So...dispositions.
I think they're definitely a valid thing to teach, and I think they can be taught, at least to a certain extent. In class we were talking today about optimism. That I think is something that has to exist in some amount first. If you're a pessimist, no amount of teaching will make you an optimist. You might be able to improve slightly, or at least hide your skepticism, but you will never become a full fledged optimist.
Most people, however, do possess at least a certain degree of each of the dispositions, and thus can improve upon them. They all seem to be valid, relevant things to teaching today, which is the most important thing. For some, all it might take is some good self-reflection and you might be able to fix a problem or improve on something. For others, study or discussion might work better. But they all seem like good things to know and work at.
TBC...?
Friday, December 11, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Week 9/10 (I think?): Humility & Resilience
"Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real." - Thomas Merton
Admitting you're wrong is hard. It's bad enough to admit to yourself that you're wrong, but to admit you're wrong publicly, or to get something wrong in front of a class is worse. I know I struggle with that a lot, so I don't give specific answers in class nearly as often as I might otherwise. Any kind of discussion or opinion-based something is ok, because I'm willing to have my mind changed. But I hate being flat-out wrong about something I thought I was right about.
It's kind of funny that we're supposed to write about the difference between humility and confidence and how you reconcile the two since we had a mini-discussion about this a few weeks ago on Monday night. In my opinion, confident humility (humble confidence?) is about being confident in what you know and what you believe, but acknowledging that you're not infallible and some people know more about some things than you do, or maybe ever will. There is absolutely nothing wrong with confidence, as long as it's not cockiness or arrogance. As a teacher, you have to be confident in your subject. There's nothing worse than a teacher who obviously doesn't know what he/she is talking about.
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Resilience
"In order to succeed people need a sense of self-efficacy strung together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life." Albert Bandura
I think the biggest thing that can be done to prepare teachers for the difficulties in the profession is by getting them in schools as early as possible and as often as possible. That's one thing my mom has commented on. She was a music ed major, but she didn't get into the schools until her senior year, so she didn't realize she didn't want to teach until then, and then it was pretty much too late. It's really good that Luther gets people in the school so early.
I think to a certain extent the ed programs at schools should be more challenging. The old saying about how those who can't do, teach is too accurate some places. As I said earlier, I think Luther does a good job, but the ed programs should be at least as difficult as any other program, if not harder. You not only have to understand your concentration, you have to be able to get others to understand it.
Admitting you're wrong is hard. It's bad enough to admit to yourself that you're wrong, but to admit you're wrong publicly, or to get something wrong in front of a class is worse. I know I struggle with that a lot, so I don't give specific answers in class nearly as often as I might otherwise. Any kind of discussion or opinion-based something is ok, because I'm willing to have my mind changed. But I hate being flat-out wrong about something I thought I was right about.
It's kind of funny that we're supposed to write about the difference between humility and confidence and how you reconcile the two since we had a mini-discussion about this a few weeks ago on Monday night. In my opinion, confident humility (humble confidence?) is about being confident in what you know and what you believe, but acknowledging that you're not infallible and some people know more about some things than you do, or maybe ever will. There is absolutely nothing wrong with confidence, as long as it's not cockiness or arrogance. As a teacher, you have to be confident in your subject. There's nothing worse than a teacher who obviously doesn't know what he/she is talking about.
---------------
Resilience
"In order to succeed people need a sense of self-efficacy strung together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life." Albert Bandura
I think the biggest thing that can be done to prepare teachers for the difficulties in the profession is by getting them in schools as early as possible and as often as possible. That's one thing my mom has commented on. She was a music ed major, but she didn't get into the schools until her senior year, so she didn't realize she didn't want to teach until then, and then it was pretty much too late. It's really good that Luther gets people in the school so early.
I think to a certain extent the ed programs at schools should be more challenging. The old saying about how those who can't do, teach is too accurate some places. As I said earlier, I think Luther does a good job, but the ed programs should be at least as difficult as any other program, if not harder. You not only have to understand your concentration, you have to be able to get others to understand it.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Week 8
Free topic! Whoo! I'm going to feel weird if I don't start out with a quote, so I went and found one.
Education ... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.
- G. M. Trevelyan
This completely ties into what Tony Wagner talks about all through The Global Achievement Gap. We're worried too much about the "what" and not about the "how" or "why." With all the information available at the click of a button via the internet, memorizing information by rote so you can spew it out really doesn't serve any purpose. Instead, you need to know how to find the information you need, decipher what's good and and what's not, and synthesize everything together.
You have to try to teach toward what skills are needed in the workplace today. As Wagner says in the beginning of his book, employers can teach the technical skills. It's the creative/critical thinking and questioning that needs to be taught, or rather retained. Children's imagination needs to be encouraged and grown. Too often imagination gets squashed out of kids because of too much testing and not enough encouragement.
TBC!
Education ... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.
- G. M. Trevelyan
This completely ties into what Tony Wagner talks about all through The Global Achievement Gap. We're worried too much about the "what" and not about the "how" or "why." With all the information available at the click of a button via the internet, memorizing information by rote so you can spew it out really doesn't serve any purpose. Instead, you need to know how to find the information you need, decipher what's good and and what's not, and synthesize everything together.
You have to try to teach toward what skills are needed in the workplace today. As Wagner says in the beginning of his book, employers can teach the technical skills. It's the creative/critical thinking and questioning that needs to be taught, or rather retained. Children's imagination needs to be encouraged and grown. Too often imagination gets squashed out of kids because of too much testing and not enough encouragement.
TBC!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Efficacy
"Children cannot be fooled by empty praise and condescending encouragement...ego identity gains real strength only from wholehearted and consistent recognition of real accomplishment, that is, achievement that has meaning in the culture." - Erik Erikson
This summer at camp, specifically in my two weeks with my own group at the "big camp," I had a couple girls who didn't really want to do many of the activities. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of having 6 and 7 year-olds shooting BB guns and bow/arrows, but that's what some of the activities were, so that's what we did. I had a couple girls who didn't think they could do it at all, but I said they all at least needed to try. I never made anyone do it twice if they didn't want to, but I wanted them all to try at least once. Archery definitely went a LOT better than BB guns, but it might have been a bit disheartening for them that I couldn't even hit the target at BB guns. Everyone tried though, and that was the important part.
It's a lot harder to convince someone they can do something if you can't. With archery, I could at least usually hit the target. I still have yet to hit a target with a BB gun though. I could demonstrate that archery was possible, at least. As a teacher, it's important to believe in yourself and your abilities. Experience is probably the best way to become more confident. The more often you are successful, the more sure you will be that you can be successful again. Pretty much everyone has had a teacher who obviously isn't confident and isn't sure what exactly they're supposed to be teaching. Sometimes it's more about knowledge of material, but sometimes it's about how to act in front of a class. Going in, first year of teaching, you just have to know that you'll make mistakes, but that you'll also have successes. It's all about balance.
This summer at camp, specifically in my two weeks with my own group at the "big camp," I had a couple girls who didn't really want to do many of the activities. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of having 6 and 7 year-olds shooting BB guns and bow/arrows, but that's what some of the activities were, so that's what we did. I had a couple girls who didn't think they could do it at all, but I said they all at least needed to try. I never made anyone do it twice if they didn't want to, but I wanted them all to try at least once. Archery definitely went a LOT better than BB guns, but it might have been a bit disheartening for them that I couldn't even hit the target at BB guns. Everyone tried though, and that was the important part.
It's a lot harder to convince someone they can do something if you can't. With archery, I could at least usually hit the target. I still have yet to hit a target with a BB gun though. I could demonstrate that archery was possible, at least. As a teacher, it's important to believe in yourself and your abilities. Experience is probably the best way to become more confident. The more often you are successful, the more sure you will be that you can be successful again. Pretty much everyone has had a teacher who obviously isn't confident and isn't sure what exactly they're supposed to be teaching. Sometimes it's more about knowledge of material, but sometimes it's about how to act in front of a class. Going in, first year of teaching, you just have to know that you'll make mistakes, but that you'll also have successes. It's all about balance.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Week 6 (ish) - Inventiveness
"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk." - Thomas Edison
Overall, as Sir Ken Robinson said, we tend to train the imagination out of children in public school. Math and science tend to be given highest priority, and the arts the least. Math and science can be subjects that encourage creativity, but more often are taught to a test and/or textbook. In fact, most subjects in school are taught more to tests than textbooks than to figure things out on your own. Even English or writing classes teach more expository and research writing than narrative or fiction. I was lucky that my elementary school teachers really liked more creative writing, but "normal" English classes, in high school, are more focused on dry analysis writing than developing creativity.
My art teacher in middle school wouldn't ever give out perfect scores on art projects because apparently "art is never perfect." That always bugged me because sometimes I was really happy with my project and wouldn't have changed anything, yet apparently it just "wasn't good enough." To a certain extent, that seemed to stifle my creativity as an artist. Not that I really have much artistic/drawing skill in the first place, but that just frustrated me.
Creativity is one of the most important skills in the 21st century. Sir Ken Robinson talked about how so many people are going to college now that a degree means a lot less than it used to. It's the creativity that sets people apart. That's part of the problem with the US fighting for technological jobs with many Asian countries. Part of the problem with the US education system is that it doesn't focus enough on the creativity aspect of math and science.
Overall, as Sir Ken Robinson said, we tend to train the imagination out of children in public school. Math and science tend to be given highest priority, and the arts the least. Math and science can be subjects that encourage creativity, but more often are taught to a test and/or textbook. In fact, most subjects in school are taught more to tests than textbooks than to figure things out on your own. Even English or writing classes teach more expository and research writing than narrative or fiction. I was lucky that my elementary school teachers really liked more creative writing, but "normal" English classes, in high school, are more focused on dry analysis writing than developing creativity.
My art teacher in middle school wouldn't ever give out perfect scores on art projects because apparently "art is never perfect." That always bugged me because sometimes I was really happy with my project and wouldn't have changed anything, yet apparently it just "wasn't good enough." To a certain extent, that seemed to stifle my creativity as an artist. Not that I really have much artistic/drawing skill in the first place, but that just frustrated me.
Creativity is one of the most important skills in the 21st century. Sir Ken Robinson talked about how so many people are going to college now that a degree means a lot less than it used to. It's the creativity that sets people apart. That's part of the problem with the US fighting for technological jobs with many Asian countries. Part of the problem with the US education system is that it doesn't focus enough on the creativity aspect of math and science.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Week 5: Deviation from dispositions...
Roleplaying
My 4th grade class did a simulation activity with the 5th grade class. It was a colonial era simulation, where we each had a number of resources and land areas and had to trade with people and NPCs to try and survive. It was one of the most fun units we had, and I think we all learned a lot from it. It was somewhat of a role-playing activity, and it was really effective, so I would say that role-playing can definitely be a good teacher technique.
I think it makes sense that kids need to have a basic grasp of basic concepts before being expected to move on to super complicated things. It's going to be hard to someone to do calculus if they don't know how to do algebra; or just to do algebra if they don't know how to do basic addition etc. However, in some cases shortcuts can be taken.
It seems to me that if a kid isn't involved emotionally somehow in their learning, it won't stick. You have to care about something in order for it to be important to you, and if your learning isn't important, you won't invest anything in it, and you won't get anything out of it. A student might be able to regurgitate information for a test, but that doesn't mean they'll remember any of it a week later.
As someone who was in a "gifted" program in elementary school (both in 1st and 2nd and half of third in IL, and in 4th and 5th grade in SD), "accelerated" reading/language arts/math in middle school, and AP classes in HS, I didn't really see any "favoritism" toward said 'gifted' programs. I'm a big advocate of these programs, primarily because when I was in the "regular" class for the second half of third grade after moving to Sioux Falls, I was bored stiff. I didn't really make any friends, definitely didn't learn anything, and hated going to school, whereas before I had always enjoyed it. I needed some sort of mental stimulation to serve as an impetus to convince me it was worth it. As far as I know there were never any huge debates in Sioux Falls about the program, or any feeling of favoritism. As for listening more to influential people in the community, that seems fairly normal. The influential people are the ones who can get stuff done, and work either for you or against you and make a big difference.
My 4th grade class did a simulation activity with the 5th grade class. It was a colonial era simulation, where we each had a number of resources and land areas and had to trade with people and NPCs to try and survive. It was one of the most fun units we had, and I think we all learned a lot from it. It was somewhat of a role-playing activity, and it was really effective, so I would say that role-playing can definitely be a good teacher technique.
I think it makes sense that kids need to have a basic grasp of basic concepts before being expected to move on to super complicated things. It's going to be hard to someone to do calculus if they don't know how to do algebra; or just to do algebra if they don't know how to do basic addition etc. However, in some cases shortcuts can be taken.
It seems to me that if a kid isn't involved emotionally somehow in their learning, it won't stick. You have to care about something in order for it to be important to you, and if your learning isn't important, you won't invest anything in it, and you won't get anything out of it. A student might be able to regurgitate information for a test, but that doesn't mean they'll remember any of it a week later.
As someone who was in a "gifted" program in elementary school (both in 1st and 2nd and half of third in IL, and in 4th and 5th grade in SD), "accelerated" reading/language arts/math in middle school, and AP classes in HS, I didn't really see any "favoritism" toward said 'gifted' programs. I'm a big advocate of these programs, primarily because when I was in the "regular" class for the second half of third grade after moving to Sioux Falls, I was bored stiff. I didn't really make any friends, definitely didn't learn anything, and hated going to school, whereas before I had always enjoyed it. I needed some sort of mental stimulation to serve as an impetus to convince me it was worth it. As far as I know there were never any huge debates in Sioux Falls about the program, or any feeling of favoritism. As for listening more to influential people in the community, that seems fairly normal. The influential people are the ones who can get stuff done, and work either for you or against you and make a big difference.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Week four: Passion
"Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire." -W. B. Yeats
One of my favorite teachers in high school was my Spanish teacher for Spanish 4 and AP Spanish, Señorita Roberts. We typically just called her Señorita, or just 'rita. We often started class on Fridays with a 3-5 minute dance party to "Super-mini falda" or some other Spanish song. We would often make hot chocolate in class or before class, since it was the first period of the day, but Señorita never let it get in the way of teaching.
At my school, Spanish 4 was somewhat of a "bonus" class because basically the only people who took it were those of us who took Spanish 1 in 8th grade. You only had to take Spanish 3 to take AP Spanish, so that's what almost everyone who started in high school did. Thus, we had a much more flexible curriculum. One unit I remember specifically was the art one. We studied a few Spanish painters, among them Picasso and Velázquez, and focused mainly on one of their "obras maestras," masterworks. Señorita was really passionate about the art, and it definitely showed. I remember so much about these paintings, and then when I was able to go to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco with her and some other classmates the summer after my junior year, the experience of seeing "Las Meninas," "El entierro del Conde de Orgaz," and "Guernica" in person was so powerful. We had heard Señorita talking all year about how lifelike the dog in Las Meninas is, and then we got to actually see it.
I'd never been that interested in art before - yes, I liked to look at it, but I didn't really have much interest in knowing about the life of the painter, and who all the people were, etc. After that month, though, my outlook changed. Señorita translated her passion for the paintings to me, and Las Meninas is now one of my favorite paintings of all time. Guernica fills me with sadness whenever I see it because I know the story behind it, and can pick out of all the strangeness what was going on. El entierro makes me smile because I can remember how long we discussed which Spanish word to use for the stick/staff the bishop was holding. Then I can look at the angels and remember, if not specifically, that the vast majority were noblemen who the artist knew. If I have the opportunity, I think I'd like to try and take an art history kind of class here, just so I can learn more. I went from really not caring much, to having a real interest, just because of Señorita.
One of my favorite teachers in high school was my Spanish teacher for Spanish 4 and AP Spanish, Señorita Roberts. We typically just called her Señorita, or just 'rita. We often started class on Fridays with a 3-5 minute dance party to "Super-mini falda" or some other Spanish song. We would often make hot chocolate in class or before class, since it was the first period of the day, but Señorita never let it get in the way of teaching.
At my school, Spanish 4 was somewhat of a "bonus" class because basically the only people who took it were those of us who took Spanish 1 in 8th grade. You only had to take Spanish 3 to take AP Spanish, so that's what almost everyone who started in high school did. Thus, we had a much more flexible curriculum. One unit I remember specifically was the art one. We studied a few Spanish painters, among them Picasso and Velázquez, and focused mainly on one of their "obras maestras," masterworks. Señorita was really passionate about the art, and it definitely showed. I remember so much about these paintings, and then when I was able to go to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco with her and some other classmates the summer after my junior year, the experience of seeing "Las Meninas," "El entierro del Conde de Orgaz," and "Guernica" in person was so powerful. We had heard Señorita talking all year about how lifelike the dog in Las Meninas is, and then we got to actually see it.
I'd never been that interested in art before - yes, I liked to look at it, but I didn't really have much interest in knowing about the life of the painter, and who all the people were, etc. After that month, though, my outlook changed. Señorita translated her passion for the paintings to me, and Las Meninas is now one of my favorite paintings of all time. Guernica fills me with sadness whenever I see it because I know the story behind it, and can pick out of all the strangeness what was going on. El entierro makes me smile because I can remember how long we discussed which Spanish word to use for the stick/staff the bishop was holding. Then I can look at the angels and remember, if not specifically, that the vast majority were noblemen who the artist knew. If I have the opportunity, I think I'd like to try and take an art history kind of class here, just so I can learn more. I went from really not caring much, to having a real interest, just because of Señorita.
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