I've been so enthusastic and filled with passion with my teaching and where I'd like to see me and my students go. I know my students will need to be prepared for the 21st century so they can have a chance to control their own destinies. Some students will naturally do well and others will need more coaching.
The visionaries I've had a chance to hear from, through blogs, wiki's and social networks have given me some great ideas and have really changed how I gather information and share. Through the creation of my PLN I've learned so much in such a short period of time. I have had a glimpse of the power that creating PLN's can bring me and I really want to share this with my students.
Today, I had the opportunity to present some of the projects my students had created using xtranormal. The students had a lot of fun working on the project and it showed in the projects. After the 1st project I had a few students that wanted to re-do and fix their projects. The best part of this was that they realized what they needed to do to make their projects better. The ability to share, without judgment, and see what others can do is a powerful tool that I too often do not utilize.
The more that they can learn to "collaborate" without me telling them to can make a difference in their learning, however, this will not 'naturally' happen. A lot of work will have to go into mentoring the students into becoming 'digital citizens'. My pal Stephen, at Banks2.0, and I were discussing and trying to 'solve' things with which there truly are no absolute answers we realized that no matter how much we love web2.0 and all things technology the curriculum needs to drive the tools we choose to use. If our students can not understand the objectives of the assignment then why are we using the technology?
When I reflect on why I chose to let the students use Xtranormal I may know all curricular objectives, but I doubt my students would have a clue....
And the journey continues..........
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Do we have time for this? Analog clocks
5 years ago
1 comment:
I am impressed with your care and connection to your students Mr F. However I'm beginning to sense that we in the education factory are perpetuating a terrible numbing and stultifying crushing of children's creativity. Here in Ontario primary children are taught that writing creative prose is similar to making a bunwich. My fear is that such unimaginative teaching will never produce another Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, or Margaret Lawrence just to name a few wonderful Canadian authors. I also cringe at the Skinnerarian operant conditioning we are bringing into the classroom to condition those minds who find schools repressive.
Teachers here are pressured from the top (the Ministry and administration) and from helicopter parents who fight teachers over every minute grade point and every decision.
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