Earlier this year my 12th graders conducted an inquiry into education. By giving students an opportunity to learn about education theory, talk to the general public about education, and reflect on their own educational experiences, I hoped to help them develop their own ideas and understandings mainstream education, the education they experience at SLA, and […]Read Post ›
It is powerful to watch young people evaluate their own experiences and develop ideas for change. This is how we began the year in my 12th grade English classes. Students wrote about meaningful learning experiences and collaborated to design their own version of an ideal school. They read theory from John Taylor Gatto, Theodore Sizer, the Unschooling Movement, […]Read Post ›
There is something very powerful that happens when young people are given a chance to reflect on their own education and share visions of what education and school can and should mean. This year my 12th Graders began the year by doing just that. The unit began with us all writing about and reflecting on deep or […]Read Post ›
Today my American Government classes wrapped up our unit on Democracy and Education. We started the class by viewing and commenting on the digital stories that students made to communicate unique ideas about democracy and education at this moment in Philadelphia. Students had done a great job of creating work that is poignant, insightful, and […]Read Post ›
Pamela Paul has an opinion piece in today’s NYTimes about educational technology. She writes about “game-based learning” and characterizes “an underlying fear” that children won’t learn if it is not “superfun.” Her final thought is that students should play games (that is use technology,) “in their free time.. [O]nce they’re in the classroom they can challenge themselves. […]Read Post ›
