Blog Post 7

How Do We All Become Learners? 

     This week I was assigned to watch different videos and reflect on them. Becoming a teacher is a very exciting thought to imagine.  I am so close for that official moment. I have a year and a half left in school. I feel that I have so much to learn still.  I feel my strengths as a future teacher are being creative and always having a plan way ahead of time.  I am not a procrastinator, which I think is a positive quality for a teacher.  My weakness is probably flexibility. I have a hard time changing the plan or schedule when I already have things planned out.  I think that in order to be ready to be a project based teacher in the next year and a half, I need to start buying supplies and preparing for the future projects that I want to engage in with my students.

     In watching all of these videos, my favorite videos were the ones in Mrs. Tassin’s 2nd grade class. This class was so engaged in using technology as they learned.  The students were having so much fun and were on another level of focused learning. Mrs. Tassin used many different apps on the tablets as extra learning tools for her students. The students throughout the video were creating their own projects with the technology. After completing their projects, they were eager to present what they had created to the class.

     The last two videos, We All Become Learners and Using iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten, really show how the classroom setting and the use of technology is changing and growing.  We All Become Learners, Michele Bennett explains that the typical thought and setting of a classroom is changing. He shares how he believes that students are teaching teachers, teachers are teaching students, and students are teaching students.  The second video, Using iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten, Dr. Strange and other guests on the video are sharing with us about kindergartens using iMovie to create book trailers. This video blew my mind.  I am in college and I am just now learning how to use iMovie and these kindergarteners are using it like its second nature. Dr. Strange even referenced and compared the kindergarteners to college students.  The kindergarteners were engaged and eager to create their trailers and to learn while us college students have to be forced and pushed to learn how to use something new, such as iMovie. 
     How do we all become learners?  To become a learner, we must be eager and excited about learning.  A positive attitude will go a long way.  We must also be ready to ask questions and keep an open mind. Even as a teacher one day, I need to be open to letting my students teach me something new while at the same time teaching them new things.