:) Gratuitous begging post
I've posted a couple of ideas over at this QUT website . For everyone who has facebook and 'likes' one of mine (or someone elses ideas) QUT will donate $2 towards an Oxfam water project. If you contribute your own idea they'll done $5. I'd love to see them hit the $10 000 mark (their proposed limit)
Also, if you 'like' my ideas and I get 25 likes, then I get a free t-shirt (free clothing! I feel like such a uni student!)
There are serious thoughts behind my two education based ideas. First of all, both of them (less time on testing, more time on allowing students to care and a library of books in every classroom) are achievable. (Which is more than some ideas, though I like the idea of chocolate without calories). Then they're aimed at developing caring and thoughtfullness for the world.
The strange thing is, whenever we teach a lesson which focuses on social issues, my students get excited. They get passionate. They want to do something. What if we were able to build on that, if we could teach them to write to people in power, to write advertisements, to research solutions and brain storm new ideas. Instead, more and more, we're directed to focus on drill and kill, fitting every child into a box. At the moment we're learning about re-usable bags. My students are going home, talking to their parents, looking at possible road blocks, designing their own movies. Shouldn't we encourage this in every classroom - after all, these are the people we want thinking as they grow older and begin to vote, and eventually, run the country.
The books idea is connected. More books really does encourage more reading (who would have thunk it). This year my students have read books about characters who are gay, have a disability, have HIV, are poor, of every different background, nationality and colour. They are hurt when the characters are hurt, they are outraged when the character is wronged. They empathise and you see them carry this with them in their day to day interactions. Again something I would love to see in every classroom in the world.
So feel free to go and like my ideas :)
This entry was originally posted at http://melwil.dreamwidth.org/420852.html. Please comment there or here using OpenID. There are
comments over there . . .
Also, if you 'like' my ideas and I get 25 likes, then I get a free t-shirt (free clothing! I feel like such a uni student!)
There are serious thoughts behind my two education based ideas. First of all, both of them (less time on testing, more time on allowing students to care and a library of books in every classroom) are achievable. (Which is more than some ideas, though I like the idea of chocolate without calories). Then they're aimed at developing caring and thoughtfullness for the world.
The strange thing is, whenever we teach a lesson which focuses on social issues, my students get excited. They get passionate. They want to do something. What if we were able to build on that, if we could teach them to write to people in power, to write advertisements, to research solutions and brain storm new ideas. Instead, more and more, we're directed to focus on drill and kill, fitting every child into a box. At the moment we're learning about re-usable bags. My students are going home, talking to their parents, looking at possible road blocks, designing their own movies. Shouldn't we encourage this in every classroom - after all, these are the people we want thinking as they grow older and begin to vote, and eventually, run the country.
The books idea is connected. More books really does encourage more reading (who would have thunk it). This year my students have read books about characters who are gay, have a disability, have HIV, are poor, of every different background, nationality and colour. They are hurt when the characters are hurt, they are outraged when the character is wronged. They empathise and you see them carry this with them in their day to day interactions. Again something I would love to see in every classroom in the world.
So feel free to go and like my ideas :)
This entry was originally posted at http://melwil.dreamwidth.org/420852.html. Please comment there or here using OpenID. There are
comments over there . . .