A teacher/education blogger living in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Shelley Wright (@wrightsroom) enjoyed a career-altering experience when a course on pedagogy opened her eyes to self-directed learning. In a TED Talk delivered at TEDxWestVancouverED (@TEDxWestVanED) Wright relates that, one day, she created the space for her science class to independently launch a project. They decided to raise money for a non-profit organization attempting to build schools for Ugandan refugees. The goal of Wright's students? $20,000 in 45 days.
And so as I stood at the front of my room looking at my students, I said, 'If you could design school to be anything you wanted it to be, what would it look like? What would it sound like? What would I hear? What would I see? What would it feel like? What would you be doing?' And when they realized that I was serious, they began to write.
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That day I learned to believe in my students. To believe in what really, deeply matters to them. And to remove whatever obstacles I can to try to make that happen. More importantly, my students learned to believe in themselves. They learned that they can make a difference. They had a saying the entire forty-five days: 'We are not the future. We are right now.'
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