I thought todays presentations by both groups were really helpful. I'm going to check out some of the sites from the first group about learning languages because I'm desperately trying to improve my skills in french. I have some friends that I play hockey with that are from Quebec and I have an opportunity to use them to immerse myself in the language but I'm lacking time to do it. Having said that I wanted to say that I do use google translator when I'm emailing them so I can say what I don't know how to say in french. The girls always let me know if the translation was not correct or a better way I can say it. So I guess that I'm not totally relying on it but it does give me a place to start and learn from.
The Calgary Public Library stuff was also very useful. I've never used the elibrary before but I will be using it now! The jing and the video downloading site was awesome too. It was funny because while I was watching the presentation about the library I was thinking how did they make this video? Thanks for showing me how!
The conversation about inquiry and why teachers aren't doing it, and administrators not allowing teachers to do it etc. was interesting because I think that it's up to us to take the risk and start teaching using inquiry when we can and change the culture of education one person at a time. The reason teachers don't do it is because it's hard, and it takes a lot of time. My partner was talking to some teachers about this and why they don't use inquiry, and this is what they told her; There is already such a demand on the teachers time so if they start to use inquiry they have to redo all their lesson plans and re-plan how to teach units that they already have the resources for. So I think if we go out there and start by dipping our toes in and do inquiry here and there, gradually getting better at it and gradually adding more and more of it eventually other teachers will have to get on board. They will start to notice that kids in our classes are engaged and learning and having fun doing it, they will then wonder why it's not happening in their classes. If you can, recruit the teachers in your discipline and have them collaborate on the projects with you. If you have new and older teachers collaborating together I'm sure you can come up with really amazing things. I can't see how any administrator can fault you for trying to engage the students with exciting and worth while projects.
The reason why there hasn't been a change in the culture of education is because people before us have not taken this risk, they have fallen into the old habits of the culture of the school that they are working in. Imagine getting a job at the Calgary Science School and trying to teach by just delivering information and having the students regurgitate the information back in the form of a test. I think you'd probably be fired! This is because the culture of that school is different from most CBE schools. So I think one teacher at a time, one school at a time, we can change the culture of teaching in Calgary. (or where ever you work)
