I have been working on creating an on-line portfolio the past week or so. This is a page that I made that I thought I would share with you:
In college you have to write a philosophy of education, but I choose to write a philosophy of learning instead because that is what is important to me.
Lectures don’t motivate, active learning does. I believe that whoever is doing is learning.
I believe learning is social and should happen in community through investigations, experiments, questions, and conversations.
The learner should have an active role in choosing both the content and the method of their learning.
I believe learning should be holistic, not compartmentalized into artificial subjects.
I believe that every learner is an individual human being with her own feelings, emotions, strengths, weaknesses, passions, and dreams to explore.
I believe textbooks are a poor source of learning, unmotivating, and a crutch for teachers.
I believe learners should be connected to the world through on-line tools to share and expand their learning.
I believe that learning should be “real world” right now, not just preparation for later careers.
I believe students can and should make meaningful contributions to all fields of study today.
I believe learning should be assessed informally and formally with formative assessments not just high stakes tests at the end.
I believe that all students can learn, but that curiosity and motivation has been driven out of many of them by the boredom of how we “do school.”
I believe the reward for learning is personal satisfaction and enjoyment, not a letter grade.
When you stop learning you’re dead.
I’m still learning every day…
I very much agree with you philosophy (doing is learning). I like how you share that we never stop learning. I try and demonstrate this to my students everyday. I'm constantly trying new things and trying to improve my skills constantly.
ReplyDeleteI know that you believe that this is your philosophy of learning. Do you do this every day in school? Or do you just play the game too and then make yourself feel better on blogs by writing this kind of entry?
ReplyDeleteI really couldn't have put it better myself.. indeed if I did do this exercise of expressing my beliefs in what learning really is and should be... then it would be very similar to this. Well done for stating what many of us believe.
ReplyDeleteGreat post on your beliefs. I would love to see what this looks like via examples from your classroom!
ReplyDelete@Norman I will take your question as legitimate and not snarky.
ReplyDeleteI would say a philosophy is what you believe and no one is perfect in their practice. I would say this is what I attempt to do in my classroom but do not do all of these things daily.
Sometimes there are things that are beyond my control such as the schedule of my school day. For example I would get rid of separate classes and have integrated classes, but I do not control this. What I do do is talk about all subjects in my technology class. Students often say to me: "Why are we talking about this? This is not (insert class)."
I do not use textbooks and my class is project-based learning using both technology and hands-on tools. You can see some of our work here
So I will not arrogantly state that I am perfect in following all of my ideals, but this is my view of ideal learning and it is what I strive to make happen in my classroom. It is also how I evaluate myself and what happens in my classroom.
And no I will not apologize for sharing it.
Thanks Mike for sharing. I agree, textbooks are a crutch, and I find myself using them that way when I use them. And I agree with your followup: philosophy and reality don't always match; but philosophy should be the drive and moving force behind the reality in the classroom. -DG, bmsscienceguy
ReplyDeleteSometimes there are components that occur to be previous my look after along the lines of the regime of my college day. for example I would remove separate courses and have integrated classes
ReplyDeleteWhat can we do when we have much free time? How about to play the online games? When we talk about the online game, we have to talk about the WOW Gold? Because the WOW is the world's most famous online game, every one knows that we have to get the Cheap WOW Gold to save money !
I strive to make an try to do so with fun, support, vital feedback, humility, innovation, presence and trust.
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