No Talking To Your Neighbour!
February 10, 2008
“No Talking To Your Neighbour!” I am sure at least once in our elementary school lives we remember being told this phrase by our teacher. No sharing thoughts or ideas is basically what we were being told, learning from our books and copying notes from the chalkboard is what many teachers felt was the best way to learn. During class on February sixth we were introduced to many educators from around the world. All the teachers, who came from a broad range of grades and experiences, had created online classrooms where there students could share there educational progress with the whole world. I was blown away after looking around some of their class blogs at just how much exposure and knowledge the students and teacher can gain from sharing their thoughts and feelings with the technological world. While trying to take in the power of technology and how I can use it in my classroom, I was brought back to reality when two students were wondering how to teach in an online world and still have the same emotional, human connections with them. That’s when I began to think about the restrictions that I would need to put on technology in my classroom. That’s when I decided that while technology is great and an extraordinary tool in the classroom I still wanted that human connection with my students and see them interact with each other on a human level. After actively listening to the speakers about their experiences with technology and thinking for a few days about what it is I am after as a teacher, I came to the conclusion I will expose my students to technology and use technology as a tool in my classroom, but I will also make an effort to establish and grow a more emotional connection with my students through methods which may not have the same technological content as some of their other lessons. Balance is key not only in life but in the classroom as well! I hope when I am a teacher I will encourage my students to share, ask questions, and use each other as a way to learn. My students will be sharing not only with their neighbours, but with the whole world wide community!
February 10, 2008 at 11:21 pm
“Learning is a social process.” This is obviously a strong part of your teaching philosophy.
Unfortunately not all teachers recognize the power in cooperative learning. During my internship, my grade 2/3 students had tables to sit at, sharing the table with 3-5 other students. Having this set-up you would assume social learning would be encouraged by my coop. It wasn’t. I encountered a great deal of professional conflict because I strongly believe in learning as a social process.
I facilitated lots of group work, especially during my 3 week block, and this made my coop very unhappy. The entire time I was forced to justify my reasoning for having group work because it was ‘too loud’, even though students were almost always on task. I did not compromise my belief and continued planning group work, which created additional conflict and what seemed to be a power struggle. I would do it again if I had to because the students’ needs should be the focus of our teaching.
I am by no means a pedagogical expert and believe teachers are entitled to have their own beliefs. However, if you believe that learning is a social process, practice it and don’t let anyone discourage you from doing so.
February 11, 2008 at 12:06 am
[...] as a Social Process Brittany’s blog, “No Talking to Your Neighbour!”, raises some very important issues regarding how we perceive learning as a social [...]
February 11, 2008 at 1:26 am
A great little way to model social learning is to put up 4 pictures of various individuals from different eras and areas. Knowing that very few if any in the room would know who all of them are, ask everyone to individually guess the 4 people. Then have them collaborate to find the answers. This really demonstrates the value of social learning.
Take this idea and see how important it is to learn from each other both in the room and beyond. Your first responsibility is for the students in your room. I don’t think many, if any teachers neglect the social learning in the class for virtual learning. The balance is still tipped way too far in favour of individual learning and even those that have begun to value social learning are yet to embrace online connections to the point where it’s too far in that direction.
I like Kristi’s resolve to maintain her belief that students need to be actively learning together. That’s the world we live in and one that we’ll be living in even more.
February 18, 2008 at 6:13 pm
I still remember to this day my first day of Kindergarten. We all were told to sit around a circular table to fill out a “test” to see what level we were at. Once we sat down the teacher placed “walls” on top of the table to separate us from one another making, sure there was no discussion. I was terrified! Yes, I understand why we had to do it on our own now, but the teacher did not explain her reason for isolating us at the time.
Since then, I think it is a good idea to ask students to come up with some ideas first on their own and then form groups to discuss other ideas and thoughts.