Subject: Bored Students

Posted by Tim Joy on 12/29/2010
In Reply To:Bored Students Posted by Scott Guthrie on 12/29/2010

Message:

In my early days of teaching, I spent lots of time watching my small children play: blocks, house, sandbox, building things, tearing things apart, et al. As time wore on, their playing became more and more sophisticated. Of course, much of their interactive life with us (mom and dad) eventually infiltrated their playing life. I found my study of my children more useful than my grad studies at our local School of Education. In time, my English classroom evolved: out with desks, in with tables; out with teacher artifacts, in with walls and ceiling plastered in student-created works; out with a "front" and "back" of room, in with "work areas." When guests came by, they usually asked "what's going on in here?"

To be frank, I was not always sure, though transcripts listed the experience as "English II."

To Scott's email and to Barry Richmond's ever-so-clear model - the teacher is NOT in the model, although perhaps vaguely in "other-inspired learning" but that could be anyone. Learning occurs there with many assumptions, among them that students have something substantial enough to "represent" and "simulate"; and that "simulation outcomes" have sufficient value in the classroom's culture.

Scott, and others, suppose we posted this STELLA map in classrooms or Faculty Rooms . . . What discussion would follow in Algebra II or US History or Biology or Health?

Scott, are you aware if Barry ever made this model operational?

Thanks for the map, Scott.

Tim Joy

Follow Ups:

Bored Students - Pedro D. Almaguer Prado 12/29/2010