I’ve seen a lot of changes come and go during my teaching career in the past twenty years. Here in Sweden we got a bit of a shock when the last PISA-results were announced. Right now, we’re thinking long and hard about how to improve student performance in both reading and maths.
Me! Where I love to be… in water, near the sea. Pernilla Larsson is an English and History teacher from the Skåne region in southern Sweden. She currently teaches Swedish and English to 10-16 year olds.
In 2011, we put a new curriculum in place that made us focus more closely on children’s individual abilities. All of their abilities. It was a smart way of allowing us to focus on the quieter children and to identify weaknesses within the strongest. In this way I feel we have already started to capture New Knowledge, which will be reflected in the next PISA-results.
What do I mean by New Knowledge? I mean thinking in new ways. It’s a question of being aware of the past but constantly webbing in new approaches to inform my way of teaching. Right now, I am working with a large number of students to help them cope with their own studies, to progress their learning. I’m sharing good examples to inform their self-study. For example, the appropriate language to use when writing an essay; how to understand what you read even when not being aware of reading. Tapping into metathinking – if you understand what I refer to.
We have computers where I work and have done for some years. However, I still spread the view that books and study rooms, such as the library, are essential. Computers may make us work faster but my students need to realize that we still need to meet for real! In books there are magical worlds to be found! I was more or less raised in a library! But books and technology can happily co-exist. I can’t live without my Android. I exist as @Qvittra on Twitter, and I’m sharing this online blog with you now.
I’m going to end with my elephants. They are a fine example of how we need to lean on one another to spread knowledge and grow. With open minds and good hearts.
