Tags for "Curriculum"
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.... 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... Resisting What I Know
My adventure in... 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... 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... Get ‘em Talking!
I teach fourth grade in a public elementary school that is about 85% Spanish speaking at home. Because of this, my... Are There Things That Should be Mandatory?
I made this post to ask a question: what do you think should be taught to every student in the country?
Some that seem good to me:
I think people should be taught how to talk with people who have mental health issues or are going through... 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.... 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,... 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... 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... 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... 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... Maybe Kids Should Have a Say in How They Receive Information?
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... In Defense of Unschooling
My family and I are not technically unschoolers. I'm very attracted to the word and what it means, and we do "unschool" in some ways, but we still prefer to use some Waldorf curriculum in our life. That works for us. Different methods work for different... 10 Reasons to Unschool
If made aware of all of the different options available to them, I believe that many parents would not choose to send their children into public schools as they are currently... 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. ...
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.... 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... 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... 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... 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... 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... Are There Things That Should be Mandatory?
Posted on Dec 26, 2009 - 07:33 PM by Kris Sage in Sage Wonderings
One of the primary differences between alternative or democratic educational schooling and public schooling from what I've observed is that there are different stances around mandatory education. Some alternative schools do not have mandatory education at all. Several have mandatory education models that orient around activities that don't occur at all in public school. Others do believe in that everyone should have to learn basic math and writing.I made this post to ask a question: what do you think should be taught to every student in the country?
Some that seem good to me:
I think people should be taught how to talk with people who have mental health issues or are going through... 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.... 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,... 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... 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... 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... 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... 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... In Defense of Unschooling
Posted on Jun 10, 2010 - 01:12 AM by Sara Schmidt in Uncharted Parenting
Lately, there has been a surge of questions, comments, and in many cases, diatribes against unschooling. Most of these have been spawned from two very brief, very biased (in many peoples' opinions), news-oriented television programs--not from actual research completed on unschooling itself. In response to so much misunderstanding and heated--even hateful, in many cases--commentary, I decided to write out my own defense of unschooling.My family and I are not technically unschoolers. I'm very attracted to the word and what it means, and we do "unschool" in some ways, but we still prefer to use some Waldorf curriculum in our life. That works for us. Different methods work for different... 10 Reasons to Unschool
Posted on Jun 14, 2010 - 12:17 AM by Sara Schmidt in Uncharted Parenting
There are so many different philosophies of education in the world to choose from. It's a rich, diverse world, so it's only natural that there are so many different ways to learn and grow. It's a shame, however, that most of these paths toward learning are concealed from the majority of people. If asked what education means, most people cite the public school method; and though others might also toss in private or homeschooling, there are still so many variations out there that go unnoticed, or even unheard of.If made aware of all of the different options available to them, I believe that many parents would not choose to send their children into public schools as they are currently... Goals met?
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. ...