Category Results
Goals met?
My official evaluation was a week ago. I have my copy of it around here somewhere.... Anyway, things went wonderfully according to my vice principal. She was very happy with my performance. That is good, because I need to keep my job. She is happy, and my family has health insurance. My goals for the administration were met.
I do recall that I set different goals for myself, than I turned in for the powers that be. I wrote about my goals in my first post for IDEA. Let's see how I did....
1. ... Another major language
countries, regions, and cities where Spanish is spoken. If so, why do we still have all of the academic research in education, and its literature, referring Spanish to us as a “minority language”?
As many agree, education research findings, and the American population at large, should begin
interacting more to further necessary critical awareness if we are to make it out of
the dualistic grip of “reformers” versus “those-who-oppose-this-reform” talking heads (cf. Dana
Bennis' “The Education Policy Debate”), who add more confusion instead of resolution to our dire public schools, and... Because I’m a part of it
For our workshop, I've invited several students to help facilitate the break-out session of our presentation. I selected students who over the years have demonstrated the product of true liberating education. And what's the litmus test? I am getting wind that these students are getting in trouble in other classes for speaking up for themselves.
This is music to my ears because as our... Is Chaos a Bad Thing?
- Anonymous Middle School Teacher
Endings are hard. They might be the hardest thing to do well. Don't believe me? Go watch a movie. How many times have... The Education Policy Debate
He begins by praising Obama's direction on education, saying that Obama is using "federal power to incite reform, without dictating it from the top." Yet Obama and his Education Secretary Arne Duncan's Race to the Top program is rewarding $4.5 billion to a limited number of states who receive the most points based on a scoring rubric (PDF) the administration... Summer Vacation, ahhhhh
For the past ten years or so, I have been putting on a stage show with the assistance and collaboration of my colleague, Craig Madison. We have not always had the same grade level, in fact, this year he teaches third grade to my fourth grade. But we still get our kids together and put on a show.
The fact that we put on a play is nice, perhaps even astonishing considering how many students are involved, but I... ‘Cause It’s Like Democracy….
The experiment is going so well that we have increased the control the kids have in the daily lesson planning. Every day there is bell work, but that is the only set event of the class period. I have the day's activities arranged in three or four different orders. The students vote for the arrangement they believe fits their needs. Each option includes the same work, but the order is different.
So how is it going?
From my perspective, pretty good. I am not seeing as many springtime behavioral issues as I have... They Literally Threw in the Sink
What does this have to do with democratic education? It's a clear sign that the type of education they were getting was anything but. I remember reading Ain't No Makin' It by Jay MacLeod and it was in this book that I first learned about how acts of disobedience can sometimes be a way for someone to regain or attain power he/she has lost. This made me look at gum chewing, skipping, cursing, graffiti, and now sink-pulling... Raining on My Students’ Parades
How much order should be implemented by a teacher?
What does a student-driven classroom look like?
I think that all teachers that are interested in democracy in the classroom ask these questions on a regular basis. I think that the answers are as different as the individuals involved.
I want students to feel ownership of the class and the material I teach. I want them to recognize their participation is needed if they are too learn. I don't want them to feel that learning is something that happens to them, but instead, something that they choose to do.
Currently I am trying to answer my questions by letting the students select the... A Village Under Siege… or What I Did During My Spring Break
Spring Break.
Ok, it is only Spring Break for me, not for my children. I thought this would mean I would sleep in past seven and then drop them off at school. Hypothetically, I could have six or so hours to do laundry, clean house, work on the taxes, eat popcorn and watch movies.
Things might have gotten done, had I been able to drop the kids off at school. But once we got to school, I couldn't leave.
The basement of our school had been magically transformed to a kingdom during Europe's Dark Ages. The magic was in fact done by wonderful parents, staff members, and older students... angels, not faeries...
The stage at one end of the room was a king's chambers, there was a mountain... Internal Motivation is Like North Dakota
Last semester, I was thrown into a teaching position wherein I had 150 students to tend to--and that experience was more an exercise in control than in instruction or teaching. This semester as explained in my last entry... Education Between Nations
I am hesitant to discuss actual school policies, rules, curricula, etc. since I only speak moderate Spanish and did not get to take part in every classroom or the full lowdown on the school's policies; in fact, I only spent a few days within regular classrooms. Some of this appalled me--particularly the disdain I... Want coffee?
I have had to scrape my windshield in the mornings, but the kids are wearing their summer apparel. Go figure. I am freezing, and the students seem to be in another place entirely. Not just in the shorts and shorter skirts, but in their class work as well. It is as though they are bored with me.
In order to shake things up a little I have decided that April will be the month of Guest Speakers. I would like to have real people, doing real jobs, come and talk to my juniors. My eleventh graders are in a class that helps prepare them for college. I am hoping that guest speakers will give the kids the extra energy they need to finish the... Within Earshot and Eyesight
Every day, I hear the school bells chime, and multiple times a day, big groups of children come out for P.E. and once for recess. During P.E. the kids usually begin by running laps around their rather large yard. They will holler and run, walk and talk, and some eventually begin to drag their feet and pant. Boy,... Resistance, Hope & Democracy
- Redwood City, CA
I have a few thoughts regarding your situation but first I must say: Kudos... Help?
The ambulance, police, and fire trucks soon arrived. My husband was thanked, and then he went on his way... with a full day... Re-hired and It Feels So Good
Title I funding was used to bring me back (me in all my un-tenured glory) as a literacy intervention teacher. I have a class size cap of 10 students and the freedom to build this course from the ground up.
First assignment: I had students watch this video clip:
A video on how to teach a dog to roll over using operant conditioning. Students were utterly confused, wondering what sort of class they were put in, and I... The Worlds of Fractions and Spelling Collide
I wrote on January 19 ("Quadrant Spelling") about the way I deliver spelling words to my fourth-grade students, via a pocket chart in the form of an x,y quadrant graph. They all know about coordinates, points, rows and columns now, and participate with great enthusiasm.
We recently began adding fractions with uncommon... They want to be just like me. Great! Now what?
Our young children don't have access to our intellectual sensibilities or our academic pursuits regarding education, democracy, sustainability, or anything else. And they could care... Commercial Urges in Homeschool Education
It's a good thing I don't have enough money to do just that, or our house would be filled to the roof with chemistry kits, pretend food, costumes, and pretty much every other educational (traditional or otherwise) item available for purchase. Some people love to buy shoes or clothes--my thing is books, stickers, lacing boards and the like.
Cognitively, I know that most of these things are a waste of money; the small Melissa & Doug beading set I just bought, for example (it was on sale!), could have easily been made with some plain cord and pony beads. Yes, my daughter loves it and has made several necklaces, but she would have loved choosing her own bag of beads... Obama’s Education Disconnect
This is a new teaching format for me and is one that I resisted for some time before capitulating. My main objection initially was that I could not see how... Freire’s “True Word” Conclusion—Or Beginning…
This same day, a student handed me a card in which she wrote, "Thanks for giving me the freedom to speak my mind."
The next day, two students threw me a little farewell party to end the semester--two students who hated my class a month ago.
The last day of class, a student thanked God he never had to have me again. "Now I can FINALLY get an 'A'!"
A semester of mixed reviews.
As part of their final project, my students had to identify a community problem and design an intervention to combat said problem. A majority of the students rose to the occasion and shined... Howard Zinn: One of the Great Democratic Educators
This week, the world said goodbye to Howard Zinn, an award-winning writer, activist, professor, and role model for democratic educators. He was 87.
Zinn dedicated his life to promoting true democracy and social justice through education and action. Although he spoke and wrote extensively on the injustices that humans have inflicted upon each other, throughout history and in the present, he never lost hope for a more peaceful world.
In one of his last interviews, Zinn said that he wanted... The Freedom to Do It Wrong
It's funny; I can remember how it all started. I was a super quiet kid around those I don't know--my daughter is, too. People were constantly telling me to talk, to speak up, to be louder. And when I finally started to do that--to make them happy, as I was perfectly happy being quiet--I was told to be quiet, to not talk in class, to stay in silence. It was the first punishment I ever received in school, a humiliating sentence of corner-banishment in front of all of my peers, and it was enough motivation to get me to shut up once again.
The expectations set in front of me were quite obvious--succeed or be met with disapproval.... Quadrant Spelling
In my last posting, I wrote about the day I taught my students about quadrant graphs. The fact that I did so while not talking, using only hand signals and finger pointing, is what I mentioned in the post. I neglected to mention why I chose to introduce the graphs.
From what I can tell, the California State Standards first mention quadrant graphs in seventh grade. I choose to teach them now, in fourth grade, not as a math component, but as part of my spelling program. Rather than posting the spelling words on a chart, or writing them in a composition book, or simply reading them from their workbook, I place them on a quadrant graph that is superimposed over a pocket chart. The result... Working for Freire’s “True Word”
Our man, Freire, is calling us out--PUT YO' MONEY WHERE YO' MOUTH IS! Words without reflection are pointless. Words without action are likewise pointless. It is only when we balance our words with reflection and action that we can call ourselves thinkers and transformers. (Sigh. Where are the Freires of the world? 'Cause I'm single and ready to mingle! If you're there--mouths silently--call me.)
All kidding aside, this is exactly what I have moved to implement in my classroom--a movement from thoughts and words to... The Plans of Mice and Men
We developed this model for educational reform while I was out of the classroom for a year and Khadigah had just graduated from undergrad with her newly minted teacher's certificate. For a nine minute synopsis of our model, watch our video:
This video summarizes my vision for my return to the classroom. My... Reverse Pressure: The Pressure to Fail
Meeting the status quo. That's what it's all about. Don't do too well, don't stand out. Kids use the term “rebel” fairly often in my school. In dictionary terms, this means someone or a group of people who rise up against the government. In my school, it's someone who fails. Someone who steals. Someone who is not in a good place... Challenges and Opportunities of the Semester System
For example, I love getting to meet whole new sets of students each semester. I always get that "butterflies in the stomach" excitement of thinking about the possibilities of good things to come in terms of helping to create communities of engaged co-learning. But I also hate those butterflies, too,... WWMD? (What Would MacGyver Do?)
But... we are back. There is stuff to do, and we are the ones to do it.
I look at things differently coming back from Winter Break. I am somewhat renewed, a little less harried, more focused, and more realistic about what the school year will become. I know the kids and the different personalities that make up each class, and am finding ways to tailor my lessons to meet the needs of the individuals as well as the many. I am able to improvise when... The Day I “Couldn’t Talk”
After the bell rang and I began to walk to class, I realized that I had not yet talked to any of my students. And I got an idea.
As I have mentioned in a previous blog entry, I don't do a lot of talking in the first few minutes of class.... Get ‘em Talking!
I teach fourth grade in a public elementary school that is about 85% Spanish speaking at home. Because of this, my... Don’t Call it a Comeback
If you've read my previous entries, I hope it was clear that I had a vision for my classroom and I was going to strive to make this vision a reality. The path had been set and the last time we communicated, I believed that I needed to condition my students to be unconditionable. I quoted Audre Lorde and questioned her belief that we could not use the master's tools to dismantle the master's home.
So several weeks later and after lots of reflecting, I'm totally retracting my statements. As adamant as I was that my students needed to be conditioned through the use of grades and external... Bullied by a Role Model
It was the end of the day and I was walking with my friend to basketball practice. My teacher stood in the hall. I called to him, "So, did I get an A on that assignment?" in a joking... Do The Wiggles Do High School Gigs?
There is simply too much to do.
Too much to do at home, and too much to do at school.
December is a curriculum crunch time for me. I am always a few lessons behind where I have planned to be. I am always playing catch-up. I try to add just that much more into each lesson, and just when the kids have a bad case of the "I don't wanna."
The worst thing about December is the lack of focus. Mine, theirs, ours.
Despite my best intentions, and my jam packed lessons, we all get distracted. Unfortunately, when I get distracted, unfocused, hazy, and vague, the kids get wiggly. Is that a good way to say it? Yeah, wiggly. They wiggle in their seats, they wiggle out of... Homeschoolers Anonymous
I never encountered any homeschooled kids until I went to college. Having excelled in school for the most part, I met the very idea of being taught at home with disdain. Most of the homeschooled students I met were nice, happy, pretty well-adjusted--and very, very religious. I immediately jumped onto the bandwagon driven by the people chanting, "Brainwash!" and decided that people who homeschooled their children were simply training them to be members of the Army of God, that it was such a travesty, and that the drones produced from such mind-numbing instruction would only go off into the wild blue yonder, birthing more drones to keep... Is Education Meant to Be Easy? And other ruminations on required assignments
Each week, I give students anywhere from 25 to 50 pages to read for class and I ask them to... Lightening the Load
Erika M., Chicago IL - High School Teacher and Adviser
I have a few initial thoughts and also... Resisting What I Know
My adventure in... Teacher and Student Roles
The teacher calls the shots, runs the show, sets the agenda and the deadlines, informs students of how things will go on in their classroom, and is the person who has the knowledge -- which is to be passed on from his or her mind to the students of the classroom. And this is all usually done through teacher-led discourse and method, within the constraints of school curriculum of course.
The students (in theory) are to absorb all of the knowledge being offered to them, respond diligently and respectfully to the teacher's commands and direction, raise... The Building Blocks of a Good Education
What ever happened to Kindergarten?
This past weekend I found myself in Western Massachusetts for an old fashioned Timber House Raising. Now I have to be honest, before this weekend I had no idea what a Timber Hose Raising was. Living in Brooklyn it's not so often you come across someone who decides they're going to build their house and then invites the whole neighborhood over to help. It's even less often that you get to watch a house being build with no metal. But that was exactly what happened. Over the last two years pieces of tree were cut, shaved and carved into lumber, each piece measured and chiseled to fit exactly into the... Got goals?
But then ... (think the soundtrack to Jaws) it is time to set professional goals. There is nothing in the year that brings more discomfort than the goal-related meetings, and we have at least three each year. These meetings make me sweat and give me a horrible pain between my right shoulder and my neck, in fact, I am trying to stretch it out as I type.
Here is the issue: my goal needs to be in alignment with the school and district goals. In a nutshell, that means that my goal... Skinner Box to Freedom
"Stop doing that and apologize."
"What? She doesn't care."
"She's not going to tell you she cares, but I do.... Aren’t Facts Important?
In a word... yes.
But I'm not going to stop after one word. Yes, there are absolutely things that people need to know in order to thrive in the world, but we will never be able to teach people everything that they will need to know for their life. And people, depending on the life path that they choose, will need to know different facts at different times. So rather than filling our young people's heads with facts, we should teach them how to find the information they need and give them the skills to analyze and interpret that information for themselves.
If our schools... Where’s the Line? Putting Democratic Teaching Ideals to the Test
I've come to love the worry parents feel and often express (including my own). I didn't start there, but as my kids got older and I found my own anxieties arrive at how my son spent his day, I found myself needing to rethink my responses to worry.
The way I see it, the worry a so called... Using the Master’s Tools
Critical pedagogy was my tool of choice: an educational philosophy accredited to the late Paolo Freire, which... For a thriving economy, educate creative thinkers
"Hey! Where's your pass?"
"Where are you going? Get to class!"
"Who let you in this copy room?"
"Get to the back of the line!"
All of these are greetings given to... Taking school choice to a whole new level
Posted on Jun 18, 2010 - 11:42 AM by Alison Bagg Brink in ImprovEducation
The last meeting of the year is just winding down, the walls of the classroom are bare, and there is not a single piece of paper on the floor. It is officially time to start summer, at least for me.My official evaluation was a week ago. I have my copy of it around here somewhere.... Anyway, things went wonderfully according to my vice principal. She was very happy with my performance. That is good, because I need to keep my job. She is happy, and my family has health insurance. My goals for the administration were met.
I do recall that I set different goals for myself, than I turned in for the powers that be. I wrote about my goals in my first post for IDEA. Let's see how I did....
1. ... Another major language
Posted on Jun 16, 2010 - 05:53 PM by Luis Moreno in Crazy Quilt
Spanish, like every other major language, is indeed a crazy quilt of various dialects as there arecountries, regions, and cities where Spanish is spoken. If so, why do we still have all of the academic research in education, and its literature, referring Spanish to us as a “minority language”?
As many agree, education research findings, and the American population at large, should begin
interacting more to further necessary critical awareness if we are to make it out of
the dualistic grip of “reformers” versus “those-who-oppose-this-reform” talking heads (cf. Dana
Bennis' “The Education Policy Debate”), who add more confusion instead of resolution to our dire public schools, and... Because I’m a part of it
Posted on Jun 15, 2010 - 10:25 PM by Ammerah Saidi in The Learning Curve
School has been out for a weekend now and as soon as the last bell of the school year rang, a couple of my friends and some of my students got right to work on our presentation for the U.S. Social Forum. Our presentation is called "Urban School Awakening: Critical Elements of Urban School Reform."For our workshop, I've invited several students to help facilitate the break-out session of our presentation. I selected students who over the years have demonstrated the product of true liberating education. And what's the litmus test? I am getting wind that these students are getting in trouble in other classes for speaking up for themselves.
This is music to my ears because as our... Is Chaos a Bad Thing?
Posted on Jun 10, 2010 - 09:06 AM by Kristan Morrison in democracy.edu
I am teaching two summer classes this year (my "summer vacation, ahhhh" was actually just for one week!) and in one of them we have been talking a lot lately about free schools. Of the 18 students in my class, I would say that about 75 percent of them reacted extremely negatively to the idea that kids should have freedom to learn what they wish, how they wish, and when they wish. Now, my students are definitely not in favor of our current conventional, very constrained system of education, but they seemed pretty appalled by the level of freedom that kids have at places like Summerhill, the Albany Free School, and the Sudbury Valley School. The most oft-cited opposition to these schools... What’s up with June anyway?Posted on Jun 09, 2010 - 10:35 AM by Jonah Canner in Got Questions?
Question: According to the calendar there are still two and a half weeks of school left, but according to my students school ended the second the temperature in my classroom reached 90 degrees two weeks ago. I'm usually a laid back teacher who has a very good relationship with her students but at the end of the year they start bouncing off the wall and reverting to behaviors they haven't shown in months. Is there anything I can do about this or should I just suck it up and pray that nothing goes terribly wrong over the next two weeks?- Anonymous Middle School Teacher
Endings are hard. They might be the hardest thing to do well. Don't believe me? Go watch a movie. How many times have... The Education Policy Debate
Posted on Jun 07, 2010 - 10:26 AM by Dana Bennis in The Landscape
I enjoy reading columns by David Brooks in The New York Times. He's a moderate conservative who promotes a more compassionate, intellectual, and pragmatic form of conservatism than what is often found in politics and the media. Nonetheless, I often disagree with him, and his recent op-ed on education deserves a critical response.He begins by praising Obama's direction on education, saying that Obama is using "federal power to incite reform, without dictating it from the top." Yet Obama and his Education Secretary Arne Duncan's Race to the Top program is rewarding $4.5 billion to a limited number of states who receive the most points based on a scoring rubric (PDF) the administration... Summer Vacation, ahhhhh
Posted on May 27, 2010 - 12:17 PM by Kristan Morrison in democracy.edu
When I am discussing with others my thoughts about how our conventional education system should change, I am sometimes asked, in exasperation, if there Is anything about our existing approach to education that I do agree with. This past week, I have re-encountered one thing that I really do love about schools and their traditions -- and that is the rhythms of the academic year. Work, work, work, break; work, work, work (thinking about break), break. Right now I am in a break between the spring semester and the summer and am fully enjoying it. I just love summer time (not because of the heat, mind you!) and even though I am working and teaching throughout the summer, there's just... Improv…with DramaPosted on May 11, 2010 - 08:41 PM by Tim Curley in ImprovEducation
As we all know, one of the casualties of a standards-based curriculum, where THE TEST is the driving force, is the loss of teaching the arts. Performing arts are particularly hard hit. At El Verano School, we are doing what we can to lessen the hit that drama classes have taken.For the past ten years or so, I have been putting on a stage show with the assistance and collaboration of my colleague, Craig Madison. We have not always had the same grade level, in fact, this year he teaches third grade to my fourth grade. But we still get our kids together and put on a show.
The fact that we put on a play is nice, perhaps even astonishing considering how many students are involved, but I... ‘Cause It’s Like Democracy….
Posted on Apr 29, 2010 - 10:02 PM by Alison Bagg Brink in ImprovEducation
Students began choosing the delivery method for new information at the beginning of the month. I discussed this in "Maybe Kids Should Have a Say in How They Receive Information?"The experiment is going so well that we have increased the control the kids have in the daily lesson planning. Every day there is bell work, but that is the only set event of the class period. I have the day's activities arranged in three or four different orders. The students vote for the arrangement they believe fits their needs. Each option includes the same work, but the order is different.
So how is it going?
From my perspective, pretty good. I am not seeing as many springtime behavioral issues as I have... They Literally Threw in the Sink
Posted on Apr 18, 2010 - 10:35 PM by Ammerah Saidi in The Learning Curve
You know that line we say when someone goes overboard: "He threw in everything but the kitchen sink." Well, some boys at my school wanted to make sure to include the sink into whatever they were mixing because they ripped it out of the wall in one of their bathrooms.What does this have to do with democratic education? It's a clear sign that the type of education they were getting was anything but. I remember reading Ain't No Makin' It by Jay MacLeod and it was in this book that I first learned about how acts of disobedience can sometimes be a way for someone to regain or attain power he/she has lost. This made me look at gum chewing, skipping, cursing, graffiti, and now sink-pulling... Raining on My Students’ Parades
Posted on Apr 12, 2010 - 09:31 AM by Kristan Morrison in democracy.edu
My graduate students tell me that I am depressing them - that I am the unfunny version of Saturday Night Live's Debbie Downer . Well, they didn't actually call me that, but that's sometimes how I feel. I teach the foundations of education course at my university. This is the class where American education is looked at through a critical lens - comparing the historical, Jeffersonian democratic citizenship purpose of education to the social mobility purposes that seem most paramount in schools today. We explore and critique different philosophies of education, deconstruct our society's current politicization of education, examine the injustices of our education system's funding practices,... Maybe Kids Should Have a Say in How They Receive Information?Posted on Apr 08, 2010 - 10:46 PM by Alison Bagg Brink in ImprovEducation
How much control should students have in a classroom?How much order should be implemented by a teacher?
What does a student-driven classroom look like?
I think that all teachers that are interested in democracy in the classroom ask these questions on a regular basis. I think that the answers are as different as the individuals involved.
I want students to feel ownership of the class and the material I teach. I want them to recognize their participation is needed if they are too learn. I don't want them to feel that learning is something that happens to them, but instead, something that they choose to do.
Currently I am trying to answer my questions by letting the students select the... A Village Under Siege… or What I Did During My Spring Break
Posted on Mar 25, 2010 - 04:30 PM by Alison Bagg Brink in Uncharted Parenting
Spring Break.Ok, it is only Spring Break for me, not for my children. I thought this would mean I would sleep in past seven and then drop them off at school. Hypothetically, I could have six or so hours to do laundry, clean house, work on the taxes, eat popcorn and watch movies.
Things might have gotten done, had I been able to drop the kids off at school. But once we got to school, I couldn't leave.
The basement of our school had been magically transformed to a kingdom during Europe's Dark Ages. The magic was in fact done by wonderful parents, staff members, and older students... angels, not faeries...
The stage at one end of the room was a king's chambers, there was a mountain... Internal Motivation is Like North Dakota
Posted on Mar 17, 2010 - 09:01 PM by Ammerah Saidi in The Learning Curve
Paul, one of my friends in high school, proclaimed that North Dakota didn't exist. He'd ask, "Have you ever met anyone from North Dakota? What's ever come out of North Dakota? We've read about it--but have you ever been there?" I've never really stopped wondering about North Dakota being a conspiracy to validate South Dakota's existence, but Paul's words have been louder than ever in my head since I've taken on my new teaching job as a literacy intervention teacher.Last semester, I was thrown into a teaching position wherein I had 150 students to tend to--and that experience was more an exercise in control than in instruction or teaching. This semester as explained in my last entry... Education Between Nations
Posted on Mar 17, 2010 - 06:50 PM by Sara Schmidt in Uncharted Parenting
One of the things that really made me want to make sure my daughter's education was different from my own was the view of another nation's school system I had a chance to experience during college. During my sophomore year, I was able to participate in a teaching internship in Spain for at-risk children; I consider it one of the best learning experiences of my life yet.I am hesitant to discuss actual school policies, rules, curricula, etc. since I only speak moderate Spanish and did not get to take part in every classroom or the full lowdown on the school's policies; in fact, I only spent a few days within regular classrooms. Some of this appalled me--particularly the disdain I... Want coffee?
Posted on Mar 10, 2010 - 11:06 PM by Alison Bagg Brink in ImprovEducation
Spring has arrived... if not in weather, in attitude.I have had to scrape my windshield in the mornings, but the kids are wearing their summer apparel. Go figure. I am freezing, and the students seem to be in another place entirely. Not just in the shorts and shorter skirts, but in their class work as well. It is as though they are bored with me.
In order to shake things up a little I have decided that April will be the month of Guest Speakers. I would like to have real people, doing real jobs, come and talk to my juniors. My eleventh graders are in a class that helps prepare them for college. I am hoping that guest speakers will give the kids the extra energy they need to finish the... Within Earshot and Eyesight
Posted on Mar 01, 2010 - 04:42 PM by Shawn Strader in Op-Education
I live in a pretty relaxed neighborhood in Tempe, AZ. For most of the houses throughout my neighborhood, to walk out the back yard and into the alley is to come face to face with someone else's backyard, or usually their 6-foot cinder-block wall. Past my back gate, however, is the school yard of a middle school. The yard is used for Physical Education, and recess at lunch, mainly.Every day, I hear the school bells chime, and multiple times a day, big groups of children come out for P.E. and once for recess. During P.E. the kids usually begin by running laps around their rather large yard. They will holler and run, walk and talk, and some eventually begin to drag their feet and pant. Boy,... Resistance, Hope & Democracy
Posted on Feb 24, 2010 - 02:46 PM by Jonah Canner in Got Questions?
I used to direct an after-school program, which was housed in a public school classroom, and I tried to implement a democratic meeting with my middle school students (a diverse group in terms of race and family income). As well-intentioned as I was, the students didn't respect me as a leader because I was offering them decision-making power. They seemed so used to an authoritarian school day that they didn't know what to do with an unexpected dose of freedom. It was also just a drop in the bucket compared to the way they spent the majority of their time. How would you have handled this situation?- Redwood City, CA
I have a few thoughts regarding your situation but first I must say: Kudos... Help?
Posted on Feb 23, 2010 - 11:40 PM by Alison Bagg Brink in ImprovEducation
It has been a strange week at the Brink house. It all culminated yesterday morning, when my husband drove to a job site early, to pick up some tools. Yesterday was crystal clear. He was on a stretch of road with a 35 mile an hour speed limit. The car in front of my husband's van struck a man walking across the street. The walker was tossed into the air, hit the pavement, and rolled multiple times. The driver of the car barely slowed down, and then fled the scene. My husband stopped, helped the injured man to the side of the road, began basic first aid, and called EMS.The ambulance, police, and fire trucks soon arrived. My husband was thanked, and then he went on his way... with a full day... Re-hired and It Feels So Good
Posted on Feb 21, 2010 - 10:16 PM by Ammerah Saidi in The Learning Curve
On January 29th, I received my official letter of termination. Our district has lost more than a million dollars in funding and any new teachers were immediately cut. On February 1st, I received my official letter of re-assignment. This story has a happy beginning.Title I funding was used to bring me back (me in all my un-tenured glory) as a literacy intervention teacher. I have a class size cap of 10 students and the freedom to build this course from the ground up.
First assignment: I had students watch this video clip:
A video on how to teach a dog to roll over using operant conditioning. Students were utterly confused, wondering what sort of class they were put in, and I... The Worlds of Fractions and Spelling Collide
Posted on Feb 14, 2010 - 03:58 PM by Tim Curley in ImprovEducation
When Melia Dicker, IDEA's Communications Director, first asked me to become involved with this project, I thought, "Me?" Then she comes up with this "ImprovEducation" title, and I thought that maybe there could be something there for me to write about. The improvisational aspect of my teaching style comes naturally, and sometimes yields something pretty darn good.I wrote on January 19 ("Quadrant Spelling") about the way I deliver spelling words to my fourth-grade students, via a pocket chart in the form of an x,y quadrant graph. They all know about coordinates, points, rows and columns now, and participate with great enthusiasm.
We recently began adding fractions with uncommon... They want to be just like me. Great! Now what?
Posted on Feb 11, 2010 - 03:42 PM by Khalif Williams in Uncharted Parenting
Many of us who strive to nourish democracy in our society and strive tirelessly for equality, justice, peace and compassion have a break down in execution when it comes to our own home life. It's very easy for even the most mindful, progressive parents to replicate systems, dynamics, and roles we experienced in childhood, rather than the ones we aspire to create in our adult lives. Most of us working for in progressive education or for progressive causes didn't come from that experiential background.Our young children don't have access to our intellectual sensibilities or our academic pursuits regarding education, democracy, sustainability, or anything else. And they could care... Commercial Urges in Homeschool Education
Posted on Feb 04, 2010 - 10:38 PM by Sara Schmidt in Uncharted Parenting
I want to buy everything.It's a good thing I don't have enough money to do just that, or our house would be filled to the roof with chemistry kits, pretend food, costumes, and pretty much every other educational (traditional or otherwise) item available for purchase. Some people love to buy shoes or clothes--my thing is books, stickers, lacing boards and the like.
Cognitively, I know that most of these things are a waste of money; the small Melissa & Doug beading set I just bought, for example (it was on sale!), could have easily been made with some plain cord and pony beads. Yes, my daughter loves it and has made several necklaces, but she would have loved choosing her own bag of beads... Obama’s Education Disconnect
Posted on Feb 02, 2010 - 01:22 PM by Dana Bennis in The Landscape
The Obama administration is ramping up its focus on education following last week's State of the Union. Unfortunately, it does not seem to go very far in taking a broader look at learning and giving teachers and young people more of a voice in the education process. Positive proposals include expanding the system of rating schools to include more than just test scores and using a student growth-based metric rather than a static grade comparison across schools. However, there is still no talk about more authentic forms of assessment or supporting student growth beyond academics, and the Race to the Top initiative, which guides additional education spending, remains focused on linking... Can Democracy Be Disembodied?Posted on Feb 01, 2010 - 11:15 AM by Kristan Morrison in democracy.edu
This semester, I am teaching one section of my graduate-level foundations of education course as an online class. It is a synchronous class, meaning we use the Adobe Connect software to meet in a virtual classroom from 6-9 pm each Wednesday night. It is like a conference call on steroids -- we can hear one anothers' voices (assuming the technology is working for us, which, so far, has not always been the case), we can see visuals (such as documents I post, things I write on the whiteboard, videos, etc.), and we can do written chat.This is a new teaching format for me and is one that I resisted for some time before capitulating. My main objection initially was that I could not see how... Freire’s “True Word” Conclusion—Or Beginning…
Posted on Jan 31, 2010 - 08:46 PM by Ammerah Saidi in The Learning Curve
"You're the worst teacher ever!" The last words of a ninth grader I had kicked out during final presentations.This same day, a student handed me a card in which she wrote, "Thanks for giving me the freedom to speak my mind."
The next day, two students threw me a little farewell party to end the semester--two students who hated my class a month ago.
The last day of class, a student thanked God he never had to have me again. "Now I can FINALLY get an 'A'!"
A semester of mixed reviews.
As part of their final project, my students had to identify a community problem and design an intervention to combat said problem. A majority of the students rose to the occasion and shined... Howard Zinn: One of the Great Democratic Educators
Posted on Jan 30, 2010 - 03:10 PM by Melia Dicker in The Landscape
"The interchange between student and teacher, the free inquiry that is promulgated in the classroom, a spirit of equality in the classroom, to me that is part of a democratic education." - Howard ZinnThis week, the world said goodbye to Howard Zinn, an award-winning writer, activist, professor, and role model for democratic educators. He was 87.
Zinn dedicated his life to promoting true democracy and social justice through education and action. Although he spoke and wrote extensively on the injustices that humans have inflicted upon each other, throughout history and in the present, he never lost hope for a more peaceful world.
In one of his last interviews, Zinn said that he wanted... The Freedom to Do It Wrong
Posted on Jan 28, 2010 - 11:50 PM by Sara Schmidt in Uncharted Parenting
As a child, I developed a "Type A" personality pretty quickly.It's funny; I can remember how it all started. I was a super quiet kid around those I don't know--my daughter is, too. People were constantly telling me to talk, to speak up, to be louder. And when I finally started to do that--to make them happy, as I was perfectly happy being quiet--I was told to be quiet, to not talk in class, to stay in silence. It was the first punishment I ever received in school, a humiliating sentence of corner-banishment in front of all of my peers, and it was enough motivation to get me to shut up once again.
The expectations set in front of me were quite obvious--succeed or be met with disapproval.... Quadrant Spelling
Posted on Jan 19, 2010 - 08:00 PM by Tim Curley in ImprovEducation
In my last posting, I wrote about the day I taught my students about quadrant graphs. The fact that I did so while not talking, using only hand signals and finger pointing, is what I mentioned in the post. I neglected to mention why I chose to introduce the graphs. From what I can tell, the California State Standards first mention quadrant graphs in seventh grade. I choose to teach them now, in fourth grade, not as a math component, but as part of my spelling program. Rather than posting the spelling words on a chart, or writing them in a composition book, or simply reading them from their workbook, I place them on a quadrant graph that is superimposed over a pocket chart. The result... Working for Freire’s “True Word”
Posted on Jan 18, 2010 - 06:26 PM by Ammerah Saidi in The Learning Curve
Paolo Freire writes, "Human existence cannot be silent nor can it be nourished by false words, but only by true words, with which men and women transform the world."Our man, Freire, is calling us out--PUT YO' MONEY WHERE YO' MOUTH IS! Words without reflection are pointless. Words without action are likewise pointless. It is only when we balance our words with reflection and action that we can call ourselves thinkers and transformers. (Sigh. Where are the Freires of the world? 'Cause I'm single and ready to mingle! If you're there--mouths silently--call me.)
All kidding aside, this is exactly what I have moved to implement in my classroom--a movement from thoughts and words to... The Plans of Mice and Men
Posted on Jan 11, 2010 - 08:04 PM by Ammerah Saidi in The Learning Curve
My friend and partner, Khadigah Alasry, in the fight to make education real again, developed a vision for a model of reform last year. We started presenting this model within the U.S. and over the internet. We've been invited to present in Dublin, the Cayman Islands, Hawaii, Dubai, Paris, and other places but due to our lack of funds and now time, we have had to kindly decline.We developed this model for educational reform while I was out of the classroom for a year and Khadigah had just graduated from undergrad with her newly minted teacher's certificate. For a nine minute synopsis of our model, watch our video:
This video summarizes my vision for my return to the classroom. My... Reverse Pressure: The Pressure to Fail
Posted on Jan 10, 2010 - 05:20 PM by Claire Russell in Pulse
In schools across America, young teens walk their halls with the heavy burden of perfection always upon them. Whoever instills this need for being flawless is often the one pushing young people. Their parents, their teachers, their family. However, at my school there is a new kind of pressure that is exceedingly different from the classic one: The pressure to fail.Meeting the status quo. That's what it's all about. Don't do too well, don't stand out. Kids use the term “rebel” fairly often in my school. In dictionary terms, this means someone or a group of people who rise up against the government. In my school, it's someone who fails. Someone who steals. Someone who is not in a good place... Challenges and Opportunities of the Semester System
Posted on Jan 08, 2010 - 10:58 AM by Kristan Morrison in democracy.edu
Like Alison Bagg Brink (see her latest blog post), I, too, am gearing up to return to teaching after my university's winter break. Unlike Alison, though, I will be getting a whole new set of students this semester. Teaching at a university on a semester schedule in which classes start anew at least two times a year has both its challenges and advantages for a democratically-minded educator.For example, I love getting to meet whole new sets of students each semester. I always get that "butterflies in the stomach" excitement of thinking about the possibilities of good things to come in terms of helping to create communities of engaged co-learning. But I also hate those butterflies, too,... WWMD? (What Would MacGyver Do?)
Posted on Jan 05, 2010 - 10:19 PM by Alison Bagg Brink in ImprovEducation
It isn't easy to get up at 5:00 am. It is even harder when you have had two wonderful weeks to wake-up at your leisure, wander around the house in slippers with a cup of coffee in your hand, and snuggle your own children all day long.But... we are back. There is stuff to do, and we are the ones to do it.
I look at things differently coming back from Winter Break. I am somewhat renewed, a little less harried, more focused, and more realistic about what the school year will become. I know the kids and the different personalities that make up each class, and am finding ways to tailor my lessons to meet the needs of the individuals as well as the many. I am able to improvise when... The Day I “Couldn’t Talk”
Posted on Jan 02, 2010 - 02:15 PM by Tim Curley in ImprovEducation
One recent Monday, I did what I usually do before school. I stood outside the main entry, and greeted the kids as they were dropped off at the curb. I walked through the cafeteria and said hello to the older kids, the younger kids, and the few parents who eat breakfast at school. I do this because I see my role at school as being much more than a classroom teacher. El Verano School is a community, and I feel that we all need to share in that community.After the bell rang and I began to walk to class, I realized that I had not yet talked to any of my students. And I got an idea.
As I have mentioned in a previous blog entry, I don't do a lot of talking in the first few minutes of class.... Get ‘em Talking!
Posted on Dec 23, 2009 - 03:55 PM by Tim Curley in ImprovEducation
The newspapers today have articles stating that research shows that teaching is the happiest career one can choose. My students this year certainly place me in that category. This year has been very enjoyable, indeed. I have a group of students who have a few social leaders, as all groups do, and this year, those social leaders are also academic leaders. This has allowed me to focus less on discipline, and more on creatively approaching their learning needs. They seem to truly enjoy learning, and that has given me the freedom to really have a good time teaching them.I teach fourth grade in a public elementary school that is about 85% Spanish speaking at home. Because of this, my... Don’t Call it a Comeback
Posted on Dec 21, 2009 - 10:47 PM by Ammerah Saidi in The Learning Curve
I've been gone a while--I know. But such is the nature of democratic education. Let me explain.If you've read my previous entries, I hope it was clear that I had a vision for my classroom and I was going to strive to make this vision a reality. The path had been set and the last time we communicated, I believed that I needed to condition my students to be unconditionable. I quoted Audre Lorde and questioned her belief that we could not use the master's tools to dismantle the master's home.
So several weeks later and after lots of reflecting, I'm totally retracting my statements. As adamant as I was that my students needed to be conditioned through the use of grades and external... Bullied by a Role Model
Posted on Dec 20, 2009 - 05:00 PM by Claire Russell in Pulse
I write today from my heart, which, like my head is very confused and upset. I have been at my new school for nearly three months and I am happy to report I have not once been bullied, or teased -- until today. We all went through getting teased when we were children, and I have to admit I even did my fair share of teasing when I was young too, but it's an easy thing to fix. When you're teased as a child, you run to your teacher for comfort and advice. The scary thing is, this time the bully was my teacher.It was the end of the day and I was walking with my friend to basketball practice. My teacher stood in the hall. I called to him, "So, did I get an A on that assignment?" in a joking... Do The Wiggles Do High School Gigs?
Posted on Dec 16, 2009 - 12:51 PM by Alison Bagg Brink in ImprovEducation
December drives me crazy.There is simply too much to do.
Too much to do at home, and too much to do at school.
December is a curriculum crunch time for me. I am always a few lessons behind where I have planned to be. I am always playing catch-up. I try to add just that much more into each lesson, and just when the kids have a bad case of the "I don't wanna."
The worst thing about December is the lack of focus. Mine, theirs, ours.
Despite my best intentions, and my jam packed lessons, we all get distracted. Unfortunately, when I get distracted, unfocused, hazy, and vague, the kids get wiggly. Is that a good way to say it? Yeah, wiggly. They wiggle in their seats, they wiggle out of... Homeschoolers Anonymous
Posted on Dec 11, 2009 - 02:31 AM by Sara Schmidt in Uncharted Parenting
My name is Sara, and I'm a former homeschool basher.I never encountered any homeschooled kids until I went to college. Having excelled in school for the most part, I met the very idea of being taught at home with disdain. Most of the homeschooled students I met were nice, happy, pretty well-adjusted--and very, very religious. I immediately jumped onto the bandwagon driven by the people chanting, "Brainwash!" and decided that people who homeschooled their children were simply training them to be members of the Army of God, that it was such a travesty, and that the drones produced from such mind-numbing instruction would only go off into the wild blue yonder, birthing more drones to keep... Is Education Meant to Be Easy? And other ruminations on required assignments
Posted on Dec 04, 2009 - 01:51 PM by Kristan Morrison in democracy.edu
The semester is winding down for my teacher education students and me. We are all filled with that sense of anticipation that comes when you see hard work reaching an end. It is at this time each semester that I start gathering my thoughts about changes I want to make to my courses for the new semester, and it is at this time when I ask my students to give me advice and feedback on how things went for them in my class. Inevitably, the conversation comes around to the reading responses -- the weekly written assignments where students give evidence of having read and processed the assigned texts.Each week, I give students anywhere from 25 to 50 pages to read for class and I ask them to... Lightening the Load
Posted on Nov 25, 2009 - 10:03 AM by Jonah Canner in Got Questions?
I am a high school teacher and adviser and lately the students seem to be pulling away, into smaller groups or individually. Many of them are pretty stressed with college applications and some realities setting in. Some of them are also bringing a lot of negativity into our meetings. We want to get everyone back together, and more bonded together as a group, so that we can bring each other up and support each other more than spreading negativity. We tried the human knot activity at our last meeting for an hour and weren't able to get it done. I am open to any and all suggestions that you have.Erika M., Chicago IL - High School Teacher and Adviser
I have a few initial thoughts and also... Resisting What I Know
Posted on Nov 24, 2009 - 03:36 PM by Tanya Reza in Op-Education
This past September, I was hired to teach first grade at a private Islamic school. The school housed grades K-12, and in addition to the standard language arts, mathematics, science and social studies; religious instruction and Arabic language were also offered. Due to low enrollment and a reduction in the anticipated school budget, I was laid off shortly after being hired. In the brief one week period that I actually taught, I struggled between doing what was right versus doing what was easy. In other words, I strived to teach in a manner that lived up to my ideals. However, I found myself defaulting to methods and practices that I despised about my own education.My adventure in... Teacher and Student Roles
Posted on Nov 20, 2009 - 02:52 PM by Shawn Strader in Op-Education
Just about anybody who has attended public school has experienced the distinction that seems to often exist between student and teacher.The teacher calls the shots, runs the show, sets the agenda and the deadlines, informs students of how things will go on in their classroom, and is the person who has the knowledge -- which is to be passed on from his or her mind to the students of the classroom. And this is all usually done through teacher-led discourse and method, within the constraints of school curriculum of course.
The students (in theory) are to absorb all of the knowledge being offered to them, respond diligently and respectfully to the teacher's commands and direction, raise... The Building Blocks of a Good Education
Posted on Nov 18, 2009 - 02:02 PM by Jonah Canner in Got Questions?
This week I'll be asking the question. Here it is:What ever happened to Kindergarten?
This past weekend I found myself in Western Massachusetts for an old fashioned Timber House Raising. Now I have to be honest, before this weekend I had no idea what a Timber Hose Raising was. Living in Brooklyn it's not so often you come across someone who decides they're going to build their house and then invites the whole neighborhood over to help. It's even less often that you get to watch a house being build with no metal. But that was exactly what happened. Over the last two years pieces of tree were cut, shaved and carved into lumber, each piece measured and chiseled to fit exactly into the... Got goals?
Posted on Nov 18, 2009 - 10:57 AM by Alison Bagg Brink in ImprovEducation
This is my thirteenth fall as a teacher. This year has been wonderful so far. I have great students, colleagues that I respect, and a curriculum for the majority of my classes that I agree with philosophically.But then ... (think the soundtrack to Jaws) it is time to set professional goals. There is nothing in the year that brings more discomfort than the goal-related meetings, and we have at least three each year. These meetings make me sweat and give me a horrible pain between my right shoulder and my neck, in fact, I am trying to stretch it out as I type.
Here is the issue: my goal needs to be in alignment with the school and district goals. In a nutshell, that means that my goal... Skinner Box to Freedom
Posted on Nov 17, 2009 - 08:44 PM by Ammerah Saidi in The Learning Curve
So, there I stood. In front of my thirty 9th graders, hour after hour, watching them write letters to each other, put their gum under their desks, talk to their neighbors while the assigned worksheet on the parts of speech I just spent the night before diligently creating fell silently to the floor. Think I am being melodramatic? I wish! In one class, I laughed to myself for a solid thirty seconds (a long time in high school time), after I spent three minutes going back and forth with a student as to why throwing wads of paper at a girl he did not like was unacceptable."Stop doing that and apologize."
"What? She doesn't care."
"She's not going to tell you she cares, but I do.... Aren’t Facts Important?
Posted on Nov 11, 2009 - 08:25 PM by Jonah Canner in Got Questions?
This "democratic" approach to education seems nice, but don't kids need to know certain facts to thrive in the world?In a word... yes.
But I'm not going to stop after one word. Yes, there are absolutely things that people need to know in order to thrive in the world, but we will never be able to teach people everything that they will need to know for their life. And people, depending on the life path that they choose, will need to know different facts at different times. So rather than filling our young people's heads with facts, we should teach them how to find the information they need and give them the skills to analyze and interpret that information for themselves.
If our schools... Where’s the Line? Putting Democratic Teaching Ideals to the Test
Posted on Nov 11, 2009 - 11:41 AM by Kristan Morrison in democracy.edu
In my efforts to model democratic practices to pre-service teachers, I ask my students at the beginning of each class, "Are there any questions, comments, concerns, suggestions, complaints?" Usually I am met with silence or with just basic housekeeping-type questions (e.g. when do we have to take Praxis II? etc.). Occasionally, though, a student will offer a concern or complaint about the work load or impending due dates, or they'll propose a change to a grading rubric item. For example, in the last month, I had students request to be able to pre-record their Pecha Kucha presentation (a sort of slam poetry form of powerpoint presentation -- 20 slides in 20 seconds each to explore an... Worry is an expression of lovePosted on Nov 05, 2009 - 03:32 PM by Scott Nine in Uncharted Parenting
As a parent of a ten- and two-year old, I continue to be awed and humbled by what parenting asks of me. Whoever said that raising children is like watching your heart move around outside your body was spot on. As an educator who spends my day with other people's kids, I'm also deeply aware of the ways parents and educators can work and grow together as well as the potential impact when we don't.I've come to love the worry parents feel and often express (including my own). I didn't start there, but as my kids got older and I found my own anxieties arrive at how my son spent his day, I found myself needing to rethink my responses to worry.
The way I see it, the worry a so called... Using the Master’s Tools
Posted on Nov 01, 2009 - 06:47 PM by Ammerah Saidi in The Learning Curve
My first week into teaching after my year in graduate school, I was filled with grand ideas and ideals as to what I would do in my classroom to help my students liberate themselves from the intellectual shackles of US public education. I entered my classroom and my school with the belief that my students and I would revolutionize the educational experience in Detroit forever--no hyperbole intended. This is how deeply I believed in my students and their potential to be positive change agents in a world which deemed them failures or equally insulting, average at best.Critical pedagogy was my tool of choice: an educational philosophy accredited to the late Paolo Freire, which... For a thriving economy, educate creative thinkers
Posted on Oct 26, 2009 - 09:25 PM by Melia Dicker in News Feed
A Washington lawyer friend recently told me about layoffs at his firm. I asked him who was getting axed. He said it was interesting: lawyers who were used to just showing up and having work handed to them were the first to go because with the bursting of the credit bubble, that flow of work just isn’t there. But those who have the ability to imagine new services, new opportunities and new ways to recruit work were being retained. They are the new untouchables.
That is the key to understanding our full education challenge today. Those who are waiting for this recession to end so someone can again hand them work could have a long wait. Those with the imagination to make themselves untouchables—to invent smarter ways to do old jobs, energy-saving ways to provide new services, new ways to attract old customers or new ways to combine existing technologies—will thrive. Therefore, we not only need a higher percentage of our kids graduating from high school and college—more education—but we need more of them with the right education. ...
... Just being an average accountant, lawyer, contractor or assembly-line worker is not the ticket it used to be. As Daniel Pink, the author of “A Whole New Mind,” puts it: In a world in which more and more average work can be done by a computer, robot or talented foreigner faster, cheaper “and just as well,” vanilla doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s all about what chocolate sauce, whipped cream and cherry you can put on top. So our schools have a doubly hard task now—not just improving reading, writing and arithmetic but entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity.
What are schools really teaching kids?Posted on Oct 25, 2009 - 06:25 PM by Melia Dicker in News Feed
Do we really need school? I don’t mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years. Is this deadly routine really necessary? And if so, for what? Don’t hide behind reading, writing, and arithmetic as a rationale, because 2 million happy homeschoolers have surely put that banal justification to rest. Even if they hadn’t, a considerable number of well-known Americans never went through the twelve-year wringer our kids currently go through, and they turned out all right. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln? Someone taught them, to be sure, but they were not products of a school system, and not one of them was ever “graduated” from a secondary school.
Throughout most of American history, kids generally didn’t go to high school, yet the unschooled rose to be admirals, like Farragut; inventors, like Edison; captains of industry, like Carnegie and Rockefeller; writers, like Melville and Twain and Conrad; and even scholars, like Margaret Mead. In fact, until pretty recently people who reached the age of thirteen weren’t looked upon as children at all. Ariel Durant, who co-wrote an enormous, and very good, multivolume history of the world with her husband, Will, was happily married at fifteen, and who could reasonably claim that Ariel Durant was an uneducated person? Unschooled, perhaps, but not uneducated.
We have been taught (that is, schooled) in this country to think of “success” as synonymous with, or at least dependent upon, “schooling,” but historically that isn’t true in either an intellectual or a financial sense. And plenty of people throughout the world today find a way to educate themselves without resorting to a system of compulsory secondary schools that all too often resemble prisons. Why, then, do Americans confuse education with just such a system? What exactly is the purpose of our public schools?
Get It Wrong Before You Google to Learn It BetterPosted on Oct 22, 2009 - 06:48 PM by Melia Dicker in News Feed
We live in an era where the answer to almost any fact-based question is no further than a Google search away, but Scientific American highlights a study suggesting subjects forced to get something wrong before being told the answer learn it better.
The 3 R’s? A Fourth Is Crucial, Too: RecessPosted on Oct 20, 2009 - 11:19 AM by Melia Dicker in News Feed
The best way to improve children’s performance in the classroom may be to take them out of it.
New research suggests that play and down time may be as important to a child’s academic experience as reading, science and math, and that regular recess, fitness or nature time can influence behavior, concentration and even grades.
A study published this month in the journal Pediatrics studied the links between recess and classroom behavior among about 11,000 children age 8 and 9. Those who had more than 15 minutes of recess a day showed better behavior in class than those who had little or none. Although disadvantaged children were more likely to be denied recess, the association between better behavior and recess time held up even after researchers controlled for a number of variables, including sex, ethnicity, public or private school and class size.
Prisoners or Students?Posted on Oct 20, 2009 - 01:14 AM by Ammerah Saidi in The Learning Curve
I'm 5'2" and about 105 lbs. I'm small--so walking through the hallways of the new school in which I just got a teaching position, I get mistaken all the time as a student, by students and teachers alike. This gives my students the impression that I'm a pushover, and staff the idea that I won't last in this school past a couple of months. But what my misleading physique grants me is a world into the daily feelings of my students inside a building they will spend four of their formative years in--if they make it through four."Hey! Where's your pass?"
"Where are you going? Get to class!"
"Who let you in this copy room?"
"Get to the back of the line!"
All of these are greetings given to... Taking school choice to a whole new level
Posted on Oct 19, 2009 - 06:38 PM by admin in News Feed
To most people, this school probably looks like chaos.
But at The Village Free School, chaos is part of the equation.
In this “free democratic” school, kids call the shots on most things. They decide what they want to learn, when they want to learn and how they want that learning to look.
The school’s philosophy? The most substantive learning takes place when students initiate the learning process themselves.
“Kids are learning all the time,” Executive Director Scott Nine says. “It’s not just in certain classes or during certain periods of the day.”