This is a paragraph blogging type of post, inspired by Anna
Loseva and Kate
Makaryeva, who came up with this fantastic idea at the time when I thought my blogging needed a tweak. This challenge is
perfect for me because 1) I'm "sick of
mulling over my Seriously Great Idea in an attempt to shape it coherently and
beautifully into a decent (read: perfect) 1K+ words blog post" and because
2) I suspect my "Seriously Great Idea will not significantly lose in
its greatness if I manage to tell it in one paragraph". :-) Well, I wonder
whether my idea is great enough to be published as a blog post but anyway ....
Demand High: The idea of engaging your students' full learning potential, proposed by
Jim Scrivener and Adrian Underhill, got into circulation back in 2012, and it
soon became an object of profound criticism. When I heard the term for the first time, it immediately struck a chord
with me. Since then I've never felt the need to scrutinize the theory or the motivation
of its proponents; I've always considered it pure inspiration which perfectly fits into
my existing schemata; it is consistent with the way I see
(or want to see) the world of education. I often think of the endless hours kids are
forced to spend at school glued to their desks, and I too wonder whether all the
time is used effectively. I have my doubts because I can clearly visualize the
moments of me killing the precious classroom time with meaningless games
and fun activities just because back then my teacher self thought it was the right thing to
do. Had I allowed my students to go out and play in the park, I wouldn't have done
them a disservice. I'm convinced that Demand High speaks to lots of
teachers out there, and I strongly believe we are obliged to ask ourselves the
kind of questions Jim Scrivener and Adrian Underhill proposed. Even if the answers are hard to find, the questions themselves are invaluable
tools for every teacher's professional development. When I think about it now, I actually see Demand High as a kind of reflective
practice rather than an approach to teaching.
Oops, it seems that a paragraph can become
pretty lengthy. I’d like to apologize for failing to stick to the challenge, but
I swear I tried hard. :-)
