Tech Task #3: Why School?

After listening to the live session, Why School? with Will Richardson I couldn't help but think of my own schooling experience as a student, and as a future educator. The schools I attended in elementary and high school were very 'traditional'. We learned what our teacher wanted us to, when they wanted us to learn it. We were expected to model our learning the exact same way. There was no technology incorporated into my classes. I graduated high school with the notion that school was something I had to do. That school was product based rather than a process. I believed that I had to demonstrate what I learned based on what the teacher wanted me to learn. Once I got to university that way of thinking benefited me in most of my classes. However, some of my Ed classes completely shifted the way I saw schooling. In these classes I had choice in my assignments, I could show how I learned in other ways than an exam, or paper. Learning became something that I wanted to do, rather than what I had to do. Those profs inspired me to one day have a classroom like that. Where learning has meaning and school is a place for discovery.

I would love to have a classroom where students are allowed to use their own technology/tools, have choice and a say in their learning (run a demographic classroom). Yet as a future educator I do fear falling back into the old ways of teaching, and never pushing the boundaries (of classrooms, learning, students or the role of teachers). I fear this because of my schooling exposure and the pressures/negative reactions of staff, faculty and parents who are not accepting of modern learning/teaching.
I do not know how to change the role of the teacher with all these mixed messages. We are encouraged to change the traditional ways of teaching in order to meet the needs of all students. Yet school boards implement standardize testing. How do we make a change when we are constantly being told to stay the same?