On page 105, Stewart gave specific examples of how to integrate international content into each curriculum area which demonstrates how easily this can be incorporated by educators. On page 111, she recommended framework changes essential for the states to consider to support this drive.
Another quote which stood out to me was, "How do educators move students from this low-level mind of just making good grades- or worse yet, from not even valuing thier academic "graded" experiences at all- to personally experiencing the excitement that is the very essence of learning?" I can easily connect with this statement, because in almost every class I have ever taken- my priority was to get an "A." I enjoy learning the material, but I worry about my grades far more than a deep understanding of the material. I feel this is similar for the majority of students. The classes I enjoyed most in college were the two courses where the first thing the professor said was, "I want you to do the work for you and not for me. Don't worry about your grade, we'll figure it out at the end and as long as you work hard, you'll be fine." This is something I haven't reflected nearly enough in my own classroom. Chapter 7 made me reflect on this and brainstorm goals for this coming year! We need to find ways to maximize student achievement and have students establish a love for learning and strive to be life-long learners.
I loved how at Malbury School the principal motivated the students by telling them that exemplary work would be placed into a global distribution where people could see it around the world. This also gives students a global voice! How empowering!! I also loved the suggestion by Tim Tyson to broadcast and record daily teaching so students and parents can view it at home if they have trouble with homework and it can also be used the following year as homework to give more time for other endeavors during the school day. The biggest challenge for me is that all of my student do not have computers or the internet at home. Hopefully this will change over the next few years as technology becomes even more prominent in society.
Kathryn,
ReplyDeleteI love your thoughts! I would definitely agree with the grades/ motivation issue for us as learners. We are self-motivated and want to do well. I still..even at this point.. worry a bit about missing the mark in the grades department, but much less than I used to. I was probably one of the kids in fourth grade that if you had told me not to worry about the grade, I would have been dumbfounded with what to do now! I am curious how you might work this in and how it will go with your kiddos.
I think the Mabry School certainly tapped into the real meaning of authentic learning and authentic audience! If we did this with our students I think we might find very similar results. When I started teaching we were a global education school in Union so each grade studied a country and there was a big country celebration at the end of the year. It really was wonderful, but I can only imagine how much more the students would have gotten if they could have actually seen and talked to students from those countries! It will be quite an undertaking, but it can be done!
I hope you get to try out some of these new ideas next year!
Your comment "We need to find ways to maximize student achievement and have students establish a love for learning and strive to be life-long learners." is an essential part of teaching. Or it SHOULD BE! If one is not striving for life-long learners, why exert the energy? It's been proven, even in my classroom, that when students are fully excited and engaged in the activity or assignment, they LEARN the material rather than achieve the intended grade!
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