TEDTalk- Week 2

I never knew how much students could accomplish on their own, without much guidance, until I watched TED with Sugata Mitra. No, this is not the goal for a teacher, to just give the material, and have the students learn it on their own. But, it does allow us to open our eyes a bit to the different types of learning opportunities available to students. Students need to be given the chance to inquire, but that also needs to be supported in a positive manner. Rather that is a teacher leading the students to a new question, or group follow-ups, where everyone can learn from each other, students need to be pushed to think on their own.
Educational specialist Sugata Mitra did some amazing research. He went to areas in the world where there are no teachers. He gave the students educational technology, and left. When he checked in with the students months later learning had happened. Remember, these students has never seen a computer, and didn't even speak the language, but they were still able to teach themselves. There is a huge value in being able to learn on your own,  being able to learn from others, and to be able to teach others. Teachers need to start looking at all the different ways students can learn, not necessarily just from the teachers themselves, but from other sources. We need to make students question things, not just give them the answers, or show them how to do it, or how it works. We need to develop the minds of the students, and teach them, and encourage them to inquire about their world.

My Curriculum Experience- Week 1

      I don't have any experience in creating curriculum. The only experience I have is following it. During my student teaching I created unit plans that aligned with the state standards, and the schools curriculum. But other then that I'm relatively inexperienced with it. After getting my teaching degree I became a stay at home mother, so I never had a chance to dig into a school district and really look into how their curriculum is formed.
      Living on a military base I have some really strong questions about how their curriculum is formed. Having students have to move across the country, and to other countries I feel make make a more universal curriculum necessary. Schools and teachers need to make sure the students are all learning the correct content, at specific times. Otherwise, they may be learning the same things years in a row. DOD (Department of Defense) has their own school system, referred to as DOD Schools, or DODEA (Department of Defense Education Activity). I would be very interested to learn how the DODEA curriculum aligns with the public school systems.