In my last C4T, Brendan Jones blog title was, From Spoons to Ladles, and all in between. What an interesting topic. What he is talking about is he did not want to spoon feed his children, but he didn't want to just let them fall with no help at all. He started with notebooks and blogs. The blogs worked well, but he still had to stay on top of them for them to actually do them all. When doing the blogs They were helpful because the students could comment on each others blogs, but it is hard to comment on someone's blog who did not do theirs. Also, to do their blogs, the students must bring their laptops to class. Most students noticed that if they did, they would have to do work. So they chose not too bring theirs. Finding that Happy middle ground was pretty hard for Mr. Jones. The concept of the whole thing was to get the students to be pure inquiry, which was impossible for Junior high, but he did not want to spoon feed them either. The way they liked it. By the end of the year, they had met that happy little middle spot. Where they were actually thinking for themselves, but was not being left alone to fend for themselves. Mr. Jones is not only getting his students ready for the final exam, but for the life exam. This blog post showed me that It is not bad to try something different in your classroom sometimes. Just because other teachers are not doing it does not mean you can not either. Stand up and be that teacher that when the students move on to the next grade they will say thank you.
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