The Role of the Secondary

Teacher in the Classroom

Larry Blackmer, NAD Vice President

A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to School This

Morning……

……The World Changed!

Three Questions to be Answered:

• Who are you teaching?• What are the most important things you are

going to teach?• Is there a difference between teaching and learning?

Who are you teaching?• Are the students the same today as they were twenty

years ago? Ten years ago? Five years ago?• How are they different?

– Things most important– Internet world– Communication – IM, Text, Email, Social Networking– Parents – Helicopter, pressure not to do what is right but to

measure up, expectations to go to Harvard from gr. 2– Attention span– Learning difficulties– Relationships

If This Is Who You Are Teaching…Are You Teaching Differently?

• No longer the sage on the stage, but the guide on the side• Can you teach from the front everything a student needs

to know?• We are now at the point that knowledge is increasing

faster than we can cope • Teach students how to learn and how to find the

information• "what we learn today in school will be outdated by

tomorrow, and therefore, the most successful people in the 'flat world' will be those who can adapt and learn quickly. -Freidman

10 Guiding Principles for Teachers Capable of Creating a Future

1. Curiosity, persistence, and genuine interest are the main power sources for the future

2. Breadth and depth are BOTH important3. There are more than two sides to most issues4. Teachers help students connect the dots 5. Future is not necessarily a straight-line

projection of the present

Future-Focused Leadership

10 Guiding Principles for Teachers Capable of Creating a Future -2

6. Peripheral vision can help us avoid being blind-sided

7. Bring out the best in others is is basic8. Courage and personal responsibility need to

overcome fear and self-pity9. A belief in synergy can spark knowledge

creation and breakthrough thinking10.The role of strategic futurist is part of

everybody’s job (eternal and present)

What are the Most Important Things You are Going To Teach?

What is Important?

• First of all we need to be faithful Adventist educators- true to our call– Know for Whom we work- have an active personal

relationship with Jesus– Share Jesus in word and action– Pray with students- not only before the test– Ask each student about her/his relationship with

Jesus– If you can not do this…..find something else to do

Secondary Subject Expertise

• What is important for students to know about your subject?

• Creativity, finding how to get the answer more important than solving the exact question.

• Know what the questions are more important than knowing what the answers are.

• Thinking globally rather than locally• Build a fire in them• Teens are in the connected generation – use that

don’t run from it.

Is Teaching Different from Learning?

What is Our Job vs, What is ourRole?

• Curriculum Guides• Textbooks• Standardized tests• Lecture• Subject area isolation

What About?

• Project-based instruction -http://www.nwrel.org/request/2002aug/textonly.html

• Cooperative learning• Web-directed instruction• Global instruction• Competency-based instruction• Cross-curricular instruction• Student-lead instruction

Flat World Curriculum

• We live in a global society• Connections to other schools – even public

schools http://flatworlded.wikispaces.com/Projects

• http://www.iearn.org/index.html• Loosen up and give students rope- help them

to use tools, don’t tie their hands…and minds

Flat World – Freidman’s Untouchables

• great corroborators, • the great leveragers, • the great synthesizers, • the passionate personalizers, • the great localizers, • the "green ones," • the great explainers, • the great adapters

Resources

• http://electronicportfolios.org/teachers/profdev.html

• http://www.intel.com/education/teach/index.htm?cid=cim:ggl|edu_us_teach|sD883|s

• www.nadeducation.org