Project Based Learning - Left Brain Teacher and Right Brain Student

Too often we as educators design assignments that meet our confort levels.  We schedule due dates and create format details that meet "our" needs for "our" curriculum.  But, do we look at the students needs? 

What will be on the Final Exam?

Invariably at the end of a semester, despite the organized meandering of the teacher, a group of students will ask, "What will be on the Final Exam?"  Not that they hane not sat through every class and taken copious amount of notes, and completed all of the homework including all of the in class work and the study guides that the teacher has provided. But,without fail, the question will be asked.

What will be on the Final Exam?

 

By the way, I have discovered XtraNormal.com and I am having way too much fun with it.

Not only making my own videos, but looking for ways to incorporate it into my classroom curriculum and have the students creating these video pieces, to share information, create reviews for the "Final Exam" etc...

I will keep you posted when I decide how this will happen in my classroom.

Teaching the Three C's Video

"The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn."
                  - Alvin Toffler -

XtraNormal video about the need to focus on the Three C's, Critical Thinking, Clear Communication and Collaboration. 

Creating a Classroom Environment for Today's Learner

IMAGINE - How Creativity Works
by Jonah Lehrer

Just completed the book and found it fascinating.
From where creativity comes from to how to develop those opportunities for creativity.
Lehrer opens up paths to how both the individual mind and the collective society treat the concept of CREATIVITY.

Lehrer provides insight in to the free verse outpouring of an individual like Bob Dylan, the practicality of the inventors at 3M as well as the foresight of the technology wizards of Apple. Lehrer opens up the magical and collaborative world of PIXAR while shedding light on the necessity of interpersonal interaction to encourage the creative process.  From the artisitic onslaught of the Italian Renaissance to the technological  epiphanies of the Silicon Valley, creativity must be developed, nurtured and shared.

Lehrer does a phenomenal job of explaining the science of the brain and its role in the creative process as well as the importance of community to this imagination-creativity-product model.

IMAGINE will provide an opportunity for educators to re-think the process of education and the classroom environment in which the students are required to learn, develop, synthesize and  produce their masterpieces of thought.