency for teaching applications online to proliferate, we all know that, the writer tries to convince us to use them in class,I guess that´s good!.
Most of the 90% of the book was about getting rid of traditional methodologies. It is clear that after reading this book you feel like changing the world, reaching your students needs and transforming education.The books makes you feel anxious to put into practice those strategies to ditch textbooks,curriculum and begin a new age using tech. What the writer forgot to mention is the social problems we face everyday, the students lack of motivation , the insufficient resources in our public schools,and most importantly the indiscipline and Immaturity of many students which can cause failures in adopting the philosophy that ´´ ditch that textbook´´ suggests. I have used blogs, whatsapp groups, e-mail to keep in touch with my students but I could say that it isn´t as easy as it seems. You can´t force everyone to use technology because not all students have internet connectivity at home or electronic devices to use,It means : there´ll be excuses in handing in homework anyway!.
To conclude , I would say that in the simplest terms, you could think of searching the web as looking in a very large book with an impressive index telling you exactly where everything is located. The writer wants us to solve our lessons by using the internet. Beware , there are dangers too that he didn´t contemplate. In my opinion the book is too large to send such a concrete idea.
With technology, learning processes could be easier. Creating a blog with our students can make them more globalized citizens, it is very interesting when many people around the world have the opportunity to read your feelings and thoughts. It is quite different when just one person reads your writing. Having a conversation on skype, talking with another English class around the world are good tools but in many cases lots of teachers don’t have enough resources to develop these good strategies but with creativity these good ideas can adjust to our realities. Something that caught my attention was that teachers often focus on mistakes students make and it is very important to see their process and highlight positive aspects and motivate them to learn. “Tech tools could expand your student’s world”
A management group is sometimes difficult especially when the classrooms have 38-40 students, as teachers we have lots of expectations in learning process, I liked something that I read: when someone doesn’t want to get in a bus you cannot force him/her but you can help and show that person why it is important to get in that bus. We can help our students but it is their decision and choice do something for their lives. Some advice from the author of this book: circulate frequently in class, make observations ask questions. “ My goal is to keep observations positive” (Miller, p 207) Develop respect from students, treat them as would you like to be treated. Show them that they are important. “I don’t have a discipline plan in my classroom, I have a care plan”(Jeff Charbonneau. The 2013 National Teacher of the year). A very good classroom management tool is a well-written engaging lesson plan. This book is so interesting to me because it is an invitation to get more technologically, face our fears and try something new. At the same time the author express his feelings, thoughts and frustrations because sometimes things are not easy and don’t go as we expected , but this is the challenge. Try and jump.
It is true the world right now has been changing rapidly and we cannot leave behind. Our students move with it. Technology is part of that change, and we need to grasp it to keep up with it. Our current students are almost born with it and we have to be aware of that fact as our age just started to change. This book tells us the reality that we have to face as teachers due to the fact that we are not that familiar with the trending inventions that come up from creative minds and sometimes we refuse to choose the easiest ways to teach through technology and have our lives easier. Technology also brings up those shy students that we have in class who refuse to talk and participate in front of the class by unthinkable ways that we didn't even imagine. But we cannot think that technology will replace us or puts us aside, because the students needs the human guide and the warmth of a person who is there for them. So, we can be positive they will have teachers for a long time.
The way we learnt is so different than the way our students are learning nowadays. Technology is a good tool to engage and motivate students in this century.
ReplyDeleteIn this era, teachers must have some special skills. Skills that are different, innovative, creative, technological, research-based.
Technology allows us to communicate from anywhere no matter where we are. It allows us to go to unknown places, meet celebrities and people from other centuries. It allows us to find information quickly and easily. “Technology allows to get more done in less time”
For teachers using technology is a great tool, there are several websites where find information is so easy, backchannels where students have the opportunity to say something but refuse to open up in class discussions. Students have to handle different types of feelings like fears and insecurities. If teachers help them to face and manage these emotions, they can develop skills they will use in the future and in the real world.
“The right lesson in school, the right article online, the right video, might have sparked a fire and changed the course of someone’s life” (Matt Miller), with digital tools teachers can find pages of information on topics that interested students and contributed to his success, it is very important teachers have strategies can open student’s minds to new possibilities and a good tool is through the tics”. The teacher’s role today is to be a mentor, to guide students to find their passions, their strengths and learn to manage their weaknesses while learning to live in a real world where it is essential to know how to find and apply information and knowledge. This is important because many people think knowledge is power.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehi I´m jorge
ReplyDeleteI´d like to recall chapter 4, titled EMPOWER STUDENTS TO FIND THEIR PASSIONS.
The author conceives the school as a place for imprisonment experience or punishment. I don´t really agree with him, It is true that most of our students attend schools because they´re sent there by their parents. It is also true that our students in public schools lack of attention and concentration; but the idea exposed by the author.. . ¨yeah that one that leads us to the conclusion that students are told for 10 years what to do¨ shouldn´t be so radical. Teachers assign homework according to a certain content they select from the first week of the year. We don´t tell students what to do, we just do our work by giving them the knowledge we consider they need for their future. Discipline is in crisis nowadays, students disrespect parents and even worse, they disrespect us inside the classrooms. We can´t let students decide for us, we can´t give students so much freedom- Imagine we ask students what they want to do in class, 95% would surely say “nothing” , “free class” . The author suggests that they would look for information on web pages on topics that interest them, well I find this hard to believe in our context in Medellin.
Now I want to tell you my friends about chapter 5, it is about the change we must generate. We can´t change education at once but if we don´t do anything about the way we teach, we put our students at loss. Long time ago teachers owned the knowledge, now we administrate it.
Although technology elicits changes, we still depend on photocopies and textbooks, step by step, one day we´ll combine both paper and technology. I guess that is a reasonable balance. Otherwise how are we supposed to control 45 students in a classroom without the enough technology? It is not as easy to go digital as the author says.
Hi everybody,
ReplyDeleteIn chapters 5, 6 and 7, the author talks about the same education pattern that we have had for a long time and he refers to the importance of reinventing our education patterns.
To break paradigms is not easy, especially in a system where discipline is for following orders and many times students don’t need to think. It is a big challenge to make schools and classrooms relevant. According to Matt Miller one of the most important roles might not be answering questions but helping students discover the right question and showing them where and how to find the answers themselves and guide them in this technological era where the illiterate of the 21st century will be those who cannot learn-unlearn and relearn.
“As teachers we must motivate and guide passion for learning” (Matt Miller), maybe our students won’t learn how to use some grammar structures at school but when they need them, they are going to apply these concepts.
As I said before changing paradigms is not easy especially when we were not born in this century. Our students are native people in technology and this is a challenge for us, we can learn-unlearn and relearn.
Another good point that Matt Miller makes is about not answering questions to students but according to him is helping them to discover the right questions and showing them where and how to find the information and answers themselves.
Many times we want to change the world and change other people but when we started with ourselves we can change our world and our classroom experiences.
“Our students need a teacher as a travel guide who helps students find their
Passions, they need mentors and guides to help them discover what they want to learn and who they want to be” (Matt Miller)
When we go to the classroom, not only the students have the opportunity to learn. We learn from them too.
There are some characteristics that we need to develop in our classrooms, skills for 21st century: critical thinking(solving problems), communication (understanding and communicating ideas) collaborative work ( working with others), creativity (producing high quality work).
Another skill that is important to someone is listening and being attentive to new ideas.
As I said before, learning should be meaningful , we can start a class with a question according to our students’ lives for example: which place is bigger San Antonio de Prado or Itagui?. Which food is more delicious: empanada or mazamorra? I am talking about our context at the same time. It is important to talk about the world especially in this era where technology makes the world smaller.
In our classrooms students know when you love and have passion in what you do. Matt Miller says in his book that is important not to teach a lesson, but to create an experience where dreams are very important is someone’s life.
---I strongly agree with this “kids don’t learn from people they don’t like” (Matt Miller). When we feel afraid or stressed the learning process is more difficult. Our brain needs to be reaxed to learn easily. However emotions play a very important role in learning. I talked about some teacher characteristics in this century but there are other important characteristics that teachers should have for example being respectful with others, treating each other right, recognizing our mistakes, among others.
ReplyDeleteWhen something is meaningful and relevant in our lives, we learn easier. Planning a lesson is a journey where travelers are our students, is important to think in goals, interests, students’ experiences. As teachers we can use some technology according to our resources and needs. Technology is a tool, not the goal. Be flexible. We don’t need to be perfect, we can be learners too.
---Having experiences and having knowledge and information is important but it is more significant to share this with other teachers or people through blogs, lectures, speeches.
ReplyDeleteSometimes we think that we don’t have anything to share maybe because other teachers are better than us but every single teacher has good and bad experiences doesn’t matter how many degrees has, and every experience in a classroom is an adventure, which is significant and relevant.
ReplyDelete---“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original” (Ted: how schools kill creativity)
Desires and needs are essential in motivation. Motivating students in learning is an important key, when we think in motivation there are five important aspects called, the five C’s: choices, challenge, curiosity, cooperation, competition. These five C’s can help us develop students’ motivation.
We live in a technological world but many of our classrooms do not belong to this era. Iin many cases we don’t have computers, tablets or access to internet. Most of our students have a smartphones. Instead of fighting with them because they use facebook , chat in class, listen to music or play a game, we could use them as a working and learning tool.
--- As I said before we are not digital natives. Sometimes we feel afraid because we don’t know much about technology or we think it is very difficult but “you are your own best professional development. You, you know your strengths and weakness best. You know what you need to capitalize on them.” page 155
Go and learn. Nowadays there are thousands of web pages where you can learn and it is free.
Some websites where teachers can obtain information are: twitter.com, Google plus, Sanderling.io, Pinterest.com, ESL Printable.
As teachers we must create a good atmosphere where students feel comfortable and want to learn.
“Four ways to get students’ attention: don’t ask for more than you give: talk to students, go to their activities, make them feel important, reward them with something sugary, add value, write shorter sentences, paragraphs, posts; engage in the conversation.” Michael Hyatt.
---Using technology in our classrooms is a really good tool. Through technology students can develop certain skills. Technology can facilitate our job. There are lots of ideas and websites that we can use as teachers but it is important consider our context, our reality and our resources. We can develop our creativity and adapt these technological ideas to our reality. When we think about contents, it is important to consider student’s interests.
ReplyDeleteI agree technology is a good tool but at the same time text books are a good tool in my opinion. It is important write on the web but it is really important to have hand writing. It is important have a chat on Skype or Facebook but it is more important to chat with someone face to face. We can’t forget the human being.
Hi I´m george again.
ReplyDeletethis is my last post.
I want to see some evidence of all the marvelous ideas that the writer professes.I am not a wowser! , on the contrary, I dream of this innovative ways of teaching, but this book was only a desirable state of classrooms that tired teachers wish for. Unfortunately there was no link to any project,video or blog where I could realize that this works well. I feel a strong subjective point of view, it was based on the writer´s experience.
Nowadays, there is a wide tendency for teaching applications online to proliferate, we all know that, the writer tries to convince us to use them in class,I guess that´s good!.
Most of the 90% of the book was about getting rid of traditional methodologies. It is clear that after reading this book you feel like changing the world, reaching your students needs and transforming education.The books makes you feel anxious to put into practice those strategies to ditch textbooks,curriculum and begin a new age using tech. What the writer forgot to mention is the social problems we face everyday, the students lack of motivation , the insufficient resources in our public schools,and most importantly the indiscipline and Immaturity of many students which can cause failures in adopting the philosophy that ´´ ditch that textbook´´ suggests. I have used blogs, whatsapp groups, e-mail to keep in touch with my students but I could say that it isn´t as easy as it seems.
You can´t force everyone to use technology because not all students have internet connectivity at home or electronic devices to use,It means : there´ll be excuses in handing in homework anyway!.
To conclude , I would say that in the simplest terms, you could think of searching the web as looking in a very large book with an impressive index telling you exactly where everything is located. The writer wants us to solve our lessons by using the internet. Beware , there are dangers too that he didn´t contemplate. In my opinion the book is too large to send such a concrete idea.
With technology, learning processes could be easier. Creating a blog with our students can make them more globalized citizens, it is very interesting when many people around the world have the opportunity to read your feelings and thoughts. It is quite different when just one person reads your writing. Having a conversation on skype, talking with another English class around the world are good tools but in many cases lots of teachers don’t have enough resources to develop these good strategies but with creativity these good ideas can adjust to our realities.
ReplyDeleteSomething that caught my attention was that teachers often focus on mistakes students make and it is very important to see their process and highlight positive aspects and motivate them to learn. “Tech tools could expand your student’s world”
A management group is sometimes difficult especially when the classrooms have 38-40 students, as teachers we have lots of expectations in learning process, I liked something that I read: when someone doesn’t want to get in a bus you cannot force him/her but you can help and show that person why it is important to get in that bus. We can help our students but it is their decision and choice do something for their lives.
Some advice from the author of this book: circulate frequently in class, make observations ask questions. “ My goal is to keep observations positive” (Miller, p 207)
Develop respect from students, treat them as would you like to be treated. Show them that they are important.
“I don’t have a discipline plan in my classroom, I have a care plan”(Jeff Charbonneau. The 2013 National Teacher of the year).
A very good classroom management tool is a well-written engaging lesson plan.
This book is so interesting to me because it is an invitation to get more technologically, face our fears and try something new. At the same time the author express his feelings, thoughts and frustrations because sometimes things are not easy and don’t go as we expected , but this is the challenge. Try and jump.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteIt is true the world right now has been changing rapidly and we cannot leave behind. Our students move with it. Technology is part of that change, and we need to grasp it to keep up with it. Our current students are almost born with it and we have to be aware of that fact as our age just started to change. This book tells us the reality that we have to face as teachers due to the fact that we are not that familiar with the trending inventions that come up from creative minds and sometimes we refuse to choose the easiest ways to teach through technology and have our lives easier. Technology also brings up those shy students that we have in class who refuse to talk and participate in front of the class by unthinkable ways that we didn't even imagine.
ReplyDeleteBut we cannot think that technology will replace us or puts us aside, because the students needs the human guide and the warmth of a person who is there for them. So, we can be positive they will have teachers for a long time.