Mike and I have always followed a constructivist approach to learning. We believe kids learn best when they construct their own knowledge. That does not mean we just hang out during class, but our job changes from standing in front of the room and "force-feeding" them information to being more of a coach; we have the ability to work 1-1 with students whom are struggling with specific information. Our Middle Age webquest is a real constructivist lesson that incorporates flipped teaching, mastery learning, collaborative Googledocs, blogging (cross district blog grading) and role-playing. Check it out. However, it lead many students to take it upon themselves to go deeper--the key in constructivist learning. The following is an email I recieved (posting with permission) from a parent. I think he [the parent] sees the power of constructivist in education. Also, watch the kids trailer for their out of school, no grade, no credit collaborative, skype based learning.
Dear Mr. Holman,
I thought that you'd like to know that your Middle Ages teaching is being absorbed and reflected back very well by our kids. I am coaching a DI team and recently I had seven 7-graders at our house for lunch.
As they sat down around the table, they discussed who would be allowed to be present and how they would interact with the proper roles. As you probably know, Mindcraft is taking up a lot of time for BOB (name has been changed) and his friends, but they seem to learn the content in a different way and context as part of their digital environment. In general, it's amazing to watch how this generation creates study groups via SKYPE, discuss notes and compare their blogs. BOB submitted a blog entry and received feedback from a Chardon student within a few minutes about his weak ending of the story, while he was still working on the story. That's pretty instant feedback.
BOB enjoys your class very much and I appreciate your ability to integrate technology into your teaching and curriculum. I observe your process with great interest as we use gaming and other digital interactive tools for our services for universities.
Thank you for your great contribution to BOB's and all our kids' education.
Mike and I will be doing several posts on the constructivist approach in the classroom over the next few weeks.
Love to hear your comments!
Dear Mr. Holman,
I thought that you'd like to know that your Middle Ages teaching is being absorbed and reflected back very well by our kids. I am coaching a DI team and recently I had seven 7-graders at our house for lunch.
As they sat down around the table, they discussed who would be allowed to be present and how they would interact with the proper roles. As you probably know, Mindcraft is taking up a lot of time for BOB (name has been changed) and his friends, but they seem to learn the content in a different way and context as part of their digital environment. In general, it's amazing to watch how this generation creates study groups via SKYPE, discuss notes and compare their blogs. BOB submitted a blog entry and received feedback from a Chardon student within a few minutes about his weak ending of the story, while he was still working on the story. That's pretty instant feedback.
BOB enjoys your class very much and I appreciate your ability to integrate technology into your teaching and curriculum. I observe your process with great interest as we use gaming and other digital interactive tools for our services for universities.
Thank you for your great contribution to BOB's and all our kids' education.
Mike and I will be doing several posts on the constructivist approach in the classroom over the next few weeks.
Love to hear your comments!
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