Turkey Crossing

How to get connected with classroom 2.0 tools and most importantly how to get connected with you students.

Do you listen to your kids?

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July 02, 2007 02:57 PM PDT

Students evaluating teachers...sounds scary doesn't it. It can be for many teachers. What if we actually asked kids how we are doing? Why don't all teachers do this? I know that the evaluations I give my kids half-way through the year and again at the end have been some of my most cherished pieces of paper, and well...some of the most eye opening. I have changed and grown an incredible amount based on my students' evaluations. It really does not matter how we felt the year went, what matters most is how it went in the minds of the students. In this podcast I was going to reflect on how I have grown over the years by listening to my kids, but I think I got stuck on those few evaluations from students that thought I was just fair, and the couple of kids evaluations that thought I was m m m m m....miserable.

Podcast Summary

This is a podcast about education and my attempt to use classroom 2.0 tools in my classroom. I examine topics that often go unmentioned in education classes, professional development, and journals. In this crazy world of NCLB and amazing technologies entering the classroom, this podcast is a reminder that we need to first give children our love, not our thoughts. If you are focused on getting your kids to get higher test scores and learn facts, this is not the podcast for you. If you are focused on building relationships with your students and letting them develop the skills needed to survive in the 21st Century, then take a listen.

My Blog and wiki

http://www.blogush.edublogs.org
http://www.edhead.wikispaces.com
http://www.morecowbell.wikispaces.com

Class wiki and Blog

www.collaborationnation.wikispaces.com
www.pbogush.edublogs.org

The following story captures the spirit of my podcast.

I awoke early, as I often did, just before sunrise to walk by the ocean's edge and greet the new day. As I moved through the misty dawn, I focused on a faint, far away motion. I saw a youth, bending and reaching and flailing arms, dancing on the beach, no doubt in celebration of the perfect day soon to begin.
As I approached, I sadly realized that the youth was not dancing to the bay, but rather bending to sift through the debris left by the night's tide, stopping now and then to pick up a starfish and then standing, to heave it back into the sea. I asked the youth the purpose of the effort. "The tide has washed the starfish onto the beach and they cannot return to the sea by themselves," the youth replied. "When the sun rises, they will die, unless I throw them back to the sea."
As the youth explained, I surveyed the vast expanse of beach, stretching in both directions beyond my sight. Starfish littered the shore in numbers beyond calculation. The hopelessness of the youth's plan became clear to me and I countered, "But there are more starfish on this beach than you can ever save before the sun is up. Surely you cannot expect to make a difference."
The youth paused briefly to consider my words, bent to pick up a starfish and threw it as far as possible. Turning to me he simply said, "I made a difference to that one."
I left the boy and went home, deep in thought of what the boy had said. I returned to the beach and spent the rest of the day helping the boy throw starfish in to the sea.
...based on the story by Loren Eisley