Rethink Learning Now

When I was 17 I went to the Rhode Island School of Design for a summer pre-college program. I went there to see what it would be like to be an art student and to experience life away from my family for the first time. I was a fairly sheltered child, a do-gooder who thrived on pleasing the adults in my life. As a strong student I was unaccustomed to failure, or really, even challenge. So, understandably, there were many things that happened that summer which would qualify as powerful...

It can be difficult to describe a single moment in which something of any great value was learned, that is without also describing a series of preceding moments, or perhaps its results (which may extend over the course of several years or more). Many important moments in life, I have found, are not important in an of themselves (or at least may not seem so at the surface), but rather act more as sparks that ignite larger fires after reflection, making connections with past experiences, and...

In our Education 201 class the professor helped us learn by breaking us up into groups. We first were broken up by the age group we wanted to teach and then by different personalities so we could each bring something different to the group. This helped us learn and come up with strong ideas in the class. By being in these groups it made the learning more fun and enjoyable. The professor was very nice and treated us like adults which made the class more realistic. She made a great impact on...

Eleventh grade was the year that I had the two best teachers. One was a history teacher, Mr O'Donnell. He started off each topic with a detailed story that made history come alive. He managed to put us in the room with the historical characters he told us about. Sometimes his stories were from the point of view of anonymous people who were part of the crowd and other times they were from the perspective of the people making history. Describing an average morning in the life of Abraham...

After teaching math and special education for 10 years in a variety of high schools and middle schools, I began teaching at Souhegan High School in Amherst, NH. When Souhegan opened in 1992, it's guiding documents centered around the principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools. The practices of asking students to be a partner in their education and to demonstrate their learning through exhibitions has allowed students to actively engage in their education and grow as individuals. ...

I was 19 and in an instructor training course for Colorado Outward Bound. We had backpacked in to Snowmass Lake, and then crossing a steep snowfield (late June) climbed up over beautiful wildflower covered slopes into a high col in the ridge between Snowmass and the next cirque to the north under Capitol Peak. Just as we came into the col, a huge thunderstorm blew in from the north. Lightening was striking the peaks around us, and thunder was echoing back and forth across the cirque. The...

I am a teacher in a Title I school in Phoenix, AZ. For the past six years, I have been able to raise the funds to take some of my students to the Grand Canyon to take a class called "Dynamic Earth." It is taught by the Park Rangers, who specifically deal with education and align the trips to the AZ State Standards. Many of these students have never been out of their neighborhoods. When we get to the Flagstaff area and view the San Francisco Peaks (our tallest mountains -- over 12,000...

My favorite teacher of all time was an after-school teacher named Mr. Greenhut. He took me and several other kids around New York City taking photographs and then showed us how to develop them in a darkroom. His teaching method was such that he took us exploring outside of the classroom. He exposed me to things like my first Indian food meal and opened my eyes to parts of the city I had never discovered. He also challenged typical notions of success and taught us that art is completely...

We enrolled our son in a Waldorf-inspired preschool at the age of 2.5. During the next two years, he thrived in an environment that emphasized respect and empathy for his peers that was modeled by his teachers. Electronic media were NEVER used. Children took many nature/outdoor hikes/walks. They helped teachers cook and clean. Learning was also CHILD-DIRECTED, with teachers encouraging children to ask questions and "find out more" whenever possible. This year, in preparation for public...

I am a teacher in a Title I school in Phoenix, AZ. For the past six years, I have been able to raise the funds to take some of my students to the Grand Canyon to take a class called "Dynamic Earth." It is taught by the Park Rangers, who specifically deal with education and align the trips to the AZ State Standards. Many of these students have never been out of their neighborhoods. When we get to the Flagstaff area and view the San Francisco Peaks (our tallest mountains -- over 12,000...

My transformative learning experience took place in an accelerated high school where juniors and seniors were exposed to college-level work and scheduling in a boarding school environment. There were no class rankings, so my 250 classmates and I were free to explore our interests in challenging courses we might otherwise have avoided. And we were freed from competition with one another. Since the stakes were low, we could aim as high as we liked. There were tutorial sessions four nights per...

I have been teaching, formally and informally, for over ten years accumulating many interesting stories and experiences along the way. One of those experiences stands out from all the rest as a lesson and reminder as to why I teach. Unlike most of my teaching experiences this particular one was not planned nor was it in the United States. Towards the end of a volunteering vacation at a boys orphanage in Guatemala I realized that there was a sluggish pattern to the young boys school days,...