Right Now

Right now, it's your tomorrow.
Right now, c'mon, it's everything.
Right now, catch a magic moment, do it right here and now.
It means everything
-Sammy Hagar

School is starting again. New students. New ideas. Blank slate. When do we implement all these new ideas? Do we wait until the students are ready? Do we wait until everyone is on board with the plan? There is not better time to get going on new ideas than at the present moment. Do we want these students to miss anything new that will help them learn and progress? When we find something that might be revolutionary and will help students, we need to get going on it as soon as we can. Get your head around the concept and dig in.

Have students help put together. Use them as the learners they are and find out what they think. Will it help them learn better? Are they willing to try it out? I have found that one reason we don't try it out is because we, the teacher, are unsure how it will work out.

As we learn new ideas from out Personal Learning Network on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, at school, or wherever you hear and see new ideas, get your head around it and get it going.

I remember the first year I used flipped learning. I had been toying with the idea for about a year trying to figure out how I would put it into practice. It took me a year to get it into place and then it was magnificent. Students loved it. I wasted 2 years putting it together and 3 years of students that could have used this idea to learn. The reason was that I wasn't ready. It wasn't the students. We don't give students enough credit when it comes to new activities and procedures. If it is he middle of the year, we start over and teach the new procedures as we did at the beginning of the year.

There are so many activities and lessons and strategies that we can use. Don't wait. Do it right now.

What Did You Learn Today?

My son and I were having a great time watching OK GO videos on YouTube. They are amazing. As we were talking about the different ways they use their videos, he made a comment that struck me funny. He said he has had manny of his teacher show the video "The Writing's on the Wall" in class. I totally agree that it has some great lessons in that video. So I asked him what he learned from the video or what the teachers taught him as they showed it? He said, nothing. He learned nothing. It was a great video. I asked what he was learning at the time and he said he did not remember.

I don't think the teachers did not teach him anything when showing him that video. We just need to make sure the students are engaged enough in out lessons to know why we are doing what we are doing. There are many times when I have sent students home and they have said they have learned nothing. So what do we do?

We have students tell us what they learned. Taking a little time at the end of each lesson and having a couple students tell us what they learned will give them time to think about what they did and what they learned. It will also remind those around them of the lesson. Sometimes our lessons are so packed in that we are finishing the lesson as they rush out the door, but we cannot do that. Teachers need to take the time to ask one simple question at the end of the lesson and at the end of the day, "What did you learn today?"