http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-zini/one-is-not-enough-lets-ge_b_790295.html
this is the link to the article ^
I liked this article a lot for several reasons:
1) it recognized the importance of evaluating teachers on how well they are doing their jobs
2) it recognized that standardized testing only paints a portion of the big picture and should not be the only method used to evaluate teachers
3) it gives examples of other ways educators can be evaluated so that a more effective picture is drawn
4) it recognizes that test scores do not show what is actually going on in the classroom
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Talking Points 10
Education is Politics
By: Ira Shor
1) "If the students' task is to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted."
-I liked this quote a lot and totally agree with it. How can someone fully understand something if they do not question where it came from and why it is what it is. By just taking notes and memorizing facts, students forget how to be creative and do not use their full capacity to learn because they are not questioning the material or forming ideas/opinions about it. Students need to really take things apart and analyze them piece by piece and ask questions and share their thoughts because that is what learning really is. Discovering answers through their own questions that they had formed all on their own.
2) "A curriculum that does not challenge the standard syllabus and conditions in society informs students that knowledge and the word are fixed and are fine the way they are, with no role for students to play in transforming them, and no need for change."
- I loved this quote so much and it really stuck with me because I hadn't ever really thought about learning this way before, but it totally makes sense. Education is not only about learning facts and the way life is, but it also is about what we can do as the upcoming generation to revise it where needed and add our own spice to things. When discussing something in class, like a law for example, the students should be allowed to form opinions and decide whether or not that law is working and if it is not, then how can they fix it. School is not just the vacuum effect where kids just go and suck up information to retain, but have no thoughts or questions about any of it. Rather, school should be where kids CAN question things and form ideas on how to improve things in life. Nothing is ever perfect and everyone has ideas and opinions and by sharing them in the classroom everyone benefits and gets to express creative thoughts and gain some from fellow classmates.
3) "People begin life as motivated learners, not as passive beings. Children naturally join the world around them, and by using play to internalize the meaning of words and experience."
-I am a firm believer in active learning and participation. I think getting the kids up and thinking and questioning something that is a fact in life really helps them to learn how to create critical theories and ideas, which is so important in furthering education. If someone just sits like a lump on a log and is absorbing all this information, but then does nothing with it is teaching the kids that they have no part in this world and that school is not preparing them for anything. School and education should be about learning how to create ideas and how to argue a fact and sharing ideas with others. These are the things that are needed in life, not what year the french and indian war was, but interactions with others and voicing and creating opinions.
By: Ira Shor
1) "If the students' task is to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted."
-I liked this quote a lot and totally agree with it. How can someone fully understand something if they do not question where it came from and why it is what it is. By just taking notes and memorizing facts, students forget how to be creative and do not use their full capacity to learn because they are not questioning the material or forming ideas/opinions about it. Students need to really take things apart and analyze them piece by piece and ask questions and share their thoughts because that is what learning really is. Discovering answers through their own questions that they had formed all on their own.
2) "A curriculum that does not challenge the standard syllabus and conditions in society informs students that knowledge and the word are fixed and are fine the way they are, with no role for students to play in transforming them, and no need for change."
- I loved this quote so much and it really stuck with me because I hadn't ever really thought about learning this way before, but it totally makes sense. Education is not only about learning facts and the way life is, but it also is about what we can do as the upcoming generation to revise it where needed and add our own spice to things. When discussing something in class, like a law for example, the students should be allowed to form opinions and decide whether or not that law is working and if it is not, then how can they fix it. School is not just the vacuum effect where kids just go and suck up information to retain, but have no thoughts or questions about any of it. Rather, school should be where kids CAN question things and form ideas on how to improve things in life. Nothing is ever perfect and everyone has ideas and opinions and by sharing them in the classroom everyone benefits and gets to express creative thoughts and gain some from fellow classmates.
3) "People begin life as motivated learners, not as passive beings. Children naturally join the world around them, and by using play to internalize the meaning of words and experience."
-I am a firm believer in active learning and participation. I think getting the kids up and thinking and questioning something that is a fact in life really helps them to learn how to create critical theories and ideas, which is so important in furthering education. If someone just sits like a lump on a log and is absorbing all this information, but then does nothing with it is teaching the kids that they have no part in this world and that school is not preparing them for anything. School and education should be about learning how to create ideas and how to argue a fact and sharing ideas with others. These are the things that are needed in life, not what year the french and indian war was, but interactions with others and voicing and creating opinions.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Talking Points 9
Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome
By: Christopher Kliewer
1) "It's not like they come here to be labeled, or to believe the label. We're all here- kids, teachers, parents, whoever- it's about all of us working together, playing together, being together, and that's what learning is. Don't tell me any of these kids are being set up to fail."
- I liked this quote a lot because it shows what a different perspective and approach the people at this school were taking on and how they were reaching outside the labels and expectations set upon these kids by society. Here at this school they understand the kids and they are teaching them what everyone should be taught- that working together and being able to help and perform together is what is essential to be successful in life. When you get out into the work force, it isn't going to matter if the answer was C and that you knew it; rather, what is important is being able to work with your peers and create functioning relationships with them in order to progress in life.
2) "They didn't think it was realistic, that she could handle that job. Here they have her educating America's future, but they're scared to let her work at a movie place."
-This quote literally made me laugh out loud because it was so ironic and she made a really great point saying that the board was afraid she was not going to be able to succeed in a movie store, but they let her teach children. It goes to show that the idea of disabled people going out into the work force and working under a set system, such as in a movie store, seems impossible to many people, and may even scare them. What bothers me is the plain fact that they didn't even want to give her the chance to let her try to work in this video store, even though movies were her passion. They had no faith in her just because she was considered mentally disabled and they did not think she could succeed anywhere else but this little school. People need to be more open minded and accepting and give everyone the same chance to do the job they want to do and have faith that they will succeed. In fact, this particular person went to work in a video store and she did just as good as all her co-workers and loved it.
3) "Instead, she saw incompetence as a perception ascribed to a child by others who misunderstood the meaning of the child's performance."
-I liked this quote a lot because it recognizes that if someone does not fit society's mold and norms in how people express intellect and understanding of material being taught, then society immediately labels them as mentally disabled. When in reality, the student does actually understand, but they have a different way of expressing their comprehension of the lesson and people misinterpret it as nothing of substance. Society needs to be more open to diverse ways of displaying an understanding and explanation of materials and lessons discussed in class. So in other words, it is not the student that is incompetent, rather it is society that is incompetent in not broadening the scope for different ways of showing understanding.
By: Christopher Kliewer
1) "It's not like they come here to be labeled, or to believe the label. We're all here- kids, teachers, parents, whoever- it's about all of us working together, playing together, being together, and that's what learning is. Don't tell me any of these kids are being set up to fail."
- I liked this quote a lot because it shows what a different perspective and approach the people at this school were taking on and how they were reaching outside the labels and expectations set upon these kids by society. Here at this school they understand the kids and they are teaching them what everyone should be taught- that working together and being able to help and perform together is what is essential to be successful in life. When you get out into the work force, it isn't going to matter if the answer was C and that you knew it; rather, what is important is being able to work with your peers and create functioning relationships with them in order to progress in life.
2) "They didn't think it was realistic, that she could handle that job. Here they have her educating America's future, but they're scared to let her work at a movie place."
-This quote literally made me laugh out loud because it was so ironic and she made a really great point saying that the board was afraid she was not going to be able to succeed in a movie store, but they let her teach children. It goes to show that the idea of disabled people going out into the work force and working under a set system, such as in a movie store, seems impossible to many people, and may even scare them. What bothers me is the plain fact that they didn't even want to give her the chance to let her try to work in this video store, even though movies were her passion. They had no faith in her just because she was considered mentally disabled and they did not think she could succeed anywhere else but this little school. People need to be more open minded and accepting and give everyone the same chance to do the job they want to do and have faith that they will succeed. In fact, this particular person went to work in a video store and she did just as good as all her co-workers and loved it.
3) "Instead, she saw incompetence as a perception ascribed to a child by others who misunderstood the meaning of the child's performance."
-I liked this quote a lot because it recognizes that if someone does not fit society's mold and norms in how people express intellect and understanding of material being taught, then society immediately labels them as mentally disabled. When in reality, the student does actually understand, but they have a different way of expressing their comprehension of the lesson and people misinterpret it as nothing of substance. Society needs to be more open to diverse ways of displaying an understanding and explanation of materials and lessons discussed in class. So in other words, it is not the student that is incompetent, rather it is society that is incompetent in not broadening the scope for different ways of showing understanding.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Talking Points 8
Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work
By: Jean Anyon
1)"During that week that two-digit division was introduced (or at any other time), the investigator did not observe any discussion of the idea of grouping involved in division, any use of manipules, or any attempt to relate two-digit division to any other mathematical process."
-this really bugged me because I hate that there is no room for creativity or deeper understanding of the materials being taught. I feel like a huge part of learning something new is knowing why it works and how it works, not just the fact that it works. There are no real world connections being made and no ideas are being formed. The students are being taught to not ask questions or make inferences, they are being taught to follow a system and to not veer from that system.
2) "One teacher explained to me, 'Simple punctuation is all they'll ever use."
-I was shocked when I read this. It made me so mad to see a teacher not expecting anything more from her students than for them to only ever use simple punctuation. Is it not the job of the teacher to expand a student's knowledge and help them grow as people so that they can become successful? The fact that this teacher was so convinced that her students would never amount to anything really made me mad, but the fact that she was okay with that was even worse.
3) "In the middle class school, work is getting the right answer. If one accumulates enough right answers, one gets a good grade."
-I feel like too many schools do this, the goal of getting the right answer is the most important thing. I feel like understanding the concepts and being able to form conclusions is what should be important. Being able to identify C as the correct answer to a question that was from a book or lesson is so primitive and unprogressive in really pushing brain activity and forming ideas and creativity. These kids are not being shown how important it is to make ideas or formulate questions and that it is not always most important that the right answer is the absolute goal in life.
By: Jean Anyon
1)"During that week that two-digit division was introduced (or at any other time), the investigator did not observe any discussion of the idea of grouping involved in division, any use of manipules, or any attempt to relate two-digit division to any other mathematical process."
-this really bugged me because I hate that there is no room for creativity or deeper understanding of the materials being taught. I feel like a huge part of learning something new is knowing why it works and how it works, not just the fact that it works. There are no real world connections being made and no ideas are being formed. The students are being taught to not ask questions or make inferences, they are being taught to follow a system and to not veer from that system.
2) "One teacher explained to me, 'Simple punctuation is all they'll ever use."
-I was shocked when I read this. It made me so mad to see a teacher not expecting anything more from her students than for them to only ever use simple punctuation. Is it not the job of the teacher to expand a student's knowledge and help them grow as people so that they can become successful? The fact that this teacher was so convinced that her students would never amount to anything really made me mad, but the fact that she was okay with that was even worse.
3) "In the middle class school, work is getting the right answer. If one accumulates enough right answers, one gets a good grade."
-I feel like too many schools do this, the goal of getting the right answer is the most important thing. I feel like understanding the concepts and being able to form conclusions is what should be important. Being able to identify C as the correct answer to a question that was from a book or lesson is so primitive and unprogressive in really pushing brain activity and forming ideas and creativity. These kids are not being shown how important it is to make ideas or formulate questions and that it is not always most important that the right answer is the absolute goal in life.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Talking Points 7
"Teaching Boys and Girls Separately"
Elizabeth Weil
1) "Leonard Sax represents the essential-difference view, arguing that boys and girls should be educated separately for reasons of biology: for example, Sax asserts that boys don't hear as well as girls, which means that an instructor needs to speak louder in order for the boys in the room to hear her; and that boys' visual systems are better at seeing action, while girls are better at seeing the nuance of color and texture."
-I thought this was a pretty interesting and cool fact because I never knew that boys didn't hear as well as girls and that boys and girls visual systems were different as well. I guess these differences would have an impact on learning, but really how big, and how hard is it to appease both genders? I don't think schools need to completely separate gender in their classes because of hearing and seeing differences, just have the teachers speak up all together and try to use visual aids and exercises that reach out to both boys and girls.
2) "Yet Denckla doesn't see any need for single sex public education; she thinks mixed grade K-1, 1-2, and 2-3 classrooms are a better way to deal with the developmental differences among school-age kids."
-I kind of agree with this statement because both boys and girls struggle with different, but also sometimes similar things so teaching them separately really is not necessary since not every kid will fall under this biological stereotype. I think schools need to concentrate on what the students are struggling with specifically because every kid is different and special, no matter their gender differences. There are plenty of times that gender differences do not even effect or enhance students' learning.
3) "...Giedd says, is that when it comes to education, gender is a pretty crude tool for sorting minds...There are just too many exceptions to the rule."
-This goes along with the previous quote and I mainly agree because there are too many cases where these gender segregated classes actually did not do much better since it was separated. It is just too broad of a separation to apply to all children and their learning abilities. Every child learns differently because of who they are, not necessarily their gender. I'm not saying that gender has nothing to do with it, but I don't think it is an important enough aspect to split up classes over. The specific challenges that children are facing in the classrooms are what need to be narrowed in on in order to help them increase their learning abilities.
Elizabeth Weil
1) "Leonard Sax represents the essential-difference view, arguing that boys and girls should be educated separately for reasons of biology: for example, Sax asserts that boys don't hear as well as girls, which means that an instructor needs to speak louder in order for the boys in the room to hear her; and that boys' visual systems are better at seeing action, while girls are better at seeing the nuance of color and texture."
-I thought this was a pretty interesting and cool fact because I never knew that boys didn't hear as well as girls and that boys and girls visual systems were different as well. I guess these differences would have an impact on learning, but really how big, and how hard is it to appease both genders? I don't think schools need to completely separate gender in their classes because of hearing and seeing differences, just have the teachers speak up all together and try to use visual aids and exercises that reach out to both boys and girls.
2) "Yet Denckla doesn't see any need for single sex public education; she thinks mixed grade K-1, 1-2, and 2-3 classrooms are a better way to deal with the developmental differences among school-age kids."
-I kind of agree with this statement because both boys and girls struggle with different, but also sometimes similar things so teaching them separately really is not necessary since not every kid will fall under this biological stereotype. I think schools need to concentrate on what the students are struggling with specifically because every kid is different and special, no matter their gender differences. There are plenty of times that gender differences do not even effect or enhance students' learning.
3) "...Giedd says, is that when it comes to education, gender is a pretty crude tool for sorting minds...There are just too many exceptions to the rule."
-This goes along with the previous quote and I mainly agree because there are too many cases where these gender segregated classes actually did not do much better since it was separated. It is just too broad of a separation to apply to all children and their learning abilities. Every child learns differently because of who they are, not necessarily their gender. I'm not saying that gender has nothing to do with it, but I don't think it is an important enough aspect to split up classes over. The specific challenges that children are facing in the classrooms are what need to be narrowed in on in order to help them increase their learning abilities.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Talking Points 6
"A Particularly Cheap White Wine"
By: Tim Wise
1) "In truth, only 3.5 percent of college students of color receive any scholarships even partly based on race, suggesting that such programs remain a pathetically small piece of the financial aid picture in this country, irrespective of what a gaggle of reactionary white folks might believe."
-This just adds to the whole idea of white privilege and the culture of power because Wise is saying that even though scholarships that have anything to do with race are so small in number, yet whites are still trying to eliminate them. This shows that the ones in power want to stay in power and those without need to be stripped of even more power. It's a parallel idea to, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Just because all the other scholarships out there aren't specified as "white" based scholarships, who are they mostly targeted to/for?
2) "Fact is, there are plenty of scholarships for people who are left-handed, or kids whose parents sell Tupperware, or the children of horse-breeders, or descendents of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, among many thousands of such awards."
- Firs of all, why would you ever institute a scholarship for kids whose parents sell Tupperware? That has NOTHING to do with merit at all, but you don't see these people arguing such ridiculous scholarships as this. Anyway, this quote coincides with my previous quote perfectly because it answers the question of who are the recipients of all other scholarships. It goes along with the idea of the white privilege and those with power gaining more and keeping it from those without. None of these scholarships have anything to do with merit and more than likely they all are targeted to white students who do not need scholarships with titles that fit perfectly for them.
3) "...in truth, the standard is simple, straight-forward and singular: persons belonging to groups that have been systematically marginalized in this society, should have opportunities targeted to them so as to allow for the development of their full potential which other wise might be restricted by said marginalization."
-This quote followed perfectly behind my other two because it directly addresses the problem in this system of issuing scholarships and the irony of the opposer's complaints. There needs to be scholarships for students of color and race other than the majority's because they more than likely went through school with many difficulties and challenges that whites never had to face. White schools get better teachers, better programs, and better scores because of it, while predominantly black schools do not receive such a good education or advisement, leaving them severely behind white students in their academic abilities. Therefore, these scholarships targeted to those of color or different race are necessary and should be accepted because these students did not receive all the perks that the white students did and they need these scholarships because of the culture of power, white privilege, and disadvantages made by whites.
By: Tim Wise
1) "In truth, only 3.5 percent of college students of color receive any scholarships even partly based on race, suggesting that such programs remain a pathetically small piece of the financial aid picture in this country, irrespective of what a gaggle of reactionary white folks might believe."
-This just adds to the whole idea of white privilege and the culture of power because Wise is saying that even though scholarships that have anything to do with race are so small in number, yet whites are still trying to eliminate them. This shows that the ones in power want to stay in power and those without need to be stripped of even more power. It's a parallel idea to, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Just because all the other scholarships out there aren't specified as "white" based scholarships, who are they mostly targeted to/for?
2) "Fact is, there are plenty of scholarships for people who are left-handed, or kids whose parents sell Tupperware, or the children of horse-breeders, or descendents of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, among many thousands of such awards."
- Firs of all, why would you ever institute a scholarship for kids whose parents sell Tupperware? That has NOTHING to do with merit at all, but you don't see these people arguing such ridiculous scholarships as this. Anyway, this quote coincides with my previous quote perfectly because it answers the question of who are the recipients of all other scholarships. It goes along with the idea of the white privilege and those with power gaining more and keeping it from those without. None of these scholarships have anything to do with merit and more than likely they all are targeted to white students who do not need scholarships with titles that fit perfectly for them.
3) "...in truth, the standard is simple, straight-forward and singular: persons belonging to groups that have been systematically marginalized in this society, should have opportunities targeted to them so as to allow for the development of their full potential which other wise might be restricted by said marginalization."
-This quote followed perfectly behind my other two because it directly addresses the problem in this system of issuing scholarships and the irony of the opposer's complaints. There needs to be scholarships for students of color and race other than the majority's because they more than likely went through school with many difficulties and challenges that whites never had to face. White schools get better teachers, better programs, and better scores because of it, while predominantly black schools do not receive such a good education or advisement, leaving them severely behind white students in their academic abilities. Therefore, these scholarships targeted to those of color or different race are necessary and should be accepted because these students did not receive all the perks that the white students did and they need these scholarships because of the culture of power, white privilege, and disadvantages made by whites.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)