In Response to The Nuts & Bolts of 21st Century Teaching

The Blog post The Nuts & Bolts of 21st Century Teaching (http://plpnetwork.com/2011/03/22/the-nuts-bolts-of-21st-century-teaching/) was inspirational. Blogger Shelley Wright is on to something extraordinary with her teaching method of facilitating her students' learning about the Holocaust. It is common knowledge that the best way to learn information, is to teach it - since you are accountable for relaying information to others you are accountable for the information and will research and learn more.

Shelley facilitated this project wonderfully and led her students on a great journey of discovery. Their excitement and enthusiasm was contagious, so much so that even Shelley was infected with the excitement of her students and the project at hand.

I think what was really great (aside from the facilitated, inquiry-based learning) was that when Shelley felt a roadblock had been hit, she did not give up, or get frustrated, she turned to her colleagues through her blog post. The information she received was valuable to her and her students and helped them not only find a great way to move forward on the project, but to connect and understand each other better as students, learners, and educators.

I think it is important to create an atmosphere of discovery where inquiry-based learning can take place. I believe this atmosphere empowers students and enables wonderful learning opportunities to take place. It allows to students to converse, brainstorm, share ideas, get creative, and learn in a way that works for them as individual learners. Shelley's post has given me ideas and inspiration for future lessons and projects i would like to do in a classroom one day.

I would be willing to bet those 10th graders will always remember the work they did on that Holocaust unit, and that they probably learned more about the Holocaust through that project than they did in other classes that covered the same topics.