So I realized something interesting this week. Many of my teachers are discussing similar and related topics without actually collaborating with each other to do so. As a student, this helps me to more easily connect the material together and both remember and understand the material. So... here is my thought that came out of this realization...
Why don't teachers work together to make material in the classrooms across the grade related? I think that the biggest problem with classrooms today is that the students do not feel like there is a connection between the material they learn in each classroom and what they do outside of the classroom. So why don't we make a connection? At the start of the school year, get the students to fill out an interests form about themselves and work to incorporate those interests within the classroom throughout the year so that every student will feel a connection to the material. Include Web 2.0 tools to incorporate the digital generation's interest and natural gravitation to the technology. Decorate your room with material that the students themselves have created to create a sense of ownership between the students and the classroom. On designated days, have the students present topics that interest them to the classroom. Of course, there would have to be guidelines for this, but that would be determined as the classroom is set up. Work with other teachers in the building to make lessons match in some way such as time period, concept, or material. Teachers in different fields like English and History can back into a topic in completely different ways without actually covering the same material but making it clear that the material is connected. With this, the student, who might have not understood the topic from the Engish side might now understand it from the History side or the other way around and apply that understanding to the other class. That collaborative working of the teachers could have unlimited potential to the student.
What do you all think of this? Have you ever seen or read of it done in the classroom?
I believe you are right Lauren. Much of what we are taught (Especially in High School) seems fruitless and without purpose. I feel like it is partially to blame for teachers teaching to the test, which many believe blame lies with No Child Left Behind (and No Teacher Left Standing coincidentally)
ReplyDeleteI think it would be wonderful for teachers to connect what is taught in the classroom to other classrooms and the outside world. There is so much people can relate to and I believe it is high time teachers utilize this.
While I am on the subject of outside world learning, I also believe teachers should teach life skills such as how to do taxes, balance checks, and essential items in order to be successful citizens. I mean, they did that in Elementary school with teaching us how to mail something so why did it stop?
Overall, I would like to see more connections for kids to be able to grasp and understand across a variety of spectrums.
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ReplyDeleteI am so glad you mentioned this, I am reading the article Collaborative Literacy: Blogs and Internet Project for my Further Research Paper and in the article it talks about three stories and how three different teachers did three different projects using the internet and blogging and all interconnected in the end. Collaboration is very important, I think. It gives students the ability to experience the rest of the world so when they take the next step in there school careers they are not afraid to try something new and not totally blind sided by what it is really like out in the world. I totally agree with you when you say, "That collaborative working of the teachers could have unlimited potential to the student,"and I think by doing this it gives the students the ability to perform to there potential and to be confident in there own work, knowing that there work is being seen all throughout the world and not just by there peers. There is a whole world at there that students should be able to experience and should not miss out on any of it, and what better way than including it in the classroom.
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