Michelle - Kiran Bir Sethi- Teaches Kids to Take Charge
Another video that I was truly impressed with. It was so life changing for me to watch these children take real life big issues, such as illiteracy, alcoholism, divorce, arranged marriages, and community injustices and truly make lasting change. I enjoyed her message of being aware of issues, enabling the students to explore options, and empowering them to make a change. It takes someone believing in a child and giving them the support and encouragement to foster change. I applaud what she said that when adults believe in children and tell them, they can, then they will. It is so far from past generations who believed that children were to be seen but not heard.
The implications for me in my classroom would be to allow students to assist me in how a subject matter could be taught. Such as: Dinosaurs, How could we best learn about dinosaurs? I could have the students brainstorm ways that they think learning about this subject matter would be fun and interesting. I could take my curriculum guide and somewhat explain what needs to be taught as far as skills, and then have them help me, plan activities. I would have to start off slow, maybe two new activities a week, so that I could maintain learning in an orderly fashion, however with them helping to partner plan, it would be a start. I really want to give some thought to how I can truly make this happen. I want them to believe in me, so I need to put more trust in their ability and believe in them.
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI admire your willingness to implement a new planning framework in your classroom. Involving your little ones can be an amazing process. Through our NAEYC membership, we’ve received several pd resources that serve as useful guides to The Project Approach. It is a wonderful way to build upon student interest, develop a sense of investigation and exploration, and model critical thinking, while maintaining accountability for those GLEs and any other school programs that may be in place. I would love to share some of our resources, if you’re interested.
Rachel, thank you for wanting to share. I have looked over the book that you gave me and am finding great ideas to cover those GLE's and foster investigation. I can tell you are doing great things at St. Pius. They are lucky to have you. It seems as though you have a zest for new and creative ideas. That will continue to help St. Pius, be the best it can be. Thanks, Michelle
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