“Why School?” By Will Richardson
Upon reading Richardson’s book, “Why School,” I found myself agreeing with the idea of learning through discovery. I feel that learning is a different journey for everyone. Having the students ask the questions, and learning through finding those answers leads to a very productive learning journey. I think asking questions and guiding questions even to help a student shows the student just how powerful their brains are too. I was placed in an AVID class last semester to assist and I was amazed at how much these students knew! They were tenth graders, and they were just so intelligent. The way the AVID tutorials worked was one student had a question (usually a math problem) and a group of other students helped with that question. They did not tell the original student how to solve the problem, but asked the student questions about solving the problem. Eventually the student could discover her or she could solve the problem on his own. Following that same logic, I think questioning things is much more effective than just finding the answers. Another thing that Richardson mentioned that I connected with was to share everything. That is something I have learned is like a currency in this profession! Give and take, I exchanged a few assignments for a quiz the other day with another teacher. It is so great. I think sharing is just good practice in any aspect of life, but it is especially welcomed in the realm of teaching. I love to share what I create, and I love to get all the feedback I can on the creations I share. It’s a method of continuous improvement. The one thing I am going to struggle with is communicating outside of my everyday class and coworkers. I am not one to branch out too much past my usual group of people. I get into a physical routine, and that does not include mingling with folks online. The internet is not the networking tool I am most comfortable with. |
Ms. McKenzieUS History Teacher Candidate at SMHS. Archives
May 2015
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