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For those of you who may have known me in high school, you may remember that I wasn’t an A+ student. I probably could’ve been, but I had other interests at that time and my classes were just so ordinary. I loved my English classes, my creative writing classes and my journalism classes. I didn’t mind Social Studies and found Government and Economics very interesting. However, I really could’ve done without Math and Science. The thing is, now I find learning fascinating. When my students come to my classroom for studyhall, I want to do their math homework. I want to read their social studies packets and learn about cell reproduction and all that cool stuff that I really don’t remember. This leads me to my next topic.
One of my favorite sounds in all the world is the sound of cicadas making their rattling call from the trees in summer. I love that sound. I don’t know why, but I always have. The other day we found one on the ground in our backyard and my kids and I were amazed at how big it was. For the next hour and a half I researched cicadas online. That’s right. I think I learned more about bugs and locusts and grasshoppers in that hour and a half than I ever would have during a biology class in school. The reason, I realized is that I took the learning into my hands and was truly interested in the topic. Which leads me to my next topic.
At a conference this summer, we learned about preparing our students for the demands of the 21st century. The changing of the global workplace, the attributes employers are looking for but are noticing that new graduates are missing. One of those big attributes is self-directiveness. This is something I see in the classroom everyday. Students want to know exactly what the teacher is looking for and do just that. New employees, apparently, want to know exactly what their employer is looking for and do only that. Nothing innovative, nothing new and exciting, nothing creative. Just what is expected and what they are told to do.
So, the big revelation for me watching the big cicada climb up our firepit in the backyard, was that I need to find some way to promote self-directed learning and connect it with the standards for my content area and find some technology-based assessment in which to monitor the learning. I came up with the most kick-butt unit of all time.
Stay tuned for the rest…
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