This situation made me think about how children have more to offer teachers and classrooms than we usually allow. It was interesting to me to watch a video recently, a TEDtalk on YouTube titled "What adults can learn from kids" in the video Adora said that teachers should be learning from their students. This is an interesting point of view. I know in previous classes in our program we have talked about being students of our students, studying them to get to know all we can about them. But, this perspective is different. This video and our recent math discussion has caused me to think more about listening to what my students have to offer and to not underestimate my students' thinking.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Learning from students
This past week when I spent time having math discussions with third grade students, I came to the conclusion that we sometimes do not realize how our students understand more than we give them credit for. During our math discussion, I had one little boy who looked at a series of dots and grouped them in such an advanced way in order to count them. It was more advanced grouping than I would have thought of in the three seconds he was able to see them and count. When I remove myself from the situation and think about that little boy, I see him as a third grader, as a student who still has so much to learn. Although, when I think about his thinking he shared with us I realize that he is older in a way that we are not able to see.
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Wow, I must say, your writing in this entry captures me as particularly profound, Kristin. You have tapped into exactly what I am passionate about! To imagine that you are beginning your career as someone with this type of insight makes for a very exciting practice. When I was first reading your entry, I too was thinking about the idea of being a student of our students. What I appreciated was how you pushed further to connect this to listening. Listening has become my biggest research curiosity. I just wrote an article on listening-- would you be interested in reading it? It won't be published until next fall. I would love to talk with you more about this if you're interested-- I could learn a lot from your thinking.
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