The article "Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement" had a lot of the things I would have expected kids to want in their classroom. They talked about group work and using technology. They also want to see that you're passionate about the subject and that you can connect it to their lives. Something that I wasn't necessarily surprised to find but which seems to be making a recurrent appearance on all of my feeds lately is project based learning.
Kids seem to be very interested in project based learning. The new testing seems to be moving toward a more project based interactive evaluation instead of the go to multiple choice test. I think this is a great shift to make, but I think it will also be a tough one. I think it will be scary to jump off the edge of doing things the way we always traditionally have. I think it will be even harder because I am a department of one so I don't have the ability to work with other teachers going through the same thing in their classrooms and bounce things off each other. I think this is another way for me to connect on the internet. I think I will try to find some places online where I can collaborate with other teachers and make it my goal to have at least one of my four classes start off the new year using a project based learning approach.
Students are definitely interested in technology and love to see the relevance of their learning through project based learning. I agree with your statements regarding the changes that are taking place and the time and effort that is required for effective project-based learning. I feel that the connections students are able to make with project-based learning is authentic. Students will be exposed to problems in the real-world that require critical thinking and problem-solving beyond answering questions on a worksheet correctly. This transition is going to be a difficult one. I hope you find the support your are looking for with colleagues outside of your immediate school. We are all here to help each other. :)
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