Foutch

http://timfredrick.typepad.com/timfredrick/2007/08/giving-power-an.html?cid=84751066#comment-84751066

Tim Fredrick read an interesting book recently, The Case Against Adolescence, by Robert Epstein, and shared some of the insights he gained. During his discussion with fellow educators, they deliberated about what would happen if adolescents were given more choices and responsibilities.

"I've gone as far recently to give students the responsibility for grading themselves, explaining why they deserve this grade, and defending that grade to me and a small group of their peers.  I maintain a veto power, but rarely use it.  When given that responsibility, students shine.  They set goals for their learning and begin to take a stake in their learning."

Responsibility and teenagers. Now that seems like an oxymoron, but where else are the students going to learn it when so many parents today continue to hand-hold their kids all the way through high school - and beyond! I really like the idea of giving the students the responsibility for grading themselves (on a limited basis and on appropriate subject matter). I'd like to try to incorporate that into my teaching. I'm curious to see what changes/results that would bring. I also like the idea of teaching the students to be more reflective about their learning. It seems the students would retain the learned knowledge so much better. First, however, I have to learn how to be more reflective, and I'm hoping to work on that throughout my remaining preparation work to become a teacher.

http://practicaltheory.org/serendipity/comment.php?serendipity[entry_id]=886&serendipity[type]=comments&serendipity[entry_id]=886

"I loved the classroom, but I think I did my best teaching on the court and the field. When we do it right, we teach sacrifice, we teach community, we teach honesty, we teach patience, we teach listening, we teach learning by doing, we teach humility, we teach passion, we teach love, we teach so many of the personal skills we hope our kids will embody when we coach.

And coaching made me a better teacher and person. In the end, it wasn't about winning and losing -- although I hated to lose -- it was about playing as well as we could. And for me, it was always about honoring the effort those kids put forth on the practice fields and courts."

Talk about inspiring. For this author, coaching is teaching, and what a great way to view it. I'm certain the reason it was so enjoyable is because they were/are so passionate about it.  While I'm still in school I look at this type of posting and hope that that is the kind of teacher I become. Passion, I believe, will lead to creativity in the classroom. Secretly, however, I fear that I won't be. It will be what I make of it, and it may take some time to get the swing of things, but I intend to try with all I am and all I have.

http://durffsblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/wysiwyg.html

Authenticity.  I've heard many attributes that a teacher should have - patience, wisdom, willingness to learn themselves, etc, but I can honestly say that this is the first time that ‘authenticity' has been brought to the forefront of my mind. And I'm glad it has. None of the other attributes will matter if you aren't first authentic. Lisa states in her blog, "The learners in your classrooms will quickly see through any facades that you attempt to put up - so why bother? They learn much by your example, even you don't believe they learn anything."  I guess on some level I already knew this, but being authentic really wasn't on my radar screen.  Thanks for putting it there.

http://anne.teachesme.com/2007/09/01/blogday2007/

The author states, "I like the idea of recommending other blogs."  I have mixed thoughts about this.  First, we of course know that not all information on a blog can be deemed reliable. Second, how on earth do you pick the "one" or even "twenty" to recommend?  This seems like it would be such a time-consuming task with hundreds of thousands of blogs out there, and not all will have a particular topic for which you are searching - or, it may, but may be in a post 20 pages in.  Just a thought.  I'm hoping to better understand the whole "blog world" and the bigger blog picture by the end of this semester.

http://durffsblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/road-not-taken.html

Pam Foutch said...