Thursday, February 25, 2010

Revelation at Learning at School conference

On the first day of the conference I went to a breakout on SOLO taxonomy presented by Pam Hook from Hooked on Thinking.

I had heard about SOLO taxonomy before and to be honest I hadn’t understood a thing. So here I am in this presentation hoping to understand a bit more.

Well my dream was shuttered at first ! For a good part of the talk I couldn’t understand a thing….not a thing. After crying for a while on my own shoulder, disappointed to be “unclever”, I had a click and understood what it was all about !!!! (at that point I was so proud of myself I wanted to dance on my chair, but don’t worry I didn’t !!!)

After the first few seconds of happiness I became very sad again as it hit that I am a crap teacher ! (crap is here not standing for any clever educational abbreviation, just crap!) I don’t use SOLO taxonomy in my class. I don’t ask THE right questions to my students. I thought until this presentation that my students in my class were actually thinking all the time, but they are not.

So after wanting to dance on my chair I wanted to hang myself on my chair ! And then I thought that instead of crying I should take the decision that for now on I should learn more about SOLO, and implement the theory in my French class.

This breakout was a revelation for me and I am SO glad I went there as I have (again) grown so much as a teacher. I am a long life learner and not ashamed to admit it

3 comments:

  1. You are very honest with your reflections, but I don't believe for a minute that you have been a Completely Ridiculous And Pathetic (the acronym!!) teacher prior to solo :) I wish my own children had had you for their French teacher.

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  2. Les 45 premières minutes étaient incompréhensibles, les 45 dernières minutes profondément sapé toute confiance que j'avais en tant qu'enseignant. Ahh meilleur retour jamais.

    Je suis heureux de partager des idées sur la façon d'utiliser SOLO avec les élèves du secondaire apprennent le français, maori allemand, chinois ou espagnol - il existe quelques trucs formidables qui se passe dans les écoles néo-zélandais pour le moment

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