What are you chasing? (a question from Weekend Marketplace Radio)... how about "Projects in Schools"?

"The Chase" ... Marketplace Radio (weekend)

THE CHASE

The NPR Interview in 2005

"What are you chasing?"  I'm chasing "Projects in Schools."   I was bitten by a book called The Big Picture in 2005 and I've spent ten years chasing the idea that school could be a place where students pursue interests...  Here's a quote from an interview with the

See the book on Amazon

author, Dennis Littky:   "When you find out what the kid's interests are and you teach to those interests, it's no longer school."   You can find this interview by searching "npr dennis littky small school" and you'll get to >>>   NPR Interview   http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4618720   ...   I've been chasing the attention of parents, students, principals and other teachers.  

Could this idea of "let kids do projects about stuff they want to learn" really take hold?   Read the first page of Littky's book and I think you will agree.   www.TinyURL.com/LittkyChapter1.   In the past ten years I've created posters and "dancing word" videos using Littky's quote.  I've asked volunteers to translate the first chapter into Turkish, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic and French.   These efforts were piecemeal... just the first 32 pages of the book.

Portuguese translation

In two weeks the entire book will be available in SPANISH, thanks to my colleague Mario Llorente of Miami.  ....   I've posted some posters and projects that my students have created using this Big Picture idea...  

LOOK AT MINUTE 24

There is a supporting theme from Ken Robinson, the advocate of creativity and "a change in the paradigm" (a revolution in education).  His TED talks have millions of views, but there's a 28-minute talk that he gave to a conference that has just 47,000 views where he has this statement (which is now available as a poster):  IF YOU ARE THE TEACHER, YOU ARE THE EDUCATION SYSTEM FOR THOSE KIDS.

Here's the poster...

Thanks for listening and how about a click?   www.TransformTeaching.org   Steve McCrea  (954) 646 8246   steveEnglishTeacher@gmail.com   

Cricket Project

Here are links to some of the projects that my students have put together.

Translation by Rehab

The Big Picture (chapter 1) in Arabic

The theme of "the chase" made me pause this evening on May 10, 2015... This has been a ten-year quest to get the book fully translated (since hearing the NPR interview in April 2015)...and now I'm standing on the side of the road, panting, realizing that part of the chase is completed......  thank you, Marketplace Weekend, for this moment...   SteveEnglishTeacher@gmail.com
(954) 646 8246