Book Makes Me Think!

Our Library Media Team is doing a book study of Why School? by Will Richardson.  It's very thought provoking!  Really makes me think about ways to bring the learning students do outside of school into school.  Outside of school, students use videos and people to learn from- they define their own problems, seek the best sources, and apply what they learned through a variety of means.  Take the craze of Minecraft for example- my son couldn't find diamonds in the game.  That was his problem. So, he used youtube to learn how to do it from another kid.  While he attempted it on his own, he failed; watched the video again; learned from his mistake; tried again.  Success!  Diamonds!  Excitement!  Proud of himself!  Then, he used Skype to video chat his friend and help him to do the same thing!

Weeks later after watching a few more videos- he created his own how to with the help of his sister.  Many could say since I'm in the tech field he had learned the skills to do all this.  I helped him with very little.  He used his own resources to solve his problem. Critical thinking, creativity and collaboration abound.... mixed in with a bit a constructive failure!  And probably many of you reading this have seen similar skills developing in your kids or other youngsters.

Thanks to our LMS team for a very enlighting discussion about student learning and skills needed for their success in the future.  Next session:  specific ways/ integration ideas to bring this learning to all classrooms! Kudos to our teaching staff who have embraced this concept and implementing strategies for devloping creative, collaborative, critical thinkers!