probeTED 演讲稿 怎样从错误中学习

I have been teaching for a long time, and in doing so have acquired a body of knowledge

about kids and learning that I really wish more people would understand about the potential of

students. In 1931, my grandmother -- bottom left for you guys over here -- graduated from the

eighth grade. She went to school to get the information because that's where the information

lived. It was in the books; it was inside the teacher's head; and she needed to go there to get

the information, because that's how you learned. Fast-forward a generation: this is the

one-room schoolhouse, Oak Grove, where my father went to a one-room schoolhouse. And he

again had to travel to the school to get the information from the teacher, stored it in the only

portable memory he has, which is inside his own head, and take it with him, because that is

how information was being transported from teacher to student and then used in the

I was a kid, we had a set of encyclopedias at my house. It was purchased the year

I was born, and it was extraordinary, because I did not have to wait to go to the library to get to

the information. The information was inside my house and it was awesome. This was

differentthan either generation had experienced before, and it changed the way I interacted

with information even at just a small level. But the information was closer to me. I could get

access to it.

In the time that passes between when I was a kid in high school and when I started

teaching,we really see the advent of the Internet. Right about the time that the Internet gets

going as an educational tool, I take off from Wisconsin and move to Kansas, small town

Kansas, where I had an opportunity to teach in a lovely, small-town, rural Kansas school

district, where I was teaching my favorite subject, American government. My first year -- super

gung-ho -- going to teach American government, loved the political system. Kids in the 12th

grade: not exactly all that enthusiastic about the American government system. Year two:

learned a few things -- had to change my tactic. And I put in front of them an authentic

experience that allowed them to learn for themselves. I didn't tell them what to do or how to do

it. I posed a problem in front of them, which was to put on an election forum for their own

community.

They produced fliers. They called offices. They checked schedules. They were meeting with

secretaries. They produced an election forum booklet for the entire town to learn more about

their candidates. They invited everyone into the school for an evening of conversation about

government and politics and whether or not the streets were done well, and really had this

robust experiential learning. The older teachers -- more experienced -- looked at me and

went,

know what she's in for.

them every week what I expected out of them. And that night, all 90 kids -- dressed

appropriately, doing their job, owning it. I had to just sit and watch. It was theirs. It was

experiential. It was authentic. It meant something to them. And they will step up.

From Kansas, I moved on to lovely Arizona, where I taught in Flagstaff for a number of

years,this time with middle school students. Luckily, I didn't have to teach them American

government. Could teach them the more exciting topic of geography. Again,

what was interesting about this position I found myself in in Arizona, was I had this

reallyextraordinarily eclectic group of kids to work with in a truly public school, and we got to

have these moments where we would get these opportunities. And one opportunity was we

got to go and meet Paul Rusesabagina, which is the gentleman that the movie