Week 4

A common thread of all of my post is the importance of empowering the students. We must give them authentic experiences to understand why material is important and apply it to their present and future lives. All too often on social media I see friend complain about how they were cheated in high school by never being taught finical literacy. I personally would argue that these skills were taught. However, many of my classmates were not able to see the true application when it was presented. To some extent I can relate. After graduating from college I attended a very expensive college to become a teacher. Do I regret my choice based upon my education? Absolutely not! Do I financially regret my decision and wish I would have better understood money as an 18 year old? Absolutely! That is why I find this article so powerful http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161027005895/en/Bank-Ramsey-Solutions-Celebrate-Education-Million-Students Dave Ramsey and Fifth Third bank have teamed up to present a student centered curriculum to provide high schools students with a student centered approach to finical literacy. What better way to learn these strategies than from a major bank and a well respected financial annalist. Heck they are even incorporating some of the strategies of the flipped model with asynchronous videos!

Are ESL students eager to learn? Is extra tutoring beneficial? Take a look at this article http://www.centralctcommunications.com/newbritainherald/article_b2ab26f6-9a57-11e6-ba6f-7715fb5f1625.html it will really help you to see where motivation can take you! When students are motivated to learn and teachers motivated to teach great things can happen!

Throughout this blog I have spoken about how a student centered approach/real world experiences can impact our learners. However, how do authentic experiences impact our teaching? Check out this article http://klewtv.com/news/local/lcsc-professor-brings-his-travels-of-the-world-into-his-classroom
to see how traveling the world can impact your teaching and our ESL instruction.

This week my students will post their first blog post about their individual Genius Hour project. I am very excited to see what they produce. Thus far I have received positive and supportive feedback from my parents. I truly hope my students’ student centered projects make a difference on their individual education!