Designing Teacher-Student Partnership Classrooms offers practical strategies for modifying classrooms toward developing efficient, digital-rich spaces in which all K–12 students and teachers continually learn from each other. Taking full advantage of the digital tools available allows students to foster essential skills necessary to succeed in college and careers. Through becoming learning partners with their students, teachers will help students develop enthusiasm for learning and employ deep learning goals. Author Meg Ormiston focuses on great classroom changes necessary to encourage success for K–12 students and educators. Ormiston believes that students should be teachers’ learning partners in the classroom, drastically shifting most classrooms’ current structure. Classrooms should be spaces in which students can apply what they’ve learned, teach it to their teacher and fellow students, and discover how what they’ve learned will be useful beyond the classroom. This way, the capacity for teaching and learning builds, and students can better prepare themselves for their futures.
Designing Teacher-Student Partnership Classrooms is part of the Solutions for Digital Learner–Centered Classrooms series. The Solutions Series offers practitioners easy-to-implement recommendations on each book’s topic—professional learning communities, digital classrooms, or modern learning. In a short, reader-friendly format, these how-to guides equip K–12 educators with the tools they need to take their school or district to the next level.
Chapter 1 presents what happens when a teacher becomes a learning partner. It shares teacher activators’ experiences in setting up partnership classrooms so readers gain a greater understanding of teachers’ roles. In chapter 2, readers will focus on the deep learning that students deserve to experience in classrooms. Chapter 3 deals with the professional development necessary for developing partnership learning. Educators will learn about Ormiston’s professional development in partnership learning that she has led for fifteen years, which she structures for peak participation. Finally, chapter 4 details connected learning for readers and the shift in thinking it entails. Through connected learning, students and teachers become partners in learning.
Powerful Quotes From the Text
“In many traditional classrooms, the communication flow is from the teacher to the students. In partnership classrooms, teachers and students are constantly communicating back and forth using different forms, tools, and processes. This type of constant communication in multiple forms and on different communication platforms is critical to prepare students for the real world outside of school.” (page 33)
“There has never been a more urgent need to reshape education . . . Why change? We need to change because our students deserve to be engaged in deep learning.” (page 32)
“A more proactive partnership between students, teachers, and outside experts is needed in a well-structured digital-rich classroom.” (page 45)
“Rediscover your passion for teaching by becoming a co-learner with your students.” (page 50)
Chapters
About the Author
Introduction
Chapter 1: What Does It Look Like When the Teacher Becomes a Learning Partner?
Chapter 2: The 6 Cs in Action
Chapter 3: Bring Back the Fun With New Professional Development Experiences
Chapter 4: Connected Learning Is the Future
References and Resources
Benefits
In this book, K–12 teachers and administrators will:
- Gain strategy-rich and practical approaches to immediately create change in their classrooms
- Study real stories and examples of transformation in K–12 classrooms and read teachers’ and students’ experiences
- Obtain helpful strategies for making their workflow more efficient
- Discover online organizational, planning, and collection tools to use before and after lessons
- Manage recordkeeping, assessment, feedback, and personal professional development effectively
- Determine how to connect to other classrooms and manage personal portfolios online
- Take on the role of an activator in the classroom, instead of the traditional teaching role
- Ascertain the importance of transparency as part of a healthy school culture