We love it when we educators can hand over the reins to the children, when we’ve designed a safe arena full of content and challenge and opportunity, and children get to dive in and figure out their own paths. So when I arrived back in Chicago with new apps that would put children in the driver’s seat of their projects, we all were jumping to get started.
What productivity! What joy! Our first challenge was to write Hebrew dialogues and make podcasts. Here’s one group’s conversation:
(It’s about what we like: chocolate and candy, except for the one child who says vehemently that she only likes chocolate.)
In our second challenge, one child, whose partner had left a touch early, made a podcast in which he played the interviewer, Yosef, and Par’oh (Pharaoh). His podcast lets him interpret the characters from the Torah texts we’ve been reading. He’s ready to make a whole season of episodes!
Our new formats let children ask questions that matter to them, express their ideas, collaborate, and share their ideas publicly. We’re working with content in ways that feel like it really matters. What enthusiasm for learning!
And the app we’re using here is free for iPads. It’s called Opinion.
