Brian Crosby, a teacher of "almost 30 years" presents his "Back to the Future", project-based learning classroom.
The one quote that sticks in my mind from this video is that we need to "Empower kids to become learners, we have taught kids how to be taught, now we must teach them how to learn."
This statement is a great summary of this week's lessons. We have so many tools (most of them free) available to us as educators, that we no longer have an excuse not to reach every child in our classroom (and beyond our classroom).
"We have to help our students build a schema for the world, and not race them through school". All through this week's readings and videos, the one overall theme is that collaboration, and connectivitiy are the key to success for our students.
My favorite part of this video, was the introduction of the class to Celeste! Living with Leukemia she was not able to attend school because of her immune system. The district it seemed wanted to have her home instructed, Brian decided otherwise. What an awesome way to reach a child. The class was skyped to Celeste, and it seemed to me like she was part of the class from day one. Loved the way the students included her in the class picture!
This goes to show, that the possibilities are endless!
I agree with you that the possibilities are endless. I think that it comes down to those who want to differentiate themselves from the pack, but it will also require such teachers to be advocates for themselves as much as for their students.
ReplyDeleteYes... I was very struck by the little girl with leukemia, able to participate in school and interact with the other kids. The other day, as I sat in the back of my class, I watched a girl manipulating the smartboard (it is my only class with one as I float around) and she was just touching the screen and making things appear and disappear and it occurred to me how much like a window it was. I could almost picture her touching the shoulder of another girl her age, across the world.. talking together about stuff. I wonder how all this will create the world these kids and their kids will live in...
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