I have always wanted to be a teacher and now that I am I absolutely love my job. I do my best to motivate my students everyday. I don't motivate them with IPODS or video games and all of my students at one time or another do get motivated. I don't think that it is right that Prensky puts all the blame on the educator. I feel the challenge that he has proposed would not work with the majority of students. He stated that this challenge would be proposed to a child at "any grade level, and at any level of preparedness." I don't see how this could be. Younger children need to learn the basics from an educator that has been trained to teach the basics. How can a first grader who is learning to read themselves teach another first grader to read? Also, what about differentiated learning? All children learn differently.
I do think though it would be cool to have a famous person from time to time come in and talk about their area of expertise. But here is a question for Prensky, he wants famous people from all over the world to be instructors, but did those people receive an education through his challenge or through normal teaching by teachers?
Another area where I disagree with Prensky is the time frame that he wants our children to learn in. The most experienced teachers have a hard time at times completing the curriculum within the whole school year and Prensky wants these children to complete the curriculum only in the first semester. To me that is putting a lot of pressure on the children.
In conclusion, I really don't think this challenge is a good idea especially for the elementary aged student. This type of challenge might work better with a student who is in high school.
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This blog was created for a graduate class on curriculum and teaching. The purpose of this blog is to post my thoughts about different topics throughout the semester.
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About Me
- Kristin E. Robinson
- New Jersey, United States
- I am a 4th grade teacher.
5 comments:
I am a middle school math teacher and realize that the transition between elementary and high school is a very difficult one for the majority of students. You raised a valid point that Prensky's Challenge would be more suited for high school students. I also believe that a non-traditional, technology school is more inclined to use Prensky's curriculum to its fullest.
However, I must say that students actually learn better and transfer the knowledge when they teach it to their fellow classmates. I think this way of learning works for any grade level for any subject. Somewhere I remember reading about this theory but can't think of it now...
I can understand how it is very easy for the high school students and younger students to teach each other. Even us as adults learn much better by doing than by lecture. I can really see a non-traditional school implementing Prensky's challenge. As I mentioned im my blog, students can enhance creativity and learing with all of their new technologies including the games.
I agree with you, Kristin. As a second grade teacher, I do not think that Prensky's idea would work very well with my students. Elementary school children, especially in the primary grades, need so much more than this in order to find success. I was not at all in agreement with his ideas and I actually felt a little offended that he would minmize our jobs as educators to this.
As an elementary school teacher, I totally agree with you. Students at any age could not adapt to this type fo curriculum. I even think that it would be difficult for students in high school to adapt to this kind of curriculum. Making students learn a year's worth of information in a few months is not pracitcal. I do believe students need incentives, but this is something that may be unattainable for some students and it may not be their fault. It is hard enough for students to learn material in the time already mandated.
According to Sir Kenneth Robinson, creativity is the only marketable skill Americans have that the rest of the world doesn't. Shouldn't we foster that creativity?
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