Why I want to be a teacher.....

Now this is a post of a more personal nature; a few thoughts relating to that all important question 'why do I want to be a teacher?' It's a question that's been posed to me many times since I made the decision to leave the banking and finance sector and try something more to the hearts content.

My experience in the field of education up until this point, is limited to tutoring 'International Finance' in the honours year of my Business Degree four years ago. Still, it was by far the most rewarding job I have ever had. Nothing in my professional career since then has come close in terms of the personal satisfaction I felt each time I left the classroom. I came to realise that what I loved so much about my time tutoring had nothing to do with the content I was teaching; it was so much more than that. I loved helping students reach that 'breakthrough' point in coming to understand material they initially found difficult; I loved the responsibility of playing an active role in a students overall success in the subject; and I loved the human element involved in teaching, having to relate and be reactive to different students and their varying needs.

I think purpose in one's life is something that reveals itself along the way; not something that is clear from the start. I never really knew exactly what it was I wanted to be. I decided upon a Business degree initially because it had a broad range of career prospects. I was swept away by university life and though did really well academically and even graduated top of the class, never really stopped to think about the direction I was taking. I would say that my experience tutoring planted a seed so to speak, a seed that has now blossomed into a vision for what I want out of life. During my time working at the bank I often felt useless because the work I was doing didn't mean anything significant to me. More importantly, I felt as though what I was doing didn't really mean much to anyone else. I drew much inspiration when contemplating a career change into education from a book I love, Tuesdays with Morrie. My favourite quote goes as follows:

'So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning in your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you , and to devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.'

I view teachers as being the pillars of our society. On their shoulders rests the responsibility of teaching children knowledge and values they will use throughout their lives. They set the foundation on which our society is built. The role they play in building towards a brighter future is something I want to be part of because it's hard to be a bystander when you consider the state of the world in which we live:

The Stats
(http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats)

- There are 6.7 billion people alive in the world
-Almost half the world, over 3 billion people, live in poverty; live on less than $2.50 a day.
-25,000 children die each day due to poverty.
-Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names
-72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005

As a teacher I hope to be part of the solution. As Malcom X said 'Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.'

Story Mapping : Great idea for a lesson plan...

Just came across a great online resource that may be used to incorporate visual mapping concepts into English lessons; specifically for analysing central themes of books or to be used in conjunction with student book reports. The link is provided below:

ReadWriteThink Online Learning
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/storymap/index.html

Story Map is an interactive application students may use to explore texts that involve themes of conflict and resolution. I've included some screen shots of my own practise session that demonstrate how it works.

1) The student types in the Title and Author of the book they are reviewing.

2) Students type in answers to questions specific to the characters of the novel. Describe the main character; how does he/she act; how do other characters respond? This forms part of the Character Map.

3) Students are asked questions related to conflict in the book. What was the conflict; why does it occur; how could it be resolved. This forms the Conflict Map.

4) Students are asked questions involving conflict resolution. How can conflict be resolved; what happens when conflict is resolved; how might conflict be avoided. This forms part of the Resolution Map

5) Students are asked questions relatong to the setting of the story; the place, time and environment. This forms the Setting Map.

I'm already having ideas on how this sort of exercise could form the base of great lesson plan. I think the value lies in how it relates to each of the 3 VELS strands; conflict and resolution themes may be considered part of a students personal development (Physical, Personal and Social Learning), it incorporates reading and descriptive/emotive writing within the English domain (Discipline Learning) and obviously involves use of ICT (Interdisciplinary Learning). The final product is a printout of each individual component map. This provides a means of assessing the students interpretation/understanding of the book and its central themes.

A key benefit in using ICT for an exercise like this is the interactive nature which provides for a more exciting learning environment. It was always a drag to get the pen and paper out and fill in one of those traditional 'bookreport' worksheets. The program is user friendly and facilitates instruction among younger students, though considering it touches upon conflict and resolution themes and given the nature of some of the questions may be best suited for level 3 and 4 students.

Mind Mapping

So this is a briefly worked example of the mind mapping exercise I touched upon in my first post. You can see how it provides for the perfect framework to work through complex issues with students and how the end product is a reflection of the issue in its entirety. Using the environment as a central theme, mind mapping may be used as a means of exploring the relationships between the causes and effects of climate change on the environment.

Now just to be clear, the above piece of work was put together in about 5 minutes, but I found that once I keyed in my central theme, ideas were flowing with every stem I created. The process of mind mapping in every way encourages creative thinking ( a theme that keeps popping up in so many of the readings I have come across in my first week into this Dip Ed). A computerised setting allows for more free flowing thinking; with a simple click a new stem is created and stems can be repositioned with ease. It is great for when you are 'in the zone' so to speak and want to get your ideas down quickly.

Visual mapping activities may be considered highly effective learning methods when considering the theory that the brain stores information according to patterns and association. In the video below, the proclaimed creator of the mind map, Tony Buzan, describes the power of mapping as a memory tool that encourages creativity:



I think its important that the students understand the benefits of mind mapping. It holds value in terms of its structured means of presenting topic points, but I think the true value lies within its widespread application as a learning technique. The aim should be for students to automatically involve mind-mapping techniques when exploring new concepts or revising material over a range of subjects. It allows for association of key words, personalised organisation and visual based memory. In another one of his videos, Tony Buzan makes reference to recent studies that indicate that university students who use traditional note taking methods forget 80% of their course material within 3 months of finishing their degree. My personal experience indicates this to be true. Thus, I think its of the utmost importance that students are taught effective ways of filtering information from a young age. Learning habits established in primary school will remain with the student throughout secondary school and university.

Animal Diagram

This is my first masterpiece! Well maybe not, but still, its a useful example of the benefits of mapping software and the use of diagrams in classrooms. The content of this diagram is aimed predominately at Level 1 and 2 students. One of the benefits of using technology as opposed to hard copy materials is it allows for more dynamic teaching and learning. Key topics can be changed or different aspects added with minimal preparation. This allows teachers to cater to students of different learning ability. For example, the basic exercise relating to the above diagram may be for the teacher to set aside the animals and have students position them within the correct habitat. For advanced students, a teacher may have students sub-classify within the different habitats, for example reptiles and mammals.

Week 1: Visual Mapping using Inspiration 8

So here it is, the very first post on my newly created blog. In the first workshop we set up our blog account, and were introduced to the basic concepts of posting, editing posts and attaching image files. We then went on to explore the program Inspiration 8, a software tool used in schools to encourage visual thinking. The final product of my 'play around' session is shown in the next two posts. The 'Printscreen' function was used to capture the image to be uploaded into my blog. Before coming to the workshop I was anaware of the benefits of using this tool so thought I'd quickly summarise the process:

1) Ensure final piece of work or required image is on the screen and there are no function codes or mouse cursors on screen.
2) Press the 'Printscreen' button once, located on the top right of the keyboard.
3) Open the 'Paint' application; Click on the Start menu, then the Accessories menu and then the Paint application.
4) Open the 'Edit' toolbar and click on the 'Paste' function.
5) Using the 'Select' funtion in the main toolbar, set the border for the required image.
6) With the border selected, click on the 'Copy' function in the Edit toolbar.
7) Open a new spreadsheet, and then click on the 'Paste' function.
8) Save file. Once saved the image can be uploaded.

The benefits of using a program like Inspiration 8 were obvious from the start. I found myself thinking conceptually and creatively. In the classroom, visual mapping provides the perfect framework to present major issues like the environment and climate change. In setting 'The Environment' as a topic point and utilising the mind mapping feature of the program, students can explore central issues relating to the environment in such a way that allows them to consider the relationship between each issue. I'll elaborate a bit further in my 'Mind Mapping' post.

The link to the software tool used is provided below:

http://www.inspiration.com/Inspiration

From the website a free 30-day trial of the program is available. There are also range of visual mapping applications available free online. Some of these include:

Webspiration: http://www.mywebspiration.com/
Bubbl.us : http://www.bubbl.us/
Mindomo : http://www.mindomo.com/

Anyway, I have decided in every way to embrace my new blog space and use it to my complete advantage as a resource and means of inspiration in my lifelong journey as an educator. As the age old saying goes ' you only get out of life, what you put into it'.