#interactiveambience EdTech education

[irhyenglishdose]

Jan 13th: Response to: Is the Great American Teacher Dead?

Jan 13th: Is the Great American Teacher Dead?

I have many questions as a person involved in education.

Are we enriching our classes with what the new era provides or are we in the comfort of old teaching? 

Is every class beneficial for my student? 

Are we just spending hours in the class or learning as we implement new things?

"It is believed that Demosthenes stuttered and had great difficulty speaking. But he had a lot of will and the desire to improve his speech. [The] legend indicates that he spoke with stones in his mouth and also practiced speaking while running, strategies to help him control his voice and overcome his difficulties with speech." As Demosthenes, that rehearsed, researched, controlled... practiced, practiced, practiced, people who are in charge of education must rehearse and find ways to help students be involved. Poor education must not be allowed in the mind of someone that whats to emulate the great teacher. All that we deliver to the students must be consciously filtered, analyzed, and scrutinized. We have to worry about education, then we need to practice. We need to use technology that suits the need of our students. I think that a great teacher cannot be behind. I see teachers carrying out this work exploring tools and then teaching. 

Is technology in our hands sufficient to help our TESOL students learn? I think that we need to think about how to renew ourselves. Words that have been in my mind are disruption, adaptation, and divergent thinking. Education is in constant change, doing the same thing will not help. 

Disruption: people are afraid of changing because they wonder if it will work. I think that we need to be excited to fail and transform education. Failing once, twice, and then finding the successful way to teach will be marvelous. In simple words, we need to break something to repair it. 

Adaptation: A change to become part of an environment that is not suitable. Sometimes teachers want that students change and that unfortunately does not happen or will happen really slowly. It is us the teachers that need to swing and learn to flow in different environments. 

Divergent thinking: We need to think differently, sometimes use something that has been previously used is ok, but now is time to innovate, now is time to think, as others have thought about how education can be better. 

Have we thought of helping our students make a self-discovery? or "thinking about thinking", I think that this is a challenge. I would like my students to teach me, to dig into technology. Recently, I learned that many teachers took cell phones away from the students. Why don't they use this powerful tool?

 Sometimes, I have been taught technology and shortcuts by students. Let's make this era an adapted education getting rid of certain rules that limit even the teacher from learning. We need to see from the outside to the inside. Many forbidden things can be benefitial. Have you gone to unknown grownds using a technological tool and in the end you succeed in your class? If you do not try now, when? I see change and the use of technology as a challenge especially in Mexico where I teach.

To succeed in a technological class, which is not in the reading, but I consider this important to become a great teacher, those days especially in the conditions given by the pandemic that started in March 2020, I want to give you some ideas taken from a video to be sure that even being far away we can continue helping our students: 

-Anticipate barriers caused by using technology, do not let your students stress.

-Define the objective of the lesson and then choose our technological tool, think about their reaction.

-Build a personal learning network, ask for advice help, ask to observe a class. 

-Integrate technology into the assessment, be friendly, and do not overwhelm them with technology, it is not good as well.

-Discuss technology with our students, what worked and what did not, receive as much feedback as you can. 

 Because we are using technology in our classroom does not mean students are learning, so we need to focus on the content, placing it in a way that this technology will suit and help to cover the needs of our students. We need to create a great environment.

My challenge right now is that we are not in a face-to-face classroom, I am in a virtual classroom, I do not know how anxious they are, and I don't know if the students watch TV meanwhile wearing class because sometimes I cannot see the faces totally, and I want this to change so I say I'm teaching as it is planed with an objective in mind with the use of technology that I can have my students completely.

I think the teacher must be a guide, who understands every single kid's needs, knows how to connect in certain ways with them, and explores in a certain amount of time different areas in which all of the students can enjoy an interactive ambiance. Instead of insecurities, shame, and anxiety in the classroom, we need to create a secure, caring, respected environment that motivates students. I hope this to be beneficial. 

I loved once that I had a friend from the US and he talked about the Vietnam war. It let my students think differently, so as we change to be a good teacher we can help our students see the world differently too. I also like to tell stories about my travels, I try to teach with real examples, real problems, and now, I have learned to change the activity every 10 min, which I found interesting. I will feel like an effective teacher as I transform my classroom.

We need to transform education, see from the outside what is needed in our classroom, what do we need to change, how are asked to adapt in a classroom environment. We need to be disruptive, we need to adapt and think divergently. We need to help our students be curious so they discover things by themselves. We cannot be only providers, but people who ignite thinking. 

“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity” – Dorothy Parker

#interactive ambiance #Education #EdTech

REFERENCES:

Demosthenes: Biography, Accomplishments & Quotes. (2017, September 14). Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/demosthenes-biography-accomplishments-quotes.html.

Is the great teacher dead? file:///C:/Users/Soporte/Downloads/tesol103_Is_theGreat%20AmericanTeacherDead%20(2).pdf