Summary Post C4T Teacher #3

I was assigned to Michael Kaechele's Concrete Classroom Blog. Michael always has very fascinating things to post. His past post  http://concretekax.blogspot.com/2010/10/alchemist-and-louis-lamour.html was one of my favorites. He spoke about a great book he read The Alchemist. He talked about how he feels today's teachers need to be more like Santiago in the book and less like the Englishman. His reason, Santiago was  free and learned and educated himself through learning from experts, reading, watching sheep and camels, and learning from nature. The Englishman stood for standardized learning.

I agree with Michael that we should stray away from standardization. We should help our students embrace the new way of learning. Let's teach our students to learn directly from the experts by asking them questions directly and not just by reading about what the experts have to say in  a few chapters of a book. Let's help them reach their goals and passion, like Michael suggests. Let's embrace technology and help get our student's more involved! Let's have them collaborate more with other classmates (either in their classroom or a classroom half way around the world). It's time to shed the "Englishman" and time to be "Santiago"! Our students need and deserve that!

We should never let school interfere with their education. We should encourage our students to pursue their dreams and passions and help them to embrace the new ways of learning.