Learning 100

I am proud to team with my daughter, Alexis Peterson, who, in her own right, has set a standard of excellence in her career in education. With her assistance, we want to share with the educational community “Inspirational Learning” that continue to cross our paths. 

As an educator in schools and classrooms as a teacher for 8 years, a school site principal for 31 years, and member of the Faculty in the School of Education at California State University, San Marcos since 1997, I have seen some great teaching and learning taking place in classes in K-12 schools and university programs. As we transition into the Common Core territory and expectations for our state and country, we are leaving the confines of teaching to the skills that are needed for test-taking success. We are now at a crossroads in which learning and teaching must be complimentary and impact each other directly. Teaching skills for knowledge and comprehension will not be enough to meet the requirements of concept development that we have for the 21^st century students. Student collaboration will become required of the educators now, as well as the future, in order to prepare for the complex needs of the workforce in the coming years.

We are moving into a time in our history that teaching and learning must go hand-in-hand in order for all to be successful in our in classrooms. We are being enveloped into the expectation that all kids can and MUST learn, and that success for all is now a standard. 

We will always be required to be accountable for the skills and facts in the learning. That quantitative aspect of learning will never leave our responsibility in the classroom. However, we need to be more to the learners as we prepare them for the future. The qualitative aspects of teaching is as important to the learning. Motivational features of the human resource provided by teachers need to compliment the balance of the qualitative and quantitative requirements of schools. As we move toward the future, High Tech is permeating our environment. As educators we must be always apply technology and its resources so the learners can survive and compete in their work, both in schools and the workforce.

That High Tech/ High Touch conflict of the past is now expected to be transparent and interwoven to provide the key for all of our future workforce and a literate society as a whole. The High Tech Immigrants (Old School) and the High Tech Natives (Newer Generations) have to help each other to maximize their efforts in all aspects of life.

So we are looking for teachers to be like they were in the 70’s and 80’s (pre teaching to the test era) with inspirational lessons from educators that center on concept development, complete understanding of the content, and the validation that kids have received the most they can from every lesson we perform with them in our classrooms.

Educators need to consider becoming models, and the inspirations each learner we are graced to serve is met through what we share and be more complete.