Planning for Balance

This week, I completed an assignment for my Innovation in Teaching and Learning course (PME 811). Specifically, I was required to write a Philosophy of Practice statement, regarding my own professional practice. As a classroom teacher, who is relatively new at the job, I had to engage in a lot of personal reflection in order to complete this assignment.

I included several area in which I hope to focus moving forward as a teacher. One of these areas is innovation - I hope to do my best to incorporate this into my classroom (incorporating new ideas into the curriculum, exposing my students to new technologies and opportunities outside of the classroom and guest speakers, as some examples). Also, I hope to keep up with new changes in education as they come (just this year I had to quickly adapt to the new system of inputting home report data).

While I plan to incorporate innovation into my teaching practice, I want to remain balanced. I don't feel that everything has to be "new." Some of the "old school" approaches continue to be very successful (read alouds, for example). I do not believe that a film can take the place of a detailed book. I want to make sure that students still have space to use their imaginations - to draw, paint, write, read and play. Innovation is important, but so are the genuine experiences of our students.

I am interested to hear any perspectives regarding the benefits of the "old" compared to the "new" way of doing things in the classroom.

Thank you for reading!