Do we need to reimagine education?

In the movie we watched today in class one of the parents said that they found it unusual to hear that the teacher doesn’t sit in front of the class and the students are not sitting down being lectured to the whole class. I think that’s a newer approach that should be implemented into a students day in school. I’m a firm believer that students should be up and moving around and doing as many hands-on activities as possible. In my practicum in a grade 1 / 2 class I taught a variety of subjects from writing, math, gym, socials, and science. Within these subjects I designed lesson plans to have the students moving around the classroom and having different experiences each class to cater to every student in the classroom.

I agree that students having a choice in school should be practiced more as in later teen years and adulthood it’s a bit shocking to suddenly have to be on your own and not have the confidence to trust yourself in these decision making. I find that there is a lack of choice given to students and even in the earlier elementary years there should be choice given to students. I feel like people think that students can’t make their own decisions no matter how young or old they are but that’s just cause they aren’t able to demonstrate that they are very capable and in fact would be more invested in their learning if they felt like they had a say.

I noticed that in the movie they said at the beginning that teachers only sign one year contracts which makes me think that there could be a lot of rotation of teachers coming and going from the school. When I was in grade 8 my teacher started project based learning with my class and two other classes and we rotated between the three teachers and blended subjects together. This was a pilot project for my school and teachers and I felt like because it was newer that it did not go as well as they thought it would and us as students weren’t set up for success as well as they wanted us to be. I definitely see how it can be successful when it is more established and from watching the movie I did see how it impacted some of the students for the better and helped them grow their confidence when the learning feels like it’s in their own hands.

Why is Privacy important in our classrooms?

To protect the students in our classrooms. Students spend a lot of their childhood in classrooms and it important to uphold their privacy in the schools just as it is important to do for them in their daily life at home. There is so much out there nowadays with technology and social media that it would be very creepy for some random person to observe photos of students in the classroom. No one should have information on the children except for the parents and guardians of that student. If a teacher or someone in the school were to post about students in their class using names and/or faces it may allow for people who are not a part of the school community to view information on students. That could become a serious issue if there is a parent or someone in the family who is not allowed to be in the students life.

It helps foster a safe environment for students where they can build trust with their teachers and the school community. Judgement is a huge fear for students that can be found in students of all ages. If teachers and schools are not following the privacy practices in place to protect the children it allows room for people to judge when things such as test results/assessment records being public. Asking questions is so important to a students learning and they are not comfortable doing that if they don’t have a safe space to do that in. If all of their questions discussed with their teachers, admins in the school, or other safe adults were to be made public and not confidential some students may feel exposed and uncomfortable. This may lead them to never ask questions again. We want to avoid stuff like this among other things by respecting privacy in the classrooms.