Wednesday, 16 March 2016

Meaningful involvement of learners



Aaah… the fifth blog, I am so frustrated with all these unnecessary little things of PGCE; it is driving me crazy! This week has been one of thee most hectic weeks, and still, I’m unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Anyway moving on, this blog has got to do with effective pedagogy. 

The video by Shannon Foley, (Teaching the world) on YouTube (with a few spelling errors lol), basically focuses on pastoral care, effective teaching practices along with available resources that make up a good teacher. What I am able to understand and grasp from this video, is that teachers ought to be some kind of “super being”. I understand that there are many valid points being made in the video such as facilitating effective engagement with learners, nurturing their well-being and creating an open environment for communication of learners but in a way I feel that this expecting too much from the teacher and leaves almost no responsibility for the parent. I do understand that as a teacher one has to take on the role of the parent, but I mean, where does one draw the line? It’s not like the teacher gave birth to the child or something, (and I mean this in the least harshest way possible) but let’s be realistic here for a second. What they are basically saying in the video is that the teacher has to take full responsibility for the child, which in my opinion, is a bit ridiculous. It is a wild expectation. No teacher is going to honestly say that they love the children they teach, the same way or to the same extent as they would love their own kids. I know the video means well, But hey, that’s just my 2 cents on it. 

Riiiiiight …. 

Next up we have Mindfulness in the classroom, by Wills. This blog post is quite nice. I actually enjoyed the little story of how she got the students to stop causing a ruckus in her classroom by getting  them to be mindful. If I was her I would have probably lost my mind with all of that noise and not being able to deal with it. Her strategy was quite effective. I like the fact that she stopped blaming herself for what had being going on, but rather found an effective strategy to get the learners to take responsibility for their actions.  This goes to show that teachers always have to try to be one step (or even 20 more steps, for that matter) ahead of the learners. TouchÈ teacher Abby Wills…

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