Back to School Questions for Families to Ask Teachers
September 10, 2009
Over at the Technology Teacher blog Mrs. V shares how she took Will Richardson's blog post about his children starting at a new school a step further. Will (one of my favorite bloggers!) shares that he has high hopes for an authentic education for his children at their new school stating that he wanted to be sure to ask his kids more interesting questions than the usual "How was school today?" or "What did you do at school today?"
After reading his suggestions, Mrs. V did what Technology Teachers do. She took his idea and added a little innovation by turning the questions into posters.
Every innovative educator should be sharing questions like these with their student's families and these posters really bring the questions to life.
Here are some more ideas for questions from Will:
I recommend schools come up with their own additional questions and consider making posters with students. Perhaps this is even some sort of contest. These can be shared on the parent/family page of their website or wiki and be printed out and used as reminders for family talk. I am sure innovative parents and other family members could think of some great ways to capture student answers using a traditional journal, or perhaps a blog, or video collection of answers or maybe even status updates on Facebook or Twitter with a special tag for this topic.
What are your questions? What are your ideas around using these questions?
______________________________
As the Technology Innovation Manager for the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE), Lisa Nielsen oversees the creation and implementation of innovative technology and instruction. She has spent more than a decade working in various capacities in educational innovation at the NYC DOE and Teachers College, Columbia University including as a manager of instructional technology professional development, a literacy and instructional technology coach, program developer, teacher, librarian, and staff developer. Ms. Nielsen is a Google Certified Teacher, International Edublogger, and creator of The Innovative Educator social network, blog, and wiki. She is also a permanently certified educational administrator and teacher. While serving in the capacity of teacher she was honored as Teacher of the Year and nominated by her district as Technology Educator of the year. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by me are strictly my own and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of the NYC DOE or any other entity.
After reading his suggestions, Mrs. V did what Technology Teachers do. She took his idea and added a little innovation by turning the questions into posters.
Every innovative educator should be sharing questions like these with their student's families and these posters really bring the questions to life.
Here are some more ideas for questions from Will:
"¢ What did you teach others?
"¢ What unanswered questions are you struggling with?
"¢ How did you change the world in some small (or big) way?
"¢ What's something your teachers learned today?
"¢ What did you share with the world?
I recommend schools come up with their own additional questions and consider making posters with students. Perhaps this is even some sort of contest. These can be shared on the parent/family page of their website or wiki and be printed out and used as reminders for family talk. I am sure innovative parents and other family members could think of some great ways to capture student answers using a traditional journal, or perhaps a blog, or video collection of answers or maybe even status updates on Facebook or Twitter with a special tag for this topic.
What are your questions? What are your ideas around using these questions?
______________________________
As the Technology Innovation Manager for the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE), Lisa Nielsen oversees the creation and implementation of innovative technology and instruction. She has spent more than a decade working in various capacities in educational innovation at the NYC DOE and Teachers College, Columbia University including as a manager of instructional technology professional development, a literacy and instructional technology coach, program developer, teacher, librarian, and staff developer. Ms. Nielsen is a Google Certified Teacher, International Edublogger, and creator of The Innovative Educator social network, blog, and wiki. She is also a permanently certified educational administrator and teacher. While serving in the capacity of teacher she was honored as Teacher of the Year and nominated by her district as Technology Educator of the year. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by me are strictly my own and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of the NYC DOE or any other entity.
