I think I am going to love this class the most because I love finding better, more engaging ways to teach.  I am excited to learn how to take the naturalistic approach to teaching.  Knowing that the learner has to do the learning has always been in the back of my mind when researching new ideas for a lesson and/or an activity.  I know as a learner myself, I am not learning if I am not engaged. If I am not passionate about something, I don’t care to be bothered with it.  I want to help learners connect their passions to the things they need to learn.  I think this part is going to be the most challenging because how do you figure out what 10 year olds are passionate about and connect those passions to things they need to learn?  How can I teach theme while honoring the learners’ passions?  As I get further along in this program I am finding myself feeling a lot more passionate about teachers and how we are trained as educators. Teachers are passionate, imaginative people who rarely are given time to explore and learn new things that we feel passionate about because some administrator that taught in the 90’s decided what we need to learn.   We are trained in whole group settings (powerpoint slides being read to us) and given no choice on what we are learning.  We are all learners and if we are giving our students choice and connecting their passions to the things they need to learn, shouldn’t we be doing that for the teachers as well? I just watched A New Culture of Learning, Douglas Thomas at TEDxUFM. I LOVE the idea of the holistic approach to teaching and learning, and I’m excited to read A New Culture of Learning when I get home tonight.   Am I looking at the whole learning environment or just the pieces?  If I am thinking about a teacher’s learning environment I can see the whole and not just the pieces because my professional development is a waste of time.  If we want to recreate our education systems, I think we need to start with the teachers.  I can only imagine the amazing things teachers would start bringing into their classrooms if they are given choice on when and where they are learning, but most importantly, what they are learning!  How do I get a very traditional school district to listen to me?  Can’t wait for 5389!