Do you ever stop and think about who you learn from? The people who push your thinking. The people who will look you, right in the eye, and ask you the hard questions that you are too scared to ask yourself. The kids in your classroom who ask you a question that stops you and makes you say “Why not?” The people who challenge what you think is a perfect idea, and somehow make the idea even stronger. True collaboration is about give and take. It’s about learning from each other. When you open your teaching and learning to what others think, say, and do, something happens. You improve. Not because you were too horrible of a teacher to come up with your own new ideas. Because you were such a great teacher you saw the value in learning with, and from, others.
February 19, 2013 at 6:54 pm
Ms. Venosdale, I am very thankful to have the opportunity to comment on your blog. I am a student at the University of South Alabama and I have been assigned to your blog this week in my EDM310 class. Last week as part of an assignment we had to view your blog “If I Built A School”. I must say I was inspired by the description of your “Dream School”. The opportunity to see students really embrace learning would be awesome.
Having people challenge my thoughts was tough at first. However, once I embraced the idea of re-opening my thought process to innovation and change, it has allowed me to tap into a much deeper realm of thinking and my overall approach to life and learning. Not only am I student, I am also a husband and a dad of four. My wife and children have been the most influencing into this change of thought. Being happily married takes a different level of commitment than just saying “I Do”. Being a husband and a father really was the most challenging, but group collaboration in my education classes has really opened a totally different area of challenges. The people in my class groups, for the most part, want me expand my thought to produce an overall good product for an “A”. However, the way they get to a solution may be a totally new way of thinking than I had ever experienced. I can only imagine what it will be like when students in my future classroom, set the bar even higher with new ways of approaching an idea. Thank you so much for your inspiration and refreshing ideas.