What have we created?

I recently had a friend of mine, who is taking her masters of Ed Physchology at the University of Regina, email me this picture and asked what my response to this would be. Well this is what conclusions I came to:
At first I looked at it and was thinking it was about young students just starting their school experience and how our bureaucratic, policy ridden education system has stripped them of their sense of wonder and ability to imagine.
Then I went back and read the saying at the top again and noticed the the word "She" was capitalized throughout the passage. This got me to think that maybe the "She" is really mother earth, or mother nature. Which paints a whole different picture. If we look at it from that perspective then this whole picture speaks to me on a more human sense.
To me this is describing how human beings see themselves as above or outside nature and all its elements. We tend to think we can "control" or predict nature and thus contain it or curb it to do what we want it to do when we want it to. It also speaks to our loss of inner-self and our inability to recognize our connectedness with everyone and everything in the universe. We strip away the feeling, intuition and instinct because we can't describe it, predict it or trust it. Thus, we label and categorize everyone and everything because to us it makes sense and reduces the unknown. Also, the serenity and calm that the figure in the tree is surprisingly glaring which emphasizes societies hectic pace and tiring sprint to the "finish line". With deadlines and the need to "succeed" we have no time in our life to just sit and exist. We are groomed to think we should be productive all the time. We should feel guilty because we should be doing something instead of "wasting time". The last line, "now She goes to school and She can only read words" is interesting. For me, I look at life as a learning/discovery experience and thus the world or our lifetime is in essence spent at school. But all we are learning is the words (ideas) that others or human kind deems worthy of passing on. There is no more self discovery, it is all taken on trust that those before us are correct. We have lost the ability to question and seek out our own answers or find new ones.
What do you think?

What if...

What if we let students study what they wanted and we taught them the math, science, social, oral skills and reading skills that go along with it. Instead of forcing the students to learn what we want them to learn why don't we teach them what they want to learn? I recently read an article on student learning and how they retain knowledge. It spoke about how we don't store new information in our long-term memory until we ascribe meaning and relevance to our prior knowledge. Being in the discipline of mathematics I spend a good deal of my time going over concepts and ideas that were covered in the course or sometimes even the two previous courses. Students ability to recall prior learning is becoming a serious stumbling block to further learning built on prior knowledge.
My feeling is that if a student is allowed to select some topic or idea to study then the relevance and meaning will be more likely to occur since the students motivation to learn is intrinsically driven because of the self declared interest in the topic. For example, when a young boy is all of a sudden introduced to the land of dinosaurs they will read every little bit of information about them and can recall names and facts that I'm sure most paleontologists would have to look up. If we are there to guide them in their discovery of learning we can emphasize the math, science, English, etc. within their selected area of interest.
Now obviously their is going to be questions of how can we guarantee all students will be getting the same education? And, how can we assess and evaluate what they do know? First of all, I don't think we can say that even now every student is receiving the same education. The gaps in resources from one school to another and various curricula being taught throughout the country is preventing students from getting equal opportunities in our education system. Secondly, the way we have traditionally assessed and evaluates students is superficial and irrelevant in my humble opinion. So would we really be that far off than we are now if we just let them learn what they wanted to learn and guided them to the different avenues of leaning along the way? At least they might remember something.

I have recently come across some software that incorporates such an idea. Now I am not endorsing this companies software but I think it has huge potential to open students up to discovery and expose them to cross-curricular learning. I will give you an example. Let's say a student was interested in birds and wanted to make a bird house. During this process the student could learn about the birds that might inhabit their bird house (biology). Along with that they may look at environmental issues(which could lead to social issues) that may be affecting these certain species of birds(Science, Social Studies). Also, the student could learn about ratio and proportions of the house, slope of the roof, cost to make it (math). The student could also learn about different types of wood to use, which is strongest, easiest to build with (physics). The student could learn about supply and demand, marketing and budgeting if they wanted to produce for distribution (business/accounting/English). Maybe they could look up how different cultures view birds and what role they have in their society and how birds have been viewed in the past (History). This is just an example but you can see where it can lead.
This may not be the answer or maybe just the tip of the iceberg, but I think the way we approach leaning has to be changed to incorporate and encourage student inquiry and love of learning.

Why do we give homework?

I have been pondering the aspect of homework the last little while. Particularly in mathematics. True some amount of repetition is required to obtain a skill but how many students actually care enough to do the work to improve their mathematical skills. The ones that don't need the practice are the ones that complete the assignments, and the ones that do need the practice rarely, if ever, have it done. Homework is done by those that benefit the least from it. Now I can try to entice them by saying there will be a homework check but even that is flimsy and superficial. I want them to do the work because it will help them learn and achieve success in the class and thus, encourage life-long learning. By attributing marks we are just encouraging students to be externaly motivated by marks which, in my humble opinion, is what holds students back from truly learning for the sake of learning. I think we have to look at the facts, students are a big part of the working class. Many have "part-time" jobs that take up to 30hrs a week of after school time. If you add in an after school sport or activity when is there time for homework? I think the idea that there has to be homework has been ingrained in our thinking of what school is. "What? You don't have homework?" Some may feel that if there is no homework being sent home then there must not be any teaching going on. In fact shouldn't we get through enough material in a one hour class period which would make practicing at home redundant? I know at times homework and letting students start their homework in class is an easy fix for poor planning and poor classroom management. I think we need to get away from homework and focus on assessing students. I would rather spend time on assessing then checking if the class did 1-30 odd from yesterday assignment.
I can feel that this is going to be an ongoing debate in my head I start my teaching career. If I come in with the notion that I don't want to give homework who will take me seriously? After all, I am just a new teacher...what do I know?

Student Concentration

So I gave my Physics 20 class their unit exam on Waves the other day. I thought it would be neat to try something to test how students take exams. Here is what I put in the first paragraph of the test, "You may use a calculator for this exam. Be sure to state any formulas you use and be sure to keep track of units in your solutions. Any formulas that you need will be provided for you on the formula sheet. If you have read all of this and get to this last sentence (within the first 5 min), raise your hand and point to the last word in this paragraph and I will give you a mark!" I had 8 out of 24 students notice this and get the extra mark. So this shows me that students don't even take the time to read all the instructions. So no wonder they have problems solving questions...they probably don't even read the whole question. I can remember one of my university prof's doing this with us. Only he stressed reading the whole exam before you started to get an overall idea of what the exam was like and for us to get an idea of how to budget our time. So we had to find the little note somewhere in the whole test to get a mark. My students couldn't even read the first paragraph! Is it that students today don't have the patients? They just want to get in and get out without to much pain. Or is it the form of evaluation? Perhaps there is the pressure that they feel they have to get done in a certain amount of time, therefore, they feel they don't have time for the details.
Maybe this little experiment will teach them to READ the test!
Student Concentration

A Tsunami Sized Task

So as a wrap up to my waves unit in the Physics20 course I had the students apply their knowledge through the unit to complete a task. Their task was to come up with a design to prevent on-shore destruction from a Tsunami. I made a Tsunami Tank that they could test their designs in. (see video) The students had to use concepts we learned in class to base their design on. Things like energy transfer, interference, reflection, refraction and diffraction were discussed. Some students really got into and some not so much. Along with their design the students have to hand in a report that includes the science behind their design (with proper terminology), a feasibility study, a side effect analysis (environmental, economical and aesthetics) as well, after they tested their design they have to include a reflection on what worked, what didn't and things they would change. I video taped the event and have included the video. Have a look.



Looking back I think I would do this task again. It is a good way to tie together the concepts we learned and it allows the students the opportunity to transfer their knowledge and demonstrate true understanding of the concepts.

Another Level

So our beloved football team in the province, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, did the unthinkable and managed to obtain the coveted Grey Cup for the 2007 football season. Now you might be thinking, "what does this have to do with teaching?" Well the scenario is like this. After the game a group of us decided to jump in the car and head downtown to take part in all the celebrating and displays of Rider pride that have been building up for the past 18 years. We were sitting in traffic when all of a sudden two young men came running up between the cars wearing some shorts, a t-shirt and waving a Roughrider flag. Now this was nothing out of the ordinary, as far as that night went, but when one of the the young gentleman came closer he sort of hesitated for a minute and made eye contact with me. Well if it isn't one of my students. I could tell he didn't know what to do and was waiting to see what my reaction would be. Of course my teacher thinking kicked in and I thought, "ok, what is the appropriate thing to do?" But then something kicked in and I went with my human instinct to share in the recent fortune and common victory that was our capture of the Grey Cup. So I proceeded to roll down my window, reach out my hand for a high-five and yell out a "GO RIDERS!" Is it possible that a communities love for a team or a sport can transcend the lines between teacher and student. For a moment I wasn't the "teacher" and he wasn't the "student", we were equals, tied to our common bond of cheering and supporting a team that is interwoven with our culture and community. When I saw the young man the next day in class he shot an awkward smile my way and I winked and smiled back. The question still rolls around in my head, "should I have been more professional?" Looking back I wouldn't have changed anything. If we want to build relationships with students we have show who we really are and allow ourselves and them to show some vulnerability without fear of judgment or repercussion. If this one moment in time, where we shared something as equals, opens up the opportunity for a student to feel more comfortable with opening up and communicating then all I have to say is, GO RIDERS GO!

John Gormley on winning "the Cup"

Don't do it just 'cause

My academic adviser came out to observe me today. It was a Physics 20 lesson on wave interference. First I had them investigate interference with slinky's. Then we went back into the classroom and discussed the students observations. We verified/disproved their hypothesis about what happened with in constructive interference and destructive interference by showing internet applets that modeled both types of interference. Following this I discussed a real world example of destructive interference, mufflers, through the site, howstuffworks.com. After this we applied the principle of superposition through two examples on the overhead with waves. One example was waves that were in phase and one with the waves out of phase. My adviser really liked my use of technology to do the job that it is designed for. Often times we get a new toy or new piece of technology and we make the lesson fit the technology instead of using the technology to fit the lesson. When it comes right down to it we want the students to learn what we are trying to teach them. Whether or not there are bells and whistles is irrelevant when it comes to students learning. If it will help clarify a concept, engage a student or inspire more questions, use it. We have to be careful not to use something just because it might be cool!
See my adviser's blog on the same event: Differentiated instruction

The Strength of Weak Ties: To Integrate or to be Integral?
Misuse of Technology

Passing the Blogging bug on

Today we had our third Digital Literacy Club meeting at school. Today I introduced blogging and got my students set up with their own blog. They seemed pretty excited about it. It will be interesting to see where they take it. At some points the seemed to be overwhelmed with all the options and possibilities. I can remember feeling this way myself when I first started.
Here are some links to their blogs.

Sam
Ben
James
Tyler
Brandon
Kailey

Damn Technology!!

Ever have a great lesson planned or demo and you get to the part where the technology comes in and all of a sudden nothing wants to work! I had this scenario play out the other day in my math class. I had the projector hooked up to my laptop and I was going to show some things with graphs and of course nothing is cooperating. Makes you think quick on your feet, I guess. Technology...love it and hate it (at times).

A venture out...

As I sit at the edge of my internship experience I am looking over the edge. Over the edge of the traditional style of teaching peering into the abyss that is where the profession of teaching is heading. Where that is nobody knows, but what we do know is that the days of desks in rows and dusty chalkboards are numbered. The only thing is can we hang on for the ride? Sometimes I find myself overwhelmed with all the options that are out there to bring into the classroom. For a sample check out Mr. Alec Couros' wiki on Web2.0.
My venture has started out modest but effective...I think. I've created a wiki that allows my students to ask questions outside the classroom and have the opportunity to get an answer before they get back to the classroom. With the help of sketchcast (sketchcast.com) I am able to respond to my students questions visually and verbally. As well, I can keep my students up to date with assignments and what topics we have covered each week with links to websites with extra help and examples. So far the response has been mediocre. Check it out.