When I first read Sol Stern's article called "E.D. Hirsch's Curriculum for Democracy," I felt somewhat annoyed by his criticism of proggresive education which seems to focus more on teaching kids how to think as opposed to what he reccomends: learning a whole bunch of facts. The quote that really got to me was, "By now, it should be evident that teaching children in the early grades "how to learn about the Civil War" will not necessarily lead them ever to learn about the Civil War-or about any of the other pivotal events in their country's history." He is also upset that every kid doesn't know who James Monroe is in the first grade. It makes absolutely no sense to me that first graders should be fed a lot of facts about the Civil War. And it seems crazy to say that not learning a series of facts in first or second grade will mean that kids won't be able to absorb facts when they're older. Actually, I think the opposite is true. If kids are thought how to think about important events when they are little, like for instance how different it was growing up in the north as opposed to growing up in the south, then when they are older they will have a context to put the facts they are learning in.
Another thing that was annoying to me about Hirsch's thinking, according to Sol Stern, is the way he thinks about the connection between education and democracy. Hirsch, he says, thinks kids should learn the same facts based curriculum in every grade so that they would all think similarly. " The school would be the institution that would transform future citizens into loyal Americans...It would teach common knowlege, virtues, ideals, language, and commitments." This kind of teaching doesn't sound good for democracy at all. It sounds more like what a totalitarian government would do. Ted Sizer, the progressive education guy, says, "Students should leave school well-informed skeptics, able to ask good questions as a matter of habit." In other words, kids should develop their well-informed opinions and not just be taught one way to think. Sizer also said, "If democracy is about responsible freedom, it depends on a citizenry which sees the world clearly, which is repectful of past ideas, but never their prisoner..." This way of thinking is obviously a much better way to think about how to develop citizens who can participate in a democracy that will work. Hirsch's idea that he and the Founding Fathers had more in common than the Founding Fathers and Sizer would've had also sounds pretty crazy to me. I don't think the Founding Fathers were thinking about a lot of diversity in the voting pool. They weren't thinking about how young black kids, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, and Jewish kids whose grandparents had been killed in the Holacaust could all feel a part of being American.
As far as coming up with a way that Hirsch's theory of a good education and Sizer's theory could work together, it is important to know that Hirsch focused more on the earlier grades and Sizer focused on high school grades. It seems to me that there should always be an emphasis on teaching kids how to think about specific subjects at all grade levels. Obviously, facts need to be learned as well. Just learning facts is not only boring but it's also not effective because they will be forgotten if they are not in a context. The context would be an argument or a way of thinking that uses the facts the student has learned. I think the problem in the difference in their thinking has to do with testing. Hirsch believes in a lot of standardized testing at younger ages, and wealthier kids have always done better on these tests on the whole. Sizer's approach is fairer for kids from different economic and ethnic backgrounds. All kids need to learn a lot of facts, but they also need to learn how to develop ideas and opinions so that they can develop their minds and contribute to their society and also be smart voters.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
HW # 44 Big Expectations for School
President Obama's back to school speech is actually a motivational speech to kids in which he tells them that although the goverment, the teachers, and their parents all have responsibiltity for their achievement in school, kids themselves have the greatest responsiblity for their own education. He tells them that it is up to them to discover their special talents, which they all have, and that they need to do thi not only for themselves but for their country.
He acknowledges the fact that some kids have disadvantages that make it hard for them to do well and talks of specific kids who have fought great odds to succeed. There are two quotes that really stick out for me: "And no matter what you do with your life - I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it," and "If you quit on school - you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country." Both quotes have this "or else" aspect to them with a little fear and guilt built in. I think this is a pretty great speech on the whole especially coming from a young and exciting president especially in comparison to what we had before. Also, Obama had to overcome a lot to suceed so he has a lot of credibility. Kids need to hear a speech like this although it obviously does not let government, schools, and teachers off the hook for their responsabilities to kids.
Even though it's true that some kids overcome incredible odds to succeed, this doesn't mean that other kids with the same problems can overcome their obstacles. Some kids can focus and tune out problems and distractions and others can't. As Obama says we all have different talents. For most kids going to a bad school with teachers that have a hard time staying motivated themselves it just is not going to be possible to do well. In Thomas L. Friedman's article he talks about how the next generation of Americans are going to hold the country back because of their weak science and math education. He is talking to the CEO of Intel, a top U.S corparation, who says he would rather higher young Americans but will higher better educated Chinese people if he has to. I found this other article about an Chinese/American doctor who says "of all the demographic factors we studied in relation to school performance, ethnicity was the most important.... In terms of school achievement, it is more advantageous to be Aisan than to be wealthy, to have non-divorced parents, or to have a mother who is able to stay at home full time." This quote really stuck me. I know for example that Stuyvesant High School is nearly 50% Asian and that Harvard has 17% Asian students, and Asians only make up 4% of the U.S population. Also, Jewish people, who make up 3% of the U.S population, make up 21% of the Ivy League student population. The point I am trying to make is that if there is an emphasis on academic achievement in your culture, that is a big advantage. Black and Hispanic kids whose parents and grand-parents are often not that well educated can be at a disadvantage. Governments and schools have a responsibility to teach all kids, and all cultures contribute a lot to society. In Bob Herbert's article about the amazing educator Deborah Kenny, he talks about how succesfull her Harlem Village Academy schools have been because they develop great teachers. In a way the kids who go to these schools are getting the special culture they need to do well academically.
My reaction to the article by Robert Kiyosaki, who says he wants to create the U.S Buisness Academy for Entrepreneurs, which would be run like a military academy, is that it probably wouldn't work. Don't you need a lot of freedom and independence to become an entrepreneur?
Wouldn't it be better to just have huge grant awards for people with great ideas to start new businesses? I like the reaction of the guy whose comment said, "I'll take wages that both Henry Ford and Bill Gates would drop out of your military school faster than a cockaroach runs from light."
.
He acknowledges the fact that some kids have disadvantages that make it hard for them to do well and talks of specific kids who have fought great odds to succeed. There are two quotes that really stick out for me: "And no matter what you do with your life - I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it," and "If you quit on school - you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country." Both quotes have this "or else" aspect to them with a little fear and guilt built in. I think this is a pretty great speech on the whole especially coming from a young and exciting president especially in comparison to what we had before. Also, Obama had to overcome a lot to suceed so he has a lot of credibility. Kids need to hear a speech like this although it obviously does not let government, schools, and teachers off the hook for their responsabilities to kids.
Even though it's true that some kids overcome incredible odds to succeed, this doesn't mean that other kids with the same problems can overcome their obstacles. Some kids can focus and tune out problems and distractions and others can't. As Obama says we all have different talents. For most kids going to a bad school with teachers that have a hard time staying motivated themselves it just is not going to be possible to do well. In Thomas L. Friedman's article he talks about how the next generation of Americans are going to hold the country back because of their weak science and math education. He is talking to the CEO of Intel, a top U.S corparation, who says he would rather higher young Americans but will higher better educated Chinese people if he has to. I found this other article about an Chinese/American doctor who says "of all the demographic factors we studied in relation to school performance, ethnicity was the most important.... In terms of school achievement, it is more advantageous to be Aisan than to be wealthy, to have non-divorced parents, or to have a mother who is able to stay at home full time." This quote really stuck me. I know for example that Stuyvesant High School is nearly 50% Asian and that Harvard has 17% Asian students, and Asians only make up 4% of the U.S population. Also, Jewish people, who make up 3% of the U.S population, make up 21% of the Ivy League student population. The point I am trying to make is that if there is an emphasis on academic achievement in your culture, that is a big advantage. Black and Hispanic kids whose parents and grand-parents are often not that well educated can be at a disadvantage. Governments and schools have a responsibility to teach all kids, and all cultures contribute a lot to society. In Bob Herbert's article about the amazing educator Deborah Kenny, he talks about how succesfull her Harlem Village Academy schools have been because they develop great teachers. In a way the kids who go to these schools are getting the special culture they need to do well academically.
My reaction to the article by Robert Kiyosaki, who says he wants to create the U.S Buisness Academy for Entrepreneurs, which would be run like a military academy, is that it probably wouldn't work. Don't you need a lot of freedom and independence to become an entrepreneur?
Wouldn't it be better to just have huge grant awards for people with great ideas to start new businesses? I like the reaction of the guy whose comment said, "I'll take wages that both Henry Ford and Bill Gates would drop out of your military school faster than a cockaroach runs from light."
.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
HW 42 - Significance
The challenge of how to get a whole classroom of kids to be involved in whatever is being taught is what I want to explore. I started looking up descriptions of National Teachers of the Year because I thought these teachers might have something to say about techniques that work for a whole group. I notice that a lot of these teachers are history teachers and that maybe I should focus on ways history teachers have found projects that make history come alive and get kids excited and want to understand more.
The worst thing in a classroom is to have a lot of bored kids. The bored kids are useless contributers and the non-bored kids can feel self-conscious and overly animated in a room of the living dead. When I think back to my middle school years, classroom memories that stand out are times when we had big group projects like creating a walk-in Egyptian tomb. The great thing about the project was that it used the skills of every kid in the class. The tomb was so amazing that the whole school came to visit it including some outsiders from the community. There wasn't a single kid in that class who wasn't proud of the tomb and the work he or she did on it.
A classroom should act more like a team rather than like a group of individuals fending for themselves. When you're on a team, the pressure not to let your team down is much stronger than the pressure not to let yourself down. A team is always stronger than its individual parts. We learn from interaction with each other just as we learn from our coach or teacher. The ability not to let your partners down is not only a tool that can be used at school, but a tool to be used your entire life. School should be preparation for life in society. Group experience with shared humanity early in life can lead to taking responsibility to contribute to society in positive ways as a grownup. This is how we grow as individuals and create our own essence, as existentialists would say.
The worst thing in a classroom is to have a lot of bored kids. The bored kids are useless contributers and the non-bored kids can feel self-conscious and overly animated in a room of the living dead. When I think back to my middle school years, classroom memories that stand out are times when we had big group projects like creating a walk-in Egyptian tomb. The great thing about the project was that it used the skills of every kid in the class. The tomb was so amazing that the whole school came to visit it including some outsiders from the community. There wasn't a single kid in that class who wasn't proud of the tomb and the work he or she did on it.
A classroom should act more like a team rather than like a group of individuals fending for themselves. When you're on a team, the pressure not to let your team down is much stronger than the pressure not to let yourself down. A team is always stronger than its individual parts. We learn from interaction with each other just as we learn from our coach or teacher. The ability not to let your partners down is not only a tool that can be used at school, but a tool to be used your entire life. School should be preparation for life in society. Group experience with shared humanity early in life can lead to taking responsibility to contribute to society in positive ways as a grownup. This is how we grow as individuals and create our own essence, as existentialists would say.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
HW 41 - Initial Internet Research on Schooling
Anthony J. Mullen 2009 National Teacher of the Year
http://www.ccsso.org/projects/national_teacher_of_the_year/national_teachers/13292.cf
This source is interesting because this teacher of the year went to work on a factory assembly line after high school to support his family and then became a new York city cop for 20 years and then put himself through college, majoring in Criminal Justice. He’s a special education teacher for 9th through 12th grade students at an alternative school in Connecticut. His reputation is that he can teach any student, especially those who have behavioral and emotional problems. The source is interesting because this former cop talks about the keys to his success being passion, professionalism, and perseverance and describes what he means by all three. He uses his life experience to help him connect with his students.
Interview with Bill Bigelow
http://history matters.gmu.edu/d/6433
Bill Bigelow teaches high school history in Portland, Oregon. He make certain that his students do not think about history “as a series of dead facts.” He wants his students to understand that history consists of choices that real people make under certain circumstances, and he has them re-enact historical events. This article describes in detail how a creative teacher inspires a whole class of students and gets them to feel passionate about changing their society for the better.
2005-2006 Teacher of the Year – Jason Kamras
http://www.scholastic.com/administrator/teachyear/year2005.htm
Jason Kamaras entered the Teach for America program after graduating from Princeton and went into an inner-city school in Washington D.C. He made the students feel proud of the fact that the desegregation of all Washington D.C. schools came about because of a challenge that came from their school. He raised the math scores incredibly by giving the kids access to technology and using real-world problem solving. This article is a good source about the power of the passion of one teacher to change the whole culture of a school. Although he left the school for a couple of years to earn more advanced degrees, he returned to the school where he continues o teach and is treated like an assistant principle.
Philip Bigler – National Teacher of the Year
http://www.ccsso.org/projects/national_teacher_of_the_year/National_Teachers/188.cfm
Interview with Maurice Butler
http://history matters.gmu.edu/d/7122
Interview with Michele Forman
http:historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6830
Welcome to History Matters
http://.history-matters.com/
This site gives a way of studying an event in history that can be really interesting because it is based on formerly secret documents that are now declassified by the U.S. Government because a certain amout of time has elapsed. The event discussed here is the assasination of President John F. Kennedy. The documents show evidence of conspiracy and show why there was a cover up. I think a study like this could engage a whole class and give a much deeper understanding about truth and lies and mysteries in the history we're taught.
Making History on the Web Matter in Your Classroom
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ht/34.3/schrum.html
History Matters seems to be a great resource for teachers to make history come alive in the classroom. One of the things History Matters does is give all the best websites for U.S history teachers to use. We all know that one of the drawbacks of the web is that there is just too much information and so it is really time consuming to sort out the good stuff from the garbage. This site does it for history teachers and it gets its funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. I think this means it must be pretty good. Also, the way I found this site was by looking for articles about the best teachers in the country. Some of the National Teachers of the Year winners are featured on it.
http://www.ccsso.org/projects/national_teacher_of_the_year/national_teachers/13292.cf
This source is interesting because this teacher of the year went to work on a factory assembly line after high school to support his family and then became a new York city cop for 20 years and then put himself through college, majoring in Criminal Justice. He’s a special education teacher for 9th through 12th grade students at an alternative school in Connecticut. His reputation is that he can teach any student, especially those who have behavioral and emotional problems. The source is interesting because this former cop talks about the keys to his success being passion, professionalism, and perseverance and describes what he means by all three. He uses his life experience to help him connect with his students.
Interview with Bill Bigelow
http://history matters.gmu.edu/d/6433
Bill Bigelow teaches high school history in Portland, Oregon. He make certain that his students do not think about history “as a series of dead facts.” He wants his students to understand that history consists of choices that real people make under certain circumstances, and he has them re-enact historical events. This article describes in detail how a creative teacher inspires a whole class of students and gets them to feel passionate about changing their society for the better.
2005-2006 Teacher of the Year – Jason Kamras
http://www.scholastic.com/administrator/teachyear/year2005.htm
Jason Kamaras entered the Teach for America program after graduating from Princeton and went into an inner-city school in Washington D.C. He made the students feel proud of the fact that the desegregation of all Washington D.C. schools came about because of a challenge that came from their school. He raised the math scores incredibly by giving the kids access to technology and using real-world problem solving. This article is a good source about the power of the passion of one teacher to change the whole culture of a school. Although he left the school for a couple of years to earn more advanced degrees, he returned to the school where he continues o teach and is treated like an assistant principle.
Philip Bigler – National Teacher of the Year
http://www.ccsso.org/projects/national_teacher_of_the_year/National_Teachers/188.cfm
Interview with Maurice Butler
http://history matters.gmu.edu/d/7122
Interview with Michele Forman
http:historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6830
Welcome to History Matters
http://.history-matters.com/
This site gives a way of studying an event in history that can be really interesting because it is based on formerly secret documents that are now declassified by the U.S. Government because a certain amout of time has elapsed. The event discussed here is the assasination of President John F. Kennedy. The documents show evidence of conspiracy and show why there was a cover up. I think a study like this could engage a whole class and give a much deeper understanding about truth and lies and mysteries in the history we're taught.
Making History on the Web Matter in Your Classroom
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ht/34.3/schrum.html
History Matters seems to be a great resource for teachers to make history come alive in the classroom. One of the things History Matters does is give all the best websites for U.S history teachers to use. We all know that one of the drawbacks of the web is that there is just too much information and so it is really time consuming to sort out the good stuff from the garbage. This site does it for history teachers and it gets its funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. I think this means it must be pretty good. Also, the way I found this site was by looking for articles about the best teachers in the country. Some of the National Teachers of the Year winners are featured on it.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
HW 40 - School Interviews x 5 & Synthesis
Part A
Questions on School
1. Name a teacher who inspired you in elementary or middle school and talk about how this teacher helped you.
2. Name a teacher in high school or college who had a strong influence on you, positively or negatively, and talk about the effect of the teacher and the course on your life.
3. If you had a chance to relive your high school years, what would you do differently? Academically? Socially?
4. If you could design the perfect high school for you, what would it look like?
5. Was/Is there a special teaching technique that has been most effective for you?
6. If you were the U.S. Secretary of Education, what would you do to make schools more effective in preparing more students for college?
Reed Bye (family friend)
1. Mr. Penny, eighth grade English, opened me to reading literature. Had us read aloud in class and discuss points from the book as a class, as well as write written reports. Reading as a collective class enterprise made the experience of the books livelier and less solitary. I remember reading A Tale of Two Cities this way in particular.
2. I‘m embarrassed that I can’t remember his name, but he too taught English and U.S. lit, and, while very reticent and shy as a teacher, introduced us early to U.S. postmodern poetry and somehow made the world of writing seem very interesting and eccentric without doing anything to glorify or artificially romanticize it.
3. I was not a good student in high school. I couldn’t focus on and stay with the texts in any subject very well. That may seem surprising because I began to read and write quite a lot in my twenties and have continued to do that throughout my life. I think I needed broader personal experience of the world before books and academic information could hold my attention and mean much to me. A more active social life might have helped a bit with
triggering academic interest, but really I just wasn’t intellectually activated in any particular direction enough to get very engaged with school work
4. It would include compulsory work projects—these could be of any nature-- scientific, artistic, mechanical, constructive, scholarly—that students would work on both individually and as part of a group. And it would be good if some of these involved specific off-campus assignments—interviews or other information gathering, viewing and note-taking, listening, etc.
5. Those that promote direct interchange between teacher and students, raising provocative questions grounded in the details of particular texts or issues. In general, teaching methods that excite general inquisitiveness as well as relaying personal passionate interest in a topic or subject.
6. I would want to implement a curriculum balanced between developing fundamental arts of expression-- reading, speaking, writing, singing, dancing (?!)—and the presentation of basic knowledge in particular disciplines oriented toward opening up those disciplines so they appear both open-ended and exciting with real questions and possibilities. That would require the enticement and employment of good, engaged teachers.
Marc Rodriguez (friend)
1. In middle school, my humanities teacher pushed me to do better. The reason being that he mentioned that I was barely passing his class and eventually I turned it around when I realized that I should to better and followed his advice and managed to do better and I had a major improvement.
2. In High School, I think my 10th Grade English was a major influence on me. See, I was not a person who was able to be present my work to people in my class and I was afraid to perform. It seems that afterwards, I wasn't afraid of performing or sharing my ideas and work to others, I felt that everyone is afraid and that you just need to have some charisma.
3. Since I'm still in High School, what I could have done prior to the grade I'm in I would've Probably talked more to people or talked more and not be embarrassed about what others said about me. Academically, probably not given up on some of the assignments back in Freshman year and not have been distracted.
4. I would have a school where the students are actively involved, have students that are willing to learn and won't just sit there and make fun of the quiet/dumb kid. Also a school that was more advanced than other schools, and one that isn't so hard to get into.
5. I think that having a teacher who doesn't go in-depth and at least explains work in a simple way has the best potential. A teacher who pushes you (by being encouraging) has best potential. I have seen this first hand, as I interned at an elementary school, where students have ideas of how teachers teach and how one can act to encourage students to work before having to deal with a higher quality of work in Middle School and High School.
6. Have a system in which schools only raise tuition based on need and also have a system in which there would be percentage increases every year that wouldn't make the price skyrocket.
Reed Morgan (brother – in college)
1. Ms. Murphy, my fifth grade English and History teacher, inspired me to work
harder because of her dynamic teaching style and her interesting assignments.
We had to create books and illustrate them: two fiction books (creative writing),
a biography, a cookbook, and an ad campaign for a favorite book. She showed
one of my books to a friend at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and this led to
my involvement with one the exhibitions.
2. Dr. Edith Balbach, who taught a community health course my freshman year and became a mentor to me. With her guidance I applied for a summer internship at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, where I was allowed to develop a program for children in Harlem. She encouraged me to major in public health and to apply for an international travel grant. I was able to work at an orphanage in Kenya and had an amazing experience.
3. I would have taken Spanish instead of or in addition to French in high school. I thought about saying that I would have worked harder, but actually I wouldn’t have wanted to work any harder. I would have liked even more time playing basketball.
4. I think all public elementary, middle, and high schools should have the same standard equipment and resources to create greater fairness. I’m talking about playgrounds, libraries, classroom equipment, music, dance, and theater classes – everything.
5. Hands-on learning experiences like internships have been great for me.
6. If I were the Secretary of Education, I would get rid of a lot of the testing in the lower grades and have kids read more in school, discuss books, and write their own stories.
Linda Morgan (mother)
1. Madame Seide was my French teacher in 7th, 8th, and 9th grade, and she made me love learning the French language and reading French literature. Because of her, I ended up majoring in French in college and spending my junior year in France.
2. Mr. Pierce taught an English course about James Joyce’s Ulysses, which was one of the most entertaining and stimulating classes I ever had in college. He taught us how to appreciate great works of literature.
3. I hope I would try to be more experimental with my ideas and writing and not worry about what others might think.
4. A perfect school would work to discover students’ individual talents early on so
so that they could be developed from a young age.
5. As part of my French classes, reading magazines in French, listening to French music, and going to French restaurants and speaking French all helped me become more fluent.
6. As Secretary of Education I would demand a much bigger budget to give all
the schools standardized resources so that there wouldn’t be the giant inequities
between rich and poor schools.
Questions on School
1. Name a teacher who inspired you in elementary or middle school and talk about how this teacher helped you.
2. Name a teacher in high school or college who had a strong influence on you, positively or negatively, and talk about the effect of the teacher and the course on your life.
3. If you had a chance to relive your high school years, what would you do differently? Academically? Socially?
4. If you could design the perfect high school for you, what would it look like?
5. Was/Is there a special teaching technique that has been most effective for you?
6. If you were the U.S. Secretary of Education, what would you do to make schools more effective in preparing more students for college?
Reed Bye (family friend)
1. Mr. Penny, eighth grade English, opened me to reading literature. Had us read aloud in class and discuss points from the book as a class, as well as write written reports. Reading as a collective class enterprise made the experience of the books livelier and less solitary. I remember reading A Tale of Two Cities this way in particular.
2. I‘m embarrassed that I can’t remember his name, but he too taught English and U.S. lit, and, while very reticent and shy as a teacher, introduced us early to U.S. postmodern poetry and somehow made the world of writing seem very interesting and eccentric without doing anything to glorify or artificially romanticize it.
3. I was not a good student in high school. I couldn’t focus on and stay with the texts in any subject very well. That may seem surprising because I began to read and write quite a lot in my twenties and have continued to do that throughout my life. I think I needed broader personal experience of the world before books and academic information could hold my attention and mean much to me. A more active social life might have helped a bit with
triggering academic interest, but really I just wasn’t intellectually activated in any particular direction enough to get very engaged with school work
4. It would include compulsory work projects—these could be of any nature-- scientific, artistic, mechanical, constructive, scholarly—that students would work on both individually and as part of a group. And it would be good if some of these involved specific off-campus assignments—interviews or other information gathering, viewing and note-taking, listening, etc.
5. Those that promote direct interchange between teacher and students, raising provocative questions grounded in the details of particular texts or issues. In general, teaching methods that excite general inquisitiveness as well as relaying personal passionate interest in a topic or subject.
6. I would want to implement a curriculum balanced between developing fundamental arts of expression-- reading, speaking, writing, singing, dancing (?!)—and the presentation of basic knowledge in particular disciplines oriented toward opening up those disciplines so they appear both open-ended and exciting with real questions and possibilities. That would require the enticement and employment of good, engaged teachers.
Marc Rodriguez (friend)
1. In middle school, my humanities teacher pushed me to do better. The reason being that he mentioned that I was barely passing his class and eventually I turned it around when I realized that I should to better and followed his advice and managed to do better and I had a major improvement.
2. In High School, I think my 10th Grade English was a major influence on me. See, I was not a person who was able to be present my work to people in my class and I was afraid to perform. It seems that afterwards, I wasn't afraid of performing or sharing my ideas and work to others, I felt that everyone is afraid and that you just need to have some charisma.
3. Since I'm still in High School, what I could have done prior to the grade I'm in I would've Probably talked more to people or talked more and not be embarrassed about what others said about me. Academically, probably not given up on some of the assignments back in Freshman year and not have been distracted.
4. I would have a school where the students are actively involved, have students that are willing to learn and won't just sit there and make fun of the quiet/dumb kid. Also a school that was more advanced than other schools, and one that isn't so hard to get into.
5. I think that having a teacher who doesn't go in-depth and at least explains work in a simple way has the best potential. A teacher who pushes you (by being encouraging) has best potential. I have seen this first hand, as I interned at an elementary school, where students have ideas of how teachers teach and how one can act to encourage students to work before having to deal with a higher quality of work in Middle School and High School.
6. Have a system in which schools only raise tuition based on need and also have a system in which there would be percentage increases every year that wouldn't make the price skyrocket.
Reed Morgan (brother – in college)
1. Ms. Murphy, my fifth grade English and History teacher, inspired me to work
harder because of her dynamic teaching style and her interesting assignments.
We had to create books and illustrate them: two fiction books (creative writing),
a biography, a cookbook, and an ad campaign for a favorite book. She showed
one of my books to a friend at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and this led to
my involvement with one the exhibitions.
2. Dr. Edith Balbach, who taught a community health course my freshman year and became a mentor to me. With her guidance I applied for a summer internship at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, where I was allowed to develop a program for children in Harlem. She encouraged me to major in public health and to apply for an international travel grant. I was able to work at an orphanage in Kenya and had an amazing experience.
3. I would have taken Spanish instead of or in addition to French in high school. I thought about saying that I would have worked harder, but actually I wouldn’t have wanted to work any harder. I would have liked even more time playing basketball.
4. I think all public elementary, middle, and high schools should have the same standard equipment and resources to create greater fairness. I’m talking about playgrounds, libraries, classroom equipment, music, dance, and theater classes – everything.
5. Hands-on learning experiences like internships have been great for me.
6. If I were the Secretary of Education, I would get rid of a lot of the testing in the lower grades and have kids read more in school, discuss books, and write their own stories.
Linda Morgan (mother)
1. Madame Seide was my French teacher in 7th, 8th, and 9th grade, and she made me love learning the French language and reading French literature. Because of her, I ended up majoring in French in college and spending my junior year in France.
2. Mr. Pierce taught an English course about James Joyce’s Ulysses, which was one of the most entertaining and stimulating classes I ever had in college. He taught us how to appreciate great works of literature.
3. I hope I would try to be more experimental with my ideas and writing and not worry about what others might think.
4. A perfect school would work to discover students’ individual talents early on so
so that they could be developed from a young age.
5. As part of my French classes, reading magazines in French, listening to French music, and going to French restaurants and speaking French all helped me become more fluent.
6. As Secretary of Education I would demand a much bigger budget to give all
the schools standardized resources so that there wouldn’t be the giant inequities
between rich and poor schools.
Devin Morgan(self - in high school)
1. Mrs. Nan O’Shea was my year-long 4th grade teacher, and she is the elementary school teacher I will never forget. She was the most dramatic teacher I ever had with her sweeping gestures and booming voice. She was a great storyteller and really knew how to connect with her students.
2. Ms. De Rothschild taught my 9th grade English class, and she really pushed me and all her other students to try to write consistently well every time. In her class I made graphic novels and wrote poetry and a lot of papers. What made her one of the best teachers I’ve had was her method of making detailed suggestions of how to improve a paper and then giving us a chance to get a better grade by redoing it.
3. For my freshman and sophomore years I would definitely try to get more sleep. I would go out for the soccer team both years so that I could get to know more kids.
4. The perfect high school for me would look more like a college campus with buildings located around a huge green lawn. It would be called Sports Tech (yes I’ve put a lot of thought into this), and it would be dedicated to improving the athletic talents of kids in sports ranging from basketball, soccer, swimming, tennis, football, track and field, baseball, and lacrosse.
5. An effective teaching technique for me is having a chance to revise a paper once the teacher has made corrections. In this way the corrections sink in better.
6. If I were the U.S Secretary of Education, I would have classroom helpers in middle school for all kids, not just for special needs kids. These helpers would spot academic weaknesses with each student and arrange one on one meetings daily to prepare them for highschool.
Part B
For me, and obviously for others, teachers are the focal point of school. Teachers have to feed kids' natural curiosity and find creative ways of getting kids to learn. Kids don't all learn the same way so teaching require a big bag of tricks, especially in the early years. Teachers are huge role models for kids and often get them interested in a subject they want to pursue for the rest of their lives. Adults always remember the teachers who inspired them the most. They would also remember the teachers who made life miserable for them. Our society should pay teachers much more to attract more of the best people to become teachers.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
HW # 39 - First School Assignment
HW #39
Part A
Questions:
1) How much does school mold us? A much as our families?
2) What is it that makes some kids hate school?
3) Do the schools we attend have a big part in determining our future?
Ideas
1) I wonder if teachers realize at the time what a powerful influence they are over students’ lives.
2) I wonder if some teachers don’t want to take that much responsibility for the influence they have over students’ lives.
3) A lot of famous and successful people say that their big regret is that they didn’t work harder in high school. When kids here this, why don’t we find it that
motivating.
Experiences
1) Dealing with kids who think their school is superior to theirs
2) Realizing that acting the same way to kids who are considered cool or who think they are cool and to kids who aren’t considered cool or who think they’re not cool is important to the way you think about yourself and to your whole community.
3) Questioning the fairness of the GPA grading system, making it so that even one bad grade freshman year can affect how colleges look at you your senior year.
Part B
When I was in 8th grade biology, I cut off the tip of my finger which flew across the room. Someone screamed, and I looked down to see a fountain of blood shooting up from my left pointer finger. My teacher, who was very athletic and regularly did well
in marathons and other competitions, swooned. She almost passed out. I think she
actually did. I yelled out, “Sombody find my finger.” I heard groans, and someone
said, “Oh gross!” One of my friends said, “I’ll get T-Bone, a teacher aid with dreadlocks and tattoos, who was afraid of nothing. T-Bone organized the search for the bloody stub and bandaged my finger. The problem was that it wouldn’t stop gushing.
The next thing I knew I was at St. Vincent’s Hospital, where Dr. Ho immediately inserted three needles into my minifinger with no warning whatsoever. The microsurgery was successful, and since Dr. Ho happened to be a plastic surgeon as well as a hand surgeon, I have hardly any scar. For weeks I had this huge bandage on my finger with a splint, and everyone I passed at school would put up a pointer finger in a mocking “We’re number one” gesture. I got the same reaction at soccer practice with my huge digit. My teacher apologized a thousand times for being such a wimp at the time of the accident. I told her that if I hadn’t already had ugly accidents like breaking my arm and wrist in three places each during soccer games and having my leg pierced by cleats, I probably would have passed out too. It also came out that I was running with scissors at the time of the slicing so all the school scissors didn’t have to be replaced.
Part A
Questions:
1) How much does school mold us? A much as our families?
2) What is it that makes some kids hate school?
3) Do the schools we attend have a big part in determining our future?
Ideas
1) I wonder if teachers realize at the time what a powerful influence they are over students’ lives.
2) I wonder if some teachers don’t want to take that much responsibility for the influence they have over students’ lives.
3) A lot of famous and successful people say that their big regret is that they didn’t work harder in high school. When kids here this, why don’t we find it that
motivating.
Experiences
1) Dealing with kids who think their school is superior to theirs
2) Realizing that acting the same way to kids who are considered cool or who think they are cool and to kids who aren’t considered cool or who think they’re not cool is important to the way you think about yourself and to your whole community.
3) Questioning the fairness of the GPA grading system, making it so that even one bad grade freshman year can affect how colleges look at you your senior year.
Part B
When I was in 8th grade biology, I cut off the tip of my finger which flew across the room. Someone screamed, and I looked down to see a fountain of blood shooting up from my left pointer finger. My teacher, who was very athletic and regularly did well
in marathons and other competitions, swooned. She almost passed out. I think she
actually did. I yelled out, “Sombody find my finger.” I heard groans, and someone
said, “Oh gross!” One of my friends said, “I’ll get T-Bone, a teacher aid with dreadlocks and tattoos, who was afraid of nothing. T-Bone organized the search for the bloody stub and bandaged my finger. The problem was that it wouldn’t stop gushing.
The next thing I knew I was at St. Vincent’s Hospital, where Dr. Ho immediately inserted three needles into my minifinger with no warning whatsoever. The microsurgery was successful, and since Dr. Ho happened to be a plastic surgeon as well as a hand surgeon, I have hardly any scar. For weeks I had this huge bandage on my finger with a splint, and everyone I passed at school would put up a pointer finger in a mocking “We’re number one” gesture. I got the same reaction at soccer practice with my huge digit. My teacher apologized a thousand times for being such a wimp at the time of the accident. I told her that if I hadn’t already had ugly accidents like breaking my arm and wrist in three places each during soccer games and having my leg pierced by cleats, I probably would have passed out too. It also came out that I was running with scissors at the time of the slicing so all the school scissors didn’t have to be replaced.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
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