Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Ellie's Blog

This morning while carpooling to school we were discussing the different approaches to educational theories/pedagogies and wondering what they actually look like in real life. I was saying how in many of the classrooms that I have volunteered in did not model the constructivist approach. The classroom was very structured with specific times for certain subject areas. For example having math from 10 to 10:45am and social studies from 10:45 to 11:30am. For the most part I have felt that students were engaged and excited about the material they were taught and that the teachers used a modified constructivist approach to teaching, but what got me thinking was what would a classroom that was completely based on constructivist pedagogy look like? Would there be no break between subjects? I gather that everything would be themed based and go off of the students interests but for some reason I am having trouble applying this theory, which I think should great for many students, to actually public schools where teachers are required to block out times for each subject, many times coordinating with other teachers and specialists. I think it would be great if we could go visit classrooms that modeled each approach and even go to Italy and see the Reggio Emilia schools!

Another question that has been on my mind is how to do all these things that are suppose to make us unbiased and socially aware teachers and still keep teaching in mind. I am coming to realize that someone might always be upset with you in teaching style and I guess that is just something that as a teacher you are going to have to realize that you can not please everyone and every perspective. As someone who tends to try and avoid conflict and please people I think this will be a struggle for me.

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