Student and Teacher Voices (Short Post #2: Students)

It's that time of the class again - 150 word limit challenge! Here we go... :)

Part 2

How do we create classrooms where student and teacher voices are not only heard, but needed?

For Students

Image from http://dannywoo.typepad.com/my-blog/2013/10/student-voice-series-1-josh-acosta.html

This part seems easier (maybe I mean "more organic" or "easier to think about doing" - it's certainly not easier to manage or plan than everyone doing the same thing, but it's better!). If we truly do embrace the idea of personalized learning, then our teaching is nothing without our students' voices. Again and again, I thought of the point that the person who is doing the work is doing the learning (I know it's brought up here, but I heard it first somewhere else and it's stuck with me for a long time). In order to merge student voice and learning, we should "...revis[e] [our] lesson plans to shift the cognitive load onto students, providing opportunities to engage in higher-level tasks and allowing students to drive the learning experiences" (202). We literally cannot do that without student voices.