I don’t know what this upcoming school year will look like. My district is currently one of the groups fighting with the governor's office about the current policies. We have a preliminary idea of what it will be but no one is holding their breath. I was hoping to do small group rotations like the video, but we’ll see if it is allowed. The class was fine. I liked how the reading material directly supported what was taught in the next class. Pointless reading annoys me. If something is simply for enrichment it should be labeled as such. I have always been a proponent that school needed to be fun and the students active in their learning but I am not a big fan of out there schools being used as an example. Many children and teachers will never be allowed to participate in those programs so I do prefer realistic illustrations.
I had a lot of fun in today's class. I love project based learning and that was largely what was taught today. Something that worked out nicely were the two farm based presentations. It was perfect to have them together since in their totality they presented a potential farm curriculum for a child's entire elementary school career. It would take site wide adoption but it would still be a fun way to learn about plant agriculture. I must admit that I really like how they brought soil science into the classroom. The other project that I really liked was the gaming one. I know nothing of coding so it is not something I can teach but bringing the story element into it is great. Just like movies, video games start off with concept boards and story lines. It is a brilliant way to involve reluctant writers. There are always some students who insist that they have no imagination, but this could be a great way to get them to dream.
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I am a big fan of lab rotations as long as students can move up and down within the lab. I guess a better way to put it is that I believe in mastery and taking more time when needed. If the entire school participated in labs then it would be possible to continually evaluate students and move them accordingly. I however would not do computer assessments for that. I prefer to use computer time for supporting learning and some assessment. Reading and writing need to be checked by a person for fluency and legibility. I also liked the rotations within the classroom. This is something my school did where I grew up. It was a more effective way of teaching since students were able to get more one-on-one time. I want to try and set it up in my classroom but we’ll see what the COVID restrictions allow for. 3. Tell about a time when you (as a student or a teacher) were working on or teaching an assignment that you now realize was “fake real.”
My entire Junior year of high school English was fake real and the entire class knew it at the time. The honors English teacher quit two weeks before the start of school leaving the program in the lap of the year book teacher. She was scared of us so we weren’t allowed to ask questions. In the beginning we felt very bad for her though it didn’t last. When we read Huck Finn our end of the book essay was to ‘pretend that three characters from different parts of the book sat down and had tea together: what would they talk about and would they get along.’ We asked to do a real assignment like what the Colonel symbolized but she said that she had put a lot of thought into the assignment and that this would be fun for the class to do. The irony is that we thought our prompts were fun. Diagraming a book, crafting an argument, and seeing if you could support it well was a lot of fun and that is why we did the stupid summer homework. We were looking forward to the class debate on the opposing views of justice in “Civil Disobedience,” “Billy Bud,” and “The Ox-Bow Incident.” Instead we did pointless tea party assignments, biographies on the authors and then switched to modern light novels where we discussed how something from the book might happen in our life and how we might react. The work she put together did not advance deep understanding of literary text and she did not offer supportive criticism on our papers so that we could improve our writing. There was a very real grade for that class with an entire year of fake assignments. 4. Name 5 people and 5 resources in your community that the schools could tap to help make students’ learning and work real. People 1. Forest Anthropologist- Every federal forest has at least one resident anthropologist who is in charge of preserving and researching historical places and artifacts found on the land within their jurisdiction. You use all of your historical knowledge related to that area including larger national or state events since they have connections that tie into local decisions and human movement. 2. Engineer- Their job uses math and science that students won’t learn until they have completed all of their high school courses and some college ones too. 3. Carpenter- Students need a minimum of geometry to do this job. They must have a strong understanding of sin, cos, and tan, as-well-as all angles on both a 2D and 3D plane. This profession also requires mastery of fractions to an algebra II level. 4. Legal Underwriter- This job only needs a high school diploma and a certificate though some positions do require a BA and passing the Bar Exam. It is a job where a person can start out low and slowly work their way up. It requires a lot of reading, writing, and good listening skills. 5. Accountant- This is a good Job for people who like math but not calculus or science. There are many types of accountants that require different degrees and many of them will pay for you to travel to different locations. Places 1. Forest Service- There are literally hundreds of different jobs on every forest that encompass everything from military experience, high school dropouts, MBA’s and doctorates. It is a place with a diversity of jobs and skills and it is often easy to move laterally into different departments. 2. District Attorney's Office- DA offices employ many people with varying degrees of education. Most of the positions require strong reading and writing skills even for the secretaries but not much in the way of math or science. 3. Bookkeeping Service- This job can be done as a small business or part of a larger company. It can provide freedom of scheduling and or health benefits with a decent retirement. A person must be good at math to the level of Algebra II but not beyond that. It requires a requisite number of years under a certified professional or a degree requisite to an AA. 4. Museum- Depending on the museum will depend on what is required. Many local museums only require a good knowledge of the topic being displayed but larger ones require expertise in a commensurate field. 5. Waterslide Park- This is a place that offers a lot of high school/college jobs including ones that need first aid, good math and other skills. It is a fun place to look at and a good reason to stay in school. 4. Did you save any of the papers you wrote for school? Why or why not?
From 7th grade through college I saved all of my papers. 7th grade year our teachers talked to us about keeping our work so we could use it to study or reference it later on. I did this all the time in math and English. We would move on to new math skills but I never really mastered current ones despite my grades; instead I would just keep referencing my notes and past work and use it with my new information. I also always checked over my work to see what I did wrong too. In my math the number one way I lost points was careless errors, but I did not care enough about it in high school to fix it, though I wish I did since in college they really mark you down. I also found saving papers to be very useful in writing. The way I saw it I only needed a few topics to write on each year and I could just recycle them. I wrote a new paper each time but I reused quotes and works cited pages. I did this a lot for my major even though it was geology. 7. Sternberg says that “to be successfully intelligent is to think well in three different ways: analytically, creatively and practically.” What are some methods schools could use to help students become successfully intelligent in each and all of these ways? I know this won’t be popular but I have had good luck with ‘let the punishment fit the crime.’ If my students did something wrong I did not just put them on the wall, instead I would have them suggest a punishment to make things right. If they hurt another classmate they had to apologize and come up with some way of helping that person. They had to look honestly at the situation, create potential solutions, and the whole process had to be practical, meaning that they could achieve it, (not just some big ‘I’ll buy them a toy’ solution). On yard duty I had two third graders break a plant waterer. We agreed that they had to apologize to the secretary and buy a new one. On the way to the office we talked about different ways to raise money or volunteer and how it could be fun. The secretary smiled at them and had them bring copies to teachers, but the girls took one of their money making ideas and started braiding bracelets at lunch and selling them. They raised around $20 for a women and children's shelter :) Today's class was OK. Most of my takeaways were for the upcoming project and the one we are currently working on. My group seems to be very nice and motivated. We are all interested in experiential learning and environmental sciences so it makes for a nice cohesion. It is also particularly nice for me since we are doing field trip Fridays at my school so I need a lot of nearby field trip ideas and the hatchery would be a solid choice. Kristy is a great connection. We spent some time talking about the other assignment and are all pretty lost on it but since we are doing meetings with the teacher it will be a good time to get everything clarified and find out exactly what his expectations are. Another aspect of the class were the group meetings. We all chose the question that had to do with saving assignments because we all do save assignments. My school encouraged it so many students kept their work. It honestly surprised me that the author’s experience was in everyone throwing out their work. Even in college many of the people I met kept all of their assignments.
6. What do we have to unlearn about traditional schooling so that we can educate one student at a time.
We have to be willing to accept alternative schools such as home schooling, charter schools, classical education models, Montessori, one room schoolhouse, online and more. Currently the state of California persecutes any school that does not follow the now traditional model. After the governor made a speech during COVID saying that he would provide funds to alternative programs to help with different kinds of schooling he then went and cut funds from them, reduced the number of students they were allowed to enroll (with the support of the teachers union) and said something about maintaining standards even though all of the schools I knew of who were affected passed all of their audits with flying colors and whose students consistently tested higher than the others in their demographic. If we want to unlearn traditional schooling then we must first be willing to accept nontraditional programs who do not receive press recognition and quietly do their jobs. If you really want to talk about unlearning then allow credential candidates to intern in different teaching settings and do not mandate 1 teaching method that everyone must implement. The state exerts immense control over education that translates into regulation and mandates. Personally, there are 2 different schools with unique teaching methods that I would like to try but cannot because I do not have my credential and if I later choose to try one of them I will take a drastic pay cut since they receive substantially less funding. To unlearn traditional schooling you must first be allowed to. 7. What changes would have to happen to make a truly personalized school possible? Where would you begin? I would begin by allowing students to learn at their own pace. They would not be broken into classes by age but instead by subject and the level they are at. The classes would also be fluid allowing for students to progress as quickly as they are able or remain in a lesson for as long as it takes. I would also spiral the programs since it is pretty much requisite for this type of education and is more effective than compartmentalizing them. This is the whole do whatever you want how are you feeling stuff but it is still personalized and sets a path for students to acquire the skill sets and knowledge that are needed to survive in the job force. Many people will not like this because children's aptitudes will become apparent, but that is life and a person's talents should not be punished because a classmate does not have them and a person who is behind should not be forced ahead to keep up with another child. Question 3
This book is very unrealistic. I can pick out some good points but in the end I can not implement its models. Even if the funding existed for all schools to turn into one of these programs it wouldn’t be a cure all. They admit students who are willing to do extra work and whose parents are also willing to do extra work. The majority of their targeted demographic is not willing to do that. I am more interested in programs that try to recreate public schools where everyone is enrolled. Question 3 asks about what things were developed in your life around exceptions but I am not interested in exceptions I am interested in everyone. The Met establishes rules that are exceptions to other schools but so are their students. I have worked with students who would make excellent pupils for one of these programs but I have also worked with kids who intentionally tried to get kicked out of every program so that they would have more time for drugs and the like. If we want to talk about exceptions, what can we pull together for the latter? Question 5 My school district and hence my school is undergoing changes. I agree with my colleagues and share many of their pedagogical views, but I don’t know what things will be like in the future. Currently it makes for a great work place. We like to support our kids the best we can and provide them with fun hands-on learning and class discussions but are realistic about what we can do for them. What all teacher programs hate to admit but is true no matter where you go in the world or what group of people you work with is that the greatest determination of a child's academic success is their parents. It is nice to work with people who care but can still acknowledge this truth. Rwanda has even begun to deal with this issue in hopes that it will lead to a more stable nation and higher education enrollment and completion. However, back to the question, we are expecting to have a great year coming up. We have decided to not play catch up and instead work on building the kids' stamina. We also want to do field trip Fridays where the last Friday of every month we will do a field trip with our students :). Learning to love school again. Not a Bibliography https://www.infobloom.com/what-factors-contribute-to-academic-success-in-children.htm https://www.newtimes.co.rw/lifestyle/parent-student-success To be honest I was a bit distracted this class session since my sister’s well went out and I ended up babysitting. I used to tutor college students on Works Cited pages. This included different forms of MLA and APA so the second part of this class was a bit of a repeat of what I spent a lot of time doing. I’m not pretending to be an expert and they are always changing their format requirements so I am not even saying that I am current, but I have done a lot of it. The graphic organizers, though, were nice; I definitely want to try them out. I have done a few things like that by hand before but if I can link to sections on articles and put them in that would be great. During the first part of class the discussions we had were great. We talked about dropout students and the ages where many of them first began to give up on school and that many find options that are better suited for them. In my next group we discussed the importance of life skills and how many graduating students don’t have many; we also talked about the importance of clarity and being supportive of students.
1. How should we be preparing kids for the real-world? What is the real-world, anyway? Can you identify some real-world skills or knowledge that every child should learn?
To me this is an easy question. The real world exists wherever you are and no matter what situation a child finds himself in he will need to learn self control, saving, reliability, and humility. It is these qualities that make people successful in life no matter what path you choose. I have worked with a very wide range of students at all walks of lives and those who succeed possess these qualities. Humility: if you make a mistake or don’t do well on something you need to be able to admit to it, if you can’t you will be fired; I can not tell you how many of my foster youth were fired or received disciplinary action at school over this. Reliability: If you don’t show up to work/school or don’t complete tasks you will fail and no one will want to be stuck with you. Savings: this mostly applies to outside of school but many people ruin themselves by squandering everything they get whether it is cash or a car. Self Control: This encompasses everything; with self control you can keep your mouth shut, complete tasks, and not blow through everything you have at once. It is easiest to teach these things to elementary school students but still more difficult within a school setting. 4. Do you believe that there is one set of knowledge that everyone should learn? If so, what is this knowledge, and what actions should schools take to make sure every kid gets this knowledge? I like the teaching of our basic core subjects. It gives kids a general knowledge of all the major academic subjects. If I were to change anything in the elementary schools it would be to place a greater emphasis on writing, hand writing, and keyboard skills. Those have been useful in every profession I have had. For Junior High and High School I would reintroduce home economics and life skills courses. They received a lot of criticism due to gender separation but they taught household budgeting, weekly menu planning, health and minor remedies, car maintenance, home maintenance and other very useful skills. When my parents graduated high school they had all of the knowledge and skills necessary to begin a productive life in the ‘real world.’ I found class to be very interesting. Typically when I talk to people about the histories of various pedagogies or how our current school systems came into being I can see their eyes glaze over especially if I discuss the reasons for separating children by age. Many people are just not interested or don’t believe that it was to more easily identify and eliminate students of lower abilities. I honestly would like to read more of Dewey’s actual texts but they are hard to find in a complete form and I just don’t have the time to hunt them down. I don’t know if that would be a good direction for the class though since it might stray too far from the course description, however much of what current research is finding to be most effective in classroom structure was used pre Social Darwinism. I also liked the video and article. I am definitely of the position that there should be many paths offered to high school students and not just college prep but I do believe that a strong liberal arts core should be at the center of that education. I believe in being well rounded and greatly appreciate that about US schools. When you go abroad most other nations mandate students to choose a major there Junior year of high school and continue it if they go to college. I like the value we place on the culture of learning and the flexibility to explore many fields.
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A little about meI am currently a 4th grade teacher who started in the private schools and am now working in the public sector. ArchivesCategories |
Photo used under Creative Commons from wka