What does Mike Wesch believe about how students learn?
Students need to work on themselves. They are the final project. Climbing a mountain, step by step, working together, helping each other get to the next plateau, they need to learn about who they are, where they want to be, and what they want to do.
Individualized learning is important because every student learns differently. We as teachers need to get to know our students and what interests them. We need to differentiate instruction and assessments. We need to take time to sit down and talk with our students about their lives, not just their academic goals.
Students are reshaped by living inside the learning and by doing something they love and challenging themselves. That’s what makes it worth it. In reference to his son George learning how to go down the stairs he states, “Those are the things that will allow us to get through those hard times and pick ourselves back up when we are down.” We need to be challenged as learners.
He also talks about how learning is more than just a score or a grade. It’s about persistence not just getting by or a check done type of approach. Learning is about growing and acquiring knowledge. I can relate to this because I have thought many times about how I could just memorize content and ace a test just to get a good grade in the class. As soon as the information made it to the paper, I didn’t think about it anymore. Throughout college, I felt like I was doing a balancing act. I never took the time to focus on my why and my beliefs in regards to education. I wish I had more teachers who gave us time to think about our “why” and change the ways they grade us. Never were we asked to take an exam orally. The professors were not clever in their assessment approaches.
Remember to keep loving yourself and you will make it. You will be what you want to be and get to where you want to go.
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI liked his sketch of us climbing the mountain, reaching a plateau, and continuing on. What stuck out to me was how the group of students worked together to help each other up. And at the end, they realized that they, in fact, were the reward. Helping students realize that learning is social and that the reward in intrinsic is a lofty, important goal.
Emily, I agree it is all about the journey not the destination. When school is something just to "get through" we lose sight of all the valuable lessons that we learn along the way. Educators need to stress to students that the grade is not the outcome, the learning is the outcome.
ReplyDeleteSo many of us feel that grades are the enemy of learning and yet it is so hard to pull away from that system to put those beliefs into actions. Great reflections.
ReplyDeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteI liked your motivational video. I agree with learning is much more than a grade. I try to be mindful of alternate options for my students to show what they know, but more times than not, they all get the same assessment. I realize that even my accomodation of reading it to them is not enough. They should ALWAYS have a choice in assessment when possible.