New Culture of Learning

Consider how play combines passion, imagination, and constraint and is the emergent property of the application of rules to the imagination. Are you being proactive in creating your learning environment or are you being reactive?

In the TEDxTalk: A New Culture of Learning presented by Douglas Thomas, he states that "A teacher's job is to create a context where they can cultivate imagination, honor passion, and help learners connect their passions to the things they need to learn." He mentions that obstacles can actually be thought of as a catalyst to create something great. Teachers in every classroom and subject are met with obstacles daily. Whether it be the obstacle of lack of resources, the obstacle of administration, or even the obstacle of mainstream pedagogy. Teachers have been finding the "work around" for decades. In attempting to create a new culture of learning, teachers are faced with constraints. The most obvious constraint is teaching in a learning environment designed for previous generations. In an attempt to focus on this generation's needs, and learning profile while still adhering to the rules set by the education system, teachers are having to find new and innovative ways to create a modern culture of learning. Embracing technology is the focus of my teaching journey. Students respond well to a blended learning environment and they are motivated and thrive on game based learning. I teach Spanish at a private school and teach grades 1-8. The approach is different in elementary than middle school but the goal is the same: to engage students in lessons that interest them not only in subject matter but also in the delivery of the topic. The elementary students use an online curriculum called QTalk where words are represented by symbols. This is a great way to get the younger kids reading while they are still learning to read in English. I created a lesson plan for students to determine how much they have learned and how well they will collaborate with each other. I created a Scavenger Hunt for QTalk sentences. Students were given a set of instructions, a partner and a clipboard and told to go out in the playground and find the sentences. Once found, students had to decipher the sentences from QTalk symbols into Spanish sentences. It worked well in that the students were excited to be outside, they loved competing with each other and they loved working together to write the sentences. Whatever they didn't know, they were given time in class to look it up in their workbooks. Similarly, I created a game-based lesson for my middle school students using Quizziz. Even my most "fixed mindset" students were engaged and focused on the lesson. In these two examples, I can say that I have been proactively creating a learning environment catering to the modern day "techie" student.

References:

Creating Significant Learning Environments (CLSE). (n.d.). [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ-c7rz7eT4