Saturday 27 October 2018

Sharing Our Story



giftEDnz Blog Challenge #27
How do you share the learning and teaching with your students?  This is
              sometimes very important for our gifted learners.  This article - “How one
                teacher let go of control to focus on student-centred approaches” is a great
example of how change can happen.


When I read this article I was thinking how this can be best harnessed for those students who
have really specific passion areas. Sometimes they fall into the realm of 'normal' age interests.
But often these can be a little 'left field.' They may be looking for others to connect with who
have the same passions but just can't find them in their learning environment.

Having student choice is a wonderful thing, but potentially having no one to share those ideas
with can be pretty deflating for our gifted kids. I think that's when the teacher/s need to step
in to fill that role while they find experts and mentors to guide these students.
Someone who they can talk to and learn from that loves it as much as they do.

Including their passion areas into the learning space and expressing an interest in
them can be both a positive and motivational way to get other students interested.
Knowing our students well means we can approach this in an authentic and caring way.
Being an active listener when someone shares their interests can mean they feel a
sense of well being, connection and confidence from positive discussion and sharing about
what is most important to them. It doesn't mean we take their voice away, we just support
them to share theirs with confidence.Specifically targeting and celebrating their strengths can help morph an unmotivated learner into someone who sees their own self worth.

If you look at student centred learning or learner agency we should be looking at areas
such as their hauora and wairua, really giving our students the chance to have their voice
or story heard. Recently I read about #storyhui that was shared at uLearn by Kerri Thompson
and Sandra Howard after their work in a team as part of a Teacher Led Innovation Fund.
This is an area that I think is really valuable to take student centred approach to the next level, especially within a New Zealand context that considers key competencies and learner capabilities. Here is a brief overview of her presentation:

Source- Kerri Thomson, uLearn 2018

I love the idea of taking a concept such as 'student centred learning' and making it more meaningful, purposeful and relatable for our kiwi kids! I'm looking forward to finding out more about #storyhui and how it can support our learners to share their voice.

Ngā Mihi,

Bex

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