The Scope of the Imagination

I am a bit of an old fashioned person. In fact, there are times when I think I was born a hundred and fifty years late! But since I am living now, I love the old classics like Anne of Green Gables. When I leave my home in the morning, I walk through my little picket fence and greet the mason who is working on the house next door. I then walk to school under a canopy of fall leaves. Whether the sun is beautifully shining or my umbrella is whipping around in the wind, I know it is a great day to be alive. When I’m at school, I sit in the library and look out at the castle that we call our school, and I can’t help but think it is good for “the scope of my imagination.” Part of me feels that technology has taken wholesome out of society.

However, while sitting in ICT, I have learned that technology is more than gossiping about others on Facebook or killing someone in Japan via an online video game. There are so many programs that encourage creativity and personal expression. The challenge that is now being presented to me is how will I teach with technology? How will I encourage proper and productive technology usage? Considering my views of technology, I see this as quite a daunting challenge.

Status Quo Teaching

As I look over last week, there seems to have been a bit of a theme among my classes. The idea was that if I plan to be an exceptional teacher, I should also plan for a lot of opposition. Whether it is because I will have a heart for my students or because I’m creative in covering the content, it may be the parents or even my administration that will reprimand me.  We talked about The Dead Poets’ Society. The inspirational teacher in that movie was fired. In Freedom Writers, the teacher has to fight with administration and the board every step of the way. And I am sure the list could go on. Why does everyone around us want us to settle for the status quo?

I have a friend who had just finished his first year of university in his pursuit to become a doctor when I met him. We were working at camp together and for one of our activities, we planned to take our kids rafting down the river. It came up that we needed someone with First Aide to go with us. Considering my friend’s future plans, I assumed that he would have it. My view is that if he genuinely wanted to help people the way a doctor does, he would do everything he could to start helping people immediately and not wait for some letters behind his name. WRONG. He did not have his First Aide because he wanted to be a DOCTOR not some first aide person. Later that summer, we planned a farewell party for the campers and we took them off camp property to his aunt and uncle’s home. It was a mansion in every respect. I soon learned that the uncle was a doctor and the head of some health region. I could be very wrong, but combining the fact that my friend had no interest in helping people with the little things like first aide with the lifestyle that his doctor uncle lived, I came to the conclusion that never would I want to go to him after he became a doctor. His heart was not with his patients.

I do not want to be a teacher like that!! I don’t want to be blinded by politics, numbers and statistics and lose focus of the students that come into my room every day. I don’t want parents hoping their child won’t end up in my classroom. But the only way to do that is to kick status quo out of my classroom in regards to both my teaching and my expectation of my students.

Oh, ICT

With the first week of classes coming to an end, I will freely admit that I was glad when Thursday 3:30 rolled around knowing my brain could have a three day rest. One class that I am well aware that I am out of my element in is Using ICT in the Classroom. In terms of the class, I’m not technologically smart at all and have no experience using most of the programs we will be working with. At the same time, in other classes, we have discussed that what we teach and how we teach will reflect our values and standpoints. I know that technology is huge and needs to be integrated into what I teach, but I can foresee it as being a struggle for me as I personally don’t want “gadgets” to take precedence in my life. That being said, I know I have formed my opinions with little to no experience. So as I make my way through the course, I am looking forward to learning new and practical skills that I will be able to work into my teaching career.