One School Allowed Their Students To Design Their Own Curriculum. Here's What Happened Next. - InformED : Student Perspectives on Digital Natives & Technology in Schools. Posted by Shelly Terrell on Wednesday, December 15th 2010 Yesterday was the last #Edchat of the year and it definitely ranked as one of my favorites. During the 12pm EST/ 5pm GMT #Edchat, we discussed: Is the idea of digital native really a myth? Do most kids today already have the skills and knowledge to master technology for learning? We were fortunate to have students join this conversation. As a moderator I took the opportunity of interviewing the students during the discussion to get their ideas on the use of technology in schools. The 6th graders seemed more excited about using Facebook and cellphones for learningThe high school students seemed to believe that these tools would be abusedBoth groups confirmed that their parents for the most part were unhappy about the impact of technology in their lives These insights suggest we need to educate both parents and students in the use of technology in schools.
Here are the responses from the high school students and 6th graders: #Edchat Summary: Bringing Students into the Discussion to Improve Schools by @inquirebook. Posted by Shelly Terrell on Tuesday, September 6th 2011 Guest post from @inquirebook in the #Edchat Category & other 12noon NYC summaries found on Berni Wall’s blog! Today’s #edchat topic, How do we bring students into the discussion on how to improve the school environment? Was intriguing. In the discussion, most participants pointed out that we cannot invite students to the table unless we are also prepared to work with their suggestions. A few focused on how a shift in culture needs to occur, one in which students take ownership of their own educations and learn to advocate for themselves.
At a future #Edchat I’d be interested in discussing, What alternative models would allow the government to ensure school quality without relying on high-stakes testing? Main Themes of the Chat Thought-Provoking Comments With such a vibrant discussion, it’s almost impossible to do it justice in a summary, but I’ve picked out some of the comments that inspired me and made me reflect. More Resources. Try a Different Approach #30GoalsEdu. Posted by Shelly Terrell on Tuesday, December 11th 2012 Goal 24: Try a Different Approach of The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators!
Click the link to find out more about the 30 Goals Challenge for Educators! “A well-beaten path does not always make the right road” ~ Proverb Learning is tough for our students. Many will feel as if they are hitting a brick wall even if they try their best. Math was one of those subjects that was especially tough for me. As teachers, we have the ability to ease the learning journey for our students.
From here, we have to thread lightly. I bookmark learning inventories I come across in my PearlTrees bookmarks! Goal Short-term- Get your students to open up about their approach to tough material. Long-term- Through out the year try diversifying the design of learning materials so that students are able to learn your subject matter in various ways. Important News Challenge: Help your students find an easier way to approach your subject matter.
My Reign is Over, Part 2. Almost one year ago, I wrote a blog post called “My Reign Is Over” in response to one of Shelly Terrell’s 30 Days, 30 Goals Challenge. That lesson in January was a spontaneous attempt at giving students control and ownership over an entire lesson. Last week, I tried again at giving students control. In recognition of metric day (yes, I know, we were four weeks late) we held the Metric Olympics for one class period. The students were in charge of planning and implementing the entire project. I did my best to stay in the background in order to give the students complete control and responsibility. We started the project by allowing the class to be their own planning committee. Throughout the entire planning process, it was very difficult for me to take a step back and not control certain aspects of the project. Although the Metric Olympics are designed to teach the students about estimating and measuring using the metric system, they learned so much more.
What did you learn today? Goal #3: Ask a Learner #30goals. Posted by Shelly Terrell on Monday, January 30th 2012 Goal 3 of The 30 Goals Challenge 2012! Click the link to find out more about the new changes to this year’s 30 Goals Challenge for Educators! “Great teachers empathize with kids, respect them, and believe that each one has something special that can be built upon.” ~Ann Lieberman Goal Short-term- Ask a learner about his/her learning style and/or habits by conducting a video, audio, or written interview. Long-term- Continue to ask learners what they feel about various issues they face when learning. Two Student Interviews Here are 2 student interviews as examples. Resources These resources will help you accomplish this goal: 2012 Changes This year we are focusing on 1 to 2 goals a week in order to have time to really reflect on the tasks and respond to each other’s posts and enhance our support system for each other.
Other Posts Check out my Pinterests for other posts with this goal or ask me to add yours! Challenge: Connect the Learning to Their World #30GoalsEdu. Posted by Shelly Terrell on Monday, December 17th 2012 Goal 25: Connect the Learning to Their World of The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators! Click the link to find out more about the 30 Goals Challenge for Educators! “When you teach a child something you take away forever his chance of discovering it for himself.” ~ Jean Piaget One of my first teaching internships was at a hands-on science museum.
My job entailed designing tasks, lesson plans, and activities that would help individuals tie the difficult science concepts into their real world experiences. There are various ways I could have taught these difficult concepts. Goal Short-term- Take one lesson that is primarily taught using the textbook or by lecturing and have your students instead do tasks in which they connect the learning to their real-world experiences. Long-term- Throughout the year, begin to find more ways of getting your students to participate in real-world learning. Resources Important News Challenge: Ignite Their Curiosity #30GoalsEdu. Posted by Shelly Terrell on Thursday, December 20th 2012 Goal 26: Ignite Their Curiosity of The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators! Click the link to find out more about the 30 Goals Challenge for Educators! “Curiosity in children, is but an appetite for knowledge. The great reason why children abandon themselves wholly to silly pursuits and trifle away their time insipidly is, because they find their curiosity balked, and their inquiries neglected.”
Curiosity is already ingrained in each of us. In schools, textbooks will often cover the same materials. Here are a few ways to nurture curiosity in your classroom: Change the environment- try learning stations, pillows, etc. Goal Short-term- Nurture your students curiosity for one lesson. Long-term- Make changes to your curriculum and classroom environment to ignite and nurture curiosity. Important News Challenge: Create a task or lesson that ignites your students curiosity. Let Them Explore #30GoalsEdu. Posted by Shelly Terrell on Wednesday, December 26th 2012 Goal 27: Let Them Explore of The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators! Click the link to find out more about the 30 Goals Challenge for Educators! “Children are born passionately eager to make as much sense as they can of things around them. If we attempt to control, manipulate, or divert this process…the independent scientist in the child disappears.” ~ John Holt In goal 26, we talked about nurturing curiosity.
Many of us will begin a new semester with students. Goal Short-term- Review your curriculum and change at least one lesson plan or assessment to support student exploration and experimentation. Long-term- Throughout the year begin to provide less information to students and have them complete tasks that help them discover the information on their own. The following resources will help you adapt your curriculum to support student exploration and experimentation. Important News Challenge: My Reign Is Over. Yesterday, Shelly Terrell challenged teachers with the following statement as part of her 30 Days, 30 Goals challenge. She said, "Allow your students to have complete control over one class period. Have them choose the material and the way they want to present the material. Just trust them and see what they create.
" Before I read Shelly's post, I had a lesson plan ready for each of my classes today. I teach two math classes that have a combined 35 students. . -34 out of 35 students said they would like to do the same activity again.-14 out of 35 students used the word 'fun' when asked to finish the statement, "I liked class today because... " Today was off the cuff, outside the box, and completely random for me.
Goal: Give Students Reign. Posted by Shelly Terrell on Thursday, January 14th 2010 Part of the Goals 2010 Challenge Series, Goal 13 When I get into discussions about integrating technology effectively in the classroom, I usually pause. I fear many schools have a long journey ahead of them, because they have yet to adopt effective teaching practices, such as facilitation and cooperative learning. These are just a few. What if we took all the bookmarked web 2.0 tools we’ve been meaning to learn and let each student pick one to teach the class? I do not remember graduating from college and thinking I had all the answers now let me share them with my students. Challenge: Allow your students to have complete control over one class period.
You may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates! If you are new to the 30 day Goal challenge, then you may want to read this post with more details! This is goal 13 of this series! Don’t forget to leave a comment that you accomplished this goal using the hashtag #30Goals! How Do We Nurture Passion? Posted by Shelly Terrell on Saturday, May 22nd 2010 Earlier this week, I shared this video of sixth grader, Greyson Chance, singing a cover of Lady Gaga’s song, Paparazzi during his school’s festival.
Feel the Passion… This video astonished me for many reasons. One reason is the passion that this sixth grade boy shows. He clearly loves playing the piano and singing this song. He has an emotional connection that demonstrates how much this song impacted him. This passion was so strong it translated to this video having over 19 million hits, even though, this is not the highest quality of video. How many students do you know would exhibit so much pure emotion and passion in front of their peers? We also have to imagine how much more powerful the experience was if we had been present.
Notice the Transformation in the Audiences’ Reactions… Watch the video a second time and just pay attention to the rest of Greyson’s peers and their reactions. What Does a Passionate Educator Do? Challenge: My Reign is Over by Kevin Creutz #30Goals. Part of the series: The 30 Goals Challenge, Goal 13: Give Students Reign Kevin Creutz took the 30 Goals Challenge in January, please read these incredible post about his journey with Goal 13: Give Students Reign…. Shelly Terrell challenged teachers with the following statement as part of her 30 Days, 30 Goals challenge. She said, “Allow your students to have complete control over one class period.
Have them choose the material and the way they want to present the material. Just trust them and see what they create.” Before I read Shelly’s post, I had a lesson plan ready for each of my classes today. The lesson plans, for the most part, were completely the opposite idea of what Shelly is trying to get across.
I teach two math classes that have a combined 35 students. Today was off the cuff, outside the box, and completely random for me. Kevin Creutz is assistant principal and athletic director at Zion Lutheran School in St. Submit a guest post for The 30 Goals Challenge Series! Everybody Can Paint by Sabrina DeVita. Posted by Shelly Terrell on Friday, November 5th 2010 Part of the series: The 30 Goals Challenge, Goal 13: Give Students Reign I will start this post by thanking my students for having inspired me to write it, and I would like especially to thank Gisela for being so generous as to share pieces of her life with us every class.
One of those was this photo, and a moving retelling of her mother’s 60th birthday. This post was also inspired by Karenne’s Dogme challenge. The quote for this week is, “Dogme is about teaching materials light.” I have to admit that on the day in which Gisela brought this picture to the classroom, I had entered it material heavy, as I had prepared a lesson based on an article from The Guardian newspaper. Not only was she going to impose her own agenda in my class, but she was also going to obligue me to plug it, when the whole TEFL blogosphere is all the rage for unplugged teaching! She started going through the pictures and telling us about what was going on there. Goal 11: Give Students Reign #30Goals. Posted by Shelly Terrell on Monday, February 14th 2011 Goal 11 of The 30 Goals Challenge 2011 Happy Valentine’s Day! Sorry this goal was a little late!
I was enjoying a nice Valentine’s day! Goal Short-term- Let your students make the majority of the choices for one class period. Long-term- Try allowing your students to have reign of an entire class period once a month and if you’re really brave then once a week. Quote “It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.” ~ Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man Fantastic Posts about this Goal! Challenge: Let your students make the majority of the choices for one class period. Did you reflect on this goal? 10 Simple Ideas for Transforming Your Teaching This School Year.
Posted by Shelly Terrell on Sunday, August 26th 2012 “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”~ William Butler Yeats Many of us will face many new learners as a new semester of classes begin. For many of us this can be a frightening and stressful experience. It should be. We have an enormous responsibility as educators to inspire our students to be continuous learners, explore their curiosities, and search for possibilities to problems that need to be solved. Unfortunately, the system isn’t exactly cut out to support students in exploration. I have often been a new teacher in my career. I want to give you permission.
Ask a question with many answers or no answer at all.Give your students reign for one class period. Many of these ideas can be found in The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators.