Building Connections and Branching Out-Reflection #8
Expanding the
Learning Circle
Ina classroom community, it is very important to have a
learning community within yourselves but also with the other people in the
school and in the community. Another
great way to have an expanding community is to link up with a classroom from a
different part of the world. Just like
in our project(s) when we have pen pals in another country. A great example from the book is the Flat
Classroom Project where two classrooms (one from US and the other from
Bangladesh) discussed a book they read.
This is a great way to get your students involved with other cultures
and other people as well as interested in something that you would like to
teach. I really like that our groups are
doing this throughout our projects, I think it is a great way to expose
students to new cultures and people.
Allowing students to develop ideas and questions from
their own experiences that they wish further explore is one great way to get
inquiry into your classroom. a lot of
the times, students have ideas and/or struggles that teachers are unaware of;
this being said, if students lead a project or classroom idea using their own
ideas, the students will be more invested into their projects. If a student is truly interested in exploring
a topic and/or idea, then they will put all of their ideas and efforts into the
project while making it really fun for them.
With PBL projects, this is a great way to learn about what the students
are curious about and then have them furthering their own explorations on these
topics.
Not all projects must come to a complete stop. This is important to remember when doing a project
with your class. Students like being
scientists and explorers, but we (teachers) must remember that explorers and
scientists never stop investigating things and ideas that they are interested
in. By allowing students to continue
exploration, they will learn to love learning and continuous learning.
When a student leads, they are more likely to be engaged and excited about the project.
ReplyDeleteI really like the fact that you mention that not all projects must come to a complete stop. I think it's really important to remember that and remember that students are naturally explorers.
ReplyDelete