Teaching in High Gear-- a compelling story

In Teaching in High Gear , Marsha Ratzel, NBCT, chronicles a powerful journey into connecting, collaborating, and transforming learning experiences for her students.

Marsha highlights the importance of connection -- with her local colleagues, with other global connected educators, with her students and with the content and context of her classroom. Her transparent sharing illustrates the potential of these connections to amplify and deepen student learning and also provides a roadmap for others to follow or adapt.

For educators feeling mired in prescriptive reform efforts yet yearning to design student centered learning experiences for their students, Teaching in High Gear demonstrates the possibilities, addressing head on concerns over coverage, time, and control.

When Marsha writes:

My students today “get” that learning is a process. And while
they may encounter moments where something doesn’t turn
out the way they expected, they know how to change that into
something positive. If students have a better idea than the one
I present, they ask me to change things up. We co-create and
co-learn with each other—we do the hard stuff. (p. 95)

We don't have to imagine how that happened. Because of her transparency, myriads of educators can now more comfortably forge their own journey to vast learning landscapes for both themselves and their students.

Something's happening here--

Something's happening here--
And it's perfectly clear--
3 have something special over there
It's telling me I need to share--

I've been following the transparent journeys of 3 accomplished educators who generously share all they are learning as they and their students travel a path into PBL. It's been a joy to read their posts because clearly something very special is happening there.

And they each are so articulate, and thoughtful and honest-- so much to learn from them--

Shelley Wright, a high school teacher in Canada, blogs at Wrights Room where her reflections on learning and teaching are deep, and rich, and thoughtful -- full of joy and tears.

Marsha Ratzel, a middle school teacher in Kansas, blogs at Reflections of a Techie where her posts are filled with energy and enthusiasm, humility and humanity.

Kathy Cassidy, a primary teacher in Canada, blogs at Primary Preoccupation where her posts are filled with the amazing learning experiences in which her grade 1's are immersed and thriving

Shelley, and Marsha and Kathy are all about learning and learning more and sharing. They provide extraordinary windows onto their evolving pedagogical approaches.

And grand pieces of their journeys can also be found on the Voices from the Learning Revolution blog. Marsha's recent Teaching by Getting Out of the Way resonated with me as did Kathy's Global Learning: The Primary Way. And Shelley's Inquiry Learning: This Isn't Scary at All that ended with her wondering "what it will take to put us back on the path to real learning." called to me.

I'm convinced one of the things that "it will take to put us back on the path to real learning" is the authentic modeling and sharing found in the posts of these 3 extraordinary educators. Don't you think?