Students of Character

"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."
                                                                              - John Dewey

Over the past week I've had two great experiences as a teacher. The first one involved discovering an awesome website called edu.glogster.com. It's a website that allows students and teachers to create online multimedia posters or glogs. I've done some experimenting with it and plan to use it in a couple of weeks in both my Grade 7 LA class and my Grade 11 English class. Check out the sample I've created for my Grade 7 students at the link below.

http://wikiuser.edu.glogster.com/john-goddard/

It's almost an understatement to say that we live in a multimedia world. By having students use the interactive tools available on the glogster website (according to a teacher set list of criteria), we allow them another opportunity to use their creative thinking skills. To supplement the text only writing assignments, glogs can be an additional catalyst to engage learners and to better hone the skills needed in the 21st century.

The second great teacher experience in the past week involved spending a couple of hours with about ten of my junior high French students at a school in Medicine Hat. Being an online teacher, I don't often get the chance to meet face to face with my students, especially in a traditional school setting. What impressed me the most about these students was the level of courtesy and respect they showed me during my brief visit.

Over the course of my teaching career I've had the good fortune to work with many students who have, in essence, humbled me by their impeccable manners and respectful behavior. These French students similarly put me in awe. When my stay with them was over and they had returned to their next class, I couldn't help but think - these students are people of character.

Aristotle once wrote: "The ultimate end of life is the development of character." My students in Medicine Hat have already made great strides on that journey of  character development.

Developing an interest

If children have interests, the education happens.
                                                       - Arthur C. Clarke

It's an exciting time to be an educator! I've been saying that a lot lately. Teachers today have so many tools available to them. Over the last few months I've been hearing and reading about teachers developing their own PLN (Personal Learning Network). With the multitude of resources available through blogs and websites from other teachers, and twitter postings, the learning curve is spiralling upward. It gives all teachers a great advantage in the classroom. With the tremendous growth in social media, both students and teachers have, at their fingertips, the power of instant communication and access to the vast repository of the world's knowledge. That's exciting!

The challenge for educators, probably more so now than ever before, is to help our students navigate their way through this ocean of information. We need to help them develop the critical thinking skills in order to enable them to chart their own direction; and, at the same time, give them the appropriate moral model so that our exemplary behavior will be another compass they can use along the way.

But even with all the exciting learning opportunities available to our students, it's unfortunate that a significant number of teenagers are deciding to drop out of school. I read recently that, in the U.S., an average of 7000 students drop out of school every day! Here in Canada I understand about 10 % of students drop out yearly. The reasons for this disturbing trend and the possible solutions to reverse it are most assuredly on the minds of many in the teaching profession.

What can I do as an educator to help alleviate the above challenge? Well, one of the first things that comes to mind is to keep finding ways to energize my instruction and the way I present information to my students. One of my goals as a teacher is to incorporate novel ways of teaching my course content, whether that be through blogs or wikis, or some other technological tool. Anything I can do to pique my students' interest will be a win-win. It's fun for me to create a more engaging lesson format, and, hopefully at the end of the day, my students will gain a deeper learning experience.