For my curating I decided to look at teaching resources about teaching economics, a subject which I am passionate about and which I believe should be near the center of social studies education. I learned three main ideas about teaching economics.
1. Given the proper framing, economics, at least at the microeconomic level, is very simple. It's core ideas require very little elucidation when put into the context of everyday life and when economics is framed, correctly, as the science of making rational choices. I found many resources which elegantly presented economics as something fun and relevant, because that is what it is. Simple economic concepts like a market, or saving, or wants versus needs can be placed to the tune of classic children's songs for example, or can be found in classical childrens literature. The foundation ideas of economics are very accessible to even young children because even they know how to make choices, economics only rigorizes those thoughts they already have.
2. The government is a great resource on economic education. For example, I found that several federal reserve banks have resources for teaching economics, many of them good. The San Francisco federal reserve bank even has a question and answer section on their web site, so if students have questions they can ask an actual professional economist, I looked at many of the answers and they were stated in a very friendly and clear way. This stands to reason, the government is in the business of maintaining the market, and for the American economy to thrive, it's children must be educated on the precepts of capitalism, and the virtues that support its continued bounty.
3. Capitalism itself is the ultimate educational resource. The free market is like life, it constantly seeks to improve itself, to expand, and to evolve to fit new and exciting situations and challenges. If there is a need for more educational resources about economics, people will fill those needs guided by freedom and reason through the free market. The government was created by the market so that the will of the people could guide it, and thus more civic citizens help maintain it. In this way, needs may be fulfilled when they arise, and those who fulfill those needs the best receive the resources they need to continue filling those needs.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Technology Inquiry Project
I had an interesting time taking a close look at how I have
used technology both in my own personal life and in my work at my placement at
Lynnwood Elementary the past quarter, it really got me thinking about technology
as a tool, how I have used it, how it can be used, and what I can do in the
future. My technology use in my own personal life does not require any
improvement, I use it for my own ends and I have no reason to change it, if a
good reason arises of course I will be changing it, but I try not to change
simply because the times are changing. At my placement, technology is used a
tasteful amount I would say. It is used often as a good tool for the students,
but it is not so much as to be a distraction from everything else. For example,
in my classroom there is one computer for every two students, which works just
fine for us because we very rarely have it at a given time that more than half
the class is using a computer. On the rare occasion that every child needs a
computer, we borrow some from the classroom next door, and if they ever need
more, which is more often the case, they come and take some computers from us.
My CT and the teacher in the next door class have an understanding around this
which is mutually beneficial and as of yet there have not been any problems. The
students use the computers for a variety of purposes. The one way computers are
used on an almost daily basis is that every day during our reading rotations,
some students get to practice their typing on a program called “All The Right
Type.” They quite enjoy this, but sometimes I think that they get so invested
in the game like structure of the program they don’t want to do anything else
during their allotted read time. Additionally, students may ask permission to
use the computers to read an e-book on them. This allows some students to read
books that we do not have in class. I have noticed though that since we started
allowing this, students will want to read an e-book even when we have a paper
copy of the book in class. One kid explicitly told me that he does not want to
read an actual book because he can read an e-book. I do not understand this,
and I am also not sure how I feel about it. It does get some students reading,
but I do not want my students to see computers as bringers of enjoyment and
books as harbingers of boredom. My short term goal is to give some more
thoughts about how we do e-books in class. Also some students try to get away
with playing games instead of reading. I think that I want to make a rule that
in order to use a computer for an e-book, a student must give me a written
reason why they want to do it, and I will be very selective in how I give these
rights. My long term goal over many years would be to get a Smart Board, as I have
seen teachers use these to great effect. I was skeptical of these at first but
now that I have seen them used well I think it would be a real benefit for me
to practice on them and gain skills at using them to their greatest abilities,
as opposed to a glorified whiteboard.
Friday, March 6, 2015
udl
Udl seems to be an interesting resource for teaching a diverse range of students as one may find in the public schools in this country. Although the presentation on the site seems a little bit low budget, it is obvious there is a lot of really deep research that went into it. A principle I looked at was one of intrinsic motivation which is an important idea. It is important to build students who have motivations for learning outside any sort of extrinsic cost or benefit to them. I want to take some more time to research this since that is an idea that my CT and I have wondered about a lot.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Canoe
The class next to us at my main placement is building a canoe. The teacher has it all connected with the different subjects and it really fits nicely with his class. For example, before building the canoe, the teacher had the students do a close reading of the directions on how to build a canoe, so they were able to practice reading for a purpose. I observed him for a while, and while I was there he had the students divided into reading groups doing various tasks, he would call up one group at a time and have them cut along lines that they had made earlier. Every child had a chance to saw the wood, with a real hand saw, at least once, and many of them twice. The students really enjoyed it, and sawing provided a good challenge for the students. I think it is good to give kids a chance to do work with their hands, and this is especially good since he connects it well with the other subjects. This has got me thinking about other ways I can work this sort of task into my teaching,.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Culture
[This post is late]
I still have some thoughts in my head about our talks regarding culture this week. Culture seems to me to be a bit of a catfish to define, it's big and wriggly and hard to get a handle on. I still have some skepticism as to whether it means anything. but as I see it there are two main understandings of what culture means. The first is the one that most of the people in the cohort were operating under, that which separates one's family from everybody else's family. Another is culture as meaning a large group of people with a shared history. For example, I see myself as part of a few of these cultures, American, Scots-Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Northern European, and on a larger level, Western. These are my people, and their history is the story of the honored dead, my ancestors, which is how I understand myself as being in these cultures. Perhaps this is not the sort of understanding of culture that was expected for the self documentation assignment, but I think it may be useful to think a little more about this type of culture. It may be less immediate than the first understanding, but that may actually be a reason why it is so important to study. I think when we go to teach about culture, we consider both terms and clarify our terms when we are teaching remembering that the less clarified a term is, the less useful it is.
Another thought I had about culture came from the cultural standard listed in the lesson about animal classification in the Yu'pik region. It read, "Live a life in accordance with the cultural values and traditions of the local community and integrate them into their everyday behavior." In all honesty, I don't think that this standard has any place in an American public school and I have a couple of reasons.
1. It is not at all assessable. In fact it does not have just one unassessable learning target, it has four. First, living in accordance to a cultural value. Second, living in accordance to a cultural tradition. Third, integrating a cultural value into everyday behavior. Fourth, integrating a cultural tradition into everyday behavior. A teacher cannot assess any of these reliably at school, which makes the standard useless at best.
2. I think that this assessment is more than useless though, I think that it has some serious moral problems with it. Where is it the schools, and by extension, the government's business to instruct a child to be just like everybody around them, to believe and value the same things? This is akin to saying to a child, "act like a white christian apostate, since all the people around you are white christian apostates." I want to be careful to draw a distinction between this brand of government sponsored relativism and teaching American virtues such as freedom, respect for private property, and tolerance. This standard says to act a certain way since it is how the people around you act, rather one should teach a child to act a certain way because those ways of being are based on morals that transcend time and space. For example, a child should not follow the golden rule, do unto others as you would be done by, because it is what is popular, it is all too often not. They should live by it because it is right.
Culture is a great tool that humanity has developed, and we have learned many tools by it. We must be careful though to mot place it on too high a pedestal, lest the tool become a foreman to hard for out freedom and our reason to bear.
I still have some thoughts in my head about our talks regarding culture this week. Culture seems to me to be a bit of a catfish to define, it's big and wriggly and hard to get a handle on. I still have some skepticism as to whether it means anything. but as I see it there are two main understandings of what culture means. The first is the one that most of the people in the cohort were operating under, that which separates one's family from everybody else's family. Another is culture as meaning a large group of people with a shared history. For example, I see myself as part of a few of these cultures, American, Scots-Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Northern European, and on a larger level, Western. These are my people, and their history is the story of the honored dead, my ancestors, which is how I understand myself as being in these cultures. Perhaps this is not the sort of understanding of culture that was expected for the self documentation assignment, but I think it may be useful to think a little more about this type of culture. It may be less immediate than the first understanding, but that may actually be a reason why it is so important to study. I think when we go to teach about culture, we consider both terms and clarify our terms when we are teaching remembering that the less clarified a term is, the less useful it is.
Another thought I had about culture came from the cultural standard listed in the lesson about animal classification in the Yu'pik region. It read, "Live a life in accordance with the cultural values and traditions of the local community and integrate them into their everyday behavior." In all honesty, I don't think that this standard has any place in an American public school and I have a couple of reasons.
1. It is not at all assessable. In fact it does not have just one unassessable learning target, it has four. First, living in accordance to a cultural value. Second, living in accordance to a cultural tradition. Third, integrating a cultural value into everyday behavior. Fourth, integrating a cultural tradition into everyday behavior. A teacher cannot assess any of these reliably at school, which makes the standard useless at best.
2. I think that this assessment is more than useless though, I think that it has some serious moral problems with it. Where is it the schools, and by extension, the government's business to instruct a child to be just like everybody around them, to believe and value the same things? This is akin to saying to a child, "act like a white christian apostate, since all the people around you are white christian apostates." I want to be careful to draw a distinction between this brand of government sponsored relativism and teaching American virtues such as freedom, respect for private property, and tolerance. This standard says to act a certain way since it is how the people around you act, rather one should teach a child to act a certain way because those ways of being are based on morals that transcend time and space. For example, a child should not follow the golden rule, do unto others as you would be done by, because it is what is popular, it is all too often not. They should live by it because it is right.
Culture is a great tool that humanity has developed, and we have learned many tools by it. We must be careful though to mot place it on too high a pedestal, lest the tool become a foreman to hard for out freedom and our reason to bear.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Work, Progress, and Hope.
This week in class we have had many a talk about setting goals and working towards them. In my weeks that I am in my placement I lead the morning meetings, and this week the theme was doing things that are hard and working until you achieve your goals. This is something of a problem with my group, many of them have quite explicitly told me that they do not like work and would rather give up than try something hard. This includes both academic work, and the work of improving ones behavior. I think that this is perhaps one of the most important lessons we can teach the children, that one can change their behavior and can accomplish their goals if they are to work hard, and very little of value come without hard work. I sometimes feel as though these types of lessons I try to teach them fall upon deaf ears, in the more cynical moments that I am wont to have I wonder if the students can ever really change or improve at all.
In these moments I am confronted by the reality of progress though, and in this week two cases were most noticeable. One is a boy whom I will call L. L has been something of a trouble maker this year, and has not been performing well in school. He is easily distracted, and he has admitted himself that he lets his feelings get the better of him, especially when he is around his friends. Last week though, my CT and I decided one thing we can do to support him was to move him front and center in the class, where we can keep an eye on him. We decided to do this because I got a gut feeling that L is a very naturally curious child, who really loves to learn but is distracted by his friends and the quest for their approval. I think I was right, because this last week, he was on fire, he was full of questions, and full of answers, not all of which were correct, but they were genuine. He has also started self monitoring, on one of his homework sheets he wrote, "I need to check whether I am distracted more often so that I can learn." When we had the students in the class set a behavior goal and a way to achieve that goal his goal was to not let others distract him so much, his solution was to, "ignore [his] senses." Quite zen for a nine year old I think. I am incredibly proud of the boy and I am excited to see what happens next for him.
The other case is more subtle, and has been fraught with more frustration than the last. I will call the girl S, she has a difficult life. As I understand it, she almost never sees her family, and they are not the most well balanced of sorts. She herself is the lowest performing student in the class, and frequently needs to be re-taught the most basic of concepts, like addition. Part of this is that she refuses to do anything hard, or that she has not done before, and if she decides she does not want to do something, she will fight tooth and nail. In one instance, my CT asked her to stay in from recess and do her home work, she even made a compromise, do two review problems and then she can go. S yelled and screamed and started throwing items in her desk before she would do it. Then she fumed for fifteen minutes until she finally did them. I could go on with incidents like this, but it would be indecorous. On Friday I was ready to give up on her, I really was. Then I talked to one of the special ed teachers at the school who knows S quite well, and considers S to be quite dear. According to her, this year has been a time of monumental growth for the girl in her own way. We did not have long to talk, but it was enough to get me thinking. S will have a hard time in school, but she is better now than she was, and she has those who love her.
I am left this week considering the virtue of hope. Hope can be hard, otherwise it would not be a virtue. The future of my class can go any number of ways, but I will hold onto the thought that a good one is attainable. It will be hard, and I will fail often and spectacularly, But I am thankful for this too, and I hope to, with ample help, communicate this to my students. To rejoice in difficulty, and even the suffering of failure, for this produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
tl;dr: Hope=Failure+Time
In these moments I am confronted by the reality of progress though, and in this week two cases were most noticeable. One is a boy whom I will call L. L has been something of a trouble maker this year, and has not been performing well in school. He is easily distracted, and he has admitted himself that he lets his feelings get the better of him, especially when he is around his friends. Last week though, my CT and I decided one thing we can do to support him was to move him front and center in the class, where we can keep an eye on him. We decided to do this because I got a gut feeling that L is a very naturally curious child, who really loves to learn but is distracted by his friends and the quest for their approval. I think I was right, because this last week, he was on fire, he was full of questions, and full of answers, not all of which were correct, but they were genuine. He has also started self monitoring, on one of his homework sheets he wrote, "I need to check whether I am distracted more often so that I can learn." When we had the students in the class set a behavior goal and a way to achieve that goal his goal was to not let others distract him so much, his solution was to, "ignore [his] senses." Quite zen for a nine year old I think. I am incredibly proud of the boy and I am excited to see what happens next for him.
The other case is more subtle, and has been fraught with more frustration than the last. I will call the girl S, she has a difficult life. As I understand it, she almost never sees her family, and they are not the most well balanced of sorts. She herself is the lowest performing student in the class, and frequently needs to be re-taught the most basic of concepts, like addition. Part of this is that she refuses to do anything hard, or that she has not done before, and if she decides she does not want to do something, she will fight tooth and nail. In one instance, my CT asked her to stay in from recess and do her home work, she even made a compromise, do two review problems and then she can go. S yelled and screamed and started throwing items in her desk before she would do it. Then she fumed for fifteen minutes until she finally did them. I could go on with incidents like this, but it would be indecorous. On Friday I was ready to give up on her, I really was. Then I talked to one of the special ed teachers at the school who knows S quite well, and considers S to be quite dear. According to her, this year has been a time of monumental growth for the girl in her own way. We did not have long to talk, but it was enough to get me thinking. S will have a hard time in school, but she is better now than she was, and she has those who love her.
I am left this week considering the virtue of hope. Hope can be hard, otherwise it would not be a virtue. The future of my class can go any number of ways, but I will hold onto the thought that a good one is attainable. It will be hard, and I will fail often and spectacularly, But I am thankful for this too, and I hope to, with ample help, communicate this to my students. To rejoice in difficulty, and even the suffering of failure, for this produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
tl;dr: Hope=Failure+Time
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Smartboards
This week in class I got to learn about smart boards, they are really nifty. My main placement class does not have one, which is too bad. One of my dyad classes had one, and the teacher was able to use it to some good effect in his class. I first thought that smart boards may not be a good use of money or whiteboard space, and I wasn't sure what they do that a whiteboard does not. I learned about some really nice features they provide to the discerning user, such as the ability to layer items, or to write on what is on the screen. Also there is a feature to add equations into the boards quickly and easily, which is nice. I have over time learned to appreciate technology in the classroom more, items like tablets, chromebooks, and Smart Boards are good supplements for the skilled teacher in our industrialized and developed economy.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Seating Chart
One interesting thing that I did this week was help make a seating chart for the month of February, it was a real concrete way to express my knowledge of the students and their relationships with one another, and where to seat them to fill their needs. For example, there is one boy, I will call him L, who I know is a really curious boy and likes to learn things and participate in class, but he is easily distracted so I put him front and center right by the teachers desk. I also know that he has two boys he spends a lot of time with, and they often distract each other, so I put each of them on the opposite sides of the room. Since I have not been teaching a whole lot, I have had more time to spy on the students and learn about them than my CT has, so I know a whole slough of details about their lives. I also usually sit in the back of the room so I can see what they do behind their desks where they think no one can see them. They are wrong. I see everything. Making a seating chart was a good opportunity to take what I know of the students, and what I know from class and apply it to the very shape of the room. I sure hope that it turns out well.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Post for the week of 1/18 to 1/24
[THIS IS LATE]
I learned many interesting ideas this week in my classes, but there was one thing in particular that I learned that stood out. In literacy class, I learned that if you give students different sections of a reading and have them go in turns, they will not learn very much, and that there is some good research to support this thought as being true. This is because they will be rehearsing their own bit in their minds and focusing on performance rather than on comprehension. Instead, read to them or have them read silently to themselves. This is a very useful piece of knowledge, mainly since that is something that I have been doing and now I know to stop. It is sometimes difficult to stop something that seems like common sense at first, but it now seems that I should not do that anymore, so I won't. It is good to have people who have earned a high level of expertise in their field to tell me what is good to do and what is not good to do.
I learned many interesting ideas this week in my classes, but there was one thing in particular that I learned that stood out. In literacy class, I learned that if you give students different sections of a reading and have them go in turns, they will not learn very much, and that there is some good research to support this thought as being true. This is because they will be rehearsing their own bit in their minds and focusing on performance rather than on comprehension. Instead, read to them or have them read silently to themselves. This is a very useful piece of knowledge, mainly since that is something that I have been doing and now I know to stop. It is sometimes difficult to stop something that seems like common sense at first, but it now seems that I should not do that anymore, so I won't. It is good to have people who have earned a high level of expertise in their field to tell me what is good to do and what is not good to do.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
What I have learned today in the field
This week, my CT was sick for three days, and in the course of those three days we had four substitute teachers of varying quality. It was interesting hearing what the substitutes had to say about my class as it provided a different perspective on them. I think the best substitute was the one we had on Thursday, her name was Mrs. Nelson, and she was a very kind lady whom I could tell had been in the business of education for many a fine year. She tried some new and different things with the students that I think Ms.Winkler and I may need to try some more. The main thing is that she gave positive reinforcement for good behavior in addition to the normal gentle reminders to not talk while someone else is talking. For example, if a child was behaving well, followed directions promptly, or especially if they did anything extra kind for one of their peers, they would get a green ticket. There was no material rewards attached to the ticket, only good feelings. I didn't think it would work, but it really did. She also would tell the students that if they did not squander their time in transitions she would play hangman with them and that worked well. The most special thing about her, is that the good behavior she provoked extended beyond the classroom, that day they were really capital while in line, they walked quietly, but they seemed to beam with purpose. They got a compliment from their music teacher, which is a little out of the ordinary for them, and were visibly animated by that delight. At the end of the day I asked Mrs. Nelson for advice on management and she had some wise words. First she said that you must go down to their level and try to understand their own motivations as they are instead of trying to reason with them using the values you would like them to already have. Secondly, she said the best thing I could do is to be kind, and to be firm, these can be difficult virtues to live by always, but it gets easier with practice. I learned quite a bit from her, as well as the other substitutes, so that was nice.
Friday, December 5, 2014
Curation: Teaching Economics in Elementary School
A Few Resources That I Have Found
(Number 4 is particularly fun)
a. This
site made by Rutgers university has a list of picture books that can be used to
teach economic concepts like markets, competition, scarcity, and opportunity cost,
some of the books seem pretty interesting.
a. This
site has some lessons for a few of the books listed in the last link as well as
some resources that can go with them.
a. This
website has fun posters on economic concepts for sale or for copying the image
into a document and printing it on the sly. For example, there is the “interest
can work for you” poster with a happy girl climbing a mountain, and “interest
can work against you” with a despondent boy climbing out of a hole.
a. This
site has some songs about economic consequences sung to classic tunes. For
example, one of my favorites is, “consumers and producers” to the tune of the
more we get together.
a. This
is an interesting study done by Rutgers university on teaching economics through
literacy, and how to develop this project.
a. This
is the education wing of the Federal Reserve, it has lessons and publications
that teachers can look at for their classroom sorted by grade.
a. Edutopia
has some nifty resources on teaching students about finances.
a. This
nifty site has curriculum on it, some you need to pay for. The nicest part is
that it is all aligned with common core standards.
a. The
national council for the social studies provides some interesting links to
further resources and research.
a. The
Washington state council for the social studies does not at this time have many
resources for economics, but it does have a place for members to share
resources and a category for economics that they have expressed they are trying
to fill, so this may become a more useful resource.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Monday, December 1, 2014
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Growth as a blogger
I have grown as a blogger mainly in that I have blogged more, so the body of my blog labor has grown as a result. I don't know if I am any better at blogging now than I was at the beginning of the quarter. I suppose my recent entries have been a bit more to the point and in terms of narrow topics, but whether that is better depends on what one's goals are and by what criteria one is evaluated as a blogger. I have some thoughts on whether my writing is interesting. The blog posts that are interesting for me and that I enjoyed writing like the one about the declaration of independence and the one about assessing virtue had no comments on them, while some others that I cared very little about garnered more comments. Perhaps I need to learn to pander to my audience better, but I care more for writing something that I care about, I cannot control what other people think. My comments are not very good, and on no occasion have I seen them create greater discussion, whether they cause thought in another person I do not know as I have been given no evidence one way or the other,
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Thinking back on my metaphor, and forward to my teaching
My simile was: teaching is like new underwear. It is a reference to the 1992 comedy classic Wayne's World starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey. When asked about a recent change in his environment, Dana Carvey said, "it's like a new pair of underwear, at first it's restrictive, but pretty soon it becomes a part of you." I feel that teaching is the same way. Our classes and the government make teaching sound really restrictive, and that there are so many rules to follow that there is no point in having a thinking human do it, especially when we are told just to do exactly what we are told, and to teach exactly what the administration wants us to teach and how they want us to teach it. However, as I have been in schools, I have found that it's not as bad as all that, and not as scary as some of our classes make it out to be (seriously, I feel like the whole of Spring Quarter existed just to scare us). I am really beginning to get the hang of it, and I am seeing at my dyad that there are multiple ways to teach well. I am thus confident that I can myself find a way to teach that isn't too forced, and maybe even works well.
This leads well into the next question, who will I be as a teacher and a colleague. I don't know. I want to be a good teacher, and a good colleague, and I think I have the capacity and the tools to be as such. However, I also know that I have the capacity to royally screw it up, I hope not to, but I know that I can. All I can say is that in the present I want to work hard in order to be a good teacher and a polite colleague. I believe that I have guidance and will continue to receive guidance from the Holy Spirit to do so. I have some confidence and assurance that there will always be those present to help me improve as a teacher, and I will have innumerable opportunities to do so. Man is free however, and with that freedom comes the potential for evil and failure, and uncertainty in my own ability to follow guidance both human and divine. In the specific outcomes of my practice, I must then defer to Wittgenstein and say, "whereof one cannot say, thereof one must be silent."
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Chipotle
I have come across an interesting way to build relationships with students. It has come through a fictional obsession with the popular chain of Mexican eateries Chipotle. The facts are these. In my first period seventh grade Language Arts class on October the 29th, I was reading a list of vocabulary words to the class and for each word I thought of a sample sentence that uses the word. With no prior planning on my plot, two of my sample sentences were about my enjoying Chipotle. For example, using the word "roused" I said, "I could be roused out of bed if I heard the town crier announcing a sale at my local Chipotle." Or something similar to that. For whatever reason, in the mind of a few boys this really stuck in their head, one of them still just calls me Chipotle, which I should probably attend to (unless he only wants my attention, however I don't feel annoyed so I'm not sure if that's it.) First of all, this has helped me build relationships with a few students so that is nice. Second of all, some students I have seen getting more excited about learning vocabulary words, since they want to think of sentences about Chipotle that accurately use the word. I am very interested and am thinking hard as to how I can use this to further educational goals. For now though, it is really funny to me at the very least.
Sunday, November 9, 2014
The Importance of Proper Planning and Meter Sticks
This past thursday I was given a chance to co-teach a lesson at our dyad with my Dyad partner Caitlin, and being in middle school we had the chance to do it twice. This is a fact I am very glad for, because after the first go, I was not satisfied with my own performance, but after the second time I felt that I had been adequate. This change was brought about in two main ways I think.
1. For the first time we did not plan as much as we maybe should have planned. We relied very much on the pre-existing power point and we essentially read alternating slides to students and ended up having a very unequal distribution of work. In addition the general confusion lead to us stepping on each others toes a couple of times. However, before the second time we taught the lesson, we took some time to really talk through what we were doing, get on the same page as each other and break down the lesson into manageable bits and plan for some assessment. This worked marvelously, from my perspective it freed up my mind to relax a little bit and focus on delivering the bits of the lesson that were my responsibility. This was a valuable lesson for me as I am frequently tempted to take the, "just wing it," approach. I have found though that with careful planning, my mind is much more free to be interactive with students and to be in pleasant spirits.
2. The second time I was holding a meter stick.
I'm really glad I had this learning experience, and it really reinforces my belief that the placements have been far and away the most useful thing we have done in the whole program.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
How to Assess Values
I was planning a series of Sunday School lessons recently and I tried to apply backward design to it. At first it was easy, there were a few Essential Understandings that I wanted to communicate, and a few Essential Questions for the children (3rd through 5th grade) to ask themselves. But when I got to the bit for assessment I was really stumped. Part of it was because I was working within an existing framework with a very limited amount of time and a whole lot of content and with a few other people, but the other part is that what I really want to teach are virtues and a way of life, which are hard to assess. To be sure, the only true assessment of whether one learns a value or a virtue is to look at how they behave in their day to day life, and in the constant and minute decisions that life offers, especially in times of hardship. However, the times of hardship where lessons of morals and values are most valuable cannot be artificially constructed by a classroom teacher, they happen in unpredictable moments of crisis or sorrow. The case of teaching christian virtues is not directly applicable to public schools, although we do often teach similar morals. It did however remind me of our social studies textbook and how it talks about teaching democratic virtues and it made me wonder, how can we construct assessments for these? We can of course have them write about making good decisions, or have them behave virtuously in a simulation, but it is a sight easier to act like you possess a virtue in a classroom environment than to actually live by it as a lasting part of on'es being. Can one ultimately assess a child's true character? This itself may only happen on an informal level in our observations of the child's interaction with each other, are they kind? are they just? do they live their neighbor? do they do as they have been done by? In this way, knowing the student takes on an even greater role, that of assessing the content of a child's character. And a good character is perhaps the most important part of the child a teacher can tend to and help grow.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Thoughts about the Pledge of Allegiance
I have some thoughts on our discussion of the pledge of allegiance from Monday. I wanted to sit and let them stew for a while so they can be well developed, but now I have some responses to the two questions that Dr. Banks posed to us.
1. Would you have your class say the pledge of allegiance?
Yes, I would. I think it is a valuable opportunity for teaching American values. These are my main points. Firstly, I would teach around it, it is at best useless if it is not explained and at worst it encourages students not to think about their nation. I would explain where it came from, what all the words mean, why we say it, and what we can learn from it. I would do this as part of the beginning of the year classroom routine setting so that they begin saying it while knowing it's meaning. I also think that the fact that our nation does not have liberty and justice for all, and it certainly doesn't, is a good reason to not say it, on the contrary, it turns the pledge to a call to action. I see the pledge as an oath of service to a symbol that stands for certain ideals. I believe these ideals to be good ones. A Republican form of government (in the classical sense of the word deriving from the Latin Res Publica meaning "the thing of the people", not the political party) with popular sovereignty, clear limits on the power of the government, checks and balances between different branches of government, and a written set of laws. One indivisible union of states who maintain their differences but work together towards a common good. Justice and liberty for all people before the law and among the citizenry. I think these ideals are good ones, and I also know that I do not live up to them, and that our nation and government do not always live up to them and have often flatly contradicted them. I see the space between ideals and reality to be the place where citizens can work to affect change, and by reminding ourselves and our students of these ideals, and making our oaths not to any person but to a set of principles, we become agents in the good work of bringing these ideals closer to reality.
2. Would you change any part of the pledge of allegiance?
No, it is beyond my power to do so. The pledge as it is has been appointed to be that way by the rightful authorities in government, and whether their decisions are good or ill, as an agent of the government it is my duty to represent it truthfully. If I were the person in power I would make one small tweak, and I think it is a good idea to ask students if they would change anything if they were the ones in power. Now, if the pledge I think perpetrated some great evil or lie, or put forth ideals that I believed to be harmful, for example if it promoted some sort of fascist or communist regime, I would not say it. However, I believe that the pledge is for the most part good for the reasons enumerated above. Secondly, I would not change it to a pledge to earth or humanity because we are not part of the government of earth or humanity, we are citizens of this nation, and it is our responsibility to do the good work in our own home. That is not to say that one should not advocate for people abroad, in fact it is good to do so, and I even think the government can be just in affecting change abroad. I think though that while one can have allegiance to all mankind, there is a special category of allegiance to one's own nation and this is called citizenship, and an oath like the pledge belongs within that context, there are other oaths that apply to our global neighbors. While the ideals may be for everyone, the responsibility for Americans is realizing them in America.
That was awfully long winded. The short version is this, The pledge is valuable for Americans as a way of improving America with ideals that are for everyone.
1. Would you have your class say the pledge of allegiance?
Yes, I would. I think it is a valuable opportunity for teaching American values. These are my main points. Firstly, I would teach around it, it is at best useless if it is not explained and at worst it encourages students not to think about their nation. I would explain where it came from, what all the words mean, why we say it, and what we can learn from it. I would do this as part of the beginning of the year classroom routine setting so that they begin saying it while knowing it's meaning. I also think that the fact that our nation does not have liberty and justice for all, and it certainly doesn't, is a good reason to not say it, on the contrary, it turns the pledge to a call to action. I see the pledge as an oath of service to a symbol that stands for certain ideals. I believe these ideals to be good ones. A Republican form of government (in the classical sense of the word deriving from the Latin Res Publica meaning "the thing of the people", not the political party) with popular sovereignty, clear limits on the power of the government, checks and balances between different branches of government, and a written set of laws. One indivisible union of states who maintain their differences but work together towards a common good. Justice and liberty for all people before the law and among the citizenry. I think these ideals are good ones, and I also know that I do not live up to them, and that our nation and government do not always live up to them and have often flatly contradicted them. I see the space between ideals and reality to be the place where citizens can work to affect change, and by reminding ourselves and our students of these ideals, and making our oaths not to any person but to a set of principles, we become agents in the good work of bringing these ideals closer to reality.
2. Would you change any part of the pledge of allegiance?
No, it is beyond my power to do so. The pledge as it is has been appointed to be that way by the rightful authorities in government, and whether their decisions are good or ill, as an agent of the government it is my duty to represent it truthfully. If I were the person in power I would make one small tweak, and I think it is a good idea to ask students if they would change anything if they were the ones in power. Now, if the pledge I think perpetrated some great evil or lie, or put forth ideals that I believed to be harmful, for example if it promoted some sort of fascist or communist regime, I would not say it. However, I believe that the pledge is for the most part good for the reasons enumerated above. Secondly, I would not change it to a pledge to earth or humanity because we are not part of the government of earth or humanity, we are citizens of this nation, and it is our responsibility to do the good work in our own home. That is not to say that one should not advocate for people abroad, in fact it is good to do so, and I even think the government can be just in affecting change abroad. I think though that while one can have allegiance to all mankind, there is a special category of allegiance to one's own nation and this is called citizenship, and an oath like the pledge belongs within that context, there are other oaths that apply to our global neighbors. While the ideals may be for everyone, the responsibility for Americans is realizing them in America.
That was awfully long winded. The short version is this, The pledge is valuable for Americans as a way of improving America with ideals that are for everyone.
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