Ingrid reported on the meetings she'd been attending in our partner schools and I was struck by two examples of students being given ownership of projects.
At Mandurah Baptist college students volunteered to adopt vegetable beds. They were told what they would need to do to maintain them and grow their vegetables and now there is a waiting list of students who want to adopt a bed and gardening going on in breaks and after school. This is in contrast to before where 'everyone' was responsible and there were issues with harvesting. This seems like a great step and is testament to how well students perform when given responsibility, real ownership and the chance to prove themselves. Good on the teachers for making this happen, its not always easy to let go fo the reins.
At another school, John Curtin College of the Arts, one of the biology teachers has rewritten the curriculum to allow studetns to support each other via a wiki. A great way to get students to realise that they can all help each other to do well in their exams, that they are not competing against each other for the best result but can share knowledge and ideas, reduce their workload and support each other. Wiki's are shared spaces on the internet which different people (e.g. all members of a class) can edit and add information too. A great tool, if you don't use them elsewhere then start by using them for revision, with different groups preparing notes on diff topics would be great.
http://www.wikispaces.com/ Go here to set up your wiki. Free for K-12 education.
This great video explain how they work and what you might use them for really simply
Wikis in plain english
So Power to the Pupils - get them to help themselves and free up some time for you!
Lucy
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