Tuesday, June 12, 2012

... but do you really?

Share time
Below are some transformative ideas I have been exposed to via Twitter.  I cannot attribute them all, as some are from as long as 2-3 years ago.
They have been rolling around in my brain, as I attempt to imagine what that would look like.

1.  If you can Google it, out with it.
Should we be asking kids questions, when a simple Google search will give them the answer?  Where does that fit on Bloom's Taxonomy?
2.  If the teacher knows it, out with it.
This is an intriguing idea.  Teacher is learner.  I read on Twitter recently where a teacher was told by her students that they most enjoyed learning WITH their teacher.
3.  What if learning at school was like learning on
Twitter? - Tom Whitby.
To imagine this is mind-boggling.  Chaotic, passion-based learning.  Tom's post on this makes for mind-stretching thought.
4.  Superintendents, Principals and Curriculum Directors promote a joy of teaching and learning rather than adopting a content coverage mentality. - Eric Williams.
Love it.  I have detested the word "coverage" from Day 1.  How does a "content coverage mentality" reconcile the explosion of the information/access age.  It doesn't!
5.  You - teachers and administrators - are  each responsible for your own individual Professional Development.  No more whining.  No more victims.
Speaking of reconciling, let's try these:
"I am a life-long learner.  I want my students to own and be responsible for their own learning."
"That inservice was terrible.  I learned nothing.  It did not apply to me.  I could have better spent my time working in my room.  When are they going to do something that is meaningful for me, that I can take back in my classroom and use right away?"
Really?  Come on.