“I love being a TUUUUUUURTLE!” And I’m not quoting the teenage mutant ninja turtles, well maybe a little. But I’m referring to your dead-crawl, stop in the middle of the road put your head in a shell, take 2 hours to cross a narrow street turtle. I’m that turtle, at least figuratively anyway. I’m talking that slow and steady, wins the race turtle. I was reflecting on something I read earlier where sometimes people give up or stop their learning journey because they are not learning fast enough either by society standards or by their own. I see this all the time when I’m working with teachers to integrate technology in their classroom. Often times teachers expect to be able to get a handle on using technology and social media for student learning, classroom instruction, parent communication and professional development all at once. PHEW!! Just saying it makes me feel overwhelmed and tired. Try saying that five times fast, The truth is, it’s not our fault. If you think about it, that is how school systems are structured. We still follow the early industrial age of education, the factory approach to learning. Factories are designed to take raw materials and put them together in a finished product by a deadline so that sales can be made. Unfortunately, most schools unknowingly do the same thing. Students are ushered in and teachers and students try to keep up with the demands of standards and benchmarks. Don’t get me wrong, I work for a school system and recognize the importance of why those things must be in place. However, most of us were instructed in such environments. So even though, as adults, we no longer need to learn everything in one year to get to the next grade or in 4 to 5 years to earn a degree, we approach all levels of learning the same way. I need to learn it and I need to learn it now within the confines of this pre-determined time frame. TRUTH: You don’t. In fact, even for our youngsters, and I would go on record to say I believe that if schools had the resources learning in our schools would be less factory like and focus would be more on the learning process as opposed to hitting learning targets, which have their place and are necessary in the systems we have. But as adults, what’s the rush? Is there a fire somewhere? It’s added stress and pressure that we put on ourselves. Here’s the sad part, when we don’t make our “deadline” or within our “timeframe”, many of us give up. We tell ourselves we’re not cut out for it. Or that it is not for us. Stop the clock. Turn off the timer. Learn for mastery, learn until you are confident that you can apply your newly acquired skills in meaningful ways in your life. I”m still learning, learning how to ride my bike, learning what it means to be a wife and a stepmom, learning new ways to use technology in my life as an educator and as an entrepreneur. I’m in no rush, I have to have faith and belief in myself that things will work out the way they should. And you should too. Hi! My name is Tamara Pradel. I’m the Technology Innovation Educationist and your Personal Learning Lifestyle Coach.
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AuthorEducation + Technology +Innovation + Tamara Pradel= Learning Your Way Your Time Archives
March 2017
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