Update April 9th One Week In
Well we have begun exploring ideas and have an amazing mix with topics ranging from gun control laws to teaching practice, poverty to water consumption and conservation and a few that are focused on mental health. It is interesting to find out what kids are interested in and also interesting to see the struggle that some have with the freedom of the activity.
Finding a topic was a process of looking at different Ted Talk videos and Articles. Then the conversation around what agitates them came up and different students had different reactions to topics. We have had a few either through frustration in not finding enough information or just realizing they jumped in to a topic that didn’t really bother them that have led to changes over the last week.
Today one asked to just be given some writing assignment to do because the thinking was “too hard” Instead of granting the request we started trying to dig in to what was hard, I reminded them of Kylene Beers comments around the Bigotry of Low Expectations and the Ted Talk video that we had just watched which focused on kids being more than capable but that they will work to our expectations. And I expect more because I know their potential. So we keep building background, we keep researching and gather the evidence to support our opinion. Week one has been great and the journey continues.
#projectspeak begins
Tomorrow we are kicking off #projectspeak The goal is an inquiry project where students get to explore a topic that agitates them to act. They will be exploring the world around them to search out this topic. Researching, writing and sharing their voices.
I plan to update this page often with as much evidence of this journey as I can. Kids want education to reflect what they are interest in, what they want to know more about and so we give it a try and see where it takes us.
Things Mr.G says 