As a high school business and technology teacher, I have always held tightly to the belief that one of the crucial parts of my job was my responsibility to prepare my students for the "real world." I've also felt that I brought to the classroom that knowledge of the "real world" because I worked in industry for almost 25 years before becoming a teacher. In one of our earlier videos, "Did You Know," a statement that stuck with me is "we are preparing students for jobs that haven't even been created yet." Wow. How do we do that? Even more thought provoking was are my work experiences still credible and applicable to my students?
I truly enjoyed both of Sacha Chua's slideshows - A Teacher's Guide to Web 2.0@School and The GenY Guide to Web 2.0@Work. They were very simple but the message was strong. We have the capability to grow and connect with people all over the world and to share our knowledge with others through Web 2.0 tools. Since joining this 11 Things Course, I have already come across many resources that I didn't know existed. These resources will make my life easier and I appreciate those who willingly share their ideas and resources related to technology. I hope to one day have the confidence to share my ideas as they have.
I absolutely loved the Joseph Joubert's quote - "To teach is to learn twice" - because it relates to the way that I teach my technology classes. I heard once that this generation is the first to know more about something than a previous generation and I share this with my technology classes at the beginning of the term. I ask them if they have any idea what that "thing" might be and sometimes they figure it out. If not, I ask them if they ever have to help their parents with technology. I then honestly admit to them that there will be times when they may know more than I do about a Web 2.0 tool that we will be working with. I use that admission to my advantage as we work together to figure out bumps in the road as it relates to the new Web 2.0 tools that I'm learning to use. They gain confidence in sharing their knowledge and I gain knowledge as I "learn twice."
What I often hear is that students are lacking the soft skills needed to be successful in industry (e.g., written and oral communication, teamwork, motivation, responsibility, dependability, etc.) and, I believe, this was reinforced to us in earlier "Things." Taking everything that I've mentioned into consideration, I guess I'm doing a decent job getting my students ready for the real world.
I also realize that as a technology instructor, my learning will be lifelong and I'm perfectly okay with that.
You are WAY ahead of most teachers, in that you realize teachers can no longer be the "experts" on everything. I know a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff, but I don't ever pretend to know EVERY thing there is to know. Many teachers are afraid of not knowing more than their students. I was always interested in learning about technology from my students, because I knew they knew more than I did! I learned how to "right-click" to copy a picture from one of my high school students!
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