Problem solvers/critical thinkers don’t just make themselves
Students develop problem solving/critical thinking capabilities when they find their own questions or problems that they want to solve. Without this investment, no deep thinking will happen.
The world we live in today is drastically different from the world our education system is designed to prepare students for
Evolution in technology has meant that the amount of knowledge that exists is growing rapidly. The old model of the teacher, as the fount of all knowledge, is no longer appropriate, as it is no longer possible for one person to know everything. We need to change how we think about teachers.
I really enjoyed Grant’s argument against the term ‘guide on the side’ – we’re caught up in the middle of the learning. I’m not sure I can see myself as a farmer, but I certainly see how he uses the metaphor to illustrate the nurturing approach.
The industrial model is no longer relevant. So many will say that we teach students that will go on to do jobs that don’t even exist right now, but it’s completely true; we need to make sure they are creative, adaptive… etc.
So what does an innovative classroom look like?
| Dynamic | Creative | Adaptive |
|---|---|---|
| – messy, noisy, chaotic
– tailored learning – risky |
– student-owned
– knowledge creators – embracing failure |
– interdisciplinary
– teacher collaboration – exciting new courses |
My classroom is probably one of the loudest in the school, mostly because when my students are on form they tend to forget about inside voices. It was great to see this validated as being okay. Much of the rest of the lists didn’t surprise me, although I need to give serious thought as to how to go about making it happen (the area of embracing failure is something I really want to build into my classroom culture next year).
John Dewey was right about everything
Experience makes for great learning. It’s all about making sure that those experiences actually happen.
“Welcome to the cognisophere”
Today’s world is all about how we handle the vast amounts of knowledge available to us. It’s about about creating that knowledge, sharing it, and getting rid of what is no longer relevant (archiving is a very diplomatic term).
Change isn’t hard, merely uncomfortable
“Brushfires” of innovation is the term that Grant used – there are very few schools that consistently innovate across the board. He described what is holding us back as ‘anchors and silos’ – anchors that tie us to the old way of doing things, and silos that prevent us from collaborating and sharing so that we may move forward. Asking ‘what if’ has the power to identify the things really holding a school back. It’s just about taking the time to ask the question and hear the answers.
We have the hardware. We have the software. It’s the operating system that needs to be rebuild
This needs no explanation, but I loved the graphic that came with it.
Image retrieved from http://www.grantlichtman.com/the-two-critical-planes-of-school-innovation/ (because my photo wasn’t good enough quality!)
I’ll be completely honest and say that I’m not brave enough to ask my students what their one word is; I’m on a journey and I’m certainly not there yet. But it’s certainly something I’ll be striving to do better next year. I am, however, very tempted to ask them to form their own ‘what if?’ questions about school, and see if they may give me insight into what, exactly, they would like to see change. Because if I have learned anything at all from the entirety of my first day at ULearn, it is that we can assume we know what the students want, but, really, sometimes we have no idea.
I have Grant’s book sitting at home, with a bookmark about 40 pages in. I look forward to reading the rest of it.
Hannah Learns 
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