I have not had much time to post as of late, but have to pass this on! I read a GREAT article today from Will Richardson. He mentioned 10 things we need to ‘unlearn’ if we are to progress as teachers! This is for those out there that aren’t already subscribed to Will’s blog.
- We need to unlearn the idea that we are the sole content experts in
the classroom, because we can now connect our kids to people who know
far more than we do about the material we’re teaching. - We need to unlearn the premise that we know more than our kids, because in many cases, they can now be our teachers as well.
- We need to unlearn the idea that learning itself is an event. In this day and age, it is a continual process.
- We need to unlearn the strategy that collaborative work inside the
classroom is enough and understand that cooperating with students from
around the globe can teach relevant and powerful negotiation and
team-building skills. - We need to unlearn the idea that every student needs to learn the
same content when really what they need to learn is how to self-direct
their own learning. - We need to unlearn the notion that our students don’t need to see and understand how we ourselves learn.
- We need to unlearn our fear of putting ourselves and our students
“out there†for we’ve proven we can do it in safe, relevant and
effective ways. - We need to unlearn the practice that teaches all students at the
same pace. Is it any wonder why so many of our students love to play
online games where they move forward at their own pace? - We need to unlearn the idea that we can teach our students to be
literate in this world by continually blocking and filtering access to
the sites and experiences they need our help to navigate. - We need to unlearn the premise that real change can happen just by
rethinking what happens inside the school walls and understand that
education is now a community undertaking on many different levels.
I feel like one of those congregation members in the deep south Baptist churches who yell out ‘AMEN’ as the preacher preaches. Amen Will, Amen!!
3 Comments
nice article! nice site. you're in my rss feed now
keep it up
nice article! nice site. you're in my rss feed now
keep it up
Where have you been? Students need guidance not an unlearned teacher/facilitator. Students need to be shown/told/directed. If you fail to plan you plan to fail – we as teachers must guide. We have got to do the filtering/blocking because there are so many idiots out there keen to make a mess of our students.