A real life conversation with John Finch

First of all, I loved that we were able to have a conversation with John instead of him lecturing to us! I thought it was great that we could all ask questions and speak freely.  What I remember most from our conversation on Thursday was the idea of how learning has changed. Because we now have so much access to technology, we are able to open our students minds to all new ways of seeing the world. We learn through real life tasks, experiencing and talking to other people about their experiences. I think that the internet and technology can be a huge tool for us in creating a learning experience that is student-centred and relevant (as long as the sites are not blocked haha).

Another thing that stood out of me was our conversation about student teaching and how some of us feel restricted by our environment. I would agree with that point, and I think it circles back to our reflections last week in the NING about FUD. I will be the first to admit that I am afraid to take a risk with a class when I know my advisor is going to be watching the lesson. I feel constrained by the "procedure" of lesson planning sometimes. I fear that the advisor might not appreciate me taking that risk in my lesson planning.  Typically, I select a lesson for them to see where the students are all sitting in their desks nicely and I am leading the conversation. This is not a realistic and productive classroom environment, and I am going to make a commitment to myself that I am going to take some risks in my final placement. This will mean trying out some of the new tools that we have learned about in this class: blogging, twitter, social networking, creating podcasts and videos. I am also going to try not to panic when my classroom is a little bit loud! Conversation means people are learning, and I have to remind myself of that!

Change is coming, and I'm jumping on the bandwagon of forward thinking teachers! Who is going to join me?