See the full article here. Written by By Thom Markham
Thom Markham starts off this article by referring to the role of teachers and their attitudes towards education and how the classroom is still designed around traditional practices and "don’t fuel the creative parts of the brain, and lead to inertia, not innovation", especially of today's students. I love this statement and for me it is crystal clear what Markham is stating: the teacher's negative attitudes on education and students leads to a resistance to change. It is these negative attitudes and lack of motivation to change that can direct negative effect on their students' innovation and curiosity for learning. In my opinion, his remedies are simple; if teacher attitudes are positive then that will have a great effect on the students learning outcome. Teachers need to begin to think big, think global and remember how so many students have been successful in life, remain positive- the glass is half full not half empty. As teachers we all need to find our students' strengths (everyone is good at something!) and lastly collaborate with fellow educators, via social media-where teachers have access to many new and unique teaching strategies and ideas. I do agree with Thom that attitude is everything when you are in front of 30 students (regardless of the age of student, K-12). Even a kindergartner has a sense if the person standing in front of the class truly, from the bottom of the hearts, cares for each and everyone of them. They know. Trust me they do. This is also true for our high school students. They want to feel like they are important to you and that they do matter and make an impact on the classroom environment-that you are willing to adjust and adapt all while having fun teaching. I also agree that if we can continue to remain positive and seek outside advice, try new ideas, be given an opportunity to fail (yes, even teachers need to fail to become better) we to can help reinstate creativity and curiosity into our students lives!
Thom Markham starts off this article by referring to the role of teachers and their attitudes towards education and how the classroom is still designed around traditional practices and "don’t fuel the creative parts of the brain, and lead to inertia, not innovation", especially of today's students. I love this statement and for me it is crystal clear what Markham is stating: the teacher's negative attitudes on education and students leads to a resistance to change. It is these negative attitudes and lack of motivation to change that can direct negative effect on their students' innovation and curiosity for learning. In my opinion, his remedies are simple; if teacher attitudes are positive then that will have a great effect on the students learning outcome. Teachers need to begin to think big, think global and remember how so many students have been successful in life, remain positive- the glass is half full not half empty. As teachers we all need to find our students' strengths (everyone is good at something!) and lastly collaborate with fellow educators, via social media-where teachers have access to many new and unique teaching strategies and ideas. I do agree with Thom that attitude is everything when you are in front of 30 students (regardless of the age of student, K-12). Even a kindergartner has a sense if the person standing in front of the class truly, from the bottom of the hearts, cares for each and everyone of them. They know. Trust me they do. This is also true for our high school students. They want to feel like they are important to you and that they do matter and make an impact on the classroom environment-that you are willing to adjust and adapt all while having fun teaching. I also agree that if we can continue to remain positive and seek outside advice, try new ideas, be given an opportunity to fail (yes, even teachers need to fail to become better) we to can help reinstate creativity and curiosity into our students lives!