Communication is Key

"Communication and Trust are two main ingredients for a successful Relationship"

School isn't a place a lot of people remember with affection. I know going to school wasn't my favourite thing to do and that's how it is for many kids. The important question here is why? Why do most kids hate school? Well, out of my experience it was because for most part school felt really irrelevant and restricting. Most kids see school as something that is forced upon them and they have no say in what is happening in their school environment. So the point I's trying to make is school isn't as learners orientated as we all like to think. Let me explain. School is for learners, right? Its purpose is to educate learners, right? So if school is made for learners why are we not making them part if the decision making within the school? Why are we focusing on what we THINK they should learn instead of what THEY want to learn? 

For me as a teacher communication is what makes the classroom go round. So if we are talking about meaningful involvement in the classroom and the school (and that is what we are talking about) all that I can think about is communication, communication and COMMUNICATION. Now going back to the idea of school not being truly learner orientated... In my opinion the fact that we don't include learners in the decisions made at school is simply a lack of communication. If we communicated with our learners we would know what they wanted. And that is what I would ideally want in my classroom. A place where communication takes place. Where my learners feel comfortable enough to not only talk to me but they feel comfortable enough to share their thought and feelings about what is important to them! And I would want to listen. To be someone they can talk to and share what they want and what they feel they should be learning. 

Meaningful involvement in my class would be centered around communication between me and my learners. Being able to form a relationship with them where they are so comfortable that they can share with me what they are feeling and that they can be part of the decisions that is made in class. So to sum everything up... We need to make school a place where learners feel they are a part of the school. That they have a say in what is happening in their school environment. Let the kids have a say in what is happening to them. Don't silence them but let them communicated with us so that they can be involved!

Viva la communication!

Technology - My New Frontier

If someone asked me a few weeks ago about using technology in the classroom my first instinct would have been hell no! I’m from a school where having a cellphone in class was equal to kicking your teacher between the legs (which is bad, obviously) and was seen as a capital offence. So naturally my ideal of teaching did not involve technology at all, except maybe an interactive whiteboard if I’m feeling particularly techno-savvy. So when I was asked how I would use technology in my classroom I had to think for a moment. How do I implement technology in my classes (Afrikaans, English and History)? The last few blog posts I’ve been preaching that technology shouldn’t replace a teacher and that we should “teach naked”. So how can I implement technology and not be a hypocrite? At first it seemed like a difficult question but then when I started thinking about it, it started to make sense.

First I was inspired by what we have been encouraged to do during our Digital Pedagogy class. And I thought why only now? It doesn’t make sense that I waited until my fourth year of study to start sharing my thoughts online with my peers. So why not do it at school level? I’m not saying have the kids blog in class (remember we like “teaching naked”) but have learners use blogging as platforms to practice and share their creative writing maybe even poetry. Create a community were learners and you as the teacher can read your learner’s ideas and help and encourage them even before they hand in any essays. Groom them while their at home simply writing what they feel. Of course this train of thought led me to Twitter. Why not create a hash tag for learners to use for certain discussion? For example discussing History topics (since no history teachers every has enough time to discuss EVERY angle) that learners find interesting or maybe even questions they find themselves pondering over after class (teachers can dream). Social media can be a great place to discuss relevant class topics if the situation can be controlled for example creating a private Facebook page where learners can ask about work, discuss homework and even share ideas as they continue to further their thinking. Keep learners in the loop about what is happening at school. I know about this nifty little app called School Communicator that teachers in South Africa can download, log in to the school you are at and BOOM! you can talk to the learners, share news about school events and even inform parents about what the child is up to or what the child didn’t do (no more late homework).

What I guess I’m getting at is the idea of Digital Pedagogy isn’t as impossible as it sometimes feels when I read up on it. In the space of a few weeks I’ve moved from banning all technology in classrooms to realizing it can be useful and then to thinking about how I can use it (now that I’ve been exploring the new and exciting world of Twitter and Blogging). So yes, Digital Pedagogy can be used and achieved and I’m excited to test out these ideas for myself.