How much longer can we deny kids opportunities?

So to those people who know me or have read some of my blog entries, you are aware that I am a very student centred type of a teacher.  I want my kids to be active participants in their learning journey, not just passive receipents.  I also do not want my skills or lack of understanding of certain concepts or ways of learning to influence the 25 young minds that I am responsible for throughout 2011. 



So what am I up on my soapbox about?  Like every teacher, I have my strengths and weaknesses and I am very open about my weaknesses.  I am the least creative person in the world and anybody that has any creativity inspires me.  I try and provide my kids with different types of creative experiences and make the 'boring stuff' fun.  For example, one of our tasks last week was to use Toondoo to create cartoons of the definitions of our spelling words.  These were then placed into a wiki within our Virtual Classroom. This week we are going to use the same logic but create movies.  I am realy looking forward to seeing what they come up with.  

 

But what about the kids in the other classes around me?  Are they getting the same learning experiences? When I talk to people about my classroom and my style of teaching, I use the saying 'hook to capture' often.  Using technology is not always the best solution to get kids to understand concepts but if it works, am I not doing an injustice to the students under my direction?



Last year I worked collobratively on a poetry unit of work with Arlene Smerherst.  I openly admit that I am not great at teaching poetry and was able to have Arlene work virtually with my children and use her expertise and skill set to increase my students understanding.  This process really excites me and things like the Kahn Academy (video blow) floats my boat. 



So my question is: why can't we have a community of learning where kids are responsible for accessing 'experts' (eg teachers) to help them along there learning journey and how can we encourage teachers and students to be a part of this?



Enjoy the video