Have you heard some version of this question lately in the 2.0 zone?
Has what is considered “good teaching” changed?
Can that be altered to:
Has what is considered to be a good teacher changed?
Can that be altered to:
Should we be hiring different types of people to be teachers?
I have read and heard so much talk about how to get current teachers “up-to-date.” Not just with 2.0 tools and integrating technology into their classrooms, but simply starting with making a unit conceptual, making a connection to a kids life, individualizing the learning, and having the learning be authentic and useful.
If you gave a bushel of bad apples to a great chef what could they make with them? Everything they tried would have an off-taste, they could dump a load of sugar in, put ice cream on top but that would just hide the fact that the main ingredient and the heart of the recipe has a problem. I feel bad for all the technology teachers who are putting their hearts into trying to make changes in their school and no one is listening. Maybe they don’t need to create a different hook, or a different story, or show the staff what needs would be meet…maybe it’s the apples.
Is our problem the apples, or the chefs?
What is the profile of a successful 21st Century teacher? What does a 21st Century teacher need to be able to do with their students that a 20th Century teacher did not have to do? To be clear, anything you think of or comment should not be something that 20th Century teachers should have been doing but didn’t, it should be something brand new that a 20th century teacher would not have been expected to do with their students in order for them to be successful in their world.
6 responses so far ↓
Paul-
Thank you for sharing.
Technology teaching and tech integration are two very different things. If the integrator is working with someone who is not sound pedagogically and professionally not committed to growth, what can be done by this new ‘layer’. It is just blue smoke and mirrors.
-Skip
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Some upfront info about ME:
I teach high school, mainly seniors
I teach yearbook, marketing, multimedia, all technology rich classes
Ok, now for a difference between then and now–after I have finished giving directions and students have or are accomplishing their assigned tasks, I allow iPods; I allow students to check their email, text their friends, call their parents using their cell phones; students may work on projects from other classes. As long as any of the equipment is available, students can come in any time during the day and work. If I am available, and they need help, I will help them, but if I’m busy with the scheduled class, they have to come at another time.
I try to run my classes as I would a business. We have tasks to accomplish, we need to stay focused, but as long as the tasks are completed, then I try (that’s a big word for me) to not obsess on how they are working.
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Before I read your last paragraph I thought to myself “she runs class like a real business.” But do you let them take their shoes off
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A successful 21st century teacher has to be willing – no downright eager – to continue to learn. They are not content to pick up a book and deliver lesson 17. They’re intentionally ready to use instructional strategies so that each of the apples can learn.
Some of the apples that they work with don’t even look like apples anymore so a 21st century teacher needs to be prepared to successfully deal with the oranges, bananas, grapefruit, steak, ice cream, and popcorn that also ends up in their class!
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ooooo…nice analogy.
Could we move it to:
20th Century Teachers produced products
21st Century Teachers produce colleagues
ehhh…sounded better in my head.
Maybe they never looked like apples, they were just treated like apples and expected to graduate as apples.
Just to make sure-I was actually calling the teachers apples, but I like the fruity student analogy!
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Oh, and another fact about my classes, sometimes the student is smarter than the teacher and they get to do it their way, and show everyone else how they did it. Especially with technology, these kids know more than I do.
Shoes, shirt required for service.
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