The main idea of the article is that the new approach to teaching is about coaching- understanding the specific needs and skills of each student, and then to a certain extent, teaching them individually. Give students experiences with some hands on like manipulatives, puzzles, experiments, etc. Students learn best when they make their own meaning.
A teacher should not only coach them, but also allow them to coach each other.
The Internet is another place to coach students in evaluating the quality of information available. Role playing, sharing ideas and information via a blog and one to one teaching are also examples of this new approach to teaching.
Some educators believe that there are so many pressures for kids to do well on standardized tests like AIMS, that there is not much time for being a good coach. Others believe that accountability and coaching in the classroom can both be accomplished.
So let students explore and drive the content on their own. Because taking risk with your ideas is the only way you learn something. A teacher's job is to be a coach, facilitator or a mediator. Students respond more readily and favorably to a coach than to a teacher.
This is similar to what Riordan said in the article I read. I have to agree that there is alot of pressure, I know at least for me, for teachers to have students perform that many have lost the love for this art. We have drifted from what we would like to do to what we have to do.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the synopsis.
Jose