A new curriculum?

At the edge of the world
Originally uploaded by Midnight-digital

Every day I am in my classroom teaching my students about various topics in Science and Math but I can't help but wonder why am I doing this? I am mandated by our provincial government to teach the prescribed curriculum but what does this really do for our students? I posted before about what I feel I am actually teaching my students and now I find myself still feeling that way. I recently came across Stephen Downes post on Things You Really Need To Learn and it got me thinking again about what I am really trying to do in my class every day. I recently became distracted and thus, overwhelmed in my role as a teacher as I have two brand new classes that I am teaching and I am busy trying to plan fun, engaging, exciting (perfect?) lessons to teach the new content. I have lost sight of what I am really trying to do which is to teach students how to teach themselves. After reading Mr. Downes post I may have to add a few more learning objectives. I am particularly drawn to the sections on predicting consequences, distinquishing truth from fiction, empathy, and how to live meaningfully (which requires, I think, to value yourself).
I think the ability to think ahead and foresee the imediate future is a valuable skill that is not demenstrated by many students not to mention many adults. I find science labs a great tool to emphasize and practice this skill. Unfortunately the students do not have the necessary background knowledge in science to do this with much success. Only the dedicated and self motivated students have the opportunity to practice this skill.
I am constantly encouraging my students to question things they read, see and hear. Unfortunately the era that our students are in requires little in the way of finding credible sources and instead emphasizes finding any resource the fastest to save time. Apparently if it is on the internet it must be true. I cringe at the idea of, "I'll just Google it".
I think the last two are one in the same. I think the ability to empathize leads to a person valuing others and consequently themself which allows them to live meaningfully. I understand that adolescence is the period in which a human being is trying to find out who they are and what they like/dislike and what they value. However, I really don't feel that the process of finding out who we are ever stops. So how do we motivate our students to think outside their box (i.e. cellphone, TV and shopping) to find out what life truly has to offer instead of them trying to get the next latest and greatest distraction in life. Unfortunately our youth are letting the good things in life blind them to the best things in life.
All this being said, it does not sound like my job got any easier.

What's wrong with education today?

The semester is coming to a close and I am finding it hard to keep students motivated and interested in being in the class. So I was trying to think of a way to get my grade 12's to stay on task during the last few weeks of their final semester of high school. I decided to do something with a topic that I knew was important to them.

What is the purpose of high school?

I decided to raise the question, what is wrong with education today? Most of my students really took this question to hart as they all had serious accusations as to why education (the way it is now) is pointless, in their point of view.
How I sparked this little debate was by showing them a couple of videos I have as a favorites on Youtube. The videos are called "A vision of students today" by Mike Wesch and "Education Today and Tomorrow" by Dean Shareski.



I showed the students the video's and then posed this question; "Does our education system meet the needs of today's students?"

The students had plenty to say in their responses. The responses included such things as:

"Teachers are lazy and don't do a good job at motivating students to learn."

"Most of our classes are pointless, I will never use most of them once I leave high school."

"I don't have the option to study the things that I am interested in."

"I wish we could do things more practical and apply it to the real world."

"We should do things with more technology in all our classes."

"I think we should be able to specialize in the things that we like and not have to take the mandatory classes like math and English...when will I ever need to write and essay later in my life if I don't go to university?"

"School doesn't challenge me and I get bored and don't feel like doing any of the pointless assignments."

As you can see the students had a lot to say and we had to end the discussion early as we ran out of class time. Obviously the students were passionate about this topic and wanted to speak out. I could tell, as can you I'm sure, from their responses they were asking for more from their public education than they are receiving.

I decided to take this one step further for two reasons: 1) to give them an opportunity to speak out and let their feelings and opinions be heard and 2) to give myself an inside look at what it is exactly that students want today and how can I better adapt my teaching and influence change in the system to meet those needs.

I decided to add an assignment at the end of all this.

PROPOSAL TO REVAMP EDUCATION (HIGHSCHOOL)

Refer to the following youtube videos:
a) Education Today & Tomorrow
b) A Vision of Students today
c) 3 Steps for 21st Century Learning
d) School of the future

Requirements:

1) What subjects/content would be taught? (I.e. math, science, religion, politics, horseback riding??)

2) How would they be taught?
I.e. Setting: in a school, outside, multiple locations, others?? Resources: labs, computers, digital equipment?? Instruction: projects, lectures, experiments, research, work experience??

3) How would students be assessed? (How do you find out what the students know) i.e. exams, reports…??

Provide as much detail as possible when you answer these questions. You can present this in any format you chose, essay, PowerPoint, video, play, collage…be creative)

You will be marked on the following:

a) are all the questions answered
b) is there enough detail in your answers
c) are your answers practical

Be sure to reference any resources that you use.

The assignments will be coming in at the end of the semester, which is in about a week. I am eagerly anticipating what the students will come up with. I will have a follow up post to report on what the students hand in.

Should be interesting.

First teaching job

So I am officially a working teacher. Now I graduated in December, thus, I was a teacher but now I am actually about to get paid to be one. It's exciting, scary and really overwhelming all in one breath. This picture says it best. I am barely keeping my head above water and then I turn around and there is another wave of doubt, frustration and anxiety that must be overcome as I proceed down my journey of teaching. I wonder if this is where the term "sink or swim" comes into play?
I know these feelings will pass and it will just take some time to get into a new routine and get comfortable with what I am teaching and how everything operates. Before as an intern at least there was someone in the room with you, now I'm THE teacher...what have I got myself into? It all comes down to change. It's funny, we know nothing stays the same forever and that to grow and evolve we must face change and even seek it out, yet when it gets here we wonder if we will ever experience "normal" again. I think I read somewhere, or someone told me that the feelings of being uncomfortable and uneasy is a sign that we are growing and developing as a person. Well if that is the case, there is a whole lot of growing and developing going on with me right now. I liken it to the analogy of a rock tumbler. You throw the rough, unfinished and raw rock in, it gets tossed around a bit and shaken up and then out comes this lovely unrecognizable piece of wonder. Maybe that is what is happening here. I get thrown into an unfamiliar situation, forced to "sink or swim", and challenged to put to use that which I have been taught and that which I have not. My hope is that I come out the other side, first of all alive, and second a more confident, effective and relaxed teacher and person.
If it was easy, everyone would do it.

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?