Inspiration from Gatto

Lynn Gatto is an amazing teacher that I look forward to becoming like in the future. She engages her students in a number of different ways. One of the ways she engages her students is through student conversation. According to Gatto, through student conversation, “students can express their opinions and disagree with others, self-select the turn taking during conversations, initiate topics for conversation, offer ideas for activities, and discuss and questions concepts” (2007, p. 2). I really like this approach because often times, I feel as if I am the only one talking, or I am talking to one student who is engaged. Having the students talk to each other is a great way for them to learn from each other, and at the same time with confident with their opinions because it is not in front of the whole class. I plan on taking this idea with me next year into my classroom. Another way Gatto engages her students is through a theme. For example, Gatto and her students completed a unit on a butterfly vivarium. She introduced math and science practices in the unit, along with the literacy concepts. The idea of this “inter connections” is amazing because after reading about this, I started to see all the connections I could make with a social studies unit. For example, I immediately thought about the Dust Bowl. I could incorporate next year the ideas of science and math by having my students predict the weather of the Dust Bowl or calculate how much water would be needed to stop the dust from spreading. This idea of having a central theme seems like a no brainer, but it really brought it home for me when reading about how someone else made all the connections. These ideas would certainly make Freire smile. Freire was all about thinking outside of the box and having teachers reinvent their teaching methods to help cater to the needs of their students. I think that by having projects like this or using the idea of student conversations gets away from that “traditional” view on education. This in turn, will only help benefit the students after they leave high school and can think critically and accept challenges in the real world. Project based learning is something I plan on using next year in my classroom because it is something that students are interested in and will keep them engaged, especially my special education students who love hands on activities. Getting away from paper and pencil tests and memorizing facts will not only make Freire and Gatto happy, but will also benefit the students.