What Will Students Learn??

A good teacher is ready to improve something new at any moment if they see something that relates to the students at that moment in time. I like the statement that “Learning is something that the learner does, not something that is done to the learner.”

In my subject area (CTE) there is a strong temptation to just do projects. I had a curriculum specialist that would always tell me, “Don’t just do the project for the projects sake.” He would always ask, “What will the student learn from this?” Every project has some way to connect to the core classes. My classroom is the best place for students to see how all the other classes come together to create things or analyze how they work.

Critical thinking is what solidifies the knowledge in the mind. It usually happens when students connect two or more things together (cross-linking). It is like a type of resin that I use to make little chess pieces with the students. It comes in 2 bottles in a liquid state. If you were to try and pour it into your hands it would leak through and be lost. If you mix the 2 together and stir for 20 seconds the result 3 minutes later is a solid piece that you can hold onto. The reason that the mixture solidifies is that the long chains of molecules are cross-linking together to form the solid. Another important part is the mold that shapes the resin while it is curing. As teachers we need to help the students connect (mix) things together or the knowledge will stay in “liquid” form and just run out. We also need to make the knowledge useful or give it shape like the mold.