Finished the Book.. Now for some notes

I finished Choice without Chaos by Anne Bedrick a week or so ago but never had a chance to post again, so I'm going to go chapter by chapter and comment on some highlights I made while reading. I really enjoyed reading in the iBook format, it was really simple and clean and had nice tools for annotations. It also had video clips built into some chapters to make it interactive. I'm going to make my notes italicized

So..
Chapter One:

"Each class begins with a demo or discussion to inspire students to explore new concepts or try media that they might not have otherwise considered. (pg. 10)"

"Students without an idea work on whatever was demo'd. (pg. 10)"

I liked this immediately but wondered how it was different then what I did already. Later in the book it is discussed that the demos and discussions are rarely longer than five minutes. This keeps class moving and maximizes making time. the second quotes makes sense and helps to reign in students who come without an idea or maybe even those having a bad day and not feeling inspired.

"The more that they become used to the structure of a choice program, the more often they will come to class with ideas that they want to try. (pg. 11)"

"Allowing students to choose what to work on, guarantees that they are working on projects that motivate them.(pg. 14)"

So true. I have been easing my kids into the idea of having their own ideas and coming to class with them. After one week of giving them an option they are all excited to come back and finish what they started. I have tried to do something else more than once and they always remind me about that piece they started the last week. It makes me excited to think that this is the type of enthusiasm I'm getting without centers and short demos.

"The sad reality is the by the time students get to college, much of the ability to think for themselves has been trained out of them. (pg 12)"

"People are built to be learners, they want to explore the ideas that intrigue them, but school rarely allows them to time to do so. (pg. 14)

This is what I'm getting at. We need to teach our kids how to think, not what to think. I know I'm much more inclined to learn and retain something if I'm motivated and interested. For example [and totally off topic] this evening I saw a picture of a woman's foot that had been bound and it intrigued and made me wonder. So I looked it up and learned about the painful tradition practice. The point is that I found it interesting and wanted to know more so I dug a little deeper. So, I really think that when you let kids follow their interests they are going to learn much more than if I dictate something to them. That brings me to the next quote..

"They do it because it is the assignment, but "doing is not the same as understanding, and following a teacher's directions is not the same as learning.(pg. 15)

"Anyone with time to practice finding and solving problems can learn to be creative. (pg. 18)"

Amen. My kids tell me all the time. "Ms. Alexa, you're so creative!" I always tell them that they can be too, they just have to practice and since I'm older than them I've had more practice.

I'm going to end this [much longer than I expected] post with this last quote that pretty much sums up why I think choice-based learning is important to our future generations..

"But, if they grow up being the one in a room to see the possibilities in the world around them and evaluating whether or not the things they see are ideas worth investigating, is that the kind of adult I want to help create. (pg. 19)"

Next few chapters soon, going to find a way to summarize and organize for the next one.