What does Mike Wesch believe about how students learn?
How does he act on those beliefs?
"I had become comfortable and I had stopped learning" (Wesch, 2016).
Through Mike Wesch's study he found many students felt a disconnection between classes and their life. From his experiences, he found that teachers would complain about the same issues that students had.
His son George opened his eyes about the purpose and motivation of learning.
For Mike, real learning is about the questions that you can build from the class. The questions that push you to grow, questions that you can take outside of the classroom. He decided to dig deeper, by holding one on one DEEP conversations daily with his students. The conversations are based on these three questions:
- Who am I?
- What am I going to do?
- Am I going to make it?
Mike Wesch changed his teaching so that he could give his students the learning experiences they needed so that they had the resources to get through the challenges in life. Dr. Wesch saw this in his son George. Baby George is shown love and compassion by his parents, so in return he learned to love himself enough to give the stairs another chance, every time.
He brought that experience into the classroom, but tuning into the special capabilities of all of our students. Building a connection, to truly know who our students are and using that to help build their learning. This real learning is more than a letter or a number grade on a state test. This real learning is a recurring action, that will lead the student to their ultimate success. 
I love the images you added! Great visuals!
ReplyDeleteHi Priscilla,
ReplyDeleteI love the images too! It is so important to develop meaningful relationships with our students. Our students will engage and feel encouraged to push forward in learning if they know that they are valued and supported.
That last visual with the quote feels like part of your belief statement! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat images! I feel the same way about the importance of building relationships with your students to help them succeed. Support/belief in them goes a long way!
ReplyDelete