Why I Teach

Today I stumbled upon an Edudemic blogpost: Why Do You Teach? Tweet Your Story With The #whyiteach Hashtag.  So I went to Twitter, and searched the hashtag to see what other people were saying about why they teach.  It was inspiring.

So I asked myself, why do I teach?  The answer is simple - I teach because teaching makes me happy.  I love teaching.

I love my students:

My students are amazing.  They make me laugh and they make me cry.  They surprise me with what they know and they shock me with what they don't know.  (Two weeks ago one of my students asked me what the word "triumph" means.  Last week, a different student asked what the word "contribution" meant.  How can kids in Grade Six not know these words?!?)  Being with them keeps me young.  We forget what it is like to not know.  I love to look at the world through their eyes.  But the best thing about my students is that they need me.  They need me to inspire and guide them.  They need me to love them and teach them.  They need me to tell them how unique and wonderful they are and to let them know that I believe in them.  Sometimes I feel as though I am opening up the world to them, letting them know what is out there for them to explore, and giving them the tools and permission to explore it.  Being a part of that makes me feel necessary and worthwhile.

I love the challenge:

Teaching is not like any other job in the world.  There are so many variables involved in the job that you have no control over.  Sometimes it seems that the likelihood of success is nil; there are often so many obstacles that seem to be working against us, like lack of time, lack of resources (often human), lack of space, lack of parental support, and far too many expectations.  And yet we do succeed time and time again.  In order to be successful, I have to be creative.  I have to find out what makes each child "tick" in order to inspire and motivate that child.  I can't make a child learn, but I can inspire a child to want to learn.  I love that challenge.  When I am successful, when I see a child excited to learn something new or proud of an accomplishment, I feel as though I have climbed Mount Everest.

I love to learn:

But the BEST part about teaching is that I get to learn.  The number one learner in any classroom is the teacher.  I learn about children and how they learn.  But I am also still learning my Math, Science, Language, Social Studies and Art.  These kids teach me something new every single day!  I might have five different ways to solve a Math problem, and still they will come up with some interesting new strategy that I never thought of before.  I might think I understand a poem or text, but they will teach me a whole new way to look at it so that I see it with new eyes. Now that I've made technology and digital tools available to them, they are teaching me at an alarming rate!  I show them a new app in the morning - that afternoon they are teaching me how to use it.

I am not exaggerating when I say that I work 50-60 hours per week.  I work in the summer (preparing and planning), I work on the holidays (marking and reading professional resources), I work before and after school, I work on weekends.  I dream about my class.  I talk about them at dinner.  I know that so many people out there think we teachers have it so easy.  They just don't understand what an all-consuming awesome responsibility teaching is.  But it is a wonderful job and I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of the teaching profession.

Teaching Towards the Future

I finally found some time to watch Teaching Towards the Future, an episode from the Agenda's special report called Learning 2030.

I think every teacher, principal, consultant, and superintendent in Ontario should watch it.  Steve Paikin interviews Michael Fullan who speaks about the future of education.  Mr. Fullan explains why the current system, while seemingly successful, must still change.  Other speakers include Cathy Bruce from Trent University, Camille Rutherford from Brock University, and Ron Daniel from the Canadian Education Association.

They also featured Kourish Houshmand, a student trustee from TDSB.  He was very well-spoken, and described our current education system as the "National Regurgitation Institute".  Though only in Grade 12, he also said, "We cannot bring about change by being irrelevant".

Steve Paikin also spoke to Hamilton teacher, Heidi Siwak, who is truly a 21st Century teacher.  She shared how she immersed herself in social and digital media to better understand who her students are and how they learn.  Then she changed the way she taught, letting go of the reins so that her students could become the motivated self-directed learners we need children to be.

Do yourself a favour, pour yourself a glass of wine or a cup of tea, put your feet up, and watch.  It is time for a change folks!

Two Weeks into ETMOOC; How Have I Changed?

I am two weeks into my first ever MOOC - Massive (Gargantuan, Humongous, Ginormous) Open On-line Course (Community?) and I'm looking for signs of learning.

I signed up for this course, a newbie on Twitter, to learn more about digital tools.  I wanted to learn about how to help my students become "connected learners".   I hoped that the mysterious Twitterverse would begin to make more sense to me; I wanted to learn about Digital Storytelling, VoiceThread and Google Docs.

I am getting SO MUCH MORE than I bargained for!

Yes, I have learned how to use Google Docs - today my students and I created our very first Google Survey  for our unit on Data Management (we tweeted it, we emailed it, I think I should probably post it on Facebook - we can't wait to start reading the results!) I am using Twitter regularly to connect with other educators, I have even been using TweetDeck to manage the lists and hashtags I am following! I'm getting in there and tweeting, no longer just a lurker.  Last week, I created a Twitter account for my class!  We are now looking for other mid-level classes to follow (@SixesRSuper).

I've got a Diigo account to collate, high-light and annotate my e-reading material, and I've signed on to Google Reader to help manage all of the amazing educational blogs I've been following - so much simpler!

But that is not what I'm excited about.  I'm excited because I've discovered there is a WHOLE BIG WORLD out there that has welcomed me, that I am a part of, a world of other passionate excited educators who want to collaborate with ME!  That amazes me...

After I clicked the submit button, and signed on for this MOOC, I went to Youtube to get an idea of what I had signed on for. I found this video by Dave Cormier.  At the time, I was doubtful that it could happen the way Dave portrayed in the video.

But much to my delight, it happened!  I have met wonderful and inspiring educators that I have connected with. Together, thanks to Sheri Edwards, we are a neighbourhood.

I have learned how to learn from other educators just like myself.  I wanted to learn how to "connect" my students, I learned also how to "connect" myself.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!

I am not just learning HOW to connect by WHY connect.  I never anticipated how much THINKING I would be doing in this MOOC!

On his blog, Dave Cormier writes this about learning:

(It is) "Not a series of remembered ideas, reproduced for testing, and quickly forgotten. But something flexible that is already integrated with the other things a learner knows. Most things that we value ‘knowing’ are not things that are easily pointed to. Knowing is a long process of becoming (think of it in the sense of ‘becoming an expert’) where you actually change the way you perceive the world based on new understandings. You change and grow as new learning becomes part of the things you know."

As defined by Dave, I AM LEARNING.  

Last week, I was sent a link to a blog post entitled:
Let's Stop Talking about Teaching with Technology, and Start Talking about Teaching by Krista Moroder.
Basically, she reminds us that good pedagogy should always be our focus.  Technology is only the tool that helps good educators do their jobs even better.  I would now change the title of this post to:   Let's Stop Talking about Teaching with Technology, and Start Talking about Learning with Technology. 

I don't recall anyone actually using the term "pedagogy" in this MOOC, but really, all of the conversation that has taken place is NOT about technology but about pedagogy.  I've been thinking about pedagogy in ways I never thought about it before.  I have been examining why and how we get our students to collaborate.  I've been considering whether education should be a "bazaar or a cathedral", I've been thinking about whether we are growing "consumers or creators" and tonight my brain is on fire thinking about how a rhizome can be a metaphor for learning! "Learning is about preparing for uncertainty" - now really, that is a game changer, isn't it?

Can You Spell "Prestidigitation"?

Day 7, and I'm still loving my class.  Today we started watching  Akeelah and the Bee.  The kids are LOVING it!  If you are not familiar with it, it is an excellent movie for Grade Six, Seven and Eight students. Akeelah lives in a poor neighbourhood in California, and her principal forces her to take part in a Spelling Bee to help their school get some positive press.  Akeelah ends up learning all about Latin and Greek roots for words, prefixes, suffixes, and how you can spell any word if you just know it's origin and meaning.  But she also learns that there are different types of poor and to appreciate her own unique gifts.  It is a really moving story.

I like to show this movie to my students, and then I introduce them to the "Vocabulary Game".  During the week, they have to jot down any word that they think I won't know the definition of that they come across in their reading.  Every child is responsible to bring in one word, and share it with their table group.  I write each word on chart paper. Each group selects a word that they think will stump me (five groups = five words).  They tell me the word, and the sentence in which they found it.  I write the word and the sentence on chart paper, and I proceed to model how using context clues, the root, and affixes, I can determine the meaning of the word.  If they stump me with a word, the class gets five points.  If any child forgets to bring in a word I cheer that they forgot their homework because I then get one point (I can only get points if they don't bring in their word!).  Once there is a DIFFERENCE of 100 points between my score and theirs (usually that takes until April), they earn something (I usually grant them a Yahtzee Tournament).  

When we have finished the game, I circle the words that I think they can use to "enhance" their writing.  (This year I'm going to call them "Razzle Dazzle Words" -thanks Terri!)

I believe that an enriched vocabulary empowers us.  The children love this activity because all of the words come from them.  They are words they are interested in.  

Two picture books that tie in well with this activity are "The Boy Who Loved Words" and "Miss Allanius Vocabulary Disaster".  Check them out on my Bookshelf.  

So, on another note, while I am still loving my class, I'm starting to feel overwhelmed by the paper work.  I forgot how much paper work there is in September!  I find it especially difficult being in a new school, because a lot of the paper work was given to the teachers in June, and everyone keeps referring to these "packages" that I don't have.  I don't even know what all of these packages are!  We have a three page checklist to hand in to our principal by the 30th; I've still got quite a few things on that list to check off and it is making me nervous!  This weekend I will be marking Diagnostic Assessments, writing up Emergency Supply Teacher Plans, and contacting the parents of my students - all on the checklist!  I wish the Public knew how much of the weekend teachers need to devote to their work.