Schools out-Planning is in!

kirish43 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:47:32 +0000

Today is the second day of my summer vacation…and my thoughts turn to education. Okay, maybe I’m a teaching junkie. Without a classroom of kids-how do I get my fix? Trust me it is not going to happen watching the Board of Education Meetings. There is no place where teachers seem to be so completely devalued right now as in the district I work for. Can you believe they are actually replacing Alt. Ed teachers with Novanet? A board member actually said that the software is “high qualified.” hmmm….It is Not reading the Education Secretaries cluess drivel. Instead I turn to my PLN and check out the twitter tweets to read, reflect and ponder.

A few realities-teaching will never get me a bonus check…not an end of the year thank you gift-heck this year I was not even handed a copy of the yearbook that I produced! Frankly with my computer skills there are jobs where I could make much more money with my computer skills. Still I teach…Still I plan…I ponder…I explore…I dream! I guess as a teaching junkie it is simply a part of me.
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Summer is a chance to actually think about how I would change education-or given a clean slate what would I like to see education look like. My thoughts turn not to the new technologies I love instead I reflect back on the one-room school house. By its very nature the multi-age nature of the room required collaboration. The world was their classroom-projects abounded-by the very nature of classroom/school instruction had to be differentiated. What I dream of is a school/learning center where content rich instruction is a spring board to help teach kids to be problem solvers, and to frankly construct big questions. Less about tests-and more about learning. Replacing entitlement thinking with service based pnderings. To become more child centered we must also become more honest with parents. Bullying, and bad behavior has no place in a learning environment. We do the children no favor when we make excuses for them! Praise is earned through efforts. Too often we deal with those children we want to save, and the many we fail to see-are lost. In many districts it is these children that leave us-because we have failed to meet their needs. How much time do we spend with each student? Let’s shift our thinking-equal time for all.

Living in Michigan and watching Detroit die- it is clear that the work world of the future will provide very little stability, and very few will hold one job for 30 plus years. What will work look like in the light of this huge shift ? From a manufacturing base to and informational society? Can we incorporate the new technologies to help us or will end up digitally connect yet alone? I read the Time article with a mixture of anticipation and fear.”According to consulting giant McKinsey & Co., nearly 85% of new jobs created between 1998 and 2006 involved complex “knowledge work” like problem-solving and concocting corporate strategy. Job opportunities in mathematics and across the sciences are also expected to expand. The U.S. Department of Labor spotlights network systems and data communications as well as computer-software engineering among the occupations projected to grow most explosively by 2016. Over the next seven years, the number of jobs in the information-technology sector is expected to swell 24% — a figure more than twice the overall job-growth rate. ”

In this new society is there a place for everyone? Let us not develop a society of geeks verses service clerks. In this picture where are the artists, the musicain, the writers-those people who add to the texture and beauty of the society. To this end I propose a more open ended view of learning. Yes we must engage students and challenge their minds-but we must also impart that everything will not be entertaining nor easy. Multiply choice tests that students store in short term memory simply do not help built the cognitive schema needed. Not all students are internally motivated, there are indeed conditions that educators cannot control that impact learning. There is no one size fits all system for education and learning. This is why tests fail to give us a good measurement picture. Instead, a project, a work of art, something constructed, planned built-give us insights. I found that allowing students to actually construct test questions lead to better retention that any one student who took the test. The schema behind what they choose as important, the reasoning behind the answer choices-the place where intellect lives. Just as animals adapt to their enviroment we to much adapt our instruction, our learning, and our visions.

Mega Bites and Messages » education change

Schools out-Planning is in!