Partnering

This week I started reading the book Teaching Digital Natives -  Partnering for Real learning by Marc Prensky. I have only made it through the first 3 chapters so far, but have found the book to be visionary yet practical and a fairly easy read.  I would recommend it to all educators. Prensky asks, "How can we motivate and engage today's students?"  He then goes on to talk about the partnership model that promotes the idea of setting aside the typical lecture style of teaching for a classroom where the teacher would ask questions, give guidance, provide materials and tools, and ensure rigor and quality of work.  This would allow the students to follow their passion, use technology, research, find answers, share thoughts, and create presentations.  In this way the roles of the teachers and students are different from the traditional roles.  They become more like equals working together to create lifelong learners who come away from school equipped to meet the challenges the real world will throw at them. I look forward to reading more of it and, hopefully, putting at least some of the ideas presented to use in my own classroom.