Essential Question: Can you teach more than you know?I think the better question is are you willing to let students learn more than you know? "Continually ask yourself, 'What can my students do instead of me doing it? How can my students be agents of change rather than objects of change?'"(Martinez & Stager, 2013) I think this is a challenge for any teacher. I know personally it feels hard because the situation is out of our control. Students are required to meet standards and if we, as teachers, don't help students meet these standards we aren't doing our job according to the state. When you give control to students they learn, maybe even more than we could teach, but it may not relate directly to a standard. It may be hard to show what students have learned, and this is where it is hard to encourage more individual learning paths that involve giving students a say in their education. From the readings this week I learned some strategies that may be of use to help you be able to teach more than you know:
We aren't asking students to help with the learning process because we believe we know what is best. If we ask students what they want, they would be glad to tell us what apps are "in" right now. Then we could incorporate this into projects or class content to help build connections that match student interest (Hudson, n.d.). Students tend to believe in themselves and work harder when the interest level is high. This leads to a growth mindset allowing students to experience failure and take it as a learning experience, rather than to believe they have failed. If we can imagine schools in a new way where student opinion is valued and incorporated, "schools can become places where students learn to identify their own challenges, solve new problems, motivate themselves to complete a project, engage in difficult tasks, work together, inspire others, and give advice and guidance to their peers" (Hlubinka et al., 2013). The key to remember is that "it’s not the technology that engages or empowers, it’s the outcome of students (or anyone) doing meaningful work. Meaningful to themselves and to the community they are in. Empowering because someone trusted them to do something good and they shouldered the responsibility. Engaging because their passions are made real...If you never allow a student to make an independent choice, you will certainly not end up with empowered students" (Martinez & Stager, 2013). If we can find ways to incorporate technology into curriculum in meaningful ways then students will be able to learn and show us things that we never though possible. Sources
Hlubinka, M., Dougherty, D., Thomas, P., Chang, S., Hoefer, S., Alexander, I., & McGuire, D. (2013). Makerspace Playbook School Edition. Retrieved July 7, 2016, from http://makered.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Makerspace-Playbook-Feb-2013.pdf Hudson, H. T. (n.d.). Do Your Students Know More About Technology Than You Do? Retrieved July 07, 2016, from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/do-your-students-know-more-about-technology-you-do Martinez, S. L., & Stager, G. (2013). Invent to learn: Making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom [Kindle].
4 Comments
Josie Leach
7/8/2016 09:59:30 am
Sarah,
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Sara Lucas
7/10/2016 11:53:58 am
That is so true in preparing students for careers that we don't even know about. I didn't really quite think about it from this point of view. Education is usually one step behind as far as the evolution of the society we live in. This is where kids can really shine. They love new things and usually know what is the next new thing and they can work it straight from the box. If we can leverage this then kids can grow with the technology and be prepared for jobs that don't even exist yet.
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7/8/2016 12:23:19 pm
You know, sometimes I think we need to change the standards! All it does is create paperwork and grief. With all the hype about standards/outcomes, or whatever you want to call it, it doesn't appear to be changing the learning of students, and more importantly their mindset. Students need to have a growth mindset, and if they do, I believe the standards will take care of themselves, because students will WANT to learn more. And if students know more than the teacher... Great! That's what I would want in students. I don't want to be the sole provider of information and teaching. Don't students learn better from each other anyway? It would be great for students to take control of their learning, and be able to teach to others as well. I welcome the "new" roles of educator and students. :-)
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Sara Lucas
7/10/2016 11:58:00 am
I totally think the standards need to change. As I was mentioning on Josie's comment, things change faster than we can keep up, and education is no different. Some of Alaska's standards have been around far too long and they are too specific. Education has come out with too much boxed curriculum with no room for teacher creativity. I have seen the new science standards and they have a lot more freedom which is very exciting!
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