I continue to think about the changes that are taking place in education, and I continue to wonder what my classroom will be like when I get a job in a school. Changes seem to be coming so quickly they are hard to keep up with. There has been thoughts running through my mind about what my purpose will be as a teacher. I know being a teacher now is not the same as it was ten years ago because I will not be the primary source of information for students anymore. When a student has a question, it makes complete sense for them to look it up on the internet so they can get answers far better than what I myself could respond. So where does this leave me? What is the point of a teacher if all of the information they can give you can be found somewhere else?
After reading the article Creating Learning Organizations by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach these questions are beginning to be answered for me. Nussbaum-Beach says in the beginning of her article that “This framework is visible in schools where the focus is on learning, rather than teaching, where teachers become co-learners in the learning process and traditional classrooms shift to become communities of practice,” (Nussbaum-Beach, 2009) This idea helps me realize that although I will not be the one person that is turned to for answers and information, I will be like a facilitator, and i will be learning all the while. The concept of a classroom being a community of practice makes a lot of sense to me. I never liked any of my classes that I had where I was being talked at. Lectures were absolutely not my style. The best way I learned was in those classes where we DO things, hands-on, class and group discussions, and were able to find the answers to questions the way we wanted to instead of out of a textbook. That to me is the best way to encourage learning, which is exactly what teachers of the 21st century are there for. Encouraging the desire to learn is the most important thing a teacher can do. I think if it weren’t for all of the standardized testing and the specific list of things that need to be learned before graduation, students would be more willing to explore, and desire learning much more.
The reason that some teachers are not teaching in this manner is because too many teachers that are still in school systems that have been there for years and years, are not willing to change because they feel that what they have been doing has been working so why change it. Perhaps we will be the new teachers that come into a school system and make a difference in the way they think, and ultimately in the way the students at that school will learn.
So the question is, how do we make a difference? How can we promote this change? The answer is that “Professional development providers in a school or district (or teachers themselves) should consider using the Web’s networking tools as a way to promote the creation of any-time, any-place professional learning organizations,” (Nussbaum-Beach, 2009) We need to use the rapid changes around us and help our kids get involved in these types of communities and help them become eager to learn because that is the job of a teacher in the 21st century.
amandacotier 