I Believe...
- - every child deserves respect
- - every child should be valued
- - every child has strengths that need to be recognized
- - no one deserves to be told that they can't do something or that they'll never amount to anything
- - education must be relevant to the learner
- - assessment needs to be meaningful
- - students must be given the opportunity to discuss and reflect upon what they are learning
- - grades should not be used. as a motivator. as an end in themselves.
- - the focus should be on the process, not just the product
- - learning builds on prior knowledge; it is a teacher's role to uncover that knowledge
- - our students are diverse so our teaching methods should be too
- - there is more than one way to demonstrate knowledge
- - the best education encourages wonder
- - a good education should empower students with the skills to be able to continue learning about the things that are important to them.
These are just a few of the things that I believe with respect to education.
The Thing About Blog Memes
I'm not a memeticist, but I'm not sure that this is really what Dawkins would call a meme. I can't help but feel that they are pretty similar to chain letters with the exceptions that
- they rarely demand that you tag a required amount of people in a limited amount of time or else... and
- men are just as likely to participate in memes as women--unlike chain letters which seem to be the domain of women and girls
Tag--You're It!
So it is with great trepidation that I tag the following people:
Kevin /dogtrax (Kevin's Meandering Mind)
Sarah Stewart (Sarah's Musings)
My trepidation is they will see this tag as an onerous task to add to their to-do lists. If it catches your fancy--great, do it (I'm keen to find out what you believe!) If not, that is ok too.
The Final Word
What do you believe is truly important with respect to education? Write a post or leave a comment below. It is an interesting exercise, to be sure!
Image: 'Tag! You're It!' by Lance and Erin licensed under creative commons attribution, non-comercial, no derivitives works 2.0 generic.
Claire, I love you dearly but.... not another meme!!
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I love them because they make you stop and think. I will think about this carefully and get back you, but it won't be for a few days.
I felt the same thing when I was tagged...and hated tagging people as well...but...used the exercise to examine my philosophy and as a result question whether my practices were in line. I like to see what others have to say.
ReplyDeleteI watch new memes with my fingers crossed though...
...and I usually don't participate in email chain letters. I learned a lot from your post as you are a wonderful blogger (and congrats on the coComment win!)
This is an awesome post, obviously some fairly deep thinking went into it.
ReplyDelete@Sarah--sorry. Like I said, feel free to ignore the tag. I was debating not tagging anyone, just leaving it open to those who were interested to take it up. If I get tagged again I think that's what I'll do.
ReplyDelete@Louise,I dreaded writing this post, but it was a really interesting exercise to write down my beliefs. It allowed me to really examine my practice--is it aligned with my beliefs? I think part of my hesitation in writing this post is that education is such a big and important topic, I felt that I was leaving things out or being too brief.