Day 6 – #AprilBlogADay – Awe-Inspiring Moments

Denise Krebs

What was your most recent “awe-inspiring” moment in the classroom today?

My students always inspire awe. There are many reasons–the fact that they can communicate so well with me in English even though their first language is Arabic (or another language) is one of the major reasons.

We just finished a ten-day spring break, and I thought they may have forgotten a lot. Instead, they came with enthusiasm, great minds and memories, and created spontaneous learning opportunities, like this when they began to make the letter of the week, Y, with their bodies.

Making Y's

Day 5 – #AprilBlogADay Challenge – Happy Easter

Denise Krebs


First of all, a blessed Happy Easter to all those who celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

And Chag kasher v’same’ach to my Jewish friends who celebrate Passover.

Now for today’s very short #AprilBlogADay post…

What needs to stop in order for Education to move forward? What practice, tradition, instructional strategy or anything else “must die”?

It will be an amazing day when educators stop rewarding students for standing in straight lines, for being quiet, for being good, for jumping through hoops, and anything else for which they are rewarded. Along with that, grading must die. Then children will start to really learn.

Here are some resources to learn more about this simple, yet necessary idea.

Alfie Kohn interview about his book Punished By Rewards.

No Grades + No Homework = Better Learning, two lectures by Alfie Kohn.

Read about the #AprilBlogADay Challenge here.

Day 4 #AprilBlogADay Challenge – Connection

Denise Krebs
My teacher desk

A Moment of Humanity in the Classroom – Think about a moment in your teaching experience where there was a “connection” between you and a student or group of students that resonated beyond content.

The one moment that stood out is when a group of students happened upon a video about Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army. It was during my first year of becoming the chief learner in my classroom. We had made a huge switch in how we did school in eighth grade history and language arts classes.

We were becoming co-learners on a mission to improve the world.

Here’s the caption I wrote on this picture on Flickr.

Four students started out watching this video while others were busy on something else. Others were pulled in to the experience. I loved the intense look on their faces.

This morning 52 million people had viewed this video, and a few hours later, it was up to 56 million.
youtu.be/Y4MnpzG5Sqc

They left the room wanting to do more.

I didn’t know what to do or how to do it. It was outside my level of expertise. I had never been trained for this. However, although I was clearly out of my league, when I gave up control and became a co-learner, we were all able to learn amazing things together. This was one of many times of rich connecting and learning that we did during that school year.

 

Wisdom is a good reason for becoming the chief learner.

Update: Now over a million people have seen Invisible Children’s video and thanks in small part to the great awareness this “Kony 2012” video brought about, things have gotten better in Uganda. Read an update on Christianity Today about Kony and the LRA.