I, like Ken Robinson, believe that we must embrace everyone’s
talents no matter what they are and that we cannot put the focus so much on
going to college, but to prepare our students in a way that they would be successful
later in life. I completely agree with what Robinson said in his TED talk, in
that we put too much emphasis on the future, so we sometimes forget about the
process and the learning experiences that impact our lives in the now. Robinson
mentioned that the way to reforming education is through personized curriculum
and I think that moving toward a style using PBL is a very important way to
travel in the right direction. Through PBL we are able to support students that
are more likely to engage and be motivated to learn, which will foster better student-teacher
relationships and help take the necessary steps toward a change.
Personally, Robinson’s challenge makes me feel like we have
a long way to go if we want our education system to improve, however, it is not
an impossible task. I trust that teachers
will work hard to do what is right by their students and I know that I will do
whatever I can to promote learning and growth in my classroom as well. My
vision of a PBL classroom is one where the teacher is more the facilitator of learning
and students are having relevant and meaningful conversations about the content.
I will continue to be a role model for students and guide them in the right
direction through modeling of my own and that of their peers. I think that for
me, the greatest challenge is going to be letting go and allowing students to
take more responsibility in the classroom and their work. I also believe that
structuring my classroom with a PBL focus in mind is going to be struggle
because I’m very much a Type A learner and it’s not always easy to plan things
from a different perspective.
I have only recently attempted what I considered to be a PBL unit (it still needs a bit of tweaking), but I can relate to the struggle of "allowing students to take more responsibility in the classroom and their work." I found myself hovering and constantly looking over their shoulders and bugging them to get things done, which I believe led to some of the students not wanting to work on it at all. Finding that happy medium is key; some students need more of the structure while others are content to get in and go. Perhaps we can help each other with that.
ReplyDeleteI love what Robinson said about not all students need go to college or go right away. We should create experiences for students to learn where they excell. They should know their authentic self and be able to enjoy what they do for the rest of their life. Work isn't work if you enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your honesty. It will be a struggle to plan from a different perspective. I know it will be hard at first, but I think we will have fun along with the students in the end. Through those teacher-student relationships we will also build confidence and expose their talents.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your thoughtful response in reflecting on the benefits of a pbl approach and the clear gap between where we are and where we need to go.
You identified letting go of some control as the teacher in order to provide students opportunities to take ownership over their learning and really working towards a pbl structure for your teaching as areas you wanted to target for growth. As you begin work on your unit plan today, keep these two areas in mind as you work to create your driving question, your culminating product(s), your need to knows, and most of all, the scaffolding and support your students will need to be successful.
Sincerely,
Dawn