Changing Education

I found an interesting article today on twitter (yes, twitter! I am becoming so tech savvy!) You can read the article, A call for President Obama to change course on education, here. Now, let me just say that I am not posting this as a political statement against Obama or against charter schools. This author made some arguments that I don't necessarily agree with but the part I found interesting was this paragraph:

"What separates education in the United States from so-called competitor counties is that on average, socioeconomic status explains far more of the variation in test scores in the United States than in other industrialized countries. But, as many researchers have pointed out, it is not the presence of unions, tenure, or collective bargaining that explains that difference. A more plausible explanation is that the more successfully scoring countries have far more substantial social support systems to mediate the negative effects of poverty. A far stronger argument can be made that we need to change our focus — especially in struggling schools — from the drudgery of high consequence driven test-prep to engaging students to be critical thinkers and active investigators in meaningful subject matter. Or, even better, from spending millions on testing to spending millions on support services. In addition, the evidence is mounting that schools can also teach essential non-cognitive competencies, such as persistence, ethics, empathy and collaboration. Since the latter are not easily subject to measurement, the continued focus on testing narrow, more easily measured subject matter diverts important attention from their development."

This has been a topic of conversation brought up many times throughout our education courses. How do we reach the students that are living in such extreme poverty that they can't focus on their education, but must instead focus on everyday survival? How do we reach those children whose only reality is a constant stream of drugs and violence? How can we convince good teachers to stay in struggling schools when the consequences for bad test scores lead to even less resources and funding for that school? Is there a better way to evaluate our schools and our teachers?

There are never any easy solutions. I think that most educators have come to the conclusion, however, that high consequence standardized testing is not the answer. Like the author points out, we are spending millions of dollars on these tests, which only show how good our students are at taking a multiple choice test, when we could be using this money in more efficient ways.

I also liked how he pointed out that we should be teaching things like persistence, ethics, empathy, and collaboration. Things like this cannot be tested through multiple choice questions yet they are equally as important as traditional subject matter. If our students are not engaged in topics such as social justice, diversity, equity, the environment, and community/global citizenship then what have we really accomplished? What have we really prepared our students for?

I hope that we continue to ask these important questions regarding standardized tests and the inequalities that exists between our schools. Maybe if enough people begin to question this thinking we can become loud enough to change our governments way of thinking about education as well.

writing lesson plans

I am in the middle of writing my Direct Learning Lesson Plan and it is driving me nuts! I seriously underestimated how much work this whole unit plan was. I chose to do a social studies unit because social studies is the only subject at my school where the curriculum is not written out for you. I was so excited because I could really design my own unit and- even more exciting- they are studying Australia in social studies this spring. It was like this unit was made for me! (If you don't already know this, I am in love with Australia!)

When it came to the Essential Understandings, the only problem I had was narrowing it down to only a few. There are so many ways I could go, but I had to remember that we only have a few short months, if that, to do the entire unit. Essential questions weren't too bad either and I thought of several good assessments I could use. I was on my way!

Now I am looking at my activites and my individual lesson plans and am drawing a complete blank. I know all of the things I want them to get out of the unit, but when it comes to the specifics of how I am going to do that- nothing. How am I going to introduce the aboriginal culture to my third graders? How are they going to learn about the rich plant and animal diversity? How do I teach about human impact on the environment and vice versa?

Am I just thinking too much? Am I trying to be too creative? Not every lesson can involve some fun game or activity. Some things just have to be taught. There needs to be some type of background knowledge before even a discussion can take place.

Is anybody else feeling frustration with this assignment?

Community Building

Last Thursday in my dyad I got to experience some real community building with my class. As I have mentioned before, I am working at the Environmental Adventure School, and they tend to do things a little different than your average public school. They focus a lot on community building both within the school and outside of the school. Before the year even starts the whole school goes on a camping trip to get to know one another. In the spring they also get to go on a week long educational trip of their choice. This year the choices are: Boston, New York, Hawaii, or the Mississippi River (there might be one more choice but I can't think of it right now). How awesome would it be to learn about tropical animals in an actual tropical rainforest or to learn about river systems while traveling down the Mississippi? I wish I could go with them this spring......

Anyway, back to what we did last Thursday. Another way that the school builds community is through some sort of community service project. Some groups go help out at a local food bank, some are working together to build greenhouses, while the group I was with this week went to help clean up some of our local bike trails. We helped to build ditches for water to flow into so that water wouldn't puddle up on the trails (picture below), we raked away leaves so that bikes wouldn't slip, and we searched for tools that needed to be picked up and brought back to their storage spaces (one girl even found a machete on one of the trails. Creepy.)

 Afterwards, the kids got to see some of the park volunteers do some tricks on their bikes. It was really awesome to see how excited the kids were to watch these guys do their tricks. What great role models for these kids! These guys were no more than 18 or 19 years old and they were volunteering their time to clean up their local trails. They were also taking the time to lead a bunch of middle school kids and teach them how to do the same.

 

We talk so much in our classes about educating our students on issues of social justice, equity, community building, and our responsibilities as citizens but I love how this school is taking it to the next level by getting out and experiencing these things. This is what students will remember when all the worksheets and tests fade from memory.

Halloween Fun

I have had such a great time working with my Kindergarten buddy these past few weeks. He has lots of energy and keeps me on my toes. This week we had a fun Halloween activity and book that I read. Now, I know that some children don't celebrate holidays, but I had asked him the previous week about what he was going to be for Halloween and if he was going trick-or-treating so that I would know if this was the case ahead of time.

We started off with Halloween bingo. I drew a card from a pile which had a word on it. I asked him to identify the first letter of the word and the sound it makes. After he did this, I told him the word and turned it over to show the picture and he put a marker on his bingo card where the picture was. He got all of them without any problems, which led me to believe the activity was too easy for him, but he stayed interested because of the game aspect of it. It was a fun game and could be adapted in a number of different ways depending on where students are in letter recognition or reading.

Then I read the book The Hallo-wiener by Dav Pilkey. It is a cute book about a wiener dog named Oscar who dresses up as a hotdog for Halloween and gets made fun of by everyone else. When the other dogs get scared off by a monster, however, Oscar comes to the rescue. The other dogs stop picking on Oscar and share their Halloween treats with him. It is a funny book that kids enjoy but it also has a great message in it as well.

Just wanted to share an idea of a fun holiday themed activity to do with kids. If anybody else had an activity that their student enjoyed, please share!

The not-so-little things

"When a child gives you a gift, even if it is a rock they just picked up, exude gratitude. It might be the only thing they have to give, and they have chosen to give it to you."  -Dean Jackson

I found this quote on pinterest and I just love it! It reminds me of the pictures and things my students have given to me. I keep all of the art they have given to me in my notebook as a reminder to myself that they could have been doing something else or made a picture for someone else, but they chose to make one for me. As teacher's, 'little' things like this need to be a big deal to us because they are a big deal to our students.

I want to go to there.....

What if our schools looked like this:

 

 

This is school in Paris, France designed by Palatre and Leclere. Here is the website with some more fun pictures and information.

 

What if our schools looked like this? Wouldn't you be excited to go to class every day? All this talk about needing to change the way we educate our students needs to include changing our school spaces as well. I have noticed a change from the traditional desks set in rows to more group seating, but this is hardly enough. Schools need to be more warm and inviting. They need to be more colorful and fun. They need to inspire and engage our students. We need more spaces that children want to explore and investigate. I know many of us will be working with limited budgets, but look at what just adding some color does to a school. This school wouldn't be nearly so exciting if it weren't so colorful. What can you do to change up your traditional classroom space?

read aloud material

Working in a 3rd grade classroom as well as taking a class on literature methods has really got me thinking about read alouds lately. To be honest, read alouds were never a top priority for me due to the fact that I was so focused on getting my science endorsement. I have realized, however, that I am going to have to do my fair share of them this spring when I begin to student teach. I am also not sure if I will even get a job teaching middle school science. I may be offered a job teaching a primary grade, so I need to be prepared. With this in mind, I headed to the library to begin to try and find some good read aloud material. I found three books that I would add to my list.

The Bat Boy and His Violin by Gavin Curtis. Those of you who know me know I play the violin, so I had to pick this one up when I saw it. It was a wonderful story about an african american boy who loves to play the violin but his father wants him to be more interested in sports, especially baseball. It is set during the time period when the major leagues were just beginning to let men of color play so it is an excellent lead in for discussions about racism or slavery. It is also great for discussions about loving people for who they are. In the end, the boy's dad comes to appreciate his son's musical talent.

For You are a Kenyan Child by Kelly Cunnane. This book is about a kenyan child's day in his village. He is told by his mom go take care of his grandfather's cows but he gets distracted by the different things to do in the village. This book is neat in that it shows how different the boy's life is from a child living in America, but also the similarities. Just like here, children in Kenya forget to do their chores, play ball with their friends, and hear stories at night time before bed. The illustrations are also very beautiful.

Where Do I Sleep? A Pacific Northwest Lullaby by Jennifer Blomgren. This is a cute book that also has some excellent illustrations. Each page shows an animal that lives in the pacific northwest with a little rhyme to go along with it.

I tried to pick books that would be interesting for children, but that would also have either an important message or something to be learned. Hopefully you find these books interesting too and if you have any suggestions of great books to add to my list, please let me know!