The challenges of teaching this new generation…

Once I read, “The world we leave to our children depends in large measure on the children we leave to our world”. The world’s hopes for the future rest with today’s young people and their readiness to take up the challenges of this century. Here is where educators are faced with the challenge of adapting their teaching styles to accommodate not only to a new generation of learners, but to a new, difficult society. Schools today are crossed by socio-economical problems, and teachers have to face students´ misbehaviour,bullying,  parents´needs and complainments, new technologies, low salaries, new educational policies – which not always adapt to real necessities – and among all, teachers are asked to teach and get to their plans…

The education of the young has never been more in need of the teachers commitment and resources; renewed efforts are needed to ensure that the education provided is of high quality and relevant to social needs. To get to that “high quality” education, teachers must be well prepared and appropriately rewarded for their work; adequate supplies of educational materials should be made available, and school conditions need to be healthy, comfortable and conducive to effective teaching and learning… Now, you don´t need to be an educator to notice that  all the ítems mentioned before, do not exist in many schools…

Students need and deserve motivating, supportive instructional environments, engaging content, and the opportunity to learn in settings that support collaboration with peers, teachers, and the larger school community. Teachers must not forget that students today live digitally every day; they use the Internet, text messaging, social networking, and multimedia fluidly in their lives outside of school and they expect a parallel level of technology opportunity in their academic lives. There is a disconnect between the way students live and the way they learn, and student engagement ultimately suffers. Closing this gap is a challenge for our current school systems.

Given these challenges, teachers who are new to the profession often find themselves frustrated, disappointed, and unsupported. They do not enjoy what they do, they are affected with the situation or they leave their schools and often the profession and the cycle continues….