by John Norton | Feb 8, 2012 | Global Communities of Inquiry, Less Teacher, More Student, The How of 21st Century Teaching, Voices
Marsha Ratzel and Shelley Wright are regular writers here at PLP’s Voices from the Learning Revolution group blog. They both teach science, they both keep popular personal blogs about their classroom practice. Marsha’s from Kansas, Shelley’s from Saskatchewan. Shelley teaches high schoolers, Marsha teaches ‘tweens. They’ve never met but they’ve become colleagues and collaborators thanks to their Powerful Learning Practice experience. This dialogue about classroom Google jockeys is their first joint post for VFLR.
by Becky Bair | Feb 6, 2012 | Less Teacher, More Student, Making The Shift, Student Life, Teacher Leadership 2.0, Voices
I am trying to shift my teaching, make inquiry the centerpiece, and have my students be the leaders in their learning. The biggest challenge I face is that my students have no idea how to work together. As teachers we need to steal back the time necessary to make community-building a priority in our classrooms.
by Shelley Wright | Feb 2, 2012 | Less Teacher, More Student, Teacher Leadership 2.0, The How of 21st Century Teaching, Voices
I recently blogged about the importance of cultivating a culture where our students are expected to fail sometimes — it’s part of taking risks. We need to do this as teachers too. The first step, of course, is to create a culture of trust and support among teachers, and that’s hard in the midst of high-stakes testing and the publishing of teacher and school rankings. The only way this will happen is if we’re honest.
I’ll go first.
by Powerful Learning Practice | Jan 30, 2012 | Less Teacher, More Student, Making The Shift, The How of 21st Century Teaching, Voices
“This year I’ve decided to teach solely through a Project-Based Writing approach,” wrote Heather Wolpert-Gawron last September. “I’m defining PBW as a series of constructed units built around authentic assessment, authentic audience, and authentic learning that incorporates the multiple writing genres. It’s all about blurring the lines between school life and the real world.” That happened in a big way when her 8th graders were invited to present at the 100-Year Starship Symposium. The best part? “Finding out I don’t always have to be the expert; I can model learning as we explore this new content together.”
by Ann Michaelsen | Jan 27, 2012 | Less Teacher, More Student, Making The Shift, Student Life, Voices
If we’re going to help our students develop the focus they need to think deeply about things — to acquire Howard Rheingold’s “Infotention” — then I think most schools will need some ground rules, made in collaboration with students after lots of conversations around these important topics.
by Susan Lucille Davis | Jan 17, 2012 | Less Teacher, More Student, Making The Shift, Passion Based Learning, Student Life, The How of 21st Century Teaching, Voices
I have long believed the role of the teacher is to ask the best questions she can, and to help her students answer them. I also believe, more than ever, in empowering students and teachers with the attitudes and skills necessary to become change-agents in their own lives. That includes leveraging the powerful tools made available by new technologies to help students and teachers become co-creators of knowledge collaboratively and online.
