Technology Journal Blog #1

 What do you think about Sir Ken Robinson's premise that knowledge is not about what you know; it's about what you don't and your willingness to find out?  


-1) Sir Ken Robinson’s idea is solid, if teachers never learn from their mistakes or continue to thirst for knowledge. Then learning as a whole would be stuck, we wouldn't want to discover new ideas or facts. We would simply just stop the quest for more education and knowledge of the world. Having a curiosity and having a positive growth mindset will always serve to help educate either yourself or your students. 


What has been your experience with teachers engaging students in the classroom - teachers who learn along with their students? 


-2) My experience has been first hand, I am going on year 3 of working at the middle school and every day has been a learning experience for myself. Learning how to manage a classroom, learning how to explain problems differently, learning how to make sure student’s emotional needs to entirely impede their learning etc. Plus being an aide, I am in all sorts of different classes so I am quite literally learning the material with the students that range from math, science, to STEM etc. I always say to my students that I’m not educated in every field and know every problem, that we are all students that can find new ways to solve problems and that’s one of the most important skills to have. I hope that’s my impact on the students, to not give up when one solution doesn’t work out. 


What do current and future teachers need to change about the way they teach to better reach and engage students - and to prepare them to be lifelong learners?


-3) I think current teachers need to try their best to not be stagnant or be complacent. Working the same job and teaching the same lessons for 25 plus years would make anyone complacent. It’s easier said than done to not change your ways when you’ve been doing something for so long and successfully, I might add. If the veterans can’t change their ways then at least teach the newer teachers, things that work, things that don’t etc. It is the goal of the older generation to teach the younger, much like a classroom. Younger or future teachers should have this “always learning” mindset and understand that they are students too and should always keep learning. Whether it’s actual material or simply how to connect with the ever younger population of students.


Comments

  1. Kara McElwrathSeptember 9, 2025 at 8:11 PM

    Sir Ken is a favorite of mine. We'll watch more of his talks this week, in fact. In this talk, I was particularly intrigued by his story about the Dalai Lama. Who'd have thought "I don't know" could be so powerful, right?!? Normally, when we hear people say that, we think they are lazy or unwilling to even try to answer. But here is the Dalai Lama - who certainly can't be considered lazy or unmotivated - using that same phrase. The difference? He tried. He thought it through and determined that he didn't have the answer. There's nothing lazy about that. Humbling perhaps, but not lazy. That's the effort I want to encourage from students. To think things through, and when the answer isn't there, to seek it out.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Technology Journal Blog 5

  The 3 pieces of advice I would consider to be most impactful would be 1.“Manage your classroom fairly and firmly.” 2. “Find a mentor.” 3.” Make a personal connection with your students.” For the first tip, I struggle to be a disciplinarian type of person, I prefer to resolve issues through talk and compromise but I understand there’s a time and place where you cannot solve through only talk. In my third year as a paraprofessional, I have gotten better at being not a push-over with some of the kids and I feel in time, I will get better at not accepting disrespect if it’s ever doled out. The second tip, I am always trying to learn to be a better teacher. I treat my para job as mostly a job shadow and I always participate in teacher meetings or parent teacher conferences, just to get the experience and expectations in check. Getting a mentor would help a lot when I finally get my own classroom, I’m the one who usually is the mentor so it would be a nice change of pace. Third tip, I ...
Read more

Technology Journal Blog #2

    Sir Ken Robinson talks about the No Child Left Behind policy in America and how it's negatively or not sufficiently giving children opportunities to learn. He remarks that " No Child Left Behind policy is based on not diversity but conformity. " There's a focus on STEM classes, classes like science and math over the arts, physical education, and humanities. Not every kid is geared towards a science and math mind, personally I ain't either. I hate both science and math and prefer these arts, humanities and history classes, and during my time these classes are counted as "electives" or "extras." They're not the focal points of education and tend to get cut first for other classes when the school needs to fill out their status quo.      I think the main point of Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk is that children are so diverse, so different that keeping these cookie cutter ideals and cultures to facilitate learning on all these children. He...
Read more