Remember that Awesome Worksheet?

Nope. That was my answer to a student that recently asked me why we never do worksheets. The conversation went a little like this:

Student: Mr. Evans, why do we never do worksheets?
Me: What do you mean 'do worksheets'?
Student; You know like do a worksheet, we all do it and stuff.
Me: Oh, you mean when I hand out a worksheet and talk about something, then everyone 'does it' then we go over the answers?
Student: Yeah like that.
Me: Well have you ever said this to one of your friends; Dude do you remember that Awesome Worksheet that we did last year?
Class: Laughs

I went on to explain a little bit why we don't do that. That because it is not that fun for them and that it does not really help them learn anything. I think they definitely got the idea that I don't particularly like using our time in class for things like that. Anyone can find worksheets at the teacher store and throw them at the kids, but is that teaching? Not to me. I'm a teacher not a resource regurgitator.

I do feel guilty sometimes standing at the copier as I run off some of those "sheets" for homework. Because it's not like I don't ever use a worksheet for something like homework or extra practice. I just don't believe that you can consider it a lesson.

I am so glad that this student pointed this out to me. He obviously has noticed that his past teachers have employed the worksheet method (if you can call it a method). He also noticed that I don't do that, for that I am very grateful. This tells me that students notice more about our teaching methods than we may think. Hopefully they appreciate my approach and will learn more in the end.

Social Media and Teachers ... Who Knew?

I follow a lot of great educators on Twitter. I have noticed that a few states like Iowa and Wisconsin are having their own scheduled Twitter chats. It seemed like a great way to share and learn about all of the issues and topics facing educators and students in Ohio. A couple weeks ago I tweeted a question about if anyone knew about Ohio having a state chat.

Before I knew it, a about 5 people were interested in participating and helping. A few volunteered to promote the chat to their followers. I even volunteered to moderate. What was I thinking? I have never done anything close to something like that. I was very nervous. Not nervous for myself, but for all of the participants. I wanted things to go well for everyone involved.

Well judging from all of the thank you tweets, I think it is safe to say that it went well.

Even my wife, a reluctant tweeter, joined in and learned a few things.

Who knew that teachers could be so into Social Media? I knew the Ohio teachers were out there, but they are way more into it than I ever thought. We even got some reporters from State Impact Ohio in on the fun.

A huge thanks goes out to #iaedchat and #wischat folks for inspiring this great adventure. As I said their ideas and discussions really helped us get this thing moving. More shout outs to Christina Hank, Molly Bloom and Michael Roush. Without their help, #ohedchat would still be an idea instead of a great tool for learning. This whole idea is about 2 weeks old, and I can't wait to see where #ohedchat can take us and what we can learn. If you haven't joined us yet, check us out on Mondays at 9PM. We can't wait to learn from you!