1. If you can't keep a sense of perspective and enjoy the wacky things kids do and say you might think of another career
2. If you have too much self-importance and general uptightness, and can't say wacky things back to them .......
3. Everyone is an expert on education since we have all experienced classrooms for at least 12 years if not much longer
4. The typical school day is around 61/2 hours/day (390 minutes more or less). Multipied by 180 days of school (since the 1980's in Calif.)=70,200 minutes/year X say 15 years of schooling (for those who have a teaching credential-more or less)=1,053,000 minutes of school so far. It occurs to me that had I spent that amount of dedicated time learning and playing my guitar, I would now be an absolute virtuoso (probably close to Eric Clapton). Instead, I'm a little better than average in a few things.
5. These are very random:
5. A growing body of research verifies what many educators have known all along: Building caring, highly collaborative classrooms is instrumental not only for students' social and ethical development, but also for their success in school and in the modern workplace. The key is enabling students to take real responsibility for their own and their peers' learning and in the process, enabling them to learn the range of skills and dispositions needed for the 21st century. What can educators do to help create such inclusive, participatory environments; transforming classrooms into productive, student-centered learning communities?
(the above is an intro from a workshop I may attend; liked the sound of it). This brings up another topic. Education is much like a folk song that is handed down from generation to generation. While the tune stays much the same- although often played on different instruments as it evolves- words are often added or deleted to change the song by making it more relevant or current. What's my point? I have two: 1) Folk-singers and educators have been ripping off good ideas and making them their own for ever and if the tune is good why not? 2)Since you have so much personal experience being educated, you probably have some ideas about what worked with you and what didn't 3) Everyone enjoys a good tune they haven't heard with words that are absolutely inspiring ala Bob dylan, John Prine (my generation)
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
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I once read a study that said that when asked the question "what was your favorite educational experience and why?", 9 out of 10 will answer the why with "the teacher". I'd add that it was the teacher's depth of knowledge and passion about her subject, and how willing she was to communicate that to students.
ReplyDeleteI was listening to a local cooking show on NPR today, Chef's Table, on which Chef talked about growing asparagus as a year-round math/science/english/etc. course. Why not? If the course were done well, what more math or other subjects do most of us need? If one area of it really fascinated us, then we could continue on with that ... like you suggested, we should be masters of something not mediocre at much.