After watching Logan LaPlante’s Ted Talk about hackschooling, I felt excited. I felt excited for the future of education, and also my future as a teacher. I think there are some very important things that don’t get talked about in school, and it’s a shame. LaPlante talks about how the schools are so focused on reading, writing, and arithmetic, that we forget to talk about the most important thing of all; happiness.
In the Ted Talk, LaPlante explains something that Dr. Roger Walsh says and it really stuck with me. He says that much of education is oriented around making a living, rather than making a life. We get so caught up making sure that we are teaching the correct things, and covering all the standards, and playing the traditional rules of school, that we lose track of how important our students’ happiness is. We can do everything right when it comes to teaching, and still fail, in my opinion. If we are not focusing on our students’ happiness and healthiness then, it does not matter what else we are doing in our classrooms because we’ve already failed.
There is certainly a new wave of education headed our way, and it’s exciting. It’s time to start making things other than reading, writing, and arithmetic a priority. Lets prioritize happiness and healthiness. Let’s prioritize mental health. Let’s teach them how to be good human beings, and not just whatever subject we’re covering at the time. Let’s teach our students life lessons, and things that they will remember in the real world.
I also love the idea of hacking, making, and playing. I said before that there is a wave education headed our way and these are the types of things that are going to be what school is all about. Letting students make things allows them to think outside the box, and forces creativity. I think the assumption is that making things in school is more directed towards elementary schools and younger kids, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Bud Hunt says that making things is essential to the craft of teaching and learning, and that students learn more when they are making something to demonstrate their learning. That sounds like it could be used at any age, for any subject.
Hunt also talks about how the word ‘hacker’ has a negative connotation, and that shouldn’t be the case. When somethings wrong, hackers are the ones to fix it. They are the people you want in your corner when things don’t go as planned because they are willing to adapt, and make things stronger than they once were. I’m not sure if I’d consider myself a hacker, but I would love to teach some students who do!
https://thecurrent.educatorinnovator.org/centering-on-essential-lenses
I watched a Ted Talk titled ” One Thing that All Great Teachers Do.” To be honest, it was a little corny for me but the message was great, and it went along really with all my talk about the future of education. I don’t want to give anything away but, spoiler alert, essentially the main message about great teachers is that they care. Not that they are brilliant, or that they know all the material, but simply that they care. I think all teachers could use that as a reminder from time to time.
Baden Shelmadine 