Anti Teaching

Now in the process of completing my program in Educational and Media, I have been more awakened on how out of touch today’s teaching is with the 21st century learners in the classroom. Since I entered into this program I have learned that I need to change my thinking and mindset about my students. Today’s 21st century learners are digital natives in that they live by technology at many facets of their life everyday. Thus, as a teacher one must tape what kids know best, which is technology, if one truly wants to engage one’s students. If one takes the time to do such a thing, then lessons can become interdisciplinary lessons, in that the core concepts can be taught while infusing technology. This allows for brain-based learning and uses multiple intelligence, which is how students learn, retain and make deeper connections to material being taught. Thus, based on what I have learned and said, our how info-structure for education needs to be revamped.

Since I have started my program at Full Sail I find myself online looking at the growing number of online schools that are doing what I have learned through the courses of haven taken so far in my program. As a teacher, I always strive to find a learning environment that fits the needs of my learners so that optimal learning taking places everyday in the classroom. I find be having this mindset as a teacher, it makes your as a teacher to have a more important goal then just teaching for the test.
In my sixth year of teaching, I find that there is a huge disconnect between what students learn and why the students have to learn the material they are being taught. For myself being a music teacher, I find that students hear the end product of artists performing songs on the radio. However, my students do not see the training and practice that it takes to become a famous musician. For example, my students do not understand why they need to practice so many hours on their instrument, or why they have to learn how to read music to be the next famous artist on the radio. Furthermore, I have many students who take my general music classes that this class does not count. The students feel this way because they do not test on music on the state test. I think this example shows how education is focused on just taking state tests and not the needs of 21st century learners. Our schools have be so focused on taking the state tests, that students are starting to not value specialty classes, such as music or art. However, multiple intelligences make a strong argument that students need more of the creative subject areas, as students need to ability to apply knowledge and novelty and creative ways such as music and art. Furthermore, I have colleges of mine telling me that after lessons students ask, “Will they ask us to do this on the test?”
I had the ability to redesign my school for 21st century learners it would need to be more then infusing technology into the classroom based on what I stated above on how 21st century students learn. I would change the instructional approach the use a blend of Project-based learning, collaboration and critical thinking skills with the use of technology.

In the article entitled Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance”, Michael Wesch says, Students – our most important critics – are struggling to find meaning and significance in their education”. I feel that this statement reinforces my earlier comment about students just seeing learning material as something needed to pass a test. I could not agree with Mr. Wesch more in that students do not understand the goal of school is not passing a state test. Students are not understanding how to take the knowledge their learn into the classroom and apply it to their life.

For example students learn how to do addition and subtraction for a test but students do not realize how addition and subtraction can be used later in life to balance a checkbook, or make sure their paycheck gave them the correct salary. In this classroom, I have found that showing students how that can apply their knowledge of rhythm to compose a song using similar rhythms that made other musicians famous. Thus why not give students a problem-based lesson where students have to produce their own musical within a fixed budget. This lesson still uses addition and subtraction skills to complete the assignment. However incorporating this project reinforces the math skills taught while creating a problem based lesson.

After infusing problem based learned into my school I would focus on would be collaboration. In my classes I have taken so far I have been exposed to one very useful tool for collaboration, which is IGoogle Documents. This is something I would infuse into my school. This is a tool for to provide peer feedback and help to their fellow classmates create and write projects at the same time. This is important for students to learn as their future jobs we ask and demand for them to work in a group for various work related functions.

The last item I would focus of my school would be on creating students with focus on fostering critical thinking skills. I know I have friends that complain that students graduate school and get a job and then look for the cookie cutter approach to solve job related responsibilities. To be honest, part of the blame should be placed on the school systems. Schools are so worried about students marking the correct answers on tests, that no one is asking the students “why”. Schools are not taking the time to task students why is that the correct answer. Rather schools are more focused on what is the correct answer. Thus students are not developing critical thinking skills in order to be able to find out why something is not correct and how to solve the problem.