Formal and Informal Education for Our Students

This morning I woke up at 5:00 a.m. because I had to put on paper my feelings about a very special person. My uncle died this past weekend and I wanted to share with others the important role he played as a teacher in my life. After completing this effort, I thought about what I said about my uncle and how it relates to our work as secondary educators. This is what I wish to share with you today.

People are educated in two ways during their life, formally and informally. Formal education relates to learning at school through classroom experiences, reading, and discussions around specific curriculum and content. Informal learning comes from the daily experiences that we have in our lives that are not attached to classroom lessons with standards and specific learning outcomes in mind.

Most of our learning is actually informal, but some of those informal lessons are learned in school. This does not imply that informal learning is less important than what we learn in a formal setting. In reality, thinking about what I learned from my uncle was much more important than what I learned in any class. I may not have experienced academic success without the informal learning experiences that I have had in my life.

I often tell people that my academic high school experience did not prepare me well for UCLA, but it provided me perfect informal learning experiences for my career as a teacher and administrator. Our informal experiences are so important and sometimes we as educators lose track of the relative importance of the experiences gained informally by our students from us and from others.

When I think back on my school years, I remember almost every teacher. As an educator, I remember every principal or supervisor that I have worked for. I have learned a great deal from each of these people. Most of the time my informal learning has been positive, but sometimes what I learned was negative based on what I experienced and what I observed. I learned valuable lessons from both types of experiences.

As teachers, counselors, or administrators do we really spend enough time thinking and discussing how we impact our students, not in a formal, but in an informal way? We are role models because we stand in front of impressionable young people, this comes with the job. We may think that we have been hired to teach content to our students, but we have really been hired to teach children. Yes, we teach them content, concepts, and skills, but we also teach them informal life experiences as well.

My uncle taught me the importance of dedication, hard work, fairness, generosity, and how to relate to others. What he taught me was reinforced by my teachers and supervisors over many years. What kind of world would we be leaving our students if we teachers believed that we only taught math, science, English, social studies, the arts, physical education or other electives as defined by the scope and sequence developed by our school district? We teach so much more than that. But we have to be sure that we teach those other qualities thoughtfully and carefully because they are learned by students through their observations of us. They learn from what we say and how we act. Our responsibility is great and extremely important, especially if we are the best or only positive adult role model in our students’ life.

Successful students seem to have the ability to persevere and be resilient. They seem to be willing to accept constructive criticism. They seem to have developed some long term goals that are supported by their education. It may be that these qualities are more important in the learning experiences of students than the content we are hired to teach. In any case, how do we use the students' formal educational experiences to reinforce the qualities that successful students seem to have? Are we consciously supporting our students to be better people and better prepared people for their future world?

We rarely hear about the informal influences we have on our students’, but make no mistake, we are informal teachers to every student we have, and our teaching needs to provide a positive experience for every child we touch. If we are doing that, then we are doing a Herculean job of educating our students. But if we are not, then we could cause our students pain and suffering through out their life. Each of us has to make conscious choices about how we do our job as a teacher and how we use the power of being a role model for our students.

Cyber Safety

This post is unique as compared to other posts that I have listed on this blog. However, the topic is so important I thought I would share it with interested educators. I placed my article below on the school web page where I am currently working as the interim principal. I share this with teachers and administrators so that we can find ways to support parents in helping to make our students as safe as possible since 75% or more of our students are using cell phones, computers, or other cyber devices to communicate and to find information. Educators have an important role in helping parents to make students as safe as possible when in the cyber world.

CYBER SAFETY FOR OUR STUDENTS

"All parents of teenagers should read this article carefully. Our children have grown up with technology. Often they know much more about the use of cyber tools than any of us. After all they are “Cyber Natives,” most of us are “Cyber Foreigners”. Our children have never known a time without computers, the internet, cell phones, and they have grown up understanding the incredible use of these technology tools in finding and sharing information. So, as parents who do not have the same knowledge or skills as our children when it comes to the use of technology, what do we do? How can we be responsible parents? How do we face the latest parental issues that have developed?

“Teenagers are early adopters of technology–from the latest social-networking sites to the hottest new cell phones,” said Susan Schulz, special projects editor for Hearst Magazines (which publishes Cosmo Girl). “While this tech savvy can be seen as positive, our study reveals there’s also a negative side. Teenagers should be aware of the real consequences of this type of behavior, and we need to provide them with guidance and encourage them to make smarter choices.” Do parents even know all of the people that our children are communicating with online? Do the kids really know who they are communicating with online?

Our children are using technology to send pictures, messages, music, and join social groups. We know from news stories that have been made public by a variety of media sources that sometimes, this sharing of information, ideas, and pictures can have very negative outcomes for both the sender and the person being shown or discussed. As parents and as school staff we have a responsibility to help our children to make good decisions at all times. Furthermore, when they choose to make bad decisions, that are harmful to themselves or others, we have to turn those ill-advised decisions into learning opportunities so that those choices are not repeated in the future. Providing learning opportunities implies that there are consequences for our children’s choices, but there is also the opportunity for parents and/or school staff to sit and be sure that students learn from these mistakes and not feel that they were given consequences without purpose.

To help warn teens and young adults of the dangers associated with sending or posting inappropriate material online, a National Campaign to protect children from cyber mistakes has published a list of 10 suggestions. Please review each of the recommendations and share them with your children; it may save your child and your family from some very uncomfortable situation in the future.

For parents, the initiative recommends:

1. Talking to kids about what they are doing in cyberspace.
2. Knowing who kids are communicating with.
3. Considering limitations on electronic communication.
4. Being aware of what teens are posting publicly.
5. Setting expectations.

For teens:

1. Don’t assume anything you send or post is going to remain private.
2. There is no changing your mind in cyberspace–anything you send or post will never truly go away.
3. Don’t give in to the pressure to do something that makes you uncomfortable, even in cyberspace.
4. Consider the recipient’s reaction.
5. Nothing is truly anonymous."