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hi i miss art really much and i can stop being sad because  i really miss school really really much i have everone in my mind

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hi i miss art really much and i can stop being sad because  i really miss school really really much i have everone in my mind

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Marion Brady brings up some good points in her article about teaching students to think.   

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Marion Brady brings up some good points in her article about teaching students to think.   

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E: I am excited about the ideas in this article because more than ever we need students (and all people) to be able to think for themselves. Rapid social change is happening in the mists of many other distractions such as social media and fake news.  We need thinkers in the world more than ever before.  The children, as engaged thinkers, can contribute now and later.
W: In my opinion knowledge passed down from the elders is important.  I am a bit worried that the author, in my humble opinion, was putting down the elders.
N: I need to know what best teaching practices will allow for a successful unit on inquiry to be taught? How can we propel
thinking to the next level that goes beyond memorization? In my art classes I have chosen to teach some units based on the teaching for artistic behavior pedagogy. This is a teaching method that considers the child the artist and supports student directed instead of teacher directed artwork. Today while teaching, grade one students got to go to the stations they were interested in. Some choose to gather around another student as he did a demo of how to cut out a heart. After, those who were interested, stayed and practiced cutting hearts. They learned in a deeper way since they choose it and were interested.  How can I follow students lead and offer a deeper plunge with the interest of the hearts by connecting it to the world with some creative challenge during our next class? Of course participation in this challenge would be a choice.
S: My understanding of the issue is that inquiry based teaching is important in order to ensure the growth of thinking skills. My next step could be to join an IB Facebook page. Does one exist?

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"Cover The Material or Teach Students to Think" Pre- Assignment

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"Cover The Material or Teach Students to Think" Pre- Assignment

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In the article, “Cover The Material or Teaching Students to Think” from Teaching Students to Think, author Marion Brady addresses the realistic challenges the United States Public Schools face in today’s society, lack of thinking skills. Brady reports that rapid societal changes have made just recalling information or rote learning inadequate for teaching students higher-level thinking skills need to understand the world around them. Times have changed and so have the academic needs of our students. The United States Public School System is being urged to alter the education system from covering material in textbooks and “how much do you remember?”, to focusing on the thought process and teaching students to “ examine, elaborate and refine their thinking skills and put a deliberate use of converting information into knowledge and knowledge into wisdom”. Teachers have the ability to form a society of problem solvers through second hand knowledge.

This article presents many philosophies towards education that excite me and align with my personal philosophy about how students learn best.  For instance, exciting students with a broad, yet familiar central idea allows students the opportunity to wonder, make connections and problem solve collaboratively through interdisciplinary units. Each student will build their own understanding, at their own level, while using higher-level thinking skills.

In my opinion, while this approach to teaching is ideal, the state and national expectations make secondhand teaching difficult. Also, it concerns me that teachers are often fighting with time constraints and curriculum demands, making a creativity learning environment more challenging.

After reading this article I am very curious to know how other schools using this I.B. philosophy align units from great level and are able to assess students knowledge in a creative way. I am also curious how early elementary grade levels are able to use interdisciplinary teaching when introducing basic foundational skills such as; phonemic awareness, letter recognition and number sense.

Currently, I feel secure in this “open-ended” type of teaching which aligns with the philosophy of teaching thinking. I do believe teachers need more  focused time collaborating interdisciplinary units that reflect the current students needs. Therefore, each unit should be carefully adapted on a yearly basis. Assessing the students knowledge at the end of the unit has been a struggle for me since pencil and paper assessments to not accurately assess the students knowledge. My hope would be to improve our assessments and update our current units to truly teach the central idea rather than rote recall. My school’s diverse community of learners thrives on having the ability to form opinions and critically think about problems which they could solve. This type of empowerment has encouraged students to be risk-takers and questions their surrounding and others in appropriate ways. These are the members of society our country needs!