The Perks of Being a Pedagogue

“No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks, when the teacher rings the bell, drop your books and run like hell” – Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower 

When I was in high school, this quote summed up my life. I basically went to school to spend time with my friends and hoped that I would learn something in the process. As a teacher of tomorrow, I do not want my learners to ever feel like they need to “run like hell” once the bell rings. That is why effective pedagogy is needed.

Learners of today are really not stimulated by the same teaching methods of five years ago. Most learners are not even stimulated by the same teaching methods of yesterday. Educators need to bring something new to the classroom every day.

As educators we have the ability to touch so many young learners’ lives. We need to create positive relationships between us and the learners. Have them feel safe. Not just with regards to academics, but we can help with behavioural and social elements too. At one point in time, a school has between +/- 500 to +/- 1 500 learners, depending on whether the school is a private, X-model C or a public school. That is 500 – 1 500 learners’ lives that you, as a pedagogue, can change. This fact is both scary and amazing.

This means engaging with these learners actively. Making sure that you, as the educator, focus on the learner’s ability to learn before you focus on what they learn. Have learners tell you how they learn best. Have them give you feedback as you give them feedback on their work. This will show them that they do have a voice in the classroom. Involve the parents. This will strengthen the link between the learners’ home and school relationship. This will also be beneficial when making sure your lesson is in line with the context of the learners.

Effective pedagogy also depends on the classroom resources. The educator’s ability to capture learners’ attention with the use of multimedia, books, posters and even just your voice. These classroom resources we use can be the difference between a learner not understanding and a learner fully grasping the concept. 

There is a saying that goes, “If a flower does not bloom or loses its petals, do not change the flower but the environment.” You can touch a child’s life so much more when you make the child know his/her well-being and ability to learn means a lot to you. And it should. 

Free WHYPHY available (WHYPHY - Work Hard Yes, Play Hard Yes.)

The independent project is a learning programme designed and sustained by students, where students are in charge of deciding their own curriculum. I think the independent project is an amazing initiative, to an extent.

There are definitely learners who do not wish to be doing Math or Biology, or who do not even like school because they don’t understand what is going on. They cannot grasp the concepts, and not because they are not trying, but because they are just not inclined to do certain subjects. These learners should be catered for, as we do every other learner as everyone has the right to basic education. I remember, in high school, I spent my entire grade 10 year doing Physics and hating every minute of it. In grade 11, my mother urged me to change over to something I would enjoy doing more. I decided to switch over to History and I was the top learner in History that year. It was something I grasped and I just loved studying for it.

The reason I enjoyed doing History more is because I actually knew what I wanted. What I loved. But I was influenced by what society and my teachers told me were better for me. Children have the ability to tell us what they want to learn. These learners know what is going on in the world around them, and there are children who could probably teach their peers better than the teacher can. This is because they know what they want, what stimulates them and what they respond to best.

The artist should be allowed to focus on his/her art, just as the Mathematician should be given the necessary tools to be the best he/she can be. However, independent teaching should be controlled. Even though children know what they want, they are still young adolescents and need proper guidance. As adolescents, children are still going through a developmental period. During this time, there is a heightened responsiveness to incentives and socio-emotional contexts, when impulse control is still relatively immature.

So, instead of solely allowing independent teaching, we should incorporate it into our traditional way of giving class. Educators and learners should decide on the curriculum together.

Learners should be able choose subjects they know they will be fully engaged in and subjects they feel will benefit them. The school should also be able to help these learners realize whether these subjects are what they want to do. Have grade 9 learners attend summer camps in December where they can choose the subjects they want to take from grades 10 – 12 onwards. Have these learners spend two weeks actually doing the subjects. Learners will be able to see whether they like the subjects or not and will be able to make better judgments.

Schools should also have more practical teaching sessions. A way of doing this would be to form joint ventures with certain companies. Learners can then do vac work/job shadowing at these companies, and decide whether their predetermined career path is actually what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Learners will also see what subjects are needed if they wish to study a certain degree.

The independent project is definitely beneficial as it allows learners to get actively involved. As the Chinese proverb states: “Tell me, I’ll forget. Show me, I’ll remember. Involve me, I’ll understand.”

Who run the world? Teachers! Sorry, Beyoncé.

I had a friend in high school, her name is Susan Langley and she was the only one in my entire friendship circle (we were thirteen girls in our “clique”) who did not have a phone. I remember whenever we would tease her on the fact that she’s still living in the 19th century, she would say “It’s okay, one day I will have a phone with only one button”. I found this hilarious, because I mean a phone with only one button? That could never be possible, could it? In 2008 I certainly did not think so. Now, 8 years later, Susan Langley has an Apple i-Phone with only one button.

This, to me, just emphasises how fast technology and the world around us is changing. How we have to be prepared for the possibilities of tomorrow, today. Children are so in-tune with technology that almost every high school student I know has one or more social media account(s). Social media is becoming more and more relevant in our lives. People these days lose their jobs because of only one tweet.

I know in my high school, Business Studies and Accounting were considered to be the “boring” subjects. This is because these subjects are taught in a very serious manner. There is no time to play games or chit-chat on social media. The teacher would teach the learning material, children ask questions, they get tested, we all go home and repeat.

But this does not seem fun or even stimulating at all. Maybe incorporating social media in my curriculum studies will not be such a bad idea? Educators can communicate with the learners and have learners give feedback on the class. Learners can engage with one another when they are stuck with a problem after class and the educator is not there to provide help. I mean, in high school you don’t just email the teacher whenever you have an enquiry. You actually have to wait till the next day to ask. By then you haven’t completed your homework, because you got stuck and now you fell behind.

Students will be able to partake in different platforms where they get to watch videos of how other schools are explaining the same concepts. Learners can find different ways to solve questions or learn new concepts. Parents/guardians can also partake in these very same platforms to keep track of what their children are learning in class. Educators can also give individual feedback to learners on their assignments or tests.

Vicki Davis says “Social media does not need to be a distraction from learning outcomes”. It can be used as a resource to enhance learning and the experience children have in the classroom. I used to hate social media. I thought it was annoying. But it is here to stay and has become part of our daily lives. Learners already use it every day to gather information on anything they want to know at any given time, so let us allow learners to use it for a more enriching classroom experience.

It is never too early (or too late?) to incorporate digital pedagogy and social media into our teaching. Social media will give every child a voice, if they are willing to engage.

Don't change the player, change the game

Since I have started PGCE, I have been hearing the word pedagogy on a daily basis. I thought that all teachers are automatically pedagogues. It only made sense that way. Then I read DECODING DIGITAL PEDAGOGY, PT. 1: BEYOND THE LMS and it explained how not all teachers are pedagogues.

At first I thought Mr Knoetze was trying to mess with all our heads, because how could all teachers not be pedagogues when teaching is basically all about the pedagogy? Then as I read the article further, I understood what @slamteacher was trying to say. Teachers need not be pedagogues, just as pedagogues need not be teachers. Pedagogy is a constant willingness to learn and the many ways it is fueled. It also not limited to the teaching profession. Anyone can be a pedagogue.

This made me think about how there actually might be a difference between being a teacher and being an educator. A teacher is someone who is not necessarily a pedagogue and who teaches the content in a very mundane way. A teacher teaches the curriculum in a very traditional way. An educator is someone who does not teach the content for learners to memorize the work, but for learners to understand. An educator aims to educate children and would be constantly willing to learn and try new, innovative ways to teach learners. An educator would them embody the meaning of a pedagogue.

In a society where the only constant factor is change, this is needed. Educators who will always strive to be different and creative in their teaching methods. Technology is slowly taking over our world, but it does not need to take over your classroom. As @jessifer says, "The digital pedagogue teaches her tools, doesn’t let them teach her."

Educators should be able to use digtal pedagogy to enhance or change children's experiences of education. If a child does not 'bloom', grow or understand the content of the work, then do not change the child, but change the environment. As digital pedagogues, we have the ability to change the environment of the class at any given moment. Let us find a balance between traditional teaching methods and progressive teaching methods.

Time for no RAGRETS. Not even a single letter

I am still very confused as to what digital pedagogy really is. I know pedagogy is the method we use to teach children, so would digital pedagogy then be using technology to teach children?

To make myself a little more familiar with the term, I decided to just Google what 'digital pedagogy' means. Google defined it as 'An attempt to use technology to change teaching and learning in a variety of ways.' At first thought, this seems like a very good idea since we are living in the 21st century where almost every tween/adult I know has a smartphone or tablet. I mean, when I did not know what didgital pedagogy was, my first instinct was to use the technology at hand and google it.

Reading the article on digital pedagogy, Fyfe asks if there can be digital pedagogy without computers? The article also talks about 'hacking', which is adapting or manipulating oneself to make productive use of a given technology, technological context or platform.

Hacking is a good term for teachers to know, as it is always good to adapt as the learners do and make teaching more engaging on their level. Children these days are becoming more techno savvy and learn faster than they ever have before. Therefore, teaching with technology could be really stimulating for the learners, as this is what they're going to be using in their respective jobs one day. Learners will need to know how the internet works, how to do an excel spreadsheet or a word document.

However, in a country like South Africa where some schools cannot even afford textbooks, this is not always possible. Teachers and schools will then benefit from being able to teach digital pedagogy without computers. Some children in South Africa actually don't even know what tablets are, so as teachers we need to teach these children in a language they understand and feel comfortable with.

The article also talks about teaching 'naked', which is basically just teaching with no electronics. Go back to old school teaching where the focus is not so much on how cool the slides are or how many amazing videos are shown, but on the actual learning content. This is what matters most, as the pedagogy can become ineffective if governed by tools.

If I then have to rephrase what digital pedagogy means to me, it would be a form of pedagogy that should be creative, engaging and always changing. Digital pedagogy should be a balance between using technology and 'naked' teaching. Let us change with the generation and focus on the content and not so much the tools. It's time to be bold with our teaching. No RAGRETS. Not even a single letter.

How much my blog might suck

I am someone who never thought I would be blogging, because 1) I thought bloggers are the type of people who think they are too cool for school, and 2) I thought 'Who reads blogs anyway?'

In the beginning of the year I did not know what I wanted to do with my life. I was on the waiting list of the only honours programme I applied for (Honours in Financial Analysis) and applied to no other universities and even no jobs, because I genuinely thought I would get in. My friend then told me about the PGCE programme and I thought I might as well give it a try since I have no other option and I genuinely did not want to sit at home with an Investments degree.

Coming into the programme, I was annoyed at everything we had to do. We had an orientation session on the first day of class and the lecturer who would be giving us Digital Pedagogy told us we had to start a twitter account and create a blog. I generally don't swear, but I actually said the F-word in my head that day. This is because not only did I not want to be there, but I have no social network accounts - no facebook, no twitter and no instagram.

It has been two weeks now, and I actually am starting to enjoy the programme. I still do not know if I want to be a teacher or not? I have also made wonderful friends in my class who, I feel, keep me sane. I am new to the whole blogging and twitter world, so I might really suck. All I can say for now is I might not be where I want to be, but I think I am where I have to be. Very cliché, I know, but I might as well end my first blog post with a cool quote.

P.S I actually do talk really fast