How do we ensure that our students are engaged in our classrooms? What makes our students excited to come to school every day? The answer cannot be found on Google, or in a book, as the answer is within our students. Using a variety of hands-on strategies that are relevant to our students’ world enhances their learning, and helps them to solidify their ideas about the concepts that they have been exposed to.
If we, as educators, are going to be successful in helping our students become active learners, we need to plan and implement fun, thought-provoking activities that require critical thinking, communication, creativity and collaboration. How do we teach these 21st century skills using the outdated tools that we have always used in the classroom? We need to find new resources to use with our students, and these tools seem to be a form of technology. Students today do not know a world without Google, Facebook, or the Internet, and they are more connected to each other that we can ever imagine. Using digital resources to allow students to collaborate (Google Docs), communicate (Wikispaces), create (Google Sites), and think critically (MindMiester), helps them to take responsibility for their own learning, and take a more active role. In order for us to become as connected as our students, we must change how we view the role of a teacher in the classroom. The following article describes how we need to shift our thinking, and ultimately, the way we teach our students.
Take Care, Everyone!
Mesha
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