Elementary school teachers Pauline Roberts and Rick Joseph know that the best place to make a real-world difference is, well, in the world. So when their students set out to do just that, they let them.
Their students wanted to tackle the issue of sustainability and their strategy was to educate and encourage businesses in the community to be a part of the solution. To do that students learned what businesses could do to be sustainable and created brochures that included concrete advice in a variety of categories such as using energy efficient lightbulbs, using motion censors, unplugging devices when not in use, adjusting work schedules for efficient utility use, using recycled paper, implementing policies that require less mobile vehicle use such as telecommuting and carpooling, using web conferences rather than traveling for f2f meetings, and more. The students then formed groups of about three and selected local area businesses to target and educate. Each group of students took it upon themselves to do this work. They found a chaperone, got parental permission, made appointments with each business, and then met with business designees to discuss sustainability strategies and scheduled follow up to access progress.
Born to Learn is a cool site I recently came across that was created because our current systems of education aren’t doing enough to unlock our true potential. On the site they feature several video animations (and they’re working hard on more) to sum up over 20 years’ of rigorous and complex research in a way that’s accessible and easy to understand.
Here is the sites intro video which is just a terrific conversation starter for educators, parents, and students.
I often speak and write about differentiating instruction. Unfortunately, when I go into schools I see very little differentiation occurring. This is the case even schools who have bought "magic bullet" programs like Renzulli Learning who tout themselves as a "Differentiation Engine." I have visited about a dozen schools using such programs but without a solid foundation in what differentiation means. Instead, they have all their students working within the learning management system on the same thing! When I dig a little deeper about why this is happening teachers confide that they can't possibly create 32 different lessons for each of their students. When I hear this, I realize they're not getting something very important. The students own the learning. When we give up control and empower the students to learn the way they want with the tools they want, the results are terrific and the students are partners with their teacher in designing learning methods, tools, and environments that are best for them. Josh Stumpenhorst recently celebrated the results of this method of teaching in his blog in a post called, "Student-Driven Learning." In the post he shares the ways empowered students learned the literacy standards they were mandated to meet. Here's what he did.
As I delve into learning more about unschooling, free schooling, Democracy schooling, John Taylor Gatto, etc., etc., etc. I’m frustrated by the realization that we’re making students jump through hoops that they don’t care about, never chose, and that just don’t matter to them...and all because we say so. I think unschooling is fantastic, but it’s not realistic for everyone. I think freedom/Democracy schooling is wonderful, but it can’t be publicly funded. Sooo what to do? How do we bring these great learning philosophies to a broken system? Is it possible?
Well it looks like there’s at least one teacher moving in the right direction. Shelley Wright is a high school educator in Moose Jaw, SK. On her blog she shares, “I love learning more than anything else; this blog is part of that journey.” In her latest post Shelley shares what happens When School Becomes Real Life and in her latest video, she shows what happens! What I love about Shelley’s blog and video is she keeps it real. She acknowledges that when you’re teaching kids who’ve spent their whole life being forced to be learning dependent, real life learning isn’t easy work, but as one student explains, Ms. Wright just kind of through them into taking ownership of their learning and they have to figure it out.
Shelley throws out some important questions, like, “Will my students get mad that I’m making them do my job?”
Take a look at her video below and check out her blog. What do you think?
