The topic of this week’s class is one of the most interesting topics we touched on throughout the semester. The readings about critical pedagogy, particularly the thoughts and ideas of Paulo Freire, are enlightening and thought provoking. They led me to realize that I signed up for a difficult yet exciting task as a future teacher. I am part of the generation that is tasked to change and challenge the “banking model” of education where we fill the minds of passive students by “knowledge” and test them on how well they memorized the material. I am part of the generation that is responsible to equip the young minds by the needed tools to become active, curious, tolerant, and creative individuals where students are able to “create possibilities” and “construct knowledge”. Our role, as teachers, is to teach eager minds how to think critically and create new solutions to new problems rather than repeating what has already been done.
This responsibility is challenging and can be overwhelming at times. However, when teachers embrace the curiosity and love of knowledge as a way of life, teaching comes naturally and becomes an easy task. As teachers of the new era, we have to have certain qualities and need to reflect those qualities to our students through our personality, teaching style, delivery method, flexibility, and expectations. We have to be tolerant so we learn different things from different people like Paulo Freire noted. We have to be directive and dialogic, but not manipulative, static, and authoritarian as noted in Dr. Fowler’s presentation. We have to think critically, challenge ourselves, keep on learning, learn from their experiences, adapt to change, be curious, and become thinkers themselves. Above all, we should reflect those qualities to our students, rethink our teaching methods to suit the needs of the 21st century, be energetic, be prepared, and be passionate about our mission.
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