Exceeding Expectations – Week 3

It’s already the fourth week at SFU… labelled WEEK 3 for those in Educ 471 (the first week didn’t count… aka. WEEK 0). We are on our way… moving from grading and assessment to 21st Century Learning. It was YONG ZHAO day in our class. We read his article, watched a brief plug on his book “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon?,” and watched his TEDxAmsterdamED video on “Everyone is a Rudolf.”

We had a full slate of student participation… 2 reflective readers, one warm-up activity, and one Wild Card activity. I should also mention that we also had someone do an online summary of the article as well as record the “unfolding” of the class. They are living their “dream school”… choice, freedom, and personalization.

The Wild Card activity was so unexpected, timely, and entertaining. The warm-up activity was engaging and interactive. And the two reading reflections just WOWWED me. I did not expect these student to make connections with previous readings or videos. Surprisingly, they were very similar in terms of what each of them quoted and cited. I loved how each of the reading reflections concluded with their own thoughts and a thought-provoking question. What more can I say?

Oh yes… the group discussions were amazing. What is your dream school? They hit it. What they genuinely want is exactly what BC’s New Curriculum is intending… and what we’re doing in Educ 471. Most of the class was student led… facilitated and orchestrated by me (the teacher). The class concludes with a self-reflection journal on What’s your definition of personalized learning? Key words from both the group discussion and journal reflection were shared on the white wash board… participation to contribute key words was voluntary. What a collection of words!!!

I am so proud of this class. We put assessment and evaluation aside to focus on learning. I am resistant to tell them exactly what I am looking for because they are exceeding my expectations every time, every week. The class concludes with a half-hour discussion about WHAT’S THE ANSWER with a few students after 8:20pm… the end of class. Full engagement and the irony to realize that deeper learning, intrinsic motivation, and inquiry happens when there is no multiple choice test at the end of their journey. This is what I know for sure… anything is possible!!!