Thursday, February 15, 2007

Silence is deafening


For some time now I have been blogging in an attempt to expose educators and leaders in education to the possibilities that exist if one were to change how we teach using the read/write web. Many people that I know have praised and encouraged me for the support I give to this initiative. Occasionally I will receive an e-mail from someone I don't know and we exchange some thoughts. The real conversation that I am hoping for has not been occurring through this blog. I can see from cluster maps that many people are in fact reading the blog......but they're silent. Why? I have always been a risk taker and I think that the teachers and administrators know that to me, no idea is a bad idea. That taking risks is something I encourage and admire. Is there something about putting ideas in "print" that scares people?

It's time for a challenge. Time for the dialogue to really begin without fear of criticism or retribution. What is is that people are thinking when we talk about changing our high schools and instruction? We are all aware and I think believe as educators that there needs to be more relevance and rigor (coined by Bill Daggett). How do we do it? IF you had the autonomy to change what you teach in your respective course, what would you change? What "content" are you teaching that you feel has little relevance to your subject area? In other words, what would you stop teaching? What would you replace it with? Why are you teaching it to begin with?

If we are to make fundamental changes we need to have the conversation. At the same time, I will continue to maintain the the read/write web has so much to offer our students. The amount of information they can be exposed to exceeds anything we can do in a 50 minute period. They need to read critically and determine if the information is reliable, useful, applicable to their learning. We also know that to be successful in life, in work, individuals need to be 'team players', collaborators......the read/write web offers many opportunities.

Lets see your thoughts. Never mind thinking 'out of the box'.......throw the box away!

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