Where and how will I be teaching in 15 years time?
This is an enticing question to answer. Let’s start with where. The school would be both a virtual and physical space where students, teachers and other supporting parties converge. The school will be set up in a way where the traditional grade-level groupings would be a thing of, let’s say, 15 years in the past. Instead, the students would be working in mastery-oriented studios with other students who are at similar levels, and who are invested in similar transdisciplinary inquiries. The schedule would allow for students to meet with their different teacher-advisors throughout the week to confer on how the students are moving along their self-selected, teacher-facilitated learning plans. The school will also be where the students are taking their learning to, and where they put it into practice through partnerships with other institutions, social groups, and businesses. In this school, student social-emotional learning is incorporated in the curriculum by design. In other words, the learning happening in this school is very personal. It is good to know, that although many schools right now don’t look like my school in the future, there are some that have already started to re-think our two-century-old model of education. Take a look at this school:
How will I be teaching in 15 years’ time?
With my specialty being language acquisition, I imagine myself facilitating learning in different ways. First, I picture myself co-constructing learning plans with the students based on their language needs and interests, guiding them through various materials that can help them get acquainted with discrete skills (MOOCs, online learning courses, open source materials) that I would help access and clarify. I would also set up collaborative experiences, live and online, where the students can practice skills and where they will have the opportunity to explore the different concepts that are essential for successful language learning. In 15 years time, technology, as it does today, will continue to influence how the students learn. Furthermore, technology will be what will allow my future school and future “classroom” to exist. With this, I am not saying that my future school could only exist in the future. I believe my future school could very well exist right now, but changing the industrial-revolution school model will take time and resources to allow for my future school to be a reality for all students, not just a few lucky ones. “The future is already here, it’s just not very evenly distributed.” – William Gibson
Feature image by Helena Lopes on Unsplash
The MYP Classroom 