Passion-Based Education

Something I have loved this semester has been learning about Passion-Based Education. I am a believer in the importance of people doing what they love, and I LOVE that this can be incorporated into the classroom!

A TedX Talk I watched explored some of the issues with our current education system and provided a framework for helping students do what they love. Matt Mellen described this model in three steps:

1. Help guide students to discover themselves and their true passions

2. Provide and teach applicable knowledge useful for their desired goals

3. Help facilitate opportunities and encourage students to pursue their dreams

In his talk, he explained how his passion for music was furiously challenged by the systematic and military-like education system that was pumping students out by the masses for economic gain. When he finally decided to follow his passion he was able to find meaning in his own life.

You can watch his talk here: 

As I have thought about Mellen’s talk, I began to think about the word success. What is success? Surely, Mellen’s teachers defined success differently than he did. Who was right? This is where passion-based education steps in. Because of our diverse cultures, there are multiple definitions of success. It is important to allow students to redefine success according to their passions.

An innovative new tool for incorporating students' passions into the classroom is called Genius Hour. During this hour, students work to expand their passions and are in complete control of "what they study, how they study it, and what they do, produce or create as a result." A student could work on anything from building a guitar to choreographing a dance!

Through this style of student-directed learning, students gain motivation to learn about something they are interested in. I believe this is the most effective way to inspire a love of learning!

In my experience as a student, I was not provided with many opportunities to explore my passions in the classroom. Fortunately, I was a "classic" student who did well on assignments and tests. For many of my peers, however, I saw how this narrow approach to education failed them when they were unable to perform according to the standards. I believe the education system is allowing countless students to fall through the cracks by withholding from them a beautiful life of creativity and passion.

As a future teacher I will aim to create opportunity in my classroom for students to express their creativity and individuality. I believe every student's ideas and opinions are valuable and that I have much to learn from each of them. As the education system continues to be transformed by this radical thinking we will begin to see unfathomable strides made in the lives of students who were once thought to be incapable of succeeding in school.

Transdisciplinarity

Over the last six months of school I have been thinking a lot about what our current education system looks like, the advantages of this system, and where it is falling short. I truly believe that our current system of education is failing a large proportion of students. In order to diminish these shortcomings, there are many innovative teachers who work to make their lessons engaging and inclusive for all learners and we have learned about how this can be possible. I have also learned about how we can become well rounded teachers by incorporating multiple disciplines into our practice. As I have pondered these revolutionary ways of thinking about education I have reflected upon my own education.

As an elementary and secondary student I did not question the education system. I believed the teachers knew what was best for me to learn, and I learned it. I was one of the few students who found the education system successful and fulfilling. Eventually I ended up here in university where I am working towards becoming a hardworking and inspiring teacher. When I first decided to become a teacher, my perception of education was very different than what it is today. My understanding of education has expanded. My perspective on what a teacher’s job description is has been transformed. What I thought a teacher was, as a seventeen year old high school student, has been reworked countless times. So what do I believe a teacher is now?

I believe teachers need to become transdisciplinary thinkers who work to create pathways of learning for their students that lead to higher order thinking skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. In a Ted Talk, Sir Ken Robinson says this: 

“We make very poor use of our talents. Very many people go through their whole lives having no real sense of what their talents may be or if they have any to speak of.”

You can watch his full talk here:

He goes on to speak about how the education system is failing students who do not excel in traditional courses like math or english because there are no opportunities for them to display their strengths in these classes. This is where transdisciplinarity comes in. If teachers would fuse together multiple subjects and create something new that would play upon the strengths of all students, we would see a very different trend. We would see “artsy” students excel in english. We would see “musical” students excel in math. We would be able to engage all students in one lesson. 

A special education teacher named Chris Ulmer has started a blog on Facebook where he documents the daily life of his classroom. His aim is to erase stigmas regarding children with special needs by showing the world who they are and what they are like. He posts regular videos about his teaching style and his conversations with his students. In one lesson he incorporated an innovative activity into the lesson on becoming gentlemen/gentlewomen in their everyday lives by turning it into a game. The students were consistently prompted to keep their eyes on Mr. Chris as he moved around the classroom while teaching the lesson. Mr. Chris has tapped into his students’ strengths and weaknesses and knows exactly how to incorporate activities into lessons in order to maximize engagement. His Facebook blog can be found here.

I am excited for what else I will learn as the semester goes on and believe I have truly found something valuable in this course that will continue on with me into my future.

Critical Literacy

Here I am! Back at it again. I am in my final semester of university before entering teachers college and I am excited! This course, 21st Century Literacies, will surely be an important one that will provide plenty of insight into my future career. I am looking forward to engaging with the information we discuss and learning what 21st century literacies are all about.

https://learningshouldbemessy.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/overview/

In last week's class we discussed how critical literacy is arguably the most important literacy skill that students in the 21st century have to learn. In our ever-changing society students need to acquire the skills that enable them to challenge the ways things function and work to transform these and take action. It wasn't until university that I was taught to be critical about issues of power and the ways our society functions, but I believe this to be an important skill that should be fostered even in young children.

http://langwitches.org/blog/2012/12/02/critical-literacy-is-notion-of-traditional-reading-and-writing-enough/

I am looking forward to how this course will challenge my ways of thinking about education. I have now completed three and a half years of university and have learned about how children develop, how society and culture shape them, how family dynamics affect them, and how education can shape their futures. I have learned to challenge ways of thinking and have learned that there are many different perspectives that we need to value. I look forward to learning how I as a teacher can incorporate multiple literacies into my lessons and foster critical literacy skills in my students.