School for the wierd
Yes, I am a bit of a Hunter Thompson fan and have been for a while. My mind wrapps very nicely around the boxed up humor that he delivers as only a true Gonzo writer can. Do I try to be like him. I really do not. However I do feel that such writing has had a tremendous impact on my way of writing. This fits very nicely in to my sarcastic if not Socratic view of education. I am a teacher, remember. Yet I find there are flaws in the system that I often need to get out but have no way. I often promise myself regular seminars of get it all out now writing but often fall short of my good intentions. Unintentionally.
On Friday my at my school we began the InAction professional development, otherwise known as the green notebook or green binder. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, we look at the learning process as opposed to what is being taught. It goes beyond just student centered pedagogy. No, this is essentially the Holy Grail of teaching and really helps the teacher prepare the kids for what is being taught, how they are going to show they learned the target, what they can do to get to the next level and what resources the kids can use to be successful.
There is much simplicity involved. Yes this is good for the kids. A little more work for the teachers but well worth the work.
Where I became a little hung up is in the area of what is going on in the minds of other teachers. During a two-minute discussion one teacher told me that she does not believe that all kids can be successful, that there are many kids who just do not have the will or capacity. I told her that there are school with 90 percent..." and she interupted me. "No, no let me finish, there are schools that have 90% minority, 90% free/reduced lunch and 90% of kids meeting the state standard. Regardless of which state one is in, such a statistic is tremendous and blows the socks off of many highly white schools. Many of the results occurred with only time adaptions.
How do we change such like-minded people? My guess is that I do not think we can until the results occur in our own classes. Those of us who believe in the kids within the walls of our own classes need to build upon our belief and find best practices out there in schools and universities. Then we need to study them and put them to work in our own classrooms. Going to see "The Two Sisters" or other big names in the world of education professional development are not going to get our business any place. We need to use best practice. We need to have our kids writing about what they read not setting them up on a computer taking AR tests. We need to understand the educational and personal needs of our students and teach to those needs. Basil and anthology reading sets are not a curriculum, these are one piece to a series of tools that can be used to teach children. Certainly not the only way. Not even close.
Monkeys are learning sigh language of their own. To they know how it will be useful to them. Quite possibly. After all, they learning quite quickly that they are getting food for fast learning or learning in general. Perhaps they do not have the metacognition to understand that but they continually learn for more bananas.
Kids do not learn for food unless they see that doing math and learning to read efficiently are going to help them later in the future to, perhaps, avoid prison, go to college and keep from being failures. However ever a teacher wants to think, we need to help kids see their reason for learning. Then help them see what success feels and looks like. The momentum grows and keeps doing so until the kids begin to understand that they really are successful people.
On Friday my at my school we began the InAction professional development, otherwise known as the green notebook or green binder. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, we look at the learning process as opposed to what is being taught. It goes beyond just student centered pedagogy. No, this is essentially the Holy Grail of teaching and really helps the teacher prepare the kids for what is being taught, how they are going to show they learned the target, what they can do to get to the next level and what resources the kids can use to be successful.
There is much simplicity involved. Yes this is good for the kids. A little more work for the teachers but well worth the work.
Where I became a little hung up is in the area of what is going on in the minds of other teachers. During a two-minute discussion one teacher told me that she does not believe that all kids can be successful, that there are many kids who just do not have the will or capacity. I told her that there are school with 90 percent..." and she interupted me. "No, no let me finish, there are schools that have 90% minority, 90% free/reduced lunch and 90% of kids meeting the state standard. Regardless of which state one is in, such a statistic is tremendous and blows the socks off of many highly white schools. Many of the results occurred with only time adaptions.
How do we change such like-minded people? My guess is that I do not think we can until the results occur in our own classes. Those of us who believe in the kids within the walls of our own classes need to build upon our belief and find best practices out there in schools and universities. Then we need to study them and put them to work in our own classrooms. Going to see "The Two Sisters" or other big names in the world of education professional development are not going to get our business any place. We need to use best practice. We need to have our kids writing about what they read not setting them up on a computer taking AR tests. We need to understand the educational and personal needs of our students and teach to those needs. Basil and anthology reading sets are not a curriculum, these are one piece to a series of tools that can be used to teach children. Certainly not the only way. Not even close.
Monkeys are learning sigh language of their own. To they know how it will be useful to them. Quite possibly. After all, they learning quite quickly that they are getting food for fast learning or learning in general. Perhaps they do not have the metacognition to understand that but they continually learn for more bananas.
Kids do not learn for food unless they see that doing math and learning to read efficiently are going to help them later in the future to, perhaps, avoid prison, go to college and keep from being failures. However ever a teacher wants to think, we need to help kids see their reason for learning. Then help them see what success feels and looks like. The momentum grows and keeps doing so until the kids begin to understand that they really are successful people.
posted by ateacheratlarge | 9:12 AM
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