Tuesday, May 26, 2009
521 Week 4 Blog
This past week I have been thinking more about self directed learning and how I can incorporate it into my classroom. I guess as I have thought more about the topic I have discovered that it is really an important concept in education. In fact it really should be the goal of education to be self directed. What good does it really do if as soon as our students walk out the door they stop learning and have no further interest. As you know now from reading my blogs I am a special education teacher. As in the past when I began reflecting on self directed learning I began to feel frustrated as to how I could possibly incorporate this into my classroom. After considerable reflection I came back to a core belief of mine. I believe that all children have interests. As a educator it is my job to look a little deeper and figure out what interests and motivates my students and begin to use them to my advantage. Most of the students I have don't have very much success in the regular education environment. However, this is not to say they can't be successful in school or that they have no interests. I am in the unique spot where I am able to get to know my students better and can use my knowledge about them as individuals to help better my classroom teaching strategies as they relate to self directed learning. It is the goal of our self advocacy classes that our students know themselves and in the process discover where their passions and interests lie. So, it is my hope to better the process of self directed learning and attempt to implement it to a greater extent in my Self Advocacy next year.
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3 comments:
It is so true that in many ways the special education teacher has an advantage in this area. You do get to have a more global perspective of your students. If education were perfect wouldn't we have IEPs for all students - isn't that the absolute true definition of differentiation?
Your point about tapping into student interests is well-taken. Not all teachers believe that it is important, but I think you hit on an essential point in motivating students. Their buy-in is a giant factor in their success.
You are very lucky that you get to spend that time with your students and really get to know them. I sometimes find it difficult to get to know all the students, let alone, have them want to open up to me about their personal interests. I feel that sometimes just being young can be to my advantage to be able to relate to the students and get them interested in some things. It is hard to motivate all students but like your students, each of the students need to feel some attachment to the classroom. By playing to various multiple intelligences I have a better chance of getting their interest at least once.
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