23 July 2015

Learn Like A Pirate - Chapter #8 - Empowerment

Welcome to our last week chatting about the book Learn Like A Pirate.  This week we are thinking about empowerment.  How can we help our kids to feel empowered, take risks, and make learning relevant to them?

My favorite part of the chapter was the ending when Paul listed many of the elements that students gain when they are empowered in the classroom.  These included:  choice, community, disagreement, excitement, expertise, impact, leadership, passion, positive self-worth, reflection, relevance, resilience, self-assessment, success, voice, and wonder!  Don't you wish this for all of your students?

Paul spoke about "Passion Time" which is a time where kids can work through a research based project about something they care a lot about.  The procedure sounds great and would be something I would LOVE to try out (even though my firsties would need some giant modifications), but (and here we go back to chapter 2...) our district just keeps adding expectations and there isn't enough time in the day.  That said, I don't plan to leave it at this - I hope to have a conversation with my amazing boss about a way to make this work!  I will keep you updated!

Until then read what else some of my sweet friends had to say!


1 comment:

  1. Abbey - I really enjoyed reading your posts throughout this book study! Thank you so much for taking the time to read, reflect, and record your thoughts for everyone to read! If you or any of your readers ever have any questions, please email me at psolarz@sd25.org and I will do my best to answer those questions! I will also be creating a FAQ page at learnlikeapirate.com in the coming weeks. Thanks again!!!
    - Paul Solarz

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