Showing posts with label teacher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teacher. Show all posts
08 March, 2012
The Opposite of Poverty is Justice
It has been awhile since I sat at the edge of my seat and shivered with anticipation listening to someone speak. Bryan Stevenson tells a good solid story about the saddening injustices of the US justice system.
To get a short insight into what Mr. Stevenson is speaking of, you can listen to Quantel Lotts' interview. Mr. Loots was jailed for life without the possibility of parole for the murder of his step-brother at age 14.
Please spread the word.
25 December, 2010
I am enough.
"Brene Brown studies human connection -- our ability to empathize, belong, love."
Brene Brown also does a marvelous job of arguing why we should all strive to be vulnerable instead of predictable, courageous more than brave, and kind to ourselves as well as to others. What I most enjoy about her TED Talk is the passion of her convictions is not highlighted through stories of grand deeds, but more subtly through her self-deprecating antidotes of her struggles and stumbling along the way to realising the most important thought, "I am enough."
At this time of reflection upon the challenges we have met this last year and perhaps recognition of opportunities we can stumble after in the next, watching this video places a milestone along the road of our journey forward.
06 March, 2009
Head up And Eyes Forward
The other day, I received a comment from a high school teacher who said: she didn’t like digital technology in classrooms and the internet is a pain. She did give reasons for this attitude (e.g. frequent breakdowns of her whiteboard and strict internet censorship in her school), but her comment still saddened me.
Not because she has obviously not “got” how useful digital technology is as a motivator and communicator for young people’s learning. Not because she does not realise that part of her responsibility as a teacher is to prepare her students for their future and media literacy is part of that future. What saddened me was the fact that I hear this comment over and over again from teachers, and often from very dedicated, intelligent, and engaged teachers. The only problem is, when it comes to media literacy, they are engaged in teaching methodologies of the last century.
Well, not to be discouraged. Head up. Eyes forward…
Not because she has obviously not “got” how useful digital technology is as a motivator and communicator for young people’s learning. Not because she does not realise that part of her responsibility as a teacher is to prepare her students for their future and media literacy is part of that future. What saddened me was the fact that I hear this comment over and over again from teachers, and often from very dedicated, intelligent, and engaged teachers. The only problem is, when it comes to media literacy, they are engaged in teaching methodologies of the last century.
Well, not to be discouraged. Head up. Eyes forward…
08 June, 2008
Internet Safety VII
(this is the last post of this series)
A few months ago, I was asked to give an ESL terminology course at a school for occupational therapy (OT). I didn’t really know anything substantial about occupational therapy, but I did know something about scientific terminology, I speak English, and I knew some excellent Internet language tools and Web 2.0 applications. What I lacked in knowledge, I hoped to compensate in methodology.
Since the students were nearing the end of their program, they all had extensive knowledge of OT practices. Ironically, it turns out that the students (20-30 years younger than I am) didn’t know anything substantial about Web 2.0 applications (e.g., 80% of the students didn’t know what a blog was, only one person had read a blog). Which was a shame, because I hoped to get them to use these tools to build a bridge to the large English-speaking OT community out there.
It took me a few weeks to figure out how to make the students feel comfortable enough with the media to work well together. It also took me a few weeks for me to take myself out of my comfort zone (i.e., a media saturated world) and meet the students half way with some photocopied lessons and magic markers in hand. There is only a few more weeks left to the course and it has been a great learning experience for me.
It struck me recently that this situation of students being media shy is a reversal of the situation most teachers are faced with these days. It is probably far more typical for students to want to use media in classroom learning and the teachers are the ones who feel overwhelmed by these expectations.
Yet, essentially, the learning process remains the same. We, as parents and educators, must create a learning situation where our children feel comfortable and encouraged to learn. Often, this is at the cost of removing ourselves from our own comfort zone since we must respond appropriately to what it is our children need.
I remember being fascinated by the concept that present-day teachers no longer have to just teach, they have to learn. One of the shortcomings of our educational system is the focus on teaching our teachers how to teach, instead of teaching our teachers how to learn. Our teachers must guide our children as they partake on a journey of learning experiences, rather than just focus on preparing them to preform in standardized tests.
The reason this is so, is because our children already have access to of a wealth of information. I am not just talking about facts they learn in their school curriculum, but also through books in libraries, shows on television, sites on the Internet, computer games, etc. They know so much stuff, but it is only through experiencing learning in context to their world, that this information can become knowledge. If personal contextualized experiences are missing, then information will not become long-term learning.
The most effective way of helping our children in their learning experiences is not to tell them what to do, but to share with them our own learning experiences. If you are a parent and you want to help your children, then start using the tools they are using already or will be using soon. Use the tools meaningfully and appropriately to communicate, present, document what you know in life.
A few months ago, I was asked to give an ESL terminology course at a school for occupational therapy (OT). I didn’t really know anything substantial about occupational therapy, but I did know something about scientific terminology, I speak English, and I knew some excellent Internet language tools and Web 2.0 applications. What I lacked in knowledge, I hoped to compensate in methodology.
Since the students were nearing the end of their program, they all had extensive knowledge of OT practices. Ironically, it turns out that the students (20-30 years younger than I am) didn’t know anything substantial about Web 2.0 applications (e.g., 80% of the students didn’t know what a blog was, only one person had read a blog). Which was a shame, because I hoped to get them to use these tools to build a bridge to the large English-speaking OT community out there.
It took me a few weeks to figure out how to make the students feel comfortable enough with the media to work well together. It also took me a few weeks for me to take myself out of my comfort zone (i.e., a media saturated world) and meet the students half way with some photocopied lessons and magic markers in hand. There is only a few more weeks left to the course and it has been a great learning experience for me.
It struck me recently that this situation of students being media shy is a reversal of the situation most teachers are faced with these days. It is probably far more typical for students to want to use media in classroom learning and the teachers are the ones who feel overwhelmed by these expectations.
Yet, essentially, the learning process remains the same. We, as parents and educators, must create a learning situation where our children feel comfortable and encouraged to learn. Often, this is at the cost of removing ourselves from our own comfort zone since we must respond appropriately to what it is our children need.
I remember being fascinated by the concept that present-day teachers no longer have to just teach, they have to learn. One of the shortcomings of our educational system is the focus on teaching our teachers how to teach, instead of teaching our teachers how to learn. Our teachers must guide our children as they partake on a journey of learning experiences, rather than just focus on preparing them to preform in standardized tests.
The reason this is so, is because our children already have access to of a wealth of information. I am not just talking about facts they learn in their school curriculum, but also through books in libraries, shows on television, sites on the Internet, computer games, etc. They know so much stuff, but it is only through experiencing learning in context to their world, that this information can become knowledge. If personal contextualized experiences are missing, then information will not become long-term learning.
The most effective way of helping our children in their learning experiences is not to tell them what to do, but to share with them our own learning experiences. If you are a parent and you want to help your children, then start using the tools they are using already or will be using soon. Use the tools meaningfully and appropriately to communicate, present, document what you know in life.
11 April, 2008
Helping Hands
Well, I am back from the first four hour session at the occupational therapy school. Went there as a bundle of nerves. Came back filled with energy. The students were good sports about diving in head first into this new course.
Young group of students. Surprising how many of them do not use the computer at all in their day-to-day life. This is not meant as criticism, just strange for me to wrap my head around. I've been using computers since the computers filled up rooms from wall to wall and we had to feed in stacks of punched cards into the computer. I just assumed everyone uses computers; only to different degrees.
This reminds me of my reaction to asking my new boyfriend (now husband) if he could envision going off sailing for a few weeks while visiting my parents in Grenada. His stunned expression and puzzlement (Where would we sleep?) was followed by a flat refusal. I was raised as a child in a sailing family. As far as I knew up to then, there were people who loved to sail and those who liked to sail. That there were people on the face of this planet who never sailed, didn't want to sail, or even hated sailing, threw me for a loop.
Good thing for my husband (and for me) that we had already fallen in love with each other by that time. It didn't make giving up sailing easy, but it did make it romantically noble (or, so I tried to convince myself).
10 April, 2008
Catching My Breath
It’s been ten days since we returned from NYC, and, as silly as it may sound, I’m just catching my breath again. There were physical symptoms to overcome, but even more, there were intellectual and emotional ones. I was revisiting, or was stuck, in certain conversations and experiences; spending time reflecting on the sense of things.
The trip was so rich in experience; I gave into the temptation to linger. Family and friends here encouraged me to do so. “How was your trip?” “Tell me all that happened?” “What was your impression about…?” Part of me wanted to recount every little detail of the journey. The other part of me wanted me to jump right back into our fine, but humble, existence.
Today, the later part won out. My responses have become more and more truncated and so, it’s time to return both inwardly and outwardly to Luebeck. I’m sure stories of NY will find their way into blog postings in the future months, just not now.
There is much for me to do over the next weeks. In the foreground of my concerns is preparation for some lectures I’m holding at the University of Kiel, and, seeing through an ESL course for occupational therapy (OT) students. The ESL course starts tomorrow and continues the next three months.
I’m going out on a limb on this course. The previous ESL instructors used traditional teaching methods (frontal instruction form, worksheets, vocabulary lists, and blocks of scientific texts with fill-in-the-blank questions) to try and motivate the students to learn English OT terminology and understand English scientific literature.
This the goal of the course, since there is very little German OT literature available. The students, as professional occupational therapists will, in the future, have to rely on English literature to inform them about new developments in their work field. My method, if successful, will be to connect the students with the English-speaking OT community on the web. The students will use blogs, wikis, OT forums, online language training tools to negotiate some sort of position in the wide world out there.
I do not know if it is going to work. The method I’d like to follow requires that the students do all the work and I just offer guidance and structure. It also means they have to ask questions, make comments, seek advice in a language they are not necessarily proficient in. All in all, I am planing on putting them in a rather uncomfortable position.
What I am asking of the soon-to-be (occupational) therapists is that they become (language) patients over the next months. They have to learn to take baby-steps, work consistently on stretching their skills, and not lose their sense of humour along the way.
Wish me luck.
The trip was so rich in experience; I gave into the temptation to linger. Family and friends here encouraged me to do so. “How was your trip?” “Tell me all that happened?” “What was your impression about…?” Part of me wanted to recount every little detail of the journey. The other part of me wanted me to jump right back into our fine, but humble, existence.
Today, the later part won out. My responses have become more and more truncated and so, it’s time to return both inwardly and outwardly to Luebeck. I’m sure stories of NY will find their way into blog postings in the future months, just not now.
There is much for me to do over the next weeks. In the foreground of my concerns is preparation for some lectures I’m holding at the University of Kiel, and, seeing through an ESL course for occupational therapy (OT) students. The ESL course starts tomorrow and continues the next three months.
I’m going out on a limb on this course. The previous ESL instructors used traditional teaching methods (frontal instruction form, worksheets, vocabulary lists, and blocks of scientific texts with fill-in-the-blank questions) to try and motivate the students to learn English OT terminology and understand English scientific literature.
This the goal of the course, since there is very little German OT literature available. The students, as professional occupational therapists will, in the future, have to rely on English literature to inform them about new developments in their work field. My method, if successful, will be to connect the students with the English-speaking OT community on the web. The students will use blogs, wikis, OT forums, online language training tools to negotiate some sort of position in the wide world out there.
I do not know if it is going to work. The method I’d like to follow requires that the students do all the work and I just offer guidance and structure. It also means they have to ask questions, make comments, seek advice in a language they are not necessarily proficient in. All in all, I am planing on putting them in a rather uncomfortable position.
What I am asking of the soon-to-be (occupational) therapists is that they become (language) patients over the next months. They have to learn to take baby-steps, work consistently on stretching their skills, and not lose their sense of humour along the way.
Wish me luck.
06 January, 2007
In Search Of A Yoga Teacher
This is written in thanks to Karen for her generosity, kindness and encouragement.
This week I had the pleasant task of looking around for a new yoga class. I haven’t taken a yoga course in years and never formally went out looking for one before. The last course I took was from a delightful woman at the fitness studio I went to, but I have since left. It is quite amazing how many yoga teachers there are out there and the different types of yoga they offer.
In the end I decided to join a yoga course given by a woman, who I admire; not knowing at all whether she is a good yoga teacher or not. She holds her yoga course at her own ballet school around the corner from where we live. She was also Nature Girl’s ballet teacher years ago.
She didn’t really teach the group of young ballet students classical ballet, but instead, she taught them how to familiarise themselves with their bodies, their limbs, their inner energy; how to move in rhythm, with grace, joy, be funny, be loud, be gentle. What little I saw of her teaching, I was impressed with.
The reason I admire this woman is that she is very tall, very curvy, earthy, graceful, and sensual in her movements. She is older than I am by a fair bit and I think she is the type of teacher or roll model I need at the moment. I know I can learn from her about growing old gracefully, something I dearly wish to do (here, here, and here) and, if I am lucky, some yoga as well.
This week I had the pleasant task of looking around for a new yoga class. I haven’t taken a yoga course in years and never formally went out looking for one before. The last course I took was from a delightful woman at the fitness studio I went to, but I have since left. It is quite amazing how many yoga teachers there are out there and the different types of yoga they offer.
In the end I decided to join a yoga course given by a woman, who I admire; not knowing at all whether she is a good yoga teacher or not. She holds her yoga course at her own ballet school around the corner from where we live. She was also Nature Girl’s ballet teacher years ago.
She didn’t really teach the group of young ballet students classical ballet, but instead, she taught them how to familiarise themselves with their bodies, their limbs, their inner energy; how to move in rhythm, with grace, joy, be funny, be loud, be gentle. What little I saw of her teaching, I was impressed with.
The reason I admire this woman is that she is very tall, very curvy, earthy, graceful, and sensual in her movements. She is older than I am by a fair bit and I think she is the type of teacher or roll model I need at the moment. I know I can learn from her about growing old gracefully, something I dearly wish to do (here, here, and here) and, if I am lucky, some yoga as well.
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