B.+Old+Teachers

Would your assistance change if it was a veteran teacher coming into your school? What would be the difference? We should include in our discussion the differences between your current instruction and the 21st Century instruction.

I think you would have to tailor the assistance you'd give to a veteran teacher who was looking to make "the transformation". Just as we differentiate for our kids, it would be important to do so for the education of educators as well. The difference might be that with a veteran teacher (assuming one that had used very little technology to this point), you might have to overcome some resistance to the ideas of the 21st century teaching model. Many times there is resistance when deviating from the norm. This veteran would truly have to be committed and open to new ideas for this to work. I would be reluctant. That may be the biggest challenge confronting us as we attempt to transform ourselves into teachers of the future: intransigence. I'd consider myself old-fashioned in many respects, and I'm sure that this is at least a starting point for my beliefs about the educational process. But by participating in this program, and trying out and seeing the results in my class. Without the proper guidance this 21st century pedagogy could be a disaster. Having kids work on projects sounds like play time to a lot of other teachers, and possibly administrators. In the hands of an untrained teacher things like meaningful learning and classroom discipline can go out the window. I have gained an appreciation for the potential of this type of teaching and learning for our kids. But the proof is in the blogging...