The classroom is a garden

A gardener is a person who tends and cultivates a garden for a living. A garden is a piece of ground where a variety of plants grow. A gardener’s job is to nurture its’ garden to help their flowers and plants grow. All flowers are not the same. All flowers grow at different paces and some need more help more than others.

When I think of an educator, I think of a gardener that helps their flowers grow. An educator’s job is to guide their students and become more independent. Educators in technology-meditated learning environments guide their students to learn more life skills through technology. They teach their students to grow by letting their students explore technology and gain independence.

 

Reflection

After looking back on my blog and my expansion on my teaching metaphor, I believe that it is very inspiring for other prospective teachers.

Teachers are gardeners for their students. A Teacher’s ambition is to make their garden grow and blossom into a big, beautiful garden. When teachers try to grow their garden there can be some issues when creating their garden. Not all gardens are perfect. When creating my garden, I had strengths and weaknesses.

Some strengths that I had when blogging were being creative when expanding on my metaphor. The metaphor that I created really inspired me to go deeper into the metaphor. Another strength in my metaphor when conveying the role of an educator in a technology mediated learning environment is that it portrays the role of a teacher using technology in the classroom to support their students. Technology is a great source to help students comprehend and achieve when the teacher isn’t able to help them.

A weakness that I had with my metaphor when conveying the role of an educator in a technology mediated learning environment, is that teachers won’t be able to always apply my metaphor to their teaching. For example always being able to accommodate each student’s learning through technology. Sometimes the teacher will be very busy and won’t be able to teach the lesson several different ways.

Overall, I believe that this metaphor can inspire other teachers and teach them how to integrate technology into their classroom in several ways. This metaphor will take time to perfect but will be able to benefit students in many ways.

 

Teachers are Gardeners

After blogging about several aspects of my metaphor, I believe that teachers are gardeners and their students are their flowers. The gardener’s overall role is to make sure that their flowers are constantly growing. Just like the gardener, a teacher’s role is to make sure that their students are constantly learning and comprehending. Not only does a teacher help students learn, they help students expand their knowledge on how to use technology in the classroom.

When integrating technology into the classroom, a teacher’s role is to inform students about technology so that they can use it safely and properly. When the students learn to use technology safely, they are able to use web 2.0 responsibly. Web 2.0 can spark critical thinking and help students have a better understanding of lessons. Teachers are responsible for their students’ success. In order to help their students’ succeed, teachers can use different uses of technology for their students to understand the lesson at hand. When students finally comprehend the lesson via use of technology, it creates a positive learning experience for them which will make them want to continue using and exploring technology.

A gardeners role is to continue to nourish their flowers in order for them to grow. But the gardener can’t constantly be there for their flowers and they need to learn to become more independent through photosynthesis. Just like the gardener, the teacher needs to help the students have confidence in order to become more independent. In order for the students to gain independence, the teachers need to socialize them through teaching them about society.

In conclusion, I still believe that I am a gardener and my classroom is a garden that is constantly growing. I hope that I am able to always help my students so that they can grow gain independence. Being a gardener for my students is very important to me because I am able to expand their knowledge so that they know how to use technology in the classroom and want to continue to learn.

Exposing the flowers

In the garden, flowers are not only exposed to the gardener, but they are also exposed to the sun and the rain. The sun and rain are essential to their growth. At one point during their growth, the gardener can’t constantly nourish them. The sun and the rain help nourish the garden when the gardener is not there.

In this case, a teacher’s role to their students is to socialize them and expose them to the real world. A great way to socialize students is by using Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is social media which can expose them to social norms. The sun and rain represent society and web 2.0. Both elements are combined in order to help with the growth of the flower and the student. Teachers can use Web 2.0 to teach lessons. For example, use Facebook for projects such as developing understandings of each character from a book and each character has their own Facebook. This is a great way to expose students to social media since it is very big in our society today.

In An Anthropological introduction to youtube, it explains how Web 2.0 benefits students and provides new supports on learning. Web 2.0 can promote critical and analytical thinking among students. Web 2.0 is more visual for students to learn from making it more interesting to learn.

In grey’s anatomy, they have majorly integrated technology in the hospital. The hospital has been socialized by society because technology has become a huge part in our society which benefits the hospital. For example they now read charts on iPads and use their cell phones to contact each doctor. Just like the students, the doctors have been exposed to different uses of technology.

Responsible for the flowers

A gardener has a huge responsibility to make sure that their plants are continuously growing. The garner needs to keep track of their growth of it’s plants and keep up to date with their needs. If the flower starts to stop growing, the gardener needs to take care of that flower and help it get back on track. The gardener needs to put effort into their garden in order for its’ flowers to blossom and beautiful all together.

Looking at this from a teacher’s perspective, it is a teacher’s job to make sure that their students are succeeding. If their students are not succeeding, they need to help those students. Teachers can use technology as a source to help the students that are not comprehending. For example, use videos and exercises online to improve their comprehension on the lesson. Teachers need to put effort and time into their work to benefit their students’ learning. Teachers can stay up to date with their students’ success through assessing students online through exercises and quizzes online. This can help teachers find the students that aren’t really comprehending the homework or lesson so that they can help the students in order to succeed.

In John Dewey and the Art of Teaching: Toward Reflective and Imaginative Practice, it explains that “Educational theory, on its own definition, is that branch of education organized to provide students with the tools for reflective practice”. This quote explains that teachers need to provide tools – integrating technology to assess students – in order for their students to comprehend and succeed.

In grey’s anatomy, Meredith and Bailey use a 3D printer to print a tumour for other interns to understand what it looks like and how they would remove the tumour. Just like teachers using technology to assess and aid students succeed, Meredith and Bailey are trying to find a solution through using technology and opening the minds of the interns.

Not all flowers are the same

In a garden, there is a huge diversity of flowers. Each flower needs more help than others in order to grow. The gardener’s role is to make sure that each flower is still growing. The gardener needs to accommodate to each individual flower.

When looking at the gardener as a teacher, a teacher’s role is to make sure that each student is comprehending the lesson and that they are not falling behind. Every student learns differently. Some students are visual learners and some are auditory learners. In order to accommodate to each student, the teacher can assess their students using technology in different ways. For example, to teach a lesson to students, the teacher can use a powerpoint presentation which can accommodate to each learner because the powerpoint can give students a visual and the teacher explaining each slide aids the students that are auditory learners.

In grey’s anatomy, the residents are taught differently in order to specialize as a certain surgeon. Just like the flowers, they all are different and have different needs. The residents are students that learn different things from different teachers that accommodate to their specialty.

Protecting the flowers

When a gardener is taking care of their garden, it is important that their flowers are exposed to other animals for them to eat. A gardener’s duty is to protect their garden from harmful things. For example protecting their flowers from rabbits.

When thinking of a teacher as a gardener in this perspective, a teacher’s role is to educate students safely. When using technology in the classroom, it is a teacher’s role to make sure that when students use the internet in class, they are using it appropriately and safely. Teachers need to use the constructivist approach when assessing safe use of technology so that students can learn interactively using the internet.

In John Dewey and the Art of Teaching: Toward Reflective and Imaginative Practice, it explains how important a constructive approach benefits students’ comprehension. In the text it explains, “the idea that teaching and learning are not a passive affair, but an active construction occurring between teacher and student”. Constructivism in the classroom when using technology is a great way to teach students how to use technology safely and appropriately because they get a more hands on learning experience. They can have a more hands on experience by each student having their own computer to explore and learn by themselves while still being guided through the process

In grey’s anatomy, the interns learn through a constructivist approach as to how to complete a surgery safely and properly. The doctors are like gardeners in this case and the interns are the flowers learning how to complete a surgery safely and properly by assisting.

Helping the flowers blossom

The gardener’s role is to help the flowers blossom. In education, a teacher’s role is to help their students learn and grow. When using technology in the classroom, it is the teacher’s job to broaden the understanding of technology. To broaden their understanding of technology, the teacher can show them different applications to use in the classroom to help them grow and continue to explore technology.

In “The Role of the Educator” by Stephon Downes, he explains how technology has helped students improve academically. Downes states that “the ideas of connective knowledge, resource sharing and learning communities and writing a daily newsletter, posting a blog and offering conference presentations” have helped with the overall approach to learning in the classroom through the use of technology.

In Grey’s Anatomy, Burke teaches Christina to use advanced technology for a heart surgery through a holograph. This demonstrates that everyone can continue to grow, learn and explore technology through the help of an educator.