To me, the
start of a new year with new classes is always an exciting time. It is like
painting with a fresh new palette of colours. My name is Nicole Schwarz and I
am currently a fourth year student in the Concurrent Education program at the
Primary/Junior level. I am someone who thrives on helping children develop
character and a desire for learning, and one day I hope to make a difference in
the lives of the children I teach, as this has been a passion of mine for as
long as I can remember.
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Something
that I hope to grasp from my EDUC 4P27 course is a deeper understanding of the
importance of curriculum and backwards design, as these are essential pieces of
knowledge that I believe I will take with me into the classroom. In addition,
to further my knowledge in the 21st century literacies is another
crucial aspect I hope to engage in as the course progresses. That way, it will
provide me with opportunities to re-think ways to critically think about my own
teaching practices in order to change my perspective into something that suits
the 21st century; ultimately promoting a better education for my
students.
Now I can’t help but share this question that continue to
bounce around in my head after through class this week:
Have you ever stopped to think and reflect on how rapid our
world is changing?
In lecture, even just
reflecting back to when I was a student, I see noticeable differences in many
aspects of our school system now vs. back then. As an aspiring teacher entering
the 21st century, I am being exposed to so many new advancements in ways
students can learn. I believe that with the rise of the Internet, the ever-changing
technologies, and new types of literacies and media texts that continue to grow, this
has allowed for almost immediate global access to information around the world;
something that once could only exist in my imagination if I were to travel back
to my early elementary years as a student. Looking at the new generation of
children entering the education system now, I feel like a digital dinosaur! We
no longer need to necessarily read from a book because now we have new access and
tools to information through virtual bases like Google. What I aim to
understand as a future teacher is getting out of this mindset that literacy is
just reading, writing and speaking, because it is so much more than that!
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As a future
teacher, I hope to gain more knowledge of the methods and skills that I can use to incorporate these 21st
century literacies into my instruction, as they are all so new to me. As Drake et al. (2014) suggests, technology has become a whole new way of thinking, like an extension of our brains. In the end, I believe we all want our
students to be critically literate, because this is essential in order for them to
navigate the social world and meaningfully contribute to it. Therefore, I am confident we, as future teachers, have the potential to make
this happen, as there are endless possibilities in what our students can learn
and achieve as a result. I look forward to sharing more of my experiences throughout the course with you!
