The Will Richardson essay, Why School, does an excellent job of clearly outlining how the New School Reform is more advantageous than the Old School reform. We no longer live in an age where information is limited and access to it is controlled. We have an abundance of information at our fingertips and now it isn't a matter of who knows more, but rather, how you use the knowledge that you have. Therefore the Old School Reform is no longer applicable to students who live in a world where instead of memorizing facts, they should be learning how to sift through an abundance of information and be able to determine reliable sources from unreliable ones. Students need to learn how to learn now that they can learn anything anywhere. Learning is no longer something that happens only within the confinements of the classroom. It happens everywhere.
Of the six unlearning/relearning ideas for educators, I could commit to the following: Share everything, Discover, don't deliver, the curriculum, and Be a master learner.
I can commit to sharing everything because in my experience, sharing everything is a win-win for everyone involved. When I have shared my ideas with others, they are delighted to hear about it, then it triggers something else in their brain and they share that with me…the outcome is an even better idea than if we both would have kept our ideas to ourselves! We synergize creating a third idea that is better than both original ideas.
I have discovered that when I create lessons in which students "discover" the curriculum, instead of me delivering the content, learning actually takes place! They are more likely to synthesize what they are leaning and make it applicable to their lives when they are allowed to discover as opposed to them just sitting passively and listening to me pour information into their brains.
I have no trouble committing to being a master learner because I already consider myself a life-long learner. I am always thirsty for more. I can't NOT learn. I have to constantly stimulate my mind intellectually.
Some of the unlearning/relearning ideas for educators that might be a struggle include: Talk to strangers, do real work for real audiences, and Transfer the power.
I have no problem with going on-line and meeting, talking and learning from strangers, however, when it comes to my students, I feel it would be a struggle to teach them how to decide who it is safe to talk to and who they should stay away from. I don't know how to articulate that to them yet. No one taught me. To me it's just common sense. I just have good judgment and I would have to sit there and really think about how it is that I decide what strangers I decide are worth my time and which ones I have no time for.
I feel that doing real work for real audiences has great benefits for all students, but I need to learn how to go about creating such meaningful assignments.
Transferring the power: I feel I need lots of training in how to create such an environment where I'm more of a facilitator who just provides the students with the parameters for learning and they decide in which direction to go. I would struggle with this because I would need to know how to let go and let the students guide their own learning.
I very much enjoyed reading Will Richardson's essay. Throughout the essay I felt that we were interacting and involved in a conversation. I definitely made many connections to this reading and it was very applicable to our field of work, especially during this transition period we are living in where we are going through a time portal leaving the past behind and moving forward towards an age of unlearning and relearning.
Of the six unlearning/relearning ideas for educators, I could commit to the following: Share everything, Discover, don't deliver, the curriculum, and Be a master learner.
I can commit to sharing everything because in my experience, sharing everything is a win-win for everyone involved. When I have shared my ideas with others, they are delighted to hear about it, then it triggers something else in their brain and they share that with me…the outcome is an even better idea than if we both would have kept our ideas to ourselves! We synergize creating a third idea that is better than both original ideas.
I have discovered that when I create lessons in which students "discover" the curriculum, instead of me delivering the content, learning actually takes place! They are more likely to synthesize what they are leaning and make it applicable to their lives when they are allowed to discover as opposed to them just sitting passively and listening to me pour information into their brains.
I have no trouble committing to being a master learner because I already consider myself a life-long learner. I am always thirsty for more. I can't NOT learn. I have to constantly stimulate my mind intellectually.
Some of the unlearning/relearning ideas for educators that might be a struggle include: Talk to strangers, do real work for real audiences, and Transfer the power.
I have no problem with going on-line and meeting, talking and learning from strangers, however, when it comes to my students, I feel it would be a struggle to teach them how to decide who it is safe to talk to and who they should stay away from. I don't know how to articulate that to them yet. No one taught me. To me it's just common sense. I just have good judgment and I would have to sit there and really think about how it is that I decide what strangers I decide are worth my time and which ones I have no time for.
I feel that doing real work for real audiences has great benefits for all students, but I need to learn how to go about creating such meaningful assignments.
Transferring the power: I feel I need lots of training in how to create such an environment where I'm more of a facilitator who just provides the students with the parameters for learning and they decide in which direction to go. I would struggle with this because I would need to know how to let go and let the students guide their own learning.
I very much enjoyed reading Will Richardson's essay. Throughout the essay I felt that we were interacting and involved in a conversation. I definitely made many connections to this reading and it was very applicable to our field of work, especially during this transition period we are living in where we are going through a time portal leaving the past behind and moving forward towards an age of unlearning and relearning.