Paul Thomas makes an excellent point here. Paulo Freire makes a distinction between “authoritarian” (“Do as I say, not as I do” and “Do as I say although I have never done it”) and “authoritative” (Let me guide you to becoming a writer because I am a writer”). And this is where I now see why authority …
Students learn differently. Adults learn differently. This is not surprising news and actually isn’t news. We are all aware that how we learn doesn’t look the same as the person beside us and may not look the same from day to day. Sometimes a conversation increases our understanding. Sometimes an article challenges an idea. Sometimes …
Are we teaching students to learn or take a test? Read More »
The word teacher is a weighted term. Inevitably, when I tell people that I am a teacher, their minds surf through the line of teachers that they have had in their lives. Some settle on the good. Some settle on the bad. Add to that the experiences that their children are having in school and …
The students. This article is a great reminder of why we do what we do. And what better time to be reminded about why we do what we do in the midst of long after school meetings that “train” us to give a test that most of us don’t think show what our students know. …
This is the best article that I’ve seen that details the rich literacy experiences that kids experience when they play video games. Many teachers have suspected that gaming engages students and asks them to interact and problem solve, but as Levasseur points out there are specific literacy skills of problem-solving and process learning that will …
In the true spirit of collaboration, National Writing Project members have agreed to share the materials they have created! What a great place to start if you need new ideas! Thanks!
It’s interesting how the role of professor has changed and how politicians view the role of professor: It is the role of the professor, Plato said, to enter the cave, round the bend, unchain Man from his wall and lead him out into light and life. Plato used the word “professor,” but a new word arose in …
I’ll never tire of reading (and writing) about the struggle to have a student-centered classroom. My shift to a student-centred classroom has been a roller coaster ride, but well worth the work and effort The standardization movement is making this transformation process even harder for teachers. Rather than reward shifted or flipped classrooms administrators are …
As high schooler, I was taught that websites were not a good resource when writing a research paper. That was 10 years ago and I still hear teachers arguing that same point: I have tended to be wary of students using websites in research. My experience has been that students who rely heavily on websites …
One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn’t belong. I’m afraid it’s schools: Yet the truth remains that most of our classrooms remain rooted firmly in the 20th century. Many, perhaps most, of our teachers do not use 21st century tools. There are various reasons for this. They …
