Summary Post C4T #2

My second teacher I have been following is Michael Kaechele from Michigan, and he is a concrete artist technology teacher. The first post I read was called Sustained Silent Reading On-line. He talked about how many teachers use the term GRAB (Go Read a Book), for sustained silent reading in their classroom. Michael brought up a good point in his post, why do students have to grab a book or bring a book to class for sustained silent reading? Michael tired letting is class go online and read on the computer. His rules for on-line reading are: no games, music, or videos.


I love this idea of you allowing students' to read online. Growing up I remember always having to read books my teachers selected for me. Most of the books I did not enjoy at all. I like how Michael gave his class the opportunity to read something on the internet that interest them. Not only did he give them options to what they read, but he also allowed them to become familiar with the internet. This keeps the students online which is good because learning how to use technology is very important for students today. I believe this on-line reading is an excellent idea, and is something that many other teachers should try.


The second post I read by Michael was called Art Prize. He and his family visited the second annual Art Prize; which is a competition displayed all over Grand Rapids. He showed us many different art pieces from the competition. They found an exhibit of hundreds of ceramic pieces that look like shells on a wood floor, and his son and daughter went straight to playing with these pieces. His son started separating them by his favorite colors, and his daughter spelled out her name. This brought to Michael’s attention that he never had to tell his kids to “go play”, they automatically started doing learning on their own. This idea, is how Michael feels learning in the classroom should be for children.

This post really made me start to think. Why should we force students to learn? Shouldn’t learning be something they enjoy doing, something they do they way they want to and at the pace they feel comfortable? I have learned in this class that not every student learns the same as other students. In his post Michael said, "We don't need to teach students to be creative artists. We need to get out of the way and let them be artists!" This is exactly right. Children can teach us! They can show us the ways they like to learn. Every student is different, and has his or her own learning pace. Michael’s posts were terrific! He gave me many ideas as a future educator. I recommend checking out his blog if you have time, http://concretekax.blogspot.com/