[Applause]
so this is a picture of my daughter’s
shoes at first glance nothing special
here but look closely and you will see
that my daughter’s are wearing
mismatched pairs of shoes on purpose
without any warning – they’re now
slightly embarrassed parents at the time
my husband and I exchanges of course
they did this look and casually captured
the moments but this image has come to
symbolize my evolution as an educator
why shouldn’t my kids be allowed to wear
mismatched pairs of shoes why shouldn’t
they have a choice in their own footwear
and apparel and as I look back at this
image I’m reminded that kids should have
a choice and that is what self-directed
learning is a voice and a choice so I
always knew I wanted to be a teacher
when I drew this picture around 2nd
grader so I said I wanted to be a
teacher because kids are nice not
because I wanted to teach them all about
Gerrans comma splices and rhetorical
devices but because I liked kids I like
to teaching and even then i liked
learning this picture still hangs on my
refrigerator as a reminder my job as an
educator is not to ensure my students
can name all the important characters in
crucible but to ensure my students walk
away from my class with a feeling of
being lights of being challenged of
being respected but most importantly I
believe students should have a voice in
their own education so I ask you this if
you could learn anything
what would you learn and if you’re an
adult remember what it was like to go to
school and attend class after class and
if you’re a student consider the
possibility that you could learn
whatever you choose what would you do
I started teaching at the ripe old age
of 22 my students were 17 it was truly a
classic case of faking it til you make
it
I told him I had to teaching for five
years or so and was closing in on 35 but
actually I was often mistaken as a
student when I walked into the high
school office I was teaching at a large
and successful public school in South
Florida it was the height of the
standardized testing craze so I was
asked to teach basic reading and writing
skills
day after day worksheet after worksheet
I was really bored my students were
really bored I just wanted to talk to
them about books but my students really
just wanted to talk about their weekends
so at the end of my first school year I
asked my students to choose a
contemporary young adult novel without
any sort of online study guides and I
watched in awe as they meaningfully
engage in discussion about their chosen
books and when I would check in with him
they would excitedly reveal the latest
plot developments they really liked it
and that’s when I first became hooked on
student choice after about three years
in Florida I heard of international
education so I took a job in Korea at a
school that promised hiking and social
events on the weekends I was young I was
excited for a new challenge
I was given a brand-new MacBook Pro for
the first time and a team of seasoned
educators taught me about formative and
summative assessments and I was
introduced to projects fun projects like
book and movie trailers songs from
GarageBand of podcasts and as I worked
with my students
I still felt like I wasn’t giving them
enough choice and even though I learned
a lot in those four years in Korea I
still felt like I was dictating the
curriculum I still liked I still felt
like I was telling my students what they
had to learn with little choice in the
process so I’d like to tell you about an
experiment that was conducted in 1999 by
Sugata Mitra in Delhi his team connected
100 Internet connected pcs and local
alleys for the kids to play with a
hidden camera filmed everything they
watched as these kids taught themselves
how to use the computer without any help
and then taught each other this became
known as the hole-in-the-wall experiment
but I like how meetcha refers to it as
minimally invasive education what this
experiment taught us is that we already
know how to learn we are already
naturally curious individuals Quincy
Churchill said I’m always ready to learn
but I do not always like to be taught I
really like this quote because
ironically enough as a teacher it pretty
much sums up my personality and probably
a lot of the students I’ve taught over
the years you see I do love to learn I’m
a voracious learner but when you tell me
that I have to learn something I’m not
quite as interested anymore and I wonder
if as an adult as a teacher I feel this
way do my students feel this way as well
so now I’m going to say the cliche I
became a mom and it changed my life I
was truly terrified I knew nothing about
babies my husband and I were completely
overwhelmed and decided we needed some
help we moved back to the US to be
closer to family and decide
I would stay home and I would take a
break from teaching not knowing that how
much Parenthood would change my
educational beliefs
Janet Gonzalez Mina says the moment I
decided to follow instead of leaves I
discovered the joys of becoming a part
of a small child’s world you see I
watched as my daughter taught herself
everything she needed to know how to do
how to roll over how to crawl how to
stand how to walk how to talk and with
the talking as with so many kids change
the questions hey mom how did Rockets
get to space hey mom
what is what is her skin made of hey mom
where where do babies really come from
and boo-boo became my new best friend I
learned right along with her and now my
youngest daughter as we explored their
questions
you see I followed them on their
learning journeys I stayed home with my
daughter’s for three years and this is
what I learned by watching
we truly learned what we want to learn
it can’t be forced and it can’t be
dictated our job is people as educators
is to provide the opportunities for
students to take responsibility for
their own learning to become
self-directed learners just like you and
me so I ask you again
if you could learn anything what would
you learn and imagine walking into a
building where you have the time to
learn whatever you choose no course
schedule no textbooks no expectations
I would like to take a couple of minutes
and talk to you about two alternative
models of Education in Montessori
schools students progress at their own
pace using hands-on tactile materials
designed to provide immediate feedback
with little influence from the teacher
they are given time plenty of time to
follow their interests and explore the
materials in the classroom that most
engage them they follow their curiosity
and explore at their own pace and you
might recognize some of these former
Montessori ins the founders of Google
Larry Page Sergey Brin and Frank Julia
Child’s and even the founder of
amazon.com Jeff Bezos in democratic
schools such as the son Barry smiles
students have total free rein over what
they learn how they learn and how they
show their learning you see in Sudbury
schools students are not grouped
according to age of grade they are not
formally assessed they are not asked to
learn information that is not meaningful
to them in a study of Sudbury graduates
42 percent go on to become entrepreneurs
and a high number of students go on to
pursue careers in the arts and there is
much research to be done regarding
alternate methods of schooling but the
principle remains the same students do
want to learn when they have that choice
so back to my educational journey when I
went back to teaching I took a job as a
virtual teacher teaching 12th grade
English online and as some of you might
know with virtual schools the curriculum
is already in place so students are able
to learn at their own pace for the first
time I was able to take a step back and
watch instead of lesson planning I was
facilitating and when a student had a
question that’s when I would step in
phone call or a meet in a virtual
classroom it was the most fulfilling job
I’ve ever had I was able to work with
students all across the US to
personalize their learning I became even
more convinced that what education truly
needs are more guides and more coaches
to help individualize instruction so now
here I am ten years into teaching five
years into parenting and my educational
beliefs have been turned upside down
fortunately I now work at a school that
does value student feedback and student
reflection and I’m not saying that just
because I work here as I work with my
colleagues on planning units and
assessments we do ask how can the
students contribute what do they get to
choose and as we give them more choice
in the books they read the themes they
explore and the questions they ask
I do see a difference because I do
believe students want to learn they just
want to have a part in that process and
just this past week I had the
opportunity to watch my own students
deliver their own talks to answer the
question what matters to you I can’t
even tell you how amazing of an
experience it was to watch my students
share their own original ideas that they
chose it was the best assignment I’ve
ever given and I told them so the power
and being able to choose Benjamin
Franklin said tell me and I forget teach
me and I remember involve me and I
learned we can certainly create
environments for student learning and we
do with engaging materials and best
practices in the classroom but the
bottom line is that students will be
more motivated if they have that voice
in the process so let’s let them choose
what to read what to write what to ask
let’s let them decide so what can we do
how can we incorporate self-directed
learning into our
schools it takes the community to
educate a child and we can all play our
part so educators let’s ask our students
to pose the questions let’s ask them to
follow their interests to create your
own learning plan and decide how to
authentically present their ideas let’s
ask them to solve real problems address
real issues and provide real solutions
because that is what education is after
all is not learning what everybody else
wants us to learn it is knowing how to
learn how to find the answers to our
questions and students I challenge you
to be bold be brave take responsibility
for your life and your mind learn as
much as you can I know that grades will
give you opportunities but they do not
define you you are not a letter or a
number and parents let’s trust our
children let’s take a step back and
watch and talk to them about what
interests them and it may not always be
what we want it to be and their idea
success might be different from ours but
the beauty of our world is that everyone
has a place and everyone can contribute
Mark Twain said I never let schooling
interfere with my education because he
knew the true goal of Education was
knowing how to learn so let’s embrace
that ideology and create a community
where we learn and grow together my
journey as an educator has led me to
believe that students deserve a voice in
their education so I ask you again if
you could learn anything what would you learn thank you