Week 7 - Anthology Ch. 10 19&20

“The mass media like to scoff that current certification requirements would keep Albert Einstein from teaching in the public school...A Nobel Prize does not guarantee excellence in the classroom” (Anthology P.104)

This concept seems to also exist in the politicians minds as well, forcing teaching to the test methods effectively striping away the teacher’s ability to use their education. Time has proven that the politicians and media alike don’t know which way is the right way and keep appointing friends to high education positions. How is it that the people in the profession have close to no say in how education should be done? Dr. Love uses the example of medical and how they follow what is the best in order to do the best job, they go to school for this. Educators also go to many years of school yet teachers don’t seem to have the ability to make decisions or have any say in how it should be done.

“There is no instant, stir-and-serve recipe for running a classroom” (Anthology P.105)

Teachers need to be able to adapt to the students, if it isn’t interesting to them, then it isn’t interesting. This concept means that each year a teacher will need to slightly or dramatically change their approach; you can’t have a template on how to teach there are too many factors to consider. A teacher in a suburb and a teacher an inner city school cannot approach lessons in the same manor you need to consider how the students grew up, values and many others.

“Some schools succeed brilliantly while others stumble and fall. Clearly something more is at work here. (Anthology P.184)

It’s odd how we want to “Race to the top” and be number one but not take into consideration the reality of the situations of the schools that “stumble and fall”. It’s not the teachers, it’s not the parents, it’s not the students but it’s when students are put at such a disadvantage due to circumstances that are not their fault that they slip and fall. Walk a mile in their schools don’t make decisions behind a desk in a suit.

“ We should all work to raise expectations for our children, to reform and restructure schools to prepare all students for a hopeful and powerful future, to drive resources to the neediest communities, to demand successful and wondrous learning environments for everyone, to involve teachers, parents, and communities – the public in public schools – in the discussion of what’s important for kids to know and experience. “ (Anthology P.186)

I think that the a big part of the transformation is first admitting there is a problem, then I believe the next step is to directly involved the community with the school. If we try to put the school at the center of the communities’ activates then the school can start to better understand who their community really is. This information and connection with the community will allow for a deep long term relationship. With this new relationship you can start to reform and restructure and over time a new path will be found. I believe that this must be allowed to happen per community, and is the opposite of national standards.

“Over time, I became aware of students who did poorly on tests but who showed other evidence of learning.” (Anthology P.188)

Yet another reason why standardized testing is a joke. If we have acknowledged different learning styles then why aren’t there different assessment styles? After reading this part I found it very interesting that we don’t do this. I think that this is naturally present in technology education due to the amount of hands on work that is done. It really isn’t about the final product but about the path taken to get there, a lot is learned through the process. It’s also like giving partial credit on math tests; you shouldn’t get the whole problem wrong if the whole process is right with a fudged number.

“That, in turn, helped me develop a conviction that each student In my classes brought strengths to our work and that it was my job to bring those strengths to our work and that it was my job to bring those to the surface so that all of us could benefit.” (Anthology P.193)

I also believe in this, I can speak from coaching experience that you can always use strengths of players to help teach a concept. It also gives students who may feel like they can’t contribute much the ability to just that. When you start to make learning a collaborative effort amongst the class it can create a total class investment in learning, a situation where each student is actively involved in learning.