Learning to Unlearn

"Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself" - John Dewy

Okay, so this blog post is suppose to be about what I have to unlearn and relearn about education, teaching, the classroom, or learning.  I can not post about this.  I do not believe that I will ever unlearn anything.  As we go through our college courses, we have many opportunities to enter classrooms, attempt lessons, and gain experience that will aide in our quests to become teachers.  While doing this we are taking numerous courses from excellent professors, we have the opportunity to ask for advice from those we observe, we may reflect back on the lessons we teach.  What works, what didn't work, and what could have been done better. 

I no longer have the pleasure of being an idealist; I am in the actual school setting.  My classroom is not equipped with computers, much less IPADS, cameras, or even current books.  We are using text books that were published in the 90's.  For me, learning to unlearn means, forget the ideals, be a realist, deal with the materials you have and be resourceful in your teaching.  In my classroom, as well as at home with my own children I have used tried and proved methods, experiments and techniques to aide in my teaching.  They have all worked very well.  Of course if I had a classroom full of computers I would use them.  If I had a camera for every student, you can bet I would put them to use as much as possible.  The one thing our class does have is a Smart Board, I have seen it be put to great use, the children love it.

Challenges along the way as far as I am concerned is being a teacher dealing with a realistic budget.  Wouldn't it be great if I had a laptop on every desk, for every student?  Wouldn't it be great if my students have current books available to them?  Wouldn't it be great if every minute of the day was spent engaging my students in subjects they were interested in?  Learning is a natural thing for students; students learn because they want to, but MAXIMUM LEARNING occurs when there is a teacher who is not only passionate about what they are doing, but also creative and engaging in how they teach.


For this assignment, the typical answer is I have to have knowledge for practice, knowledge in practice, and knowledge of practice.  I have to learn to unlearn , I have to know that "Connected learning is a process of learning, unlearning, and then relearning as we participate in networks and communities.  A fast-changing world creates a need to unlearn tactic knowledge (Brown, 2001).  Unlearning is necessary, although it is often difficult and painful because it involves grieving for what we leave behind (Nussbaum-Beach & Hall, 2012)."

Please remember, staying connected is essential to our teaching.  Of course it is a wonderful thing to have the capabilities to discuss ideas, as well as, collaborate with other professionals.  However, I believe it is more important to be realistic and take into consideration the materials that will actually be available in your classroom, and the materials that are available to your students at home.

A place where I find excellent teaching ideas, that is usually pretty resourceful may be found by clicking the picture below...