In 2014, the New York Times published an article that talked about an interview they had with the senior vice president of people operations for Google done by Thomas Friedman. Thomas had the opportunity to ask Laszlo Bock what it took to get hired at Google. In schools, we are preparing our students to go to college and from there get a job after graduation. The reason for that is that in order to get a good job you need to have a great GPA, go to college and graduate. Brock however determine that GPAs are not what determines whether or not a person can get a job or not, especially at Google. What Google is looking for is are your personal traits not things you learned in school. From other articles and videos about education that I have looked into, the majority compare the education system to some sort of factory that produces machines. We teach our kids the same thing every year but we haven't realized that companies and people who hire are also looking for other skills. Brock mentioned that they love when people have leardership skills and are not afraid to share the power and responsibility. Another great trait to have is to not be afraid of failure. Helping students being open to trying things and sometimes possibly failing is something that as a teacher I make sure my students do in my classroom. At a conference I went to recently, one of the speakers talked about an observation he did were a teacher would automatically shout wrong whenever a student gave a wrong answer. If as teachers we are embarassing them instead of helping them learn from their mistakes and try again then when it comes time for them to apply for a job, this is not a skill that they will have mastered. Brock said "Your degree is not a proxy for your ability to do any job. The world only cares about — and pays off on — what you can do with what you know (and it doesn’t care how you learned it)."
Friedman, Thomas. (2014, February 22). How to Get a Job at Google. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html?_r=2 The article linked above talks about the experience a veteran teacher got after she shadowed two students, from different grade levels, for one day each. The school that she worked at hired her as a learning coach suggested that she try this experiment where she would shadow two students, one 10th grade and one 12th grade, and participate in all the activities throughout the school day. The goal for this was for her to feel what it is to be a student and learn strategies that can be provided to teachers to improve their teaching. Reading how boring a class can be for a student, especially when the tecaher lectures the whole day, is one of the things that are being avoided in Math classrooms at my school site. Because of this idea and Common Core, students now have the opportunity to engage in the material more and do a lot more of group activities rather than just sitting there listening to the teacher.
Because of the district pacing guides, Math teachers have to try and stay on track and not fall behind. However, with any lesson at any moment students can fall behind and as math teachers we need to be sure that everyone understand the concept before we move forward since everything that will follow that topic would just build from that. We fall behind and need to catch up. Coming up with fun activitites that can move away from the teacher just lecturing is hard at times of the semester. For this semester, I have learned to include a lot of group discussion time throughout the lessons that way students do get that break from the teacher just talking. Every time I do that I do see a difference in the students engagement versus when those discussions are not present as much throughout the lesson. With my personal experiences, I agree with all the tips that this teacher said she would be willing to try. Wiggins, Grant. (2014, October 14). A veteran teacher turned coach shadows 2 students for 2 days- a sobering lesson learned. Retrieved from https://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2014/10/10/a-veteran-teacher-turned-coach-shadows-2-students-for-2-days-a-sobering-lesson-learned/ Changing Education ParadigmsSir Ken Robison created an animated video that explains what our education system is right now and how we should change it. Our education system was designed hundreds of years ago and the way he describes it as a factory. Schools work with bells that let students know what they are supposed to do next and how much time they have, there are separate facilities for each subject and we educate them by batches. We put them through the system in groups depending on their age and this makes it seem that the most important thing kids have is that they are the same age. However when we get out to the real world, we learn to work with other people that are not necessarily our age group and great things are created from it. In our schools we are also teaching children that they is only one answer to every question, not letting them be creative and express their thinking, and that answer is the one that is in the back of the book. If you look at that answer though it is cheating, if you work with others it is also cheating thus giving kids the idea that they must work alone. But yet again when anyone is out in the real world you are encouraged to work with others and that is called collaboration.
As an educator, one of the things that I was taught over and over was that every student learns in a different way, each have their own learning style and that as a teacher we should adapt our lessons so that we can meet all those learning styles. Personally I like to learn by seeing things but also by working in groups. The majority of students, because of the world we live in today, like to learn and work in groups and I think that is because of the impact that technology has had in their lives. The internet and social media is part of their lives and there isn't anything we can do to stop that. So instead of fitting them about that, let's learn to incorporate it in our classrooms. Encourage students to work in groups and to use all their resources so that they do get the opportunity to collaborate with one another and with others that are out of their age group in order to "break those factory lines". Instead of punishing students for getting distracted from our boring teaching with things that are part of their life, technology tools and internet, let's incorporate those distractions into our lesson to make our boring teaching interesting. Alfa, Escola. (2011, Februrary 19). RSA Animate- Changing Education Paradigms. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/ATCqh-OjSuw?list=PLbRLdW37G3oMquOaC-HeUIt6CWk-FzaGp |
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