I just watched a TED talk with Dave Eggers. I haven't read his work yet, but this talk was amazing! Especially since I used to work for a non-profit doing writing workshops. This was fabulous. Something that stuck with me was his comment about how the tutoring centers were like school, but were not school. He said there was something about walking through these hilarious storefronts to get to the work area that shifted something in the minds of the students. I keep wondering how we have gone so wrong in schools, and can it be made right?

This week for class, I really was inspired by the readings. The Kupperman idea that we need to have an audience that truly cares about us... reminds me of something one of the guest speakers for another class once said... the one thing that makes the biggest difference in a child's life (any child) is having at least one person, be it a parent, relative, teacher, etc. who is just absolutely crazy about that kid. The motivator is that feeling of worth. I have a feeling kids and teachers are all mostly disconnected, so that doesn't often happen in the confines of everyday classrooms.

In response to Shawn's recent post, I know this is all the equivalent of mind vomit, but I am reeling. Allowing kids to help design and reflect on activity in the class (or online in games such as the ones that were read about this week) makes for much deeper learning while also reinforcing that their participation truly matters. Fred Goodman's 'feedforth' idea sums this up nicely as do the ideas of meta-discourse and ironist curriculum. Not only do you expect the students to reflect on their activities and progress toward goals, but also to reflect and tweak the goals themselves.