The end of week 1 and 2

Well it is the end of week two and I am still feeling positive about my course. I do have to admit that week one was challenging both with content and endurance. Week one really stretched my brain endurance. Perhaps not having studied intensely for a while, my brain took a week to get back into the groove of absorbing and learning information.
The topics that I thoroughly enjoyed both for making me open my mind to new concepts and also for forcing me to open my eyes to what lays ahead for me as a teacher was "student-centred learning".
Kirby, 2000 "teachers are no longer gatekeepers of knowledge but 'managers of the learning experiences of children'(2000, pg 8) and this entails teachers continually renewing their pedagogy and skills (2000,pg9).My pedagogical skills in the classroom will determine my career survival as a teacher.

As stated in Smith, Lynch & Mienczakowski (2000, pg 31)"a learner manager designs the pedagogical strategies that they advertise themselves as being able to perform, judged by the criteria of learner outcomes".

Therefore, student-centred learning is the concept of classrooms being a learning environment as determined by the students. The days of chalk and talk teaching methods are long gone and with the ever evolving 'knowledge' economy replacing the 'industrial' economy it seems essential that teachers also evolve in order to provide students with the toolkit essential for the outside world.

I was totally consumed by all the readings and find myself really starting to grasp the concept of becoming an effective teacher in the 21st century.

Learning engagement is a concept that I feel I will embrace and attempt to base my teaching style around. I watched a you-tube video (A Vision of K-12 Students Today) and was completely captured by the concept. It outlined the need for me as a teacher to be IT savvy and be able to incorporate technology into my learning experiences.

As students are living in a world much different to what mine was at school, I must use technology as a learning tool, and use it to gain higher-order thinking from the students. So, I had better get moving to ensure I know how to use and operate the many technology tools that are going to be used in my classroom.

I am looking forward to learning with and from my students as much as I will enjoy assisting them to learn.