Mindful teaching

So, I finally found out how to start a new blog with out making a new blog site, which is what I have been doing! My bad. Guys, this technology life is not easy. But to be a digital pedagogue I guess I better learn. At least I have untill 2017!

So, this weeks blog, let's have a think....
I love the initiative the teacher took, putting a jug of water on a table so the previously noisy children had to be silent and not spill the water, ingenious.

I can't help but then children are easily manipulated, if you know how to do it right. So mindful teaching also means clever teaching to me. In the sense that you need to know how to "play" your students. Let's think scientifically quickly. There was this dog, and his owner, Pavlov. Pavlov ringed a bell every time there would be good for his dog, this resulted in his dog salivating everytime it heard the bell. The dog associated the bell with food. This is a scientific experiment we as teachers can try with children in different ways. Obviously to our benefit as well.

We can, as teachers, use different devices to be mindful of our student. We can have them associate different things with different thing. They have no second register and so we create them for the students. We put a jug full of water on a table and give a fast which results in silence, and on a Monday morning or a Friday afternoon, I can already imagine that I would love silence. But, to be honest, getting the children to be mindful will in the end be a positive skill for them to have a well.

And that is my two cents. Sorry my blog is a day late, this week has been rough!

Away with Teaching.

So a school made by student with no teachers? I feel like that would make the song "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd quite redundant. But how can a school be governable with out authority, or a hierarchy or a power hierarchy? Please read the sarcasm in my voice. I think something like this could be a wonderful concept, except for the fact that I need to make money one day and I am studying to become a teacher and so need school where there are teachers. But, putting my selfish desires to one side, and being selfless, I feel as if this could be a great step forward. Adolescents would be able to venture into a field they are interested in. They can have absolute knowledge instead of approximate knowledge of things. I know for one that I would love to have ventured into drama and music more than having to sit and learn science which I have consequently forgotten. So to me the world seems like magic, but that is besides the point.

Only at university did I start really enjoying my field of study, after having to plough through subjects that I didn't have an interest in. I could have been one of the children in the video we had to watch for this blog saying how happy they are that they got to work towards something that genuinely interested them in. But I guess I am able to what pythagoras theorem is. Then again, so is Google. So, yes, again, this unteachered school sounds like a dream come true. But then I must say, having guidance as a child growing up helped a lot and the only thing I would add to this wonderful school would be gurus in the field of interest. People with experience. People with absolute knowledge about their field.  

In conclusion, this is a cool idea. I like it. I approve. Lets all have absolute knowledge instead of approximate knowledge.