Questions? We've Got 'Em

I know that I've hit on something in class when kids begin with a quizzical look on their face and ask about papers they are holding, "where does this go in my binder? Is this language arts or social studies?

As a teacher of a self contained classroom, I can work on all sorts of things and justify them. What this does is let us work in the intersections, the spaces between traditional subjects a lot more, exploring things that are cross curricular and don't fit neatly into one container.

Since we've been back at school this week, my class and I have been doing a lot of talking and exploring ideas about change and innovation. Some of these things had come up for us before we let out for the Christmas break and I spent some time over the holidays thinking about that. I knew from my International Teen Life experience last year that kids are as interested and worried about the "big problems" in the world as many adults are. They want to talk, think, and learn about the issues that are affecting our globe as much as anyone; they just don't often get the opportunity to do so.

So with this in mind, and wanting to return to some of the basics of blogging, thinking, researching, and presenting, we've started an examination of some creative ideas, new thoughts, and the world's problems. We looked at Hans Rosling, Theo Jansen, and Jeff Han at TED Talks. We've talked about some of the world's largest problems (global warming, poverty, housing, food security) and have now started to dig into these things a bit more, trying to gain some sort of understanding of their complexity and their origins.

I knew the kids were thinking when yesterday one of the girls in my class, who was trying to track down some information about the origins of the HIV virus and had run into a number of sites with all sorts of off the wall theories called me over to her laptop with a semi frustrated look on her face and asked me, "How do I know who to believe?"

Bingo.

She was hooked.

Real information. Real questions and problems that she had chosen to think about.

Don't ever tell me kids are not capable of thinking deeply about complex issues.

Don't ever tell me that they are not interested in learning. They may not be interested in school; but that's different.    

Tags: TED, problem solving, classroom, learning

Comments

[Corrie Bergeron]

Very cool, very very cool.

Another thought - "Which binder tab does this go in" versus "just tag it with both LA and SS." How might we do "tagging" for paper? It's not going away.