Andrea Brajnovic

This is a digital painting I did for Edicole Grevi, a young and skilled lute player. (via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43XPJm2vZ5U)

What does ''evaluation'' mean today? what did it means yesterday? who are they for? and do we even need them? Are they used by teachers to have a means to control his class? Who would ever feel comfortable into such an environment of fear and manipulation? I know I wouldn't. The school has fashioned a system that forces people to study but actually does not make them learn. Each new insight should be based on subjective involvement, an analysis of this experience and its repetition through supervised training. Shouldn't evaluations be used by teachers to better comprehend what his students are struggling with so that he can use his knowledge as best as possible to help them? Inlast week's post I wrote about the engagement of both students and teachers in the creation of a self directed curriculum that is uniquely crafted for each individual. The notion that students from a young age do not fear being wrong is what we need to preserve while teaching them ingenuity and organization. Learning require meaning to be successful, gaining a feeling of fulfilment and social value through labor. I would also like to take this opportunity and correct the misinterpreted idea that inspiration is a passive matter, something that happens to us. In my opinion, it is something we must actively engage in order to provoke a reaction in others. Teachers should use their skills to inspire students and show them how through effort and discipline everyone is able to thrive and in turn inspire others through their experience. Five years of college are not enough anymore, and yet in some cases they're not even required. As a freelancing artist nobody ever asked me my age or degree, all clients wants to know is if I can get the job done. A good portfolio can show a potential client our style and skills but the next things he's going to look for are the reviews other clients wrote before he gets in contact with us. Now more then ever we must emphasize to the generations to come the need of teamwork and what it means to be the member of a team. The necessities of a professional career are developing as a result of the diverse demands of its time so the most important skill we ought to teach our students is to be able to adapt to changes and to respond to them accordingly. I want to finish this post with a very simple, but powerful quote by American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead: ''If students do not learn the way we teach, we must teach the way they learn.'' I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

The age of compliance is over. The time has come to teach students the importance of emotional development and social skills. Schools are about connections, support and learning from each other. Children at an early age founds no shame in asking for help if they're struggling with something. During childhood they learn to evaluate the opinions of their peers and in doing so they start to fear the idea that they do not belong in their group. Hiding those struggles within themselves often paralyzes their intellectual growth by fearing to challenge their boundaries and by trying to stay inside their comfort zone. Creating a positive environment and encouraging student's cooperation will trigger a sharing experience that will allow students to once again feel free to explore new cognitive processes. The role of a teacher is essential in guiding the development of the generations to come. The technology of our time gives us a fast access to resources and courses of all kinds and that is how education should happen. We need to remind ourselves that the school system needs to work on coaching, not memorizing, stimulating different approaches to problem solving and rewarding combined effort instead of individual achievements. In the last couple of posts I've talked about how technology is helping us enhance education. I believe we're heading toward a time where students will actively engage in the formation of their own curriculum. Personalizing a program with the consent of those that's actually going to engage with it will make it more focused and precise. The teacher's knowledge will define the proper direction each individual needs to follow to fully comprehend a certain topic and it is the experience that the students will get out of it that will be their most valued accomplishment. This attitude will teach students to care for those things they choose to learn and emphasize the responsibility involved. Encouraging students to pursue individualism by teaching them to understand their tendencies will support their unique approaches to new learning experiences and give them purpose and guidance towards their next steps. As a final statement for this post I would like to say that we need to reconsider the notion of ''searching'' for a path to follow and instead create our unique path from scratch. What is your unique contribution to your society? I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

Teachers need to provide the conditions for growth for each individual, not impose an obsolete curriculum to everybody. The number one issue I have with the current school system is that it's making people afraid of being wrong. This fear of experimenting is killing people's creativity. In my most recent post ''What is the future of education?'' I've talked about the misconception that every student should progress at the same pace. This kind of thinking is slowing down the student's progress by allowing the teacher to move forward in a lecture only as fast as the slowest member of the group. Classes are getting bigger but nobody seems to question the fact that there is only one teacher. We need to restore the position of a teacher as a role model that students respect and trust. Teachers need to earn the trust of their best students and then give it back by allowing them to help him/her in making a lesson best understood to those having difficulties. The school system need to catch up to the demands of its time. Sugata Mitra champions the use of internet in education and encourages students to work together in groups of four to discuss and solve problems. He states that the future of learning is driven by students and challenges teachers to ask more audacious questions. He promotes divergent thinking, innovation and he argues that by stimulating students to come up with an answer by their own terms will make their knowledge of a subject more permanent and will enable them to link a new learning experience with previous ones in a more structural way. Sugata provides the conditions for education by creating SOLE(Self Organizing Learning Environment) believing that learning will emerge by ''allowing it to happen, not making it happen''. He argues that the changes in the system should go from the bottom up and that we need to use the technology at our disposal at the best of our abilities to  help each other. By showing student the importance of teamwork from an early stage will help them build a long lasting relationship with their peers and encourage them to interact both inside and outside of schools. Watch Sugata talk about ''Building a school in the cloud'' and let me know what you think about his idea of people giving one hour a week of their time for free to help students remotely all around the world. I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

Students need to be more involved in the planning of their schooling. Last week I've talked about the importance of building character throughout education. Allowing students to discuss what they want to learn will give teachers a better insight to the direction they want to follow. In order to personalize their curriculum, we need to explain what and why they need to learn if they intend to pursue a certain career. Students learns best when they engage in active practicing. This also means giving them more autonomy and encourage them to take responsibility for the choices they make. One of the worst things our current school system is doing is forcing students to progress at the same speed. Each student comes from a different background and a unique set of skills. Introducing vocational training programs will also facilitate their transition from education to work. We're heading towards the concept of a global classroom. In 2006, educator and entrepreneur Salman Khan founded the Khan Academy, a non-profit educational organization created to provide "a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere". The organization features lectures and exercises in the form of short videos. This approach to learning will let students pause a lesson, repeat it as many times as they need and review past lessons at their own pace. Engaging a lesson and solving the exercises at home will give teachers the chance to spend more time with those that need his help and encourage students interaction. Student's involvement can also thrive by joining discussions in forums or in the video's comments. This promotes social interaction between people from all over the world and stimulate them helping each other. Watch Sal talk about reinventing education and answer this question: Do you think kids can teach themselves? I will talk more about that next week I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

The current school system teaches students to compete with each other, why is that? Students with a divergent learning style best suits the observation of a specific situation, they are imaginative, emotional and most successful in generating ideas. They prefer to work in a group and are open to receiving feedback. Students with an assimilating learning style have the ability to understand a lot of information and compress it in a logical form, they are less focused on people and more on abstract ideas. They prefer reading, lecture, analysis and reflection. Students with a convergent learning style are the best in finding practical application of ideas and theories. They prefer technical tasks, new ideas, simulations and the like. Students with a accommodative learning style are the best at implementing plans, including new and challenging experiences. Their actions are determined by feelings rather than logical analysis, preferring to work with others on goal setting and field work. In David Kolb's book: Experiential learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, he describes two ways of gaining experience: concrete experience and abstract conceptualization, and two ways of transforming experience: reflective observation and active experimentation. Combining these two dimensions results in four different learning styles: diverging, assimilative, convergent and accommodative. According to this theory, learning is a process in which knowledge is created by transforming experiences that takes place in these four stages, in other words learning is based on observation and reflection. Reflecting on the acquisition of these habits into abstract concepts from which to draw new implications will actively serve as a guideline in creating new experiences. Building a student's social skills and attitude is just as important as reading, writing and arithmetic. All four learning styles can be mastered and should be used accordingly to the challenge presented before us. It is wrong to encourage an individual approach throughout education and then demand that people work as a team throughout their professional career. These principles needs to be taught from the start in order for people to build trust and reliance. The school system needs to embrace his student's diversities and encourage its students to pursue their ambitions, embolden the importance of purpose and working together to overcome difficulties. How do you feel about the current school system? I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

The school system we've had so far needs to change. That is easier said than done but by addressing the problem and discussing new approaches we can be build the foundations of a better system for the generations to come. What has led humans development the most is our ability of adaptation and the confrontation of new challenges presented before us. That is exactly what has been missing in education. The new age demands creativity and passion as the fundamental principles driving us to learn more and do the best we can in our areas of expertise. Schools needs to invest in constant professional development of their teachers, encourage frequent meetings and seek more involvement from them in extracurricular activities.  One of the problems of our current educational system is that it fails to embolden intrinsic motivation, exploration and the creation of a purpose that will be shaped for each individual. Students will often search for the easiest way to prove a superficial understanding of a subject in order to avoid failing a course. That is because people have come to value grades more than the learning experience. This have led to people getting a degree and failing to put their knowledge to good use for the society. Before they learn anything we need to show them how to learn, how to work hard and how to persist after failure. Creativity is dependant on skills, knowledge and control. We need to remind students of the value, potential and purpose of creativity and how it leads to a path towards dependable employment in the new economy.  I want to complement my post with Seth Godin's talk about the purpose of schools and ask you this: What has given purpose to your learning? Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

Perfection kill creativity. It is my duty to convey the role of acceptance of this concept to my students. Teachers needs to interpret and adapt his student's needs and not impose demands to those who are not yet ready. The creative urge is stronger in some and weaker in others but with care and encouragement this impulse can thrive and show the progress in an individual's work and attitude. Understanding the flow of our temperaments will evoke a mature way of thinking and develop the empathy required to have a healthy relationship with others. It is through motivation and effort that we will find the source of our creativity.   Searching for creative impulses can be achieved through a playful approach to any new challenge. Too much vigilance over students can easily halt their intuition and slow down their improvement. The real value of play is not to teach theory, it is to gradually help students in the acquisition of knowledge through practice. We need art because science can only explain nature to us while art can make us experience it ourselves. It is through play that the individual is able to use his own personality, and it is only by being creative that the individual discovers the self. Education is about asking the right questions and it is through learning that we encourage students to embrace their imagination.  Instead of sharing a quote, this week I want to share a video. It is a year in review of some of the most inspiring talks onTED in 2014. Watch it, share it and let me know this: What will be your contribution in 2015? Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

Acting according to a temperament and not against it is the most essential principle when teaching students how to understand their own tendencies. Students will engage with activities where their skills have already been repeatedly proven and avoid any new learning experience at the first problem they run into. As teachers, we need to be dramatic to draw the attention of students with a choleric temperament, motivate and direct those with a phlegmatic temperament, help those with a melancholic temperament focus and also be diverse and flexible for those with a sanguine temperament. It is not uncommon for people to adapt to another temperament when facing new experiences. Students with different temperaments through training and effort  can learn to improve and desist from limiting their development by keeping on trying over and over again, each time correcting their previous knowledge with the new one.  Temperaments shapes the way we experience the world. Our most important endeavour as teachers must be guiding student's education and helping them cope with challenges, taking risks, learning from failures and inspiring their growth. We need to motivate them to fulfill their potential, to push themselves out of their comfort zones and develop new skills by praising their focus, perseverance and improvement.  The quote I want to share this week is from American professor of psychology(and one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of motivation) Carol Dweck's book Mindset: “No matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.”  Are you still struggling with grit? Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

Students with a choleric temperament will alleviate their constant need for confrontation between themselves and will also get along well with students with a phlegmatic temperament by mutually complementing each other.  Students with a sanguine temperaments lack compassion for others but will share their enthusiasm in exploration of new concepts and their resourcefulness with those of a choleric temperament. Students with a phlegmatic temperament cooperate well with those of a melancholic temperament because they have the patience to work with them as opposed to those with a sanguine temperament which often shift the focus of their attention.  Students with a melancholic temperament can emulate the passion of those with a choleric temperament and work well in groups but their skills are best expressed in individual work or with others with a melancholic temperament.  The most important thing in education is the progress and growth of the learner. Last week I've talked about the need of a teacher clear understanding of his student tendencies. Teachers needs to properly nurture students virtues of imitation, respect and love at the appropriate stages of development in order to create mature adults that will be prepared to fulfill the demands and assume the responsibilities in a healthy society.  This week I want to share an extract from Rudolf Steiner's book ''Education towards freedom'': Temperaments can be attributed to a specific period in our lives: every child is familiar with a sanguine playfulness, we can recognize some choleric dynamism during adolescence, also adults enjoys some melancholic seriousness and people in old age are inclined to a phlegmatic composure.  I hope my posts about temperament helped you understand your relationship with your teachers and colleagues better.  Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

Taking risks through play  is the best way to get started when trying to learn something new.  Only by taking risk will we meet our limits and by learning new things our limits will change and we'll be able to move forward. Education is not about learning facts but the training of the mind to think. Approaching a learning experience through play will help us discover all the possibilities at our disposal and then study them to get a better understanding of how and why they relate to each other.  Shaping trust plays an important role during contemplation by representing abstract concepts that will actively serve as guidelines in creating new experiences. Our cause of pursuit is discovery and it is essential for both individuals and groups. Emotional engagement in learning will motivate students by developing their confidence and eliminating their fear of failure which will in time encourage their creativity and freedom of expression.  This week's quote is by Greek philosopher Aristotle: ''For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them'' What personal discovery has led you to your professional career? Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

The identification of a student's struggle in education will allow his teacher to focus on finding something to motivate and embolden his curiosity. In the last week's post ''The value of connectivity'' I've talked about the importance of cooperation in order to overcome the initial lack of self confidence. By encouraging students to interpret their experiences and observations in a positive social environment and emphasizing the importance of connections between their subjective thoughts and their involvement in learning the teacher will gain the trust of his students. The impression the students have of their teacher will create a sense of discipline that will yield better results for themselves and the group. It is fundamental that the teacher then justify this trust through his words and action by respecting and serving his student's individuality instead of forming it. Trust among students will help them develop this uniqueness by celebrating each of their approaches and defining the similarities they have in common.  The quote I want to share this week is by African-American social reformer and writer Frederick Douglass: ''I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false and to incur my own abhorrence'' Are you true to yourself? Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

Education through art focuses on awakening an individual's personality using creativity and can also help remove any mental obstacles which in adulthood may complicate a conscious rule over oneself. Embracing art as a way to understand and express our emotions needs to come from a free mind and an unconcealed self awareness. Socializing with others and the interchange of each other's insights will reveal both our natures by reflecting the strength of our emotional experiences and develop a desire for cooperation and involvement in the aesthetic world. Art will show us the beauty of the world that surrounds us while learning will help us interpret all of the possibilities presented to us. A good mentor will teach his students to apply the multiplicity of their own preferences according to their independent opinions in order to grow their artistic freedom and enable them to take responsibility for their further development. I've talked more about that in my last two posts: '' Nurturing your passion'' and ''Emotional engagement in learning'' The quote I want to share this week is by French writer, historian and philosopher(famous for promoting the freedom of expression) Francois-Marie Arouet, better known by his adopted pseudonym ''Voltaire'': ''Reasonable liberty permits the mind to soar, slavery makes it creep.'' Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

Art helps us comprehend both ourselves and the world around us by revealing us the relationship between them. Last week I've talked about the value of ''Emotional engagement in learning'' and how teachers needs to help their students connect what they already know with the thing they are trying to learn. By emboldening tenacity and creating a positive learning experience students will be more likely to participate in the learning endeavors to come. Ultimately, cognition and passion will come with the understanding of this connection and the experience of this new knowledge through action. We must be careful not to kill this passion.  Keeping a schedule will allow us to find some time away from work to recharge our energy and look back at what we've accomplished. This approach will show us all the small steps that have gradually built from our previous knowledge onto the new one and what has made the connection between them. Comprehending the learning process will motivate us to repeat this connection in our art in order recreate this experience in others.  The quote I want to share this week is by American psychologist Jerome Bruner: ''The experience of art nourishes itself, so that having sensed connectedness one is impelled to seek more of it.'' Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog

In last week's post ''Earning creativity'' I've talked about embracing failure as part of the learning process. Today I want to point out the value of emotions from a teacher's point of view. Emotions are important in education because they invoke attention and memory. In order to get students emotionally involved we need to start building on something they already know and motivate their desire for knowledge. By creating a positive environment and atmosphere we will be able to guide each student's development and encourage them to interact with one another to share their experiences and feelings.  The more we know, the more we understand and the more we want to know.  It is the same with both skills and creativity. Although passion is needed to overcome the initial lack of confidence, it's important to remember the use of a schedule to avoid stressful situations. By demonstrating the connection between our student's previous knowledge and their present learning experience, we will provide them with a better understanding of how the two act reciprocally. Establishing a positive communication will inspire mutual trust, give us teacher improved insight on the student's progress and reflect our own performance as educators.  This week's quote is by American author and poet, Maya Angelou: ''I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.'' Who was your dearest teacher? Thanks for stopping by, Check out more of my blog posts at: http://www.andreabrajnovic.com/blog