The idea „How I am becoming a teacher“ is a part of the joint project between the University of Michigan-Flint, USA and the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. The idea was developed by Dr. Mary Jo (University of Michigan-Flint) and by Dr. Magdalena Novotná (Charles University in Prague). With Dr. Mary Jo’s permission the idea was applied and modified also for the DIY project needs at the Faculty of Education, too, and accomplised with a group of ICT and Primary Education student teachers.
The students had to reflect their process of becoming a teacher through a set of photos which they took and later analysed and interpreted with the aim to design a digital animation as a digital story. From the DIYlab project perspective this activity contributed tocollaborative learning (students work in pairs), to inquiry based teaching and learning (it was really a problem how to visualise a process how I am becoming a teacher), to transdisciplinary knowledge (student teachers applied knowledge and skills from Art Education, Music Education, IT Education, Pedagogy), to autonomous/ self-regulated learning, to Digital competence development (student teachers together and each other taught how to work with ICT and how to do animation in WeWideo), and to Relation to the curriculum (students did the project in a frame of compulsory courses at the Faculty of Education).
Our path
All our lives, every year, every month, every week and even every day is one path – path to knowledge, friendship and happiness. Every day we set goals which we think are unreachable, but we struggle anyway. We start each morning tired and knowing that all of that day’s work is ahead of us. There is so much to do and we do not know where to start while thinking that we are alone in this, though we think wrong. We might even feel completely lost, hopeless and there is no way of reaching our goal. Noticing the details is the only thing we really must do. We need to carefully search for details that will help us. We overlook things which are under our noses, only because we are tired, nervous, confused and not fully concentrated on our work. It is good to let off some steam, even though there is so much to do. We need to let our minds drift a bit and gather energy, chat with someone, get some strength and stay on top of things. It may help to look on things from another perspective or from distance. We may as well realize that we are again closer to what we are trying to accomplish. Before we can realize it, it is dark outside and we stumble home knowing that we managed to do what we set ourselves to do. We lay ourselves to bed, trying to get some time for ourselves, maybe read a book, but we deeply fall asleep filled with the expectations of the next day’s endeavours. Thus we end one road which is only a part of the maze of our lives.
Authors: Michaela Bajcarová, Jana Kopecká