CSUSM/UCSD JPD - EDLD 730/740 Class Leadership Blog. This blog will be a place to gather course information, connect to peers and professors, and to share reflections and research!
CSUSM/UCSD JPD - EDLD 730/740 Class Leadership Blog. This blog will be a place to gather course information, connect to peers and professors, and to share reflections and research!
In classic style, Daniel Pink gets people to think. Pink makes a case for creating engaging schools and classrooms where students have opportunities for enrichment. He presents the idea of bringing community engagement into schools so students can become productive students and citizens (see Joel's Futuristic blog). Gone are the days of teaching a single discipline. Today's students will need the skills to integrate multiple disciplines in order to solve problems in the 21st century workplace. Community engagement projects will allow students to see the world as it works and will most likely eliminate the problem of motivating the complacent student.
ReplyDeleteI really like almost everything this man says. I love "compliance--defiance": this is so true! Here is something that really bugs me: when he talks about what students are engaged in outside of school--many under-served students don't have access to art, music, sports, technology, etc.
ReplyDeleteMany of the kids who end up in alternative school (i.e. myself) do so because they do not comply but defy the system of control imposed by the school system. Defiance causes lots of problems for the kid, and usually bad grades regardless of the student's ability.
ReplyDeleteIn college, when it was a matter of self-determination, all of a sudden I was an A student. I was so shocked, I actually worked for grades (for 2 years) and then went back to my working towards inner goals.
I love being challenged, and I think that we should encourage our students to challenge our ways of thinking. I remember in the first alternative school I worked at, on the very first day I was there, Semeeah, a very loud African American girl announced that she was going to teach me, not for me to teach her.
She definitely taught me patience and a bit about the group culture they had formed. The point is that we have to let down our egos, and desire to be right if we are going to allow for a co-constructed student-directed classroom.
I think when we teach students to think independently, we also need to teach them how to communicate their ideas in a way that doesn't appear to be act of defiance . As educators we need to put ourselves in students' shoes and not to be too quick labeling them as defiant! I agree with Abigail, as a teacher, I learn the most from those students who challenge my classroom procedures and rules. They help me to become more patient and understanding.
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