As the title suggests, this post is "Better Late than Never" but the title speaks to my thinking the last few days. (the picture is bigger to make the post seem longer :) )
As I work away at preparing to teach Engineering this semester, I am reminded of how great the cognitive load is to implement change. Change is hard work. . . . It causes you to rewire your brain and make connections that weren't necessarily there before. Change is about mistakes and learning from them. Just as we say students learn from mistakes. . . we need to allow ourselves the space to do the same thing.
This semester, one of my goals is to make my Engineering class a model of what I would want to see in a classroom that is demonstrating highly effective practice from the Visible Learning research. I am working hard to ensure that the teaching strategies that I employ practice and structures in my class that are based on Visible Learning, SOLO Taxonomy and Relationship-based Learning best practices. . . . . but it's hard. It's forcing my brain to change the connections, to make new connections and for this new way of thinking to become second nature. That's not going to happen overnight, and I shouldn't expect it to. I need to allow mistakes to happen in that process, learn from them and continue to make more change.
Sal Khan earlier this year started a 'movement' on his Khan Academy site called "You can Learn Anything". I think it fits for students, teachers, principals/vice-principals, and any other human being; however, it's not all going to be easy. It's going to take hard work, determination, stress, and diligence. It's not going to be successful the first try, but it will be eventually. Learning is change, and it's not often easy, but it's worth it for teacher, for the students and for the colleagues. So why not step out on a limb, take a chance and change?
-Chris Horton-
Relevant Links
http://www.khanacademy.org/youcanlearnanything
As I work away at preparing to teach Engineering this semester, I am reminded of how great the cognitive load is to implement change. Change is hard work. . . . It causes you to rewire your brain and make connections that weren't necessarily there before. Change is about mistakes and learning from them. Just as we say students learn from mistakes. . . we need to allow ourselves the space to do the same thing.
This semester, one of my goals is to make my Engineering class a model of what I would want to see in a classroom that is demonstrating highly effective practice from the Visible Learning research. I am working hard to ensure that the teaching strategies that I employ practice and structures in my class that are based on Visible Learning, SOLO Taxonomy and Relationship-based Learning best practices. . . . . but it's hard. It's forcing my brain to change the connections, to make new connections and for this new way of thinking to become second nature. That's not going to happen overnight, and I shouldn't expect it to. I need to allow mistakes to happen in that process, learn from them and continue to make more change.
Sal Khan earlier this year started a 'movement' on his Khan Academy site called "You can Learn Anything". I think it fits for students, teachers, principals/vice-principals, and any other human being; however, it's not all going to be easy. It's going to take hard work, determination, stress, and diligence. It's not going to be successful the first try, but it will be eventually. Learning is change, and it's not often easy, but it's worth it for teacher, for the students and for the colleagues. So why not step out on a limb, take a chance and change?
-Chris Horton-
Relevant Links
http://www.khanacademy.org/youcanlearnanything