Comments on: Enough with the downtime, time for a challenge… http://justathought.edublogs.org/2010/08/19/enough-with-the-downtime-to-for-a-challenge/ A space to solidify ideas and reflect on the art of teaching Sun, 12 May 2013 18:25:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://edublogs.org/?v=3.5.1 By: egregory http://justathought.edublogs.org/2010/08/19/enough-with-the-downtime-to-for-a-challenge/comment-page-1/#comment-243 egregory Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:04:05 +0000 http://justathought.edublogs.org/?p=198#comment-243 @Cindy – My former art students really owned the classroom, and I’ve been thinking about how to find the happy place for letting the kids have control in a gr. 4/5 setting. Thanks for the input…and I’m still smiling too!

@Claire – I really like your 2nd and 3rd tips for bringing ‘challenge’ to the students. So much of our culture is about making things ‘easy’, but life is often the opposite. The more I think about this, the important challenge seems to be.

@Ken – It was a great summer! Glad to hear I picked a resource that will work! That was one of my many questions I need to ask you before school starts!

]]> By: Ken http://justathought.edublogs.org/2010/08/19/enough-with-the-downtime-to-for-a-challenge/comment-page-1/#comment-242 Ken Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:26:08 +0000 http://justathought.edublogs.org/?p=198#comment-242 It sounds like it was a great summer! 6+1 compliments Reading Power nicely. Your students are lucky to have you. Happy teaching and learning.

]]> By: Claire Thompson http://justathought.edublogs.org/2010/08/19/enough-with-the-downtime-to-for-a-challenge/comment-page-1/#comment-240 Claire Thompson Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:42:56 +0000 http://justathought.edublogs.org/?p=198#comment-240 Errin, glad to hear that your 1 week of holidays turned into a month :D As for getting students to enjoy challenge:
- model it, which is I’m sure what *you* do without even thinking about it!
- help students to understand that challenges are supposed to be, well, challenging. That means that failure is not only an option, it is very likely. If we acknowledge our failures and how we are learning from them, I think that helps students too. “Gee, I really thought that the new approach I took would work out, but yesterday’s lesson wasn’t very successful. Here’s what I learned from that and this is why we’re going to do things a little differently today”.
- assign work that is challenging, but accessible to all of your students.
When I worked in face-to-face setting I found that when I told my students–”This lab activity is challenging, so don’t worry if you don’t find what you’re looking for right away, and if you start to get a little frustrated that’s ok too. When you do find it, it is going to feel so cool!”–it really made a big difference.

All the best with all of your challenges :-)

]]> By: Cindy http://justathought.edublogs.org/2010/08/19/enough-with-the-downtime-to-for-a-challenge/comment-page-1/#comment-239 Cindy Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:59:01 +0000 http://justathought.edublogs.org/?p=198#comment-239 I’m still smiling!

For my minor radical two cents worth on how do we teach students to enjoy challenge – let go of your teacher power – hands of the knowledge and learning, guide, and let the students take control of the knowledge and their own learning. And abolish grades!

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