Quotes that sum up this chapter, in my mind...
"Teachers know everybody, which is exactly why I know opportunities are everywhere."
"When you ask for help, you'll find that the overwhelming majority of people are excited about helping students succeed."
"Encouraging students to get out into the world and connect with people empowers them to have meaningful, even life-changing experiences."
Wow - soooo true. Even if we don't know someone for a particular topic or research - people we do know may know someone. Especially in our digital age, it is so easy to throw out a plea to our network and they can suggest someone or forward the plea on to their networks and we can't even imagine the potential results! Just as we expect our students to be - we cannot be afraid to ask for help; whether it be from someone in our building, our district, our town, state or even world-wide via social media. There are so many experts out there waiting to help.
I love the life-changing experiences part too - even something as simple as connecting a student or students to a professional in the area might lead to a future career choice for them. We never know what ripples may start with us and carry out to areas of our students lives that we cannot even see or fathom at this point.
What were your key take-aways from this chapter?
I love the line about students finding their own collaborators and projects. It amazes me with my population, the students who are computer wizards--the other students know who to go to when they are stuck. This book reminds me daily to tap into their abilities and interests and keep learning innovative!
ReplyDeleteThis chapter has caused me to begin thinking about people I may know who could share with our students their expertise. I work with elementary students so it looks a little different especially for the younger students. But, since spring has just begun, I'm thinking of who could share with students activities their job(s) might involve that have to do with spring, or are affected by springtime. I work with ELL students and don't assume they know all the words and meanings that have to do with the different seasons. Some come from countries that don't experience all of the seasons like we do. If anyone has any suggestions, please share! Thx.
ReplyDeleteThe take away from this chapter for me was looking at getting my students more involved with career paths in the STEM fields. I think I would like to get students to create projects that deal with the STEM field and how they would like to be involved in any aspect. It definitely put my mind in motion on gaining ideas on how to get students either out in the community or looking up STEM fields and how math is involved. Not always does my math class have to be purely about the math...it can involve career opportunities and other options based off of a math content background.
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