So, we’re well into the new millennium and slowly but surely, I can see the course of learning changing. The thing is, education is a large institution grounded in years and years of traditions and comfortable practice that acts like a huge Ocean Liner. Educational institutions are not nimble and quick like a speedboat, able to turn at the smallest nuance of danger or towards excitement. The governmental restrictions of curriculum, funding and physical space often impede any quick changes that could occur and thus we are left, like an Ocean Liner, trying to right the course, knowing full well that the change cannot come quick. Hopefully, we’ve seen the water far enough ahead to adjust prior to running into danger. Are you picturing the Titanic here?
But, alas, I digress, this blog is not one of doom and gloom with the main character frozen in the ice riddled waters of the Northern Atlantic. This is a blog meant to suggest that we saw the iceberg ahead and we’ve righted the course. Alberta’s thoughtful probe into what future citizens may require in the Inspiring Education – A Dialogue with Albertans survey, and it’s formation into the Ministerial Order on Learning changed the course on paper and we began to see school districts begin the work of making the document come to life. But even here, the learning doesn’t change. The big changes happen on the ground level – in the schools – in the hands of teachers.
In the last three years I have seen tremendous changes in many of the classrooms that I have observed. Less and less I see straight lines of kids in rows working quietly on comprehension questions asking little of them but rote memory. I see less and less of kids looking at notes on a white board, copying frantically. I see less drudgery. More and more I see kids working collaboratively at solving a complex problem using the skills that they learned in the classroom. More and more I see a variety of activity in the classrooms which suggest that students have choice and responsibility in their learning. More and more I see engaged children, interacting with knowledge in a much deeper way than ever before. Kudos to you teachers, this change is because of your forward thinking. As a profession, we have changed.
So, my blog today is not one of advice nor one of any particular deep thinking. My blog today is one of gratitude. Gratitude towards teachers and all they do in this rapidly changing landscape. It is those of you on the front lines who adapt and engage those students in your care that make the real difference to the future. You shape the way those young minds will interact and engage with the world. Rather than accept the norm, you ask them to challenge the norm and meet these challenges with the tools that you have provided for them; critical thinking, resilience and creativity. It is because of you I am confident that our world is in good hands moving forward.
God bless teachers!
Keep on learning!
D
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