T2P Week 3 Reflection

If the teacher allows themselves to also become a student in the classroom, then learning can be accomplished from all parties because learning  and knowledge is easier attained when everyone learns from each other. Lave's theory of learning showed me that even newbies coming into a community have just as much to contribute as the old timers that have been there awhile.  In essence, every member of a society can contribute and we cannot make stereotypes about age or familiarity because we could miss out on learning opportunities.  It was Vogotsky that believed education and learning happened through social interaction as well.  Everyone has something that they are very good at that others can learn from them, we are all the More Knowledgeable Other from time to time.  It is by sharing this information that education spreads and it is through conversation that learning can organically flow without the use of a specific formula.

In putting this into my practice, part of my pedagogical outlook will be allowing not only my students to learn from one another, but I want to learn from them as well.  I think after our lab experiments in which students would have worked to together to prove or disprove a given hypothesis that we should have a group discussion on the conclusions that each group had drawn and why they felt this way.  By doing this I can sit and listen to the rational behind the collaborative team, but they can also be helped along by their peers if something was done incorrectly or incompletely.  In listening to the group bounce ideas off of one another I hope to learn why the students think that way they do and hopefully they can open my eyes up to something I had not noticed before.  If I recognize my students and myself as equals in our mini-community then my learning process will never stop because there will always be something new that will present itself that I can grow from.

In filling out my summary on my theorists I was reminded why I loved nature and science to much to begin with.  My favorite moving growing up was Fern Gully.  I loved it when the elder woman gave the seed to Krista and told her to help it grow.  I want to plant the "seed" into my students and inspire them to grow and allow them to become life learners with a passion for science. I want our students and future leaders of our communities to leave our world better than we found it, just as we should do ourselves.

I'm still working on my tech skills, so I was able to get the video of the part, it just does not start where I would like it to, but if you start it at the 5 minute mark you can see what I am talking about. :)