Change the lessons... Here's a thought

I recently listened to Richard Wells at iPadpalooza 2015 in Austin. He was incredible and I can see why New Zealand is 20 years ahead of America in the education field. He made me want to move there.

His article this week about changing the lessons http://wp.me/p2KVKA-C6
Made me think, YES. We need to think as if we are the student!

Teachers tend to think, it's all about me and my subject, my scores, and my knowledge, right? I know I did, it was my students, my classes, my "smart" lessons of course, making me feel like I was so smart. After reading this article, I thought about the student's next hour is filled with another whole topic, teacher another lesson, switching gears totally to fit some schedule.

Is it because we have always done it this way?

Could we work together to combine lessons, and schedules so students reading skills are targeted while they are reading in history class, or vocabulary is mixed into math and extend the days into two parts. Half a day with mixing topics, then lunch break students then move second half of the day blending science and math? Then after that students pick their "elective" art, band, sports.
I believe giving students choice in their learning builds stronger thinking, and then it would not be about ME the teacher, it's more about smarter students. Isn't that our goal?

Would it help and if so, How long will it take us to change? Just my thoughts from Twitter articles today.

Comments

Break Out Your Reading Skills!

Break Out Your Reading Skills Challenge This challenge will ask our readers to READ a piece of non-fiction. Then answer 5 questions to get a code. If they get all 5 answers correct their code should unlock the snack box to BREAK out a snack for you and a friend. If you get the first 4 answers correct you should have the code to BREAK out one snack for yourself. So I have three cards of five questions each. These questions are STAAR formatted to keep it familiar to students, and are based on 7th & 8th Grade reading TEKS. Each question tells you page numbers, so you really don't have to read the whole book but you can read parts of the articles or stories in it to answer the questions. Like a short article, or quick story, no more than two or three pages each. Students try a story, to see if their code unlocks the lock. I am using the following non-fiction books: The Queen's Shadow - A Story about How Animals See by C...

Thoughts on George Cuoros Presentation at TCEA 2016

Deeper thoughts after a session with George Couros! Innovative Mindsets It is more than New & Better Not exactly Change all the time either, It is more of being better at what you do. You have to disrupt what you have BEEN doing, to be better. Disrupt your routine.YOU do it first. Have that meeting without paper if you want a paperless class to actually happen. He quoted: We need to find the best people & find job titles for them, not fit the people into the job titles. Think about this: 1. Show what you are doing in class each day. What if we tweeted one thing? What would it do to the learning of everyone? 2. Connect with another educator of same grade and learn from each other. It matters when you are sending it out to the world. Suddenly you want to get it right. The freedom is powerful to share. Same thing with kids. Rock Paper Scissors Game - overcoming obstacles in a room when 500 educators play a...

Toss the Testing Negativity

Toss the Testing Negativity This year let's make a challenge to our teacher friends and students. We will toss any negative talk about the TEST. Here is what I have learned recently about this issue. Life has tests. We are all worried if we are good enough or not. But there is no reason to let that pull us down. I believe confidence is what will help us more than anything. Our students look up to us and if we believe in them, their confidence will grow. I heard a teacher speak last week at a Writing Conference about how she addressed this in her class. Think about this scenario, if you are on an airplane waiting to take off, and the stewardess comes by like 10 times to check that you have put on a seat belt, because, "OMG we might have to test it" We might need that. Please put on your seatbelt, it is the hardest ever this year. Holy Cow another seatbelt rule. Just keep practicing because that Seatbelt is so important you ...

Kistner's Kollection

Search This Blog