Be Very Afraid

Today I spoke with Stephen Heppell, driving force behind the Be Very Afraid project (UK). He told me of classrooms which are completely open, have no unnatural 40 minute learning chunks but instead experiment with two subjects per day, an entire morning devoted to math, playing, writing, reading, singing, filming math for all I know; just think about how much learning can take place in such a half day. Stephen Heppel starts with the learners, he asks them where they prefer to read and whether they can take pictures of those spots, using their cellphones. And what does that show; yes of course; pictures of beds, beanbags, nice and cosy corners - a world apart from regular classrooms. Students who need to stay at home because of the extreme cold and basically set up a virtual school by themselves; using Google docs, a platform on Ning and shooting videos which they place on YouTube to exchange thoughts and ideas. He has taken his inpiration from the kids and brings it to the policymakers. Now there's a thought. What's more is that Stephen lives on a boat which is moored in st Katherine's Dock, London's charming inner city harbour. My parents stayed there for two weeks after I had given birth to my lovely first born - they had sailed the canal to visit their first grandchild, how cool is that :-) More about Be Very Afraid can be found on: http://www.heppell.net/bva/