BP2_20091203_Anti-Teaching & PLEs

Since it is drastically apparent that the current state of public education is failing 50% of the student population it certainly is safe to say that change needs to be made immediately. So what does that change look like? This is the question I've been pondering long before starting this degree program. Because of this program I think I might have a glimpse into that image. The whole concept of a PLE makes perfect sense to me and the introduction of that tool into my freshman classrooms is having a positive effect. Students today must be able to think, problem solve and actually clue into the idea of metacognition. The position of "Sage on Stage" isn't where I believe I fit and I would much rather have my students becoming more responsible for their own education. Much to the disgruntled whining of the technology people in the district I had the students in three of my classes set up PLEs on iGoogle. They have a tab for each of the other classes they are taking as well and I had them choose three resources for each class to follow using Google Reader. I have been amazed at how excited they are and since they have to justify to me why they thought a particular resource was worth following they are thinking, they are explaining on their own.

Just as the article on Anti-Teaching mentioned, "The most significant problem with education today is the problem of significance itself". None of us remembers things that we do not consider significant. As I teach students in rural Colorado, from a culture of generational poverty, about the features of the ocean floor where is the significance except it might apply to some standardized test they have to take and hopefully pass? Add Web 2.0 tools however to teach about the ocean and whether the students remember much of the ocean content is not nearly as important or significant as the ability to think which they are doing because they are taking responsibility for their learning. Back to the Anti-Teaching article, I thought one of the most profound statments was, "When students recognize their own importance in helping shape the future of this increasingly global, interconnected society, the significance fades away". It does. I'm seeing it happen and as the students become empowered the energy and excitement is apparent. Yes, as a high school science teacher I do have to assist my students in learning to differenciate between fact and opinion when the opinion is so well written it could fool them but my role as guide, mentor, facilitator is so much fun. I can't remember the last time I had a student ask, "Is this gong to be on the test?".