Little boxes on the hillside..

Diana Laufenberg’s talk was very inspiring.  She is the kind of teacher I would like to work with.  Everything she said was, in my opinion, spot on.  I am a strong believer in hands on learning.  As Laufenberg pointed out, when students are involved in a project that is authentic and means something to them, they will step up.  In order to make a project authentic teachers have to include students in the thought process.  Teachers have to embrace students’ ideas and allow their voices to be heard.

Laufenberg is a strong believer in failure.  That may sound odd.  But does it have to?  Maybe it just sounds odd because we have been taught for so many years that failure is not an option.  Multiple choice tests leave no room for failure.  Either you circle the right answer or you’re wrong.  There is no gray area.  Laufenberg argues that failure itself is instructional.  The end result could be “wrong” as defined by a test booklet.  But it’s not always about the right or wrong answer, it’s about the process.  As Miley Cyrus says in her song The Climb: “Ain’t about how fast I get there.  Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side.  It’s the climb.”

We can’t put students in a box and then stuff that box full of information.  As Sir Ken Robinson pointed out in his talk, the world needs a diversity of talent.  Teaching to the test does not encourage diversity.  Multiple choice tests don’t give students the opportunity to think outside the box.  I loved Robinson’s industrial vs. agriculture analogy.  We need an agricultural model of education.  Where teachers create conditions under which students can flourish, like farmers tending to their crops.  We can’t expect every tomato to look the same or be perfectly round, but we should expect every tomato to be juicy and flavorful.

If we don’t allow students alternative ways to demonstrate their knowledge, we aren’t allowing them to live up to their full potential.  They have a wealth of information trapped inside their brains and we’ll never get it out through standardized tests.  We have to create a learning environment that encourages students to try their best and helps them realize their strengths.  When they realize what they are capable of, they’ll be intrinsically motivated to learn.