LEARNING PHILOSOPHY
Have you ever heard of the saying, "You are never too old to learn something new!" I would rather think of myself as an ongoing individual who has the "ability" to want to learn. I have been in education for almost 25 years and every year there is something new to learn. Whether something small and insignificant, to something large and amazing.
In high school, I had an Anatomy teacher who would always say to us, "if you learned something new today, you just gained a new wrinkle in your cerebrum!" It is now funny to think about all the wrinkles that my cerebrum has gained over the years and wonder to myself if there could be anymore room? In the TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson, he mentioned that some people endure what they do instead of enjoying what they do. Maybe those people are the ones that are tired of learning and want to maintain a simple life. He also mentioned that education is being reformed and that is improving a broken standardized system.
Education has to be transformed into something new and innovating for our youth today. Sir Robinson made a great analogy about youth today not wearing a wrist watch and that is because they do not see other functions on the watch itself. Most of us feel the same way when there is something new to learn. Sometimes we feel that we are too old to learn something new. We make excuses about not having enough time to learn because of the current job. We feel comfortable with what we know. Yet we deprived ourselves of all new concepts and growing opportunities. We take for granted the challenging and growing educational system in which is shaping the world youth. Why not try the innovation process and continue to learn what is ahead of us.
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What is the meaning of a teacher? How can teachers become a true role model for their students? Teaching or to teach is having the skill to impart knowledge to others through example or instruction. We are all "TEACHERS" in some way. Why not get out of the norm and become LEARNING FACILITATORS? I don't just want to teach, I want to facilitate learning in a while new level! "A learning facilitator is focused on the learner and on creating a desirable environment in which the learner can come to know, acquire knowledge or make a meaningful connection–“a guide on the side.”(Harapnuik, 2016). I want my students to learn on their own. To make their learning potential grow with them as they make errors and find ways to correct them. My father used to say, "You learn from your mistakes!" I have made plenty and I am still making them. Why can't I model my students that learning comes from making mistakes and learning from them to find the correct outcome? President Abraham Lincoln said to Congress in 1862, "the dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present....We must think a new and act a new!" I think he meant what I believe, your mistakes of the past can't help you in the present, we must think of new ways to find the solution.
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In my science class, we were learning about the layers of the Earth. The TEKS says that students are to build a model of the Earth and its layers. I was thinking to myself, another year of Earth models not completed or too big to store. then it suddenly hit me. GET OUT OF THE NORM! I thought about meteorologists and their green screens. I thought to myself, I learned something new about my iPad. Why not access the creativity of my 21st century students and have them become geologists? I gave them the instructions and let them create on their own. You would not believe me when I tell you that not one student asked me how to do their video. All I had to do was record them talking about the Earth layers and they had come up with great videos. I was amazed on their creativity even though they had very little time to do it. This activity showed me that getting out the norm is hard for veteran teachers but it is very reliable to the learning process.
Some things we should consider:
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Creativity
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Removal of Fear
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Stimulate the thought process
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Using the system to learn and teach the system
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Work can be completed in any order
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Learn from your mistakes
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Real world assignments
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Why should we consider these items is the autonomy we give our students the to the learning process. It is a new world of students, a new generation that was born in the digital world. Rather then teaching an old concept to the new generation, respond to the generation by learning new methods of teaching it. This will not only improve our students learning process but also enhance deeper thinking skills and develop and inspire significant learning environments.
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References:
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Inspire - June 12, 2016
[…] Harapnuik, D. (n.d.). Learning philosophy [Blog post]. Retrieved from It’s about learning website: https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=95 […]
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My Learning Philosophy – One dad's journey - September 30, 2016
[…] Learning Philosophy. (2015). Retrieved September 30, 2016, from https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=95 […]
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Robinson, S. K. (2010, May 24). Bring on the Learning Revolution. Retrieved from Youtube: https://youtu.be/r9LelXa3U_I