Teach and learn

It has been way to long since I posted anything and for my readers, all 1.5 of you, I am sorry. Upon the end of the school year my wife and I spent three weeks on vacation in Mexico. I will spare you the details of our tour but I will say that it was a welcomed break after a hectic school year. While we were there we were given a tour of an elementary school in the city of Zacatecas. It was beautiful, exciting, and reinvigorating. Not so much the building but the energy and excitement of elementary school students learning. Everything the students did was followed by a squeal or an energetic laugh. As we were shown around the little school I began thinking about how/why/when do students stop feeling like this about school? What takes the curiosity out of our students? For the past month I have ruminated on this koan and came up with nothing earth shattering or stunning but I have come to terms with the fact that since I stopped writing my mind has filled up with ideas and that need to be teased out an refined. I have to be disciplined and determined in my own blogging. Which, I vow to do…starting now.
I am going to try to develop my thinking voice once again. I have no links now just a thought. How can I change the world? My definition of “the world” is limited to the way my students interact with a remain curious and excited about their learning. In other words how can I help them get the squealing and excited screaming back into the classroom. My question will change with time but for now I am going to run with it.

For those of you who are interested, I have made a few changes to my Capstone paper and will be posting the current rough draft in the next few days. Please feel free to make comments on anything in regards to what it looks like.