Learning can be tough business. Many people coming in to this classroom are shocked at the amount of responsibility they have for their own learning. Projects, deadlines, a choice of assignments, and choices aboout how you do things. Learning isn’t about me, the teacher. Learning is about you. It is about who you choose to connect with around the world. It is about the time that you take to think about things, to write about things, and to connect information together from various places, projects, and people.
We are half way through the school year and we have worked through many struggles. Some people have much to be proud of as their reading and spelling levels have increased, they have struggled to understand new types of math and have been in deep debate with others around the world through their blogs.
But learning is always tough business. To truly understand something takes time and effort. Don’t worry if you find it hard, learning and changing is difficult. Keep up your efforts, get your assignments turned in, and take the time to think about what you are doing.
Like the poster says hanging on our classroom wall:
“School is not about doing, it is about thinking and learning.”
5 responses so far ↓
1
Anonymous Coward
// Feb 9, 2006 at 8:40 pm
If learning is not about doing, then why are there assignments?
2
Greg
// Feb 10, 2006 at 9:18 am
I agree with Anomynous Coward. Why do we have to do assignments? But we do learn from doing don’t we?
3
Bronwyn G
// Feb 12, 2006 at 12:14 am
I will admit to wondering why we need to have assignments.
It’s because we need to show our learning to an outsider, and see how far we ourselves have come.
I am sure Anon Coward has voiced the thoughts and feelings of many students (and yes, some teachers) all over the world.
Assignments help people take responsibility for their learning and show that they are able to work to set standards within a set time frame.
4
Educational Technology and Life » Blog Archive » Learning……..?
// Feb 13, 2006 at 1:49 am
[...] Learning……..? (Via Excellence and Imagination.) This is one of my new subscriptions I’ve come to enjoy. This post is a reflection on learning as a tough business and offers this bit, very reminiscent of Dewey and Bruner: “Learning isn’t about me, the teacher. Learning is about you. It is about who you choose to connect with around the world. It is about the time that you take to think about things, to write about things, and to connect information together from various places, projects, and people.” [...]
5
Mr. Fisher
// Feb 14, 2006 at 9:16 am
To learn something you need to interact with information of some type. You need some kind of information to challengr you, push you, and make you think.
The poster in the classroom that says learning is not about doing means that you don’t need to do 100 math questions to show that you know something. You don’t need to repeat things over and over again. Learn something, show you know something, move on. School is not about pounding a few ideas into your head, school is about pushing yourself as far as you can go.