A Teacher's Ruminations

This is the first in a series of blog posts about different strategies I use to help my students take ownership of their learning. Today's post is about class meetings . Recently there was an online debate about what comes first, ownership of learning or engagement? Although I don't think we came to a consensus on this, we did agree that both are important and need to be cultivated with equal force. As for me, some days I think engagement must come first and other days I am convinced that giving kids control over their learning is what will get them engaged. Therefore, I try to strike a balance between the two because I think some kids may not ready to take control of their learning. They have been too coddled or never given the opportunity to make even simple decisions in the classroom. Therefore, they become entirely dependent on the teacher to make all decisions for them. It takes a long time to break that dependency, but it's well worth it for the children and the he...