Using Technology in F2F is possible too

Twenty years ago, far away from here my children started elementary school and I started as a teaching assistant on a very prestigious private university in Buenos Aires. Everything was new to me; I was learning how to teach adults and at the same time I was learning how my children were learning.

On the first parent conference at my oldest daughter’s preschool, the teacher started to talk about learning theories and how our kids were going to “discover” the letters and end up writing soon. She was a passionate teacher; I remember that meeting very well. She went on and on about how these kids were going to “build” their knowledge based on what they saw and what they had around. She had tagged every object in the classroom with the first letter of the piece only; a huge “V” for ventana, for example, was glued on the window. She told us that children will follow their natural curiosity and soon they will figure the sound of those letters out and will want to “put together” letter by letter for their sound. A few months later, my daughter knew all the letters in the room and before I knew, she was able to write her name and most of our family’s names. She and the entire grade was writing before the end of the school year; but what is most important, is that they were very happy doing it.

Argentina was finishing a long decade of oppressive military coup that involved everything and more than anything education. We were not allowed to “think” or “discover”; we were supposed to follow directions and that was it. This teacher introduced me to a completely new way of thinking. I went back to talk to her about all this and she gave me a book. Small book I remember; but big words indeed. The book was “Psychology of the Child” by Jean Piaget. I devoured that book and a couple more about Piaget and then Maria Montesori and then Paulo Freire. They all talked about freedom and democracy in education; something completely new for me at that time. For more than twenty years, constructivism was more than a theory for me; it was a way of life. And it still is.

Well, if you got to here and you are still awake, I will tell you now why this introduction and what this has to do with week 21. When I watched Lisa and Jim’s video something similar to the story of the preschool teacher happened to me. Lisa and Jim constantly talked about the importance of not marry one theory, but use them all. In every workshop, conference or meeting I attended for foreign languages I have never heard this. It was always “this way” or you are a bad teacher. This always confused me because most of the instructors that affirmed this were not teaching us the same way. So whenever I give a wonderful presentation about a subject that is very difficult to my students I feel terribly guilty. I have to admit that I do not use 100% constructivism in my classes. I am a constructivist but I am a teacher first, so whatever technique I feel is better for my students I use it. This week made me a better teacher. I can’t wait to start putting together theories, practices and technology.

Even though I might have not “taught” anything on this posting, I feel great for writing it and sharing a very important part of my life.

Muchas gracias!

Laura

Tags: constructivism, freire, maria montesori, piaget, week 21

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