Blue-Sky Teaching

My head is full of learning tonight.  Even better, my heart is full of inspiration. I spent the weekend at the Write To Learn Conference in Osage Beach, Missouri, learning with educators from around the state.  Here's a recap of my take-aways and highligts: Meeno Rami :   I got to spend all day Thursday in Meeno's session.  We started by defining what empowered learning is, and created a word cloud using Answer Garden.  How fortunate that "student choice" ended up in the center (I borrowed it for my session!).  My biggest take away was to re-vision lessons into real-world formats that engage our students in authentic ways.  So, for example, instead of doing a research paper, we have our students create a magazine - where they research issues in our world that they care about.  They get to do real-world research, like interviewing people, instead of just random google searches.   Taylor Mali :  Friday started with a key note and then ...

The sheer number of self-help books for adults amaze me.  Don't get me wrong, I love them!  But really, we're adults, right?  Grown-ups.  So, how come so many people are reading about how to organize their lives, be more productive, find their true calling, de-clutter their lives? Then I go to work, at a high school, a really nice one with eager teachers, wanting the best for their students.  And, when I suggest that kids need to be taught time management, organization, and even reading and writing skills, I often hear, "But it's high school.  They should know that!"  As if our kids are grown ups. (Yep, the ones who need all the self-help books!)  I know we're not the only high school like this.  But I want us all to consider something: High school kids are not grown ups!  Really, truly, they are not.  In one of Rick Wormeli's videos, he calls them "humans in the morphing."  I love that!  Their brains have so much grow...