C4T Summary- Teacher #4

My C4T teacher this time was Joe Bower from Alberta, Canada.  His blog is entitled "For the Love of Learning"  and he states "I teach grade 6 students in Red Deer, Alberta; I haven't "graded" in 6 years, yet I assess everyday."  The purpose of his blog is to challenge the traditional concept of "school" and pursue more progressive ideas to enhance learning and make it more enjoyable and worthwhile for everyone.

In the first post I read, Mr. Bower wrote about getting rid of his teacher's desk.  This is a concept I had seen before from other teachers but it was nice to get an understanding of why doing this is important for really changing the way your classroom works.  If anything is a standard of traditional "school" it is the image of the teacher in the front sitting behind the desk with everyone facing him- the center of attention.  One of the key ideas of moving away from this, or "unschooling school" as Mr. Bowers puts it is to push the focus of the class on the students more than the teacher.

In his latest post, Mr. Bowers gives his impression on the book "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" by Paulo Friere.  Friere uses the analogy of a bank to describe the current school system.  The teachers deposit information into receptacles.  Learning is a passive process with this model and the only action is done by the teacher.  I feel that most teachers would prefer for the action to be done by the student.  This requires us to change the student/teacher relationship.  Friere lists 10 attitudes and practices about teachers and students that describe the majority of our educational experiences as children. From this list we can see that things haven't changed much in education.  Because of teachers like Mr. Bowers there are at least some people making an effort to improve the way we view education.  The best thing I think we as aspiring teachers can do is to aspire to be as Friere suggests "simultaneously students and teachers" with our class.