Should I take this next step or not? What if the students will not like it? What if it is too much for me and I will become overwhelmed? What if…?
As a teacher who wants to connect students with the world in which they live; to make the learning more meaningful for them, and as a result, more exciting and fun, these “what if” scenarios enter my mind often.
This year, I have embarked on the process of stepping up that SAMR model ladder, not only for myself, but more importantly, for my students. As part of the NWOi3 project, I wrote curriculum that matched what I have been wanting to do for years, but only until recently did I have the tools. I wrote an energy unit that is a project based unit, which asks the question, “How Can I use my understanding of energy to simplify or enhance the world in which I live?” I have students three choices: 1. Make a minecraft roller coaster, 2. Make a Rube Goldberg Contraption, or 3. Invent something to simplify or enhance someone’s life.
Giving students choice and voice is a common theme in education, and hands-on learning which emphasizes real world learning that means something to the student is well documented as a solid method for engagement in the classroom. But, to add the final layer to my unit, and to reach that transformative peak of the SAMR model, the students should be sharing what they are learning with each other, the community, and possibly the world.
This is where blogging has come in for this particular unit. While I have blogged minimally over the years, I have not immersed my students in blogging. This is new to me, and requires a lot of organization, planning, and thinking on my part– maybe much more than many of my students will require–it seems to come so naturally for some of them! So, as we teachers step into these new realms like teaching science while encouraging students to share with the world through blogging, my hope is that those “what ifs….” will be answered with a better question. WHAT IF NOT?
