LightintheWoods

As part of my writing course, we participate in mock writing lessons. Yesterday was letter writing, and the assignment was to write a simulated letter from the perspective of a grade 5 student. This letter was in response to a new intern inquiring about student advice for new teachers. Here is my simulated response.

Dear Ms. Adams,

Hello Ms. Adams, thank you for writing. I think we have a lot that we can learn from each other. You seem to be very eager about your training to become the best teacher possible. You have already nailed one of the things so many teachers miss, you asked for student opinon. I really believe that more teachers need to listen to the students voice to really be able to facilitate optimal learning.

My favorite subject is Science, but I really enjoy when the teachers relate all subjects to a common theme. I also like being given choices about the types of information that I want to learn and how I am going to learn it. Sometimes I get bored because lessons are not very interesting and seem to be all lecture, all the time. I want a teacher that inspires me to learn and facilitates that process. A teachers that prepares me to make connections and links between different topics and subjects. I also must share that I like when I can collaborate with students from our class but also from around the world. I think that in order to make learning fun and engaging you need to empower the students. Yes, sometimes this means trusting us more. We need our teachers to guide us to learn how to learn. My advice is to use tools and lessons that engage your students, provide them with skills to find relevant information and conduct personal learning journies.

My advice for you is this commit yourself to being a life long learner. Model learning for your students. Relate classroom learning to real life experiences and connect students to experts in the field. Find examples of other successful classroom experiences, we learn well from other models. Connect us with other students, guide us, give us the strategies and skills to be effective learners.

Sincerely

Kyle Lichtenwald

I composed this letter and then read it to my class as part of the authors chair. Their eyes bulged out, they heard the student, they understood him. I am trying to share the idea of shifted learning with my real life network, including this second year class of soon to be teachers and this was a great opportunity.

I am blessed to be participatory in a diverse network of thinkers and learners whom mentor me on a daily basis. I am beginning a series Mentorship Recognition Pieces. I think mentorship needs to be celebrated and appreciated more and I hope to do that with through these brief Biographies.

This is a shout out for Kelly Christopherson. Kelly works tirelessly connecting online and ensuring he runs the best school possible. In his writing, Kelly devours the idea of online learning networks in real ways. The perspectives he shares at Educational Discourse are rich with reflection and advice for balancing an online learning community with the daily demands that teachers face. When he is not drafting a new post, @kwhobbes shares insight with his twitter colleagues, builds Ning communities for fellow Administrators to connect and attends a wide array of online professional development opportunities. I share Kelly’s blog because he is representative of an administrator that has shifted his thinking about learning.

Photo Credit @kwhobbes Twitter Profile