Please view this brief presentation on available resources for teaching and learning 21st Century Skills.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Monday, October 31, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
A rant
At the end of the video Ken Robinson says, "... I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity. Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth: for a particular commodity. And for the future, it won't serve us. We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we're educating our children. ... And the only way we'll do it is by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they are, and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being, so they can face this future."
I am inspired by his ability to so eloquently articulate what I think many of us are feeling about the state of education and the changes that need to be made.
I'm sick of watching my son come home with paper and pen and a 90 lbs book bag because a teacher or a school is scared of technology or feels ill-equipped to teach in a digital environment. This weekend my 7th grader had to create a booklet made out of construction paper and free hand write a summary of Spartacus, using colored pencils. Construction paper, colored pencils? He's in middle school and it is 2011. Later this week he'll take a multiple choice test on things like, "what year was Spartacus born?"
My son doesn't need to memorize facts about Spartacus, that's what Google is for. He needs to understand the value of learning history, how to critically think, and determine the relevancy of the information provided.
Spartacus revolted in an attempt to make a change, he stood up to the leaders and built an army on principle ... he was also killed and his troops were crucified and put on public display... not the most desirable results, nevertheless, Spartacus was courageous and he is only one example of many who have attempted to "buck the system." What if, rather than a linear approach to teaching, my son's teacher had infused the lesson with other people throughout history, that had the same goal, to make a change, but did it in different ways with different results? Isn't that what our forefathers did with the Brits, and on a smaller less gruesome scale, what groups like the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street are attempting to do now, "buck the system"? Wouldn't that be more relevant to his life and further instill in him that there is value in learning history, and there is value in standing up for what you believe in - Sometimes your crucified body lines a highway and sometimes you start a revolution that changes the world.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
When it isn’t about the end result ...
I recently embarked on a journey into the field of education. This blog is about that journey, past experiences, present experiences and valuable tools that I hope I’ll learn in the process. Since, I am not an educator my experiences are centered around my children and as a result they will be the central theme of this blog. Sometimes I contemplate and sometimes I rant, I hope more of the former then the latter.
I have three children that learn differently, act differently, and have different skills and strengths and yet one of the things they all have in common is their distaste for school and especially homework. I never considered this to be unique to my family and yet it was still somewhat perplexing. We have a family that values education, we discuss topics to try and engage their critical thinking, watch educational programming, read educational books, talk about the value of education and yet they don’t like the process of being educated. Why? What could I have done differently to change their perception of education?
I have a friend who has three straight “A” students that came home from school and did their homework on their own without debate. They were accepted into good colleges and continued to do well on their own without parental supervision. I, on the other hand, have tried punishment, rewards, reinforcement, active engagement, in school participation and yet it would have been easier to pull a tooth from a mountain lion than to get my kids to willingly sit down to do their homework. My most effective technique was to tell them that if they really didn’t have any homework they could write me an essay, the topic of my choice, to fill up their “homework” time. It is amazing how quickly they suddenly remembered the homework they had. To get them to come home and do their homework on their own was something I didn’t even think was possible and yet here my friend was with her three perfect children that absorbed knowledge like a sponge ... willingly! Where had I gone wrong? I had to ask her what incredible parenting technique she’d utilized that I’d somehow missed. She said that she didn’t know what she’d done other than to reinforce the value of learning over the end result. In other words, her children were not expected to get good grades, they were expected to go to school and learn, and the outcome of that philosophy was that her children got good grades. My children did too, for the most part, but the willingness to learn simply wasn’t there. This made me realize that despite the fact that I love to learn and believe I effectively model that to my children, that somehow I’d completely missed the boat on the purpose of their education. My youngest son was in kindergarten when I had this conversation with my friend and I have heavily relied on this idea. It is literally in the forefront of my mind in any conversation that I have with my him regarding education. He is now in seventh grade. This idea was a complete paradigm shift in my thinking and although I have modeled this technique with my youngest son in ways I never did with my two older children I still find it difficult to remain calm when a bad grade pops up on powerschool, which I check daily. Why, when I love to learn and place great value in knowledge, is my only assessment of my student’s progress centered around an A-F scale determined, for the most part, not by knowledge, but by his ability to memorize and recite facts?
This question leads me to wonder if other parents, unwittingly, are also basing their child’s entire learning experience on the grades they bring home. If so, what effect is that having on our children and how do we change this “end result” theory of learning? Will the introduction of technology in the classroom be a solution? Not as the end result but as a shift in the way in which we learn. In a digital environment where memorization is no longer valued or needed but the ability to acquire new knowledge is, how will that change the assessments and our value system towards education and the process of learning?
I don’t know the answers and maybe I’m an anomaly and the answers to those questions are going to be entirely self-serving. Whatever the case, I do hope to gain some knowledge, insight and understanding through this journey, and to learn to enjoy the journey, regardless of the end result.
I recently embarked on a journey into the field of education. This blog is about that journey, past experiences, present experiences and valuable tools that I hope I’ll learn in the process. Since, I am not an educator my experiences are centered around my children and as a result they will be the central theme of this blog. Sometimes I contemplate and sometimes I rant, I hope more of the former then the latter.
I have three children that learn differently, act differently, and have different skills and strengths and yet one of the things they all have in common is their distaste for school and especially homework. I never considered this to be unique to my family and yet it was still somewhat perplexing. We have a family that values education, we discuss topics to try and engage their critical thinking, watch educational programming, read educational books, talk about the value of education and yet they don’t like the process of being educated. Why? What could I have done differently to change their perception of education?
I have a friend who has three straight “A” students that came home from school and did their homework on their own without debate. They were accepted into good colleges and continued to do well on their own without parental supervision. I, on the other hand, have tried punishment, rewards, reinforcement, active engagement, in school participation and yet it would have been easier to pull a tooth from a mountain lion than to get my kids to willingly sit down to do their homework. My most effective technique was to tell them that if they really didn’t have any homework they could write me an essay, the topic of my choice, to fill up their “homework” time. It is amazing how quickly they suddenly remembered the homework they had. To get them to come home and do their homework on their own was something I didn’t even think was possible and yet here my friend was with her three perfect children that absorbed knowledge like a sponge ... willingly! Where had I gone wrong? I had to ask her what incredible parenting technique she’d utilized that I’d somehow missed. She said that she didn’t know what she’d done other than to reinforce the value of learning over the end result. In other words, her children were not expected to get good grades, they were expected to go to school and learn, and the outcome of that philosophy was that her children got good grades. My children did too, for the most part, but the willingness to learn simply wasn’t there. This made me realize that despite the fact that I love to learn and believe I effectively model that to my children, that somehow I’d completely missed the boat on the purpose of their education. My youngest son was in kindergarten when I had this conversation with my friend and I have heavily relied on this idea. It is literally in the forefront of my mind in any conversation that I have with my him regarding education. He is now in seventh grade. This idea was a complete paradigm shift in my thinking and although I have modeled this technique with my youngest son in ways I never did with my two older children I still find it difficult to remain calm when a bad grade pops up on powerschool, which I check daily. Why, when I love to learn and place great value in knowledge, is my only assessment of my student’s progress centered around an A-F scale determined, for the most part, not by knowledge, but by his ability to memorize and recite facts?
This question leads me to wonder if other parents, unwittingly, are also basing their child’s entire learning experience on the grades they bring home. If so, what effect is that having on our children and how do we change this “end result” theory of learning? Will the introduction of technology in the classroom be a solution? Not as the end result but as a shift in the way in which we learn. In a digital environment where memorization is no longer valued or needed but the ability to acquire new knowledge is, how will that change the assessments and our value system towards education and the process of learning?
I don’t know the answers and maybe I’m an anomaly and the answers to those questions are going to be entirely self-serving. Whatever the case, I do hope to gain some knowledge, insight and understanding through this journey, and to learn to enjoy the journey, regardless of the end result.
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