Motorcars? Um...

From skimming a bunch of the blogs, pretty much everything has been said so warning: I'm just going to go and sorry if I repeat.

Have any of you experienced a time when, while reflecting on life, you come to the conclusion all Americans think the same way? Yeah, neither have I. Look how divided we are on political issues, religion, etc! If we were motorcars, then we would all be exact replicas, and anyone can see this is not the case.

Yes people have jobs they're not much concerned with. If we look at reasons for that, is the education system to blame? Perhaps it's a boring job, but they make a lot of money. Maybe they inherited the family business. Or maybe it was established when they were born they would be working for the community industry (e.g. mining). It's a complicated "problem".

I agree with Jay. The arguments for educational reform are trite because we all know that a radical transformation would take money and resources that aren't available. In an ideal world, we'd have a 1:1 teacher-student ratio and students would constantly be challenged the perfect amount. Not going to happen.

Yes schools are focused on certain abilities, but look at what's important in a society. I don't need to delve into the importance of citizens being literate and able to do math- it's obvious.We learned from the atomic bomb that science is power, so obviously schools will expose students to that field. Many students are good at soccer and football, but very few will play professionally, so should everyone do it? Having a nation where 50% of the population are artists won't help us stay on top. Sorry.

He also mentions competition. This, again, I feel is not the fault of the school systems, but rather the growing population. You can't have a 3.5 and have Tech be your backup school anymore because there are more people with higher GPAs who can fill those spots. Students aren't stressed because of standardized tests (at least the ones at my high school aren't) because they don't care. The ones who do care are stressed because of the pressure to attend college, not because they feel their education isn't liberal enough. Besides, in high school, we were given 3 elective courses to take what we wanted.

I want to see where he got his statistic about "more people..dropping out of education." Doing minimal research shows that the dropout rate is decreasing, and 2007 was the first year the drop out rate was less than 9% (www.nces.ed.gov). Dumb.

I agree there are some small changes that could occur, but a radical change isn't what we need.


http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=16

Education Reform

Alright, this guy has obviously never observed C-burg High school. While he makes a lot of great points about students who are actually trying, he fails to address the students who gave up before they walked through the door on the first day of school. About 1/3 of my AP Chemistry class (well technically Dr. G's) and less than 10 students in my other two Chem 1 classes are motivated. And honestly I might just be hoping for those results. Dr. G's AP Chem students have done so poorly on there last few exams that he had no choice but to give re-takes because he could not bring himself to fail over 80% of the class. There is no one in there stressed enough to commit suicide over our standardized tests. One student who was failing did not care to try until her father took her car, cell phone, and credit cards, and then gave her a curfew. She came up to me the next day asking me what she could do to get a D--- just to get her stuff back. So standardized tests have no influence on students in this area. My Chem 1 students are only concerned with getting me to give them the chemical formulas for cocaine, crystal meth, and ecstasy so they can make them at home. Standardized tests are not the problem its the so-called parents of these students. They have no respect for authority, barely ever come dressed descent for school, and do not give a crap about a single grade. Their aspirations in life are selling drugs to high school students and catching a buzz.

With all that said, I can definitely see how standardized tests could put some unnecessary pressure on studious students, but you will have to find them somewhere else. I agree that teachers need to focus their attention on students strengths and help guide them into a career that is right for them, but that won't happen until parents start taking some of the responsibility.

Education Reform - JR

Sir Ken Robinson has some good talking points. Unfortunately, I think he loses me beyond that. It's very easy to judge and to point the finger, but it is very difficult to act and create a solution. Sure it would be wonderful to educate students only in the things they really love, but that leaves them woefully ignorant of many things that play important roles in our lives. I mean, I would have hated to take art in general. I probably would not have taken it at all (I am an awful artist in just about all fields... I can't even sing well!), but I am glad that I did because I have enjoyed being exposed to a wide variety of cultures, traditions, and artistic styles. And although my example is not particularly necessary to leading a successful life, like say basic math skills, it still has had an impact on my quality of life.

Improving our education system has been a goal for many, many years. The successes and failings of that goal are judged by a wide array of experts and regulars joes including students, teachers, parents, and politicians. This will always lead to a place where there are those who are discontent and it means there will constantly be a desire to alter the system. I am not saying that I am completely happy with how things are now, but a lot of the arguments leading in one direction or another seem to push for consideration of techniques or processes with a history in some educational setting or another. Interestingly, most of these practices have been abandoned in favor of some that we have in place now.

Anyways, before I ramble for too long, I want to talk about what I think the most important part of the video/article was. Sir Ken Robinson stated that the environment must be right for plants to grow. I would challenge that. It is my job as an educator to try my best to get students to a place where they can learn successfully, and this includes building a learning environment that is appealing to students. However, if the students have no motivation within themselves, in their own lives, to truly take advantage of the situation before them, how can they learn? You can change the system, the teachers, the subjects, the methods, and the scale, but if the student chooses not to, they won't learn. Plants grow because they must to survive. Students do not have such a harsh reality facing them, so the street is two ways.

My personal goal is to never stop trying. I will continue to reach out and try my hardest to encourage students to learn. Whether they choose to reach back is up to them. I hope that my classroom will truly engage and excite students, which in theory will motivate them to learn. In addition, I think that educating the students towards mastery will allow them to pass the tests that are put to them without compromising their education. It would be nice if I can move towards that goal while still meeting the expectations of the system that I am currently teaching in.

And who knows, maybe I'll get bold and go into policy later. Then I can try to find solutions in addition to griping about all the problems...

Education Reform

I personally think school is a place where students get their common sense/basic knowledge from. Nowadays, most of students take the fact of getting higher education very granted. However, even now, not everyone who's graduating from high school is going to go into college. If a person starts working right after their high school graduation, or if they drop out, high school would be the last education he/she gets in their lives. Throughout their lives, they will learn something new, but the education would only come from physical experiences. As an educator, our goal would be to let our students realize what they like and what they don't like. That's where the hands-on lessons come into the place. Unless students actually have a chance to feel what it is like to do something, they'll never figure out if they like it or not. Not every occupation just match up with the subjects that we have in schools. However, studying certain subjects give the students feel for what they would enjoy. Covering core contents will give all of students (ones who will be going into the college and ones who are planning on working after high school) somewhat of an idea of what they would enjoy doing.

What I've found from teaching this semester is that students are extremely lazy and getting them excited about the topic, motivating students to actually do some work in class and getting them to think about life beyond high school is one of the most important task of the teacher. When students can relate anything they learn in class to something in their daily lives, the students will be interested. Even a simple thing like classification, when I asked students how they sort music on their iPod or how they sort their clothes, they were excited to tell me their stories. It's hard to draw every lesson relevant to the students' lives, but every now and then students need that to engage themselves into the learning.

Education Reform

Gosh that was a great video, and I was definitely in need of some inspiration today!! I am noticing throughout all my classes that my students are stifled. They are terrified to make mistakes, which leads to them demanding answers instead of taking responsibility for their own learning. It kills me when I ask them to hypothesize or tell me what they think about something, and they won't say anything because they might be wrong. The classroom just seems like a place where students are on a one-way path toward the goal of getting a good grade, and not interested in actually developing and growing. The video said it correctly, education is preoccupied with certain types of abilities, and that type of education is failing. Students cannot like science if they are so stressed into memorizing information that they can't make relevant to their lives. It is sad!

As one teacher, I can help my students deal with the issues facing them. I want so badly to take emphasis off getting the good grade, and place it where it should be--learning and growing from mistakes. Students should have the opportunity to correct their work...that's how science is done! Students should have the opportunity to deal with information in a variety of ways so they can find out what learning style works best for them. A teacher should be the gardener that he was talking about...creating the conditions in which growth can occur and then watching it happen. I have seen this week how teaching can be a thankless job, and I've left school a few times wondering if I can really do anything real for these kids. We have to remember that we're not stumbling into this profession, we're doing this because we're good at it and we care. And students might not be able to recognize the value of their education now, but they will some day!

Reform

I actually agree with this article/video clip. I think that students (they are kids let's remember!) are under an enormous amount of pressure to succeed. And not just get by, but really portray exemplary work with outstanding skills in all subject areas and ultimately make it to college. It is very stressful. I remember in my personal 4 years of high school alone, I was affected by at least 4 deaths. Three of which were suicide. With the speakers last statement, I totally agree. If increasing rates of suicide are the outcome, something is clearly wrong. I understand that not all of the pressure comes from a school atmosphere, that it CAN provide students with the exact opposite effect if they do not have a good home life, but I seriously doubt in most cases that it does not at least contribute to the stress of these children.
I also really liked the plant analogy the author drew upon. It is spot on! My cooperating teacher references Richard Feynman on a daily basis with his regard to education. Feynman says that you give students every opportunity to succeed with every bit of effort you can, displaying the content in multiple ways, reaching out to every student, and in the end the student decides whether they are going to use what you have given them to succeed in education or if they are going to sit on their hands. At some point, though it may be far fetched, a student must choose to learn. They must choose to succeed.
I do believe as the new generation of educators it is our job to help "reform" the education system. We are taught to move away from the traditional classroom setting, providing opportunities to students who express themselves differently and learn differently. I think this is the way we must turn over a leaf in the every day classroom. We can not control standardization or test scores or college admissions, so we must focus on the children as children and as students, making education relevant and exciting to bring out each individuals strengths and passions.
If at some point in our careers we stop caring about individual students, stop getting angry or upset about standardization/testing, and stop putting every bit of effort into our classrooms, we should probably stop teaching. On a lighter note, I have faith in all of us, both as new educators and as honest and caring people :)

Why teaching is not like making motorcars...

I love the analogies he used in his video clip. I agree that teaching should not be like making motor cars, but at this point in our education system, it tends to lean in that direction. But do teachers really have a choice not to work on such a mass production system? What I mean is, teachers have this standard we must reach. Principals, superintendents, they all have a certain goal for their teachers to accomplish, and that goal as we know, is to have the students pass the state test. Honestly, it's not even to get the students to pass high school. From what I can see, teachers are trying to save their own butts, and want to get their students to pass the SOL test so that they don't get fired. And all of this reform talk that Obama is doing isn't helping the situation. Why in the world would you fire all of the teachers at an under-performing school? It's exactly acts like this that cause fear in teachers to perform higher (get better SOL/state test passing scores) which comes right back to Ken's point about building motorcars. This gets me pretty fired up, because I'm about 95% sure that there was at least 1 teacher in that Rhode Island school that actually cared about the students and not the test!
It's pretty rough for teachers right now. We are in a lose-lose situation on our part. We can teach the way schools want us to, and conform, but keep our jobs, or we can inspire kids to find their passion and grow, at the risk of losing our jobs. I know that this is a very extreme statement and situation, but I think that we still need to find that middle ground. I believe that at Virginia Tech, the masters education program that we are all in, is preparing us for such a time as this. I can see the value of inquiry and getting students to think for themselves. It still gets the SOLs across, but we are breaking through the barrier and leading the kids away from the road to the bad neighborhood.

Reforming Education

I tend to agree with Robinson about certain things, especially the statement that the education system nowadays is like an assembly line. Every student takes certain classes and there is so much emphasis on standardized tests that students can become overwhelmed and wonder where they fit in. Some students just aren't built to succeed in this kind of environment. That is where we as educators can have a great impact especially in science where students can engage in hands on activities that reinforce ideas. Students may come to see that information that they get in the classroom can also be applied to the outside world. Being able to teach the same material in a variety of ways also may help students to become engaged and active learners. Just lecturing to a group is going to kill their enthusiasm so it is good to approach material in multiple ways. Letting students see that they can have fun and learn at the same time may motivate them and get them interested in a subject which could then allow them to find their true passion. The school system is so focused on scores and grades at this point that we as individual teachers may not be able to provide a reform to the system but we can start the reform inside our own classrooms.

Reform

I have a big problem with the article/video and Sir Ken Robinson says. Of course education needs reform. Since the education system started we (society) has tried to make it better. That is how life works. The industrial revolution happened to make life easier, and things run better. This is where my next problem comes in. His comparison of educating people to making cars. You can not compare humans to machines or machine manufacturing. If something breaks in a shop it is easy to repair. There are set known solutions to construct/fix the machines that we use. Humans are not machines. We have many solutions to fix human problems but not every solution works for each person. Here enlies my next follie in his article. He sits there and blames the education system for not extending the growth of knowledge to our students and keeping them stimulated, but produces zero solutions. It is easy to sit back and say there are problems and point fingers, and much harder to come up with solutions. It is a long process to come up with ideas on how to engage students in learning. As an education system we need to stop blaming people, pointing fingers, firing people, and work as a unit to solve this problem.
From my time so far teaching, it is very difficult to stimulate my students as a whole. The biggest problem is the extreme laziness of the students. All mine do is wine about doing work. When we do get to do hands on activities they are fine, but when we ask them questions about those activities (challenging them to think, and prove they are learning) they complain about that. Students at my school want the information spoon fed to them in the easiest format possible. I have a small amount of students that are actively engaged and ask questions which is great. There are times where I can try to relate things to students on an individual basis, but becomes hard to do for each student, and becomes more than time consuming. Reform in our education system needs to extend beyond the scope of engaging students. Educators need to know that they are being taken care of in this transition time of reform. There are already more than enough pressures on teachers with SOL's, and other deadlines that it becomes a 24 hour a day job to keep on track with state requirements and find ways to help engage each student. For education reform to really take shape we also needs PARENTS to work harder. I am amazed at the attitudes I have heard already from students and parents. If the parents are not actively involved and helping to engage their child in education, how in the world are teachers supposed to?
Okay that is enough ranting from me. As for my plans to help reform education and engage my students, it is to spend as much time at the beginning of the year to not only get the students used to my classroom and high school, but also to get to know them. The more small talk I can have the more of their interest I can find out. Hopefully I will be able to compile a list of things that seem overall interesting to the students. Then when I am developing lesson plans I will try to relate my topics with these engaging issues that the students like. I am going to also encourage my students to talk and share their new knowledge with their parents as much as possible. If there are ever current issues pertaining to something in my field, I might take a day to cover that topic, even if it isn't that one we are focused on at the time. I want to also try to be involved in my students education as much as they are. If I hear of a students passion for something, I will try to steer them in the right direction, or help provide an appropriate person for them to talk to about that field. I want to make myself available to myself all the time in order to help them no matter what they need. If I can make strides to reform education in my classroom alone, then i am doing my part. If I find things that work well, I will more than share them with other teachers.

Don't let the pressures of reform change who you are as a teacher or a person. Be yourself, have fun, and be confident that we are going to make great teachers. Good luck!

Reform

To me it is simple: Students must come before content. I am very passionate about getting to know my students and treating them with respect. This is one way I plan to reform education. In my opinion, teachers too often become preoccupied with becoming the authority that they forget their students are people too! I think kids feel threatened by authority and a lot of them choose to shut down. I have found in my experience so far that kids who know their ideas are respected and valued are automatically more interested. Also, by showing interest in your students on an indiviudal level helps you find their strengths. Then as teachers we can plan lessons that will allow different students to shine. One of my top priorities as a teacher will be to empower my students, give them the confidence they need to succeed, and help them discover their strengths and interests. Basically, I think reform starts with creating a community of learners. This also relates to inquiry because I have also found that students really do enjoy "thinking." Inquiry stimulates children's minds and can make even the most boring subject interesting, because there is a probelm or puzzle to solve. Our students will often blow us away with their knowledge, ideas, and creativity if we let them. Teaching through inquiry is the second way I plan to help reform education. It is going to be a challenging road, but that is what makes our job exciting!

education reform

I find a problem with the very first line/ quote of this article! Showing this "mass production" idea wrong is the perfect example of what we can do as individual educators to help our students, even if we cannot overhaul the entire educational system. Though I love science and I want to share it with students, I also what them to be able to learn how to think for themselves and to find the courage to follow their passions! I do agree that the educational system tries to shove too many facts into kids minds without allowing them time to understand the process behind the ideas. It is important that teachers find as many opportunities to allow students to perform inquiry activities and to take the science as their own.
On the other hand, it is so hard to tailor education to the current interests of teenage students. I'm finding it difficult to convince students that certain things about Earth Science, such as the structure of Pangea, is interesting. I'm also finding that any hands-on experience does excite and engage students. This is more support that helping students to feel like real scientists will help them succeed and it might even help slowly alter the education system.

Reforming Education

I went to a conference earlier this fall where a man showed a ppt slide of a "sketchy" neighborhood with run down homes and pot holes in the road. He made the analogy that this was our education system. We keep repaving the road with our "reforms" but essentially the road still leads to the same bad neighborhood. Then today, I saw this on cnn.com.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/17/ted.ken.robinson/index.html?hpt=C1

Read this short article and respond to it on the blog. Perhaps you as a single teacher in a classroom may not be able to completely overhaul education - but what can you do to keep from just repaving the same bad road?

Speed of light in the microwave

My teacher occasionally allows students to do extra credit work for the class. These usually involve them researching a topic we discussed in class. Recently students were asked to research how scientists measure or calculate the speed of light. One student turned in his answer but also found this in his search and turned it in because he thought it was awesome. I too think it is incredibly cool! I passed it on to the Physics teacher, who was talking to the principle at the time. Our principle is a former Biology teacher and he thought it was cool. I figured you all might find it ridiculous awesomsauce too!

It looks like melted marshmallows are in my future!

Classroom Management

I have been having such a wonderful student teaching experience. A reason for this is because my cooperating teacher and I have very similar teaching philosophies. Respect is a major part of our classroom policies. Students know that there is zero tolerance for disrespect for yourself, others, and the rules. My ct is very adamant about following the rules and, by this time in the semester, if the rules are not followed then the consequence is an automatic lunch detention or referral depending on the severity of the action. I like the idea of resetting consequences at the beginning of the week; so I'm not fond of jumping straight to this consequence for repeat offenders, but I do understand that if the students know their record will be reset they may push the limits.
My ct is also the mother of 2 very young children and I feel this shows when her students are talking. She uses the sound 'shhh' a little absent-mindedly when she hears any noise in the classroom. This gives me a good opportunity to reflect on how I would like to control noise in the classroom.
The most beneficial aspect of my student teaching is that my teacher is VERY into inquiry and allowing students to take their education upon themselves. This is very helpful when planning my unit because my ct has helped me to adjust my activities to make sure they are tailored to convey the most important information. Even though her students have been exposed to this inquiry environment all year, they still struggle with the process because they do receive the spoon-fed answers from other teachers. I can say that in just the past 6 weeks I have already seen the immense benefits from scaffolding students to the correct answers. It may take a little longer but the scaffolding and confidence gained really help the students. Thankfully I have this time to observe my ct and become even more comfortable in how to successfully help students learn.

Classroom Magement Observations

My teacher Mr. M has been teaching for nearly 40 years. Being a very tall man with a *very* deep voice is his basic classroom management plan. When students get rowdy and off topic, whistling loudly and saying "HEY!" seems to quiet them. Students do not have assigned seating or lab partners, and in general it seems to work well enough. I have noticed many students whispering and talking frequently during the class when he is teaching. When it gets out of control he will move students in an attempt to limit the chatter.

When he lectures he general talks and expects students to take notes. He also writes the important points on the chalkboard so they can write it down. He is a TERRIBLE speller (worse than me!), but he uses it as an opportunity to interact with students. The first day of school he assigns one student to be the designated spell checker, but all students see it as an opportunity to correct the teacher.

As he is an older teacher, technology beyond the chalk board and occasional overhead do not feature prominently into his teaching style. His classroom also does not have a projector so it is not as if he is not utilizing his resources. Students also watch video clips not infrequently. I know that he enjoys doing labs and tries to have one every week. In general the labs tend to be very cookie cutter, but his discussion and conclusion questions do require students to think and draw conclusions from their observations.