Blogging at the Mountain Center

Recently we have been experimenting in our social studies classes up here in the Mountain Center by starting our own blogs. Technology is a common interest of all our students and most have a laptop and Internet access. I decided to merge this infatuation with some kind of writing activities and what better way than blogs? Bloggin for students is a great way to do free writing about various issues while enhancing their technological skills and sharing their thoughts with each other. As a teacher I am usually the only one to read a student's work and I want students to start reading each other's thoughts on different topics in history.

Putting their thoughts online is a great way to motivate students because they know many people will be reading their writing. There is a tendency to be more cohesive on the part of the writer. The blog is also a running example of students' work and reveals their progression in the course and topics they have covered. They can use it as a point to save information, study their prior thoughts, and remember their past academic endeavors. Being technologically savvy is the wave of the future. Working online will hopefully enhance their skills and bring future rewards, interests, and opportunities to discover.

Welcome to Blogosphere

Today we started developing blogs in our class and students seemed exited about them. It's nice to implement technology into the classroom. With our new blogging we don't have to worry about printing or bringing in work to class. We can write and save our thoughts for the future to look at when we forget our past learning. Blogs are a great way to share information also. I am planning to attach all your blogs to mine so we can read each other's thoughts. Too many times I receive writing that is great and your peers don't get a chance to see it for themselves. Let's collaborate online and step into the future! Try to find the members of your class and follow all their blogs so you can examine each's own thoughts on questions about social studies.

Ken Robinson's New Paradigm

Sitting here today, watching the snow fall, I watched an old video that I have not seen for about two years. I was introduced to Sir Ken Robinson's theories by a professor from the Mount--Dr. Ludmilla Smirnova. She was definitely a person who loved knowledge, and the new ways in which knowledge is transmitted in our new millennium. She understood that we as teachers are the instruments of change, and that the challenges facing our society are significant and we will need people who know how to think creatively. There is a pressing need for change in our school system, and this is because of the deficient results that our educational system is offering. Despite the significant influx of money being assigned to educational institutions, the reduction of class sizes, and the emphasis on Math and Science, our literacy levels are degrading, along with the amount of students graduating. Our drop out rates are increasing, and many are giving up on learning. And with the numerous challenges ahead of us in this coming century, we are going to need people who know how to solve problems in new and innovating ways. In fact our whole social system is in need of a paradigm shift, and as Sir Kenneth Robinson points out it must start with a major overhaul in our schools, and institutions of higher learning.

He first begins by conveying the nature and origin of our being and then moves further into the educational system that is now in place. His idea is that our system "systematically destroys the capacity" of our creativity. Now we are not doing this "deliberately," but he believes that our system of public education is dominated by two ideas. One is "a conception of economic utility" which is implicit in the system. This is proven by the hierarchy of the school curriculum. He illustrates the preference of useful subjects and useless subjects. For instance math always takes preference over the arts. Robinson explains how when there are cutbacks, the arts such as music and dance are eliminated first because of their lack of "economic utility."He goes on to say that as students we probably found ourselves "benignly steered away" for the subjects we were truly interested in. Economic utility took precedence. A second premise that Ken Robinson identifies is culture, and maintenance of cultural values in the midst of globalization. Many societies are struggling with the premise of integrating their identities into the matrix of global society.

With regards to the deficiencies of our current public system, Robinson argues that our system was created on the model ideas of the enlightenment, and economic industrialization. People developed a consensus that intelligence was based on deductive reasoning, and a knowledge of the classics. Schools were developed to accommodate the economic needs of the time. The largest pool of people were those who performed blue collar work, and generally people suited to perform more menial tasks went to school until they were 12 years old. Then there were those who would go to secondary school to perform the administrative work, and they would basically attend grammar school until they turned 18. The smallest portion of people would go to university, and they were the lawyers, judges, and doctors. Now the problem with this system is the notion of intelligence the old system is based on. Robinson argues that many have succeeded in this mode of learning, but much more have woefully not. There are a multitude of people whose self-concepts have been ruined because of the hierarchy of the system. He says that "there are many brilliant people, who think they're not, and this system has caused chaos." The system seems an unfair way to judge people.

The changes taking place on earth are without precedence. Our system was conceived during the age of revolutions both political and industrial. School were shaped to fulfill society's demand. Currently our educational system is not equipped to handle the rapidity of change. Although there has been many reforms in education, Robinson argues that Education needs to be transformed. He argues that we currently educate our citizens from the "outside" meaning we compel students into what society demands. Some of these factors are intelligence, ability, economic purposes, and what people need. He instead argues that the student should be the focus, or "personhood" the imperative. People do their best when they do the thing they love, when they're in their element. When people connect this powerful sense of talent in their self, they become somebody else. It is in this element that the student will develop into their finest capabilities, and spawn creativity. We need to shape minds into creative thinkers due to the massive problems our society is facing. World-wide the growth of cities, the problems of the environment, and drain on resources will be major challenges in the next century. Our current system of education is not preparing people to contend with the nexus of connecting crisis coming. Too many are fooled with a false notion of intelligence, and being left behind. Focusing on each person's individual talents will keep people motivated to develop and become creative thinkers.

Rousseau's Emile ou l'education

Rousseau was a famous philosopher from the 1700's, and his thought on the matter helped to lay the frames for our current ideas on what an education should be. Before we make a judgement on his thought and theory, we definitely have to consider the time period he was writing in. Education at the time was reserved for the wealthy, and the upper classes who could afford private tutors. There were schools, and colleges but reading and writing was most likely done in the home. In Rousseau's writing "Emile ou l'education," he starts at the very beginning and brings us into the youngest years of the child, and reinvigorates the understanding that the parents truly are the child's first teacher. He highlights the ideas in a quote which I've chosen as a heading for one of my blogs.

We are born weak, we need strength; we are born lacking everything, we need aid; we are born stupid, we need judgment. All that we lack at birth and that we need when we are grown is given by education.

This quote has caught my attention because Rousseau defines the root of the word "education," and its original meaning from Latin, which is more closely defined as "nurture." This idea to me links teaching and parenting closely. Even as a secondary teacher, I must constantly plant my methods to accommodate the growing child. The early years of a growing mind, and even the teen years are so pivotal in the development of a person. Habits are learned, and unlearned, and how students develop will have a great impact on the rest of lives. This philosopher also states in this passage that we need "judgment,"an ideal that signifies to me the stern, and stringent methods a teacher needs to have in order to instill good habits in our youth. The world is not a perfect place, and students need to be judged for their behavior, and parents need to be there to enforce rules when students break them. Remember, we are preparing young people for the world, not a place that is always forgiving like an idea parent. They need to be toughened up, and prepared to face the world. Rousseau has a great analogy that accentuates the importance of creating good habits in our youth. He compares the growing mind to that of the growing of a tree (amazing how our neurons look just like the branches of a tree).

Nature, we are told, is merely habit. What does this signify? Are there not habits formed under compulsion, habits which never stifle nature? Such, for example, is the habit of plants that have had their vertical direction altered. Once given liberty, the plant keeps the shape it was forced into. And yet for all that, the sap has not changed its original direction, and any new growth the plant makes will be vertical. It is the same with the inclinations of man.

This is a great analogy that I think holds significant validity for those of us who have chosen the teaching profession. As a teacher in our modern era, we have to remember that we are not just teaching our content, but good habits. Habits that will stay with a student for the rest of their life. And once we miss those opportunities to shape a mind into a well conditioned educated citizen, transforming those non vertical "branches" will take force, and painful altering. Those who were not shaped in time may have taken the wrong directions, and there is no turning back once that happens. Our prisons, and correctional facilities are a testament to those branches that have grown in the wrong direction, and it is our responsibility as teacher to make sure "vertical" growth is the predominate direction for growth. Rousseau definitely has some great points that are applicable today. I will continue this summary later.228

My Teaching Philosophy

My perception of eduction is based on the premise that a teacher's main purpose is to help students excel and succeed. I want students to enjoy learning, and ignite a passion for knowledge that follows them throughout life. As teachers, we have to incorporate a greater variety of ways to instruct besides direct instruction, among these are peer tutoring, cooperative learning, and discovery learning. Bringing tactile experiences into the classroom is a technique I wish to explore, especially as a social studies teacher. I do not agree with teaching a curriculum geared totally towards Western culture. Such a mode of education can be seen as outdated due to the emergence of an ever-changing globally connected society. Learning has to be culturally diverse, and not just because it is politically correct. The fact is that our classrooms are culturally diverse. Learning should reflect who the learner is and become a tool to facilitate self-realization. Students should understand our globalized world better because it will be up to them to solve problems that threaten our interconnected world. Understanding different cultures, and how society has arrived to this point will be important to our future students.

My learning process is based on determining various ways to motivate students to become self-regulated and responsible for their learning. I want to encourage students to constantly assess how an activity is helping them gain understanding, while concomitantly incorporating technology. When students arrive at school from their homes, we as teachers are competing for their attention with televisions, games, cell phones, and internet. In the past, schools and classrooms may had been a more captivating place, but now we need to find more ways to engage the "net generation." Students need more technology, whether it be enhancing their computer skills with discovery learning and inquiry lessons or keeping their focus with SMARTboards and computers activities. I keep a list of web 2.0 tools that have been touted as optimal mediums for learning with technology. Preparing students for tomorrow and the technological world is a goal in which I wish to implement in my lesson planning.

Teaching is a science, and we as teachers must be able to think, act, and instruct scientifically. Our instructional decisions have to be based on empirically driven data that is well documented and proven to work effectively. We have to understand more thoroughly how the brain operates, and more importantly how the brain thinks. A classroom should be viewed as a laboratory where the experiment of learning is taking place, and if knowledge is not being attained, then other modes of instruction should be exhausted to make our experiment successful. Using various strategies to enhance memory, organization, and higher-order thinking should be the goals of our scientific experiment. Making students a part of our learning experiment is also in my tenets. They should understand the techniques that increases their brain power, and make each and ever learner a scientist in their own worlds.

Return of the Blog

I am continuing this blog in order to continue developing  my teaching skills.  After my first and second student-teaching placements, I have been thinking about some of the students I encountered and how I can better engage them in social studies.  I still come in contact with the same students when I substitute, and understanding their interests and their intellects is key to teaching in the constructivist method.  I want to be able to connect new information to old.  So what do they think about?  Where do their preconceptions come from?  

In one lesson that I taught while student teaching, I asked the students about their parents, and the jobs that they do.  It was a constructivist moment.  Children were learning about each other, and experiencing a whole gamut of alternate viewpoints.  I felt I was tapping into an emotional energy, and asked the students to realize how parents struggle to meet their needs. Next, I tried to get the students to imagine the government as almost like an extended family. It helps people in certain ways when they want.  It defends us from harm, and tries to look after our overall well-being. They seemed amused by this concept, but I tried to make them see things in a different light.  

Another method I used to make students think was to ask them if they had ever experienced oppression, or injustice in their lives.  I didn't get much of a reply.  They are young, and maybe they had not been exposed to such malevolence.  This intro was connected to slavery, and how the Constitution did not guarantee rights for those in bondage.  It was a difficult subject to teach.  I want to try to implement it again.  Some classes are not prone to talk about things as much. Still, that doesn't mean they are not thinking about their own experiences.  And that is my goal.   

Summary of the Summer--This is Hot!!!

Hello,

Now is the time to tell everyone what I learned in this course. I have spent many hours behind the computer, and learned so many things about teaching in a very short time. The internet is the place to go to keep up to date on education.  Computer based learning definitely requires perseverance. I learned that if there is a possibility that something will go wrong, then it will. Always have a backup plan! If you are going to present anything online, make sure you post it in several places on the Internet. Keep a record of all your passwords and nicknames on the computer, and please--"don't get aggravated." Remember Kenneth Robinson's video "Paradigm Shift;" the insignificance of our planet in relation to the size of the universe dwarfs any problems that we face in our microscopic lives. Besides that, Robinson truly believes that our education system is not fulfilling our society's needs. Our education system seems to be build on the premise of preparing our students to work in factories. But societies needs have changed and we need people that can think more creatively to solve the many problems that we face and will encounter in the future. I mention Robinson's critical assertions because I think that a main theme of our course was devoted to the need of our system to change, and change now.

In taking this course I realized that our school system is changing because our society is changing. We studied educational philosophies, and I realized that our old ways of schooling with a more authoritarian philosophy is not helping our students. We need to lean more towards student-centered learning. Newer philosophies such as humanism, and constructivism are pervading our schools, and for good reason. Kids are losing interest in education, and they need to be given an opportunity to make more decisions about their learning. New learning, in the constructivist perspective requires self-regulation and the building of conceptual structures through reflection and abstraction. Concept development and deep understanding is the foci.
This perspective is consistent with the constructivist tendency to explore multiple truths, representations, perspectives and realities.

As teachers, we need encourage more student initiated questions, independent thought, and interaction between students. In our more cliche methods, the goal of the learner was to regurgitate the accepted explanation. We need to make more of an impact and foster ingenuity and creativity. Technology is increasingly being touted as an optimal medium for the application of constructivist principles. And, the computer-based learning environment allows for student responses to drive lessons, shift instructional strategies, and alter content when needed. Other theories we studied were differentiated intruction, which I think goes hand and hand with constructivist theory. Differentiated instruction is formed around the precepts that
1. No two children are alike.
2. No two children learn in an identical way.
3. An enriched environment for one student is not enriched for another.
4. In the classroom we should teach children to think for themselves (constuct their own knowledge).
The most important thing about differentiation is the need to know the learners. Curricular goals may be similar for all students, however, methodologies employed in a classroom must be varied to suit the individual needs of all children. Consistent with constuctivism, differentiation allows students to take greater responsibility and ownership for their learning, and also provides opportunities for peer teaching and cooperative learning. Here is four ways to differentiate:
1. Content--content can be described as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes we want children to learn. Differentiation in content requires that students are pre-tested so the teacher cna identify the students strengths. Another way to differentiate content is simply to permit students to accelerate this rate of progress.
2. Process and Activities--Differentiating the processes means varying learning activities or strategies to provide appropriate methods for students to explore the concepts. Giving students alternate paths to manipulate the ideas is embedded in this concept. (Graphic organizers, maps, diagrams, or charts to allow them to display their comprehension of concepts is a good way to implement this idea).
3. The Product--Differentiating the product means varying the complexity of the product that students create to demonstrate mastery of concepts. Students working below grade level may have reduced performance expectations, while students above grade level may be asded to produce work that requires more advanced thinking. It is also motivating to offer a choice to students.
4. The Environment/Learning Style-- lighting/ posters / visual distrators/ seating / and mixing learning styles and multiple intelligences are key to differentiation.

A topic I was interested in deeply was the curriculum, and the factors that impact its design.  There are various form of curricula in schools all operating simultaneously.  One should come to the conclusion that learning is all connected.  Here are some ways of interpreting the vast elements of curriculum:

1. Explicit--courses offered, syllabi, tests given, materials used. 

2. Implicit--the "hidden curriculum" emerges incidentally from the interactions between the students and the physical.  For instance the building of social/ communication skills. 

3. Extracurricular or Cocurriculum--student activities, sports, clubs, students government, and the school newspaper. Encourages student self-esteem, and civic participation, improves race relations, and raises children's aspirations. 

Curricula throughout the nation are undergoing scrutiny and a major theme that I studied in depth was multiculturalism, and how to integrate it throughout the school.  "Global Education" investigates world topics that span national borders including conflict reduction and ecology. Global education is a growing curricular phenomenon.  Websites now available to students focus on international issues form child labor and animal migration to confronting intolerance and racism.  

Next focusing on technology was a important part of the learning process in this course.  Many new methods in education include the use of technology to enhance collaboration and communication in a world of gadgetry. Students are constantly ingrained in some sort of social networking, and finding ways to incorporate these tool in the education process should be a priority. Web 2.0 has many features; here are some:

                Web 2.0=

Student centered learning/ multi-sensory stimulation/ multi-path progression/ multi-media/ collaborative work/ information exchange/

Active/ exploratory/ inquiry based, critical thinking/ proactive/ planned/ authentic / real world/ 

Information=created --shared-- remixed-- repurposed-- repurposed--passed along. 

Vocabulary = images, video, multimedia, music, visual. 

Theses concepts were put to work on the "School of the Future" project, which I enjoyed tremendously.  There motto was "Infuse Technology anywhere, anytime." The school of the future project even insisted on integrating technology into the fabric of community life. Adult education programs, training courses, and community involvement to relay the importance a school has on the community. 

Change --The Slogan of the Century

For the last part of my dynamic summary of Nature of schools I will talk about change.  Again using Ken Robinson's video "Changing Paradigms"as a reference our present century will undergo the biggest changes in the history of civilization.  Many schools are not keeping up with public demands.  When change becomes necessary here's a way to implement your plan:

--Identify what it is in your control to change.

--Identify your options

--create a support system

--examine your attitude.

--Remain flexible

--give your self a break (for a little bit!)

--strive to achieve balance & perspective. 

The hardest thing to change is the hardening of attitudes. Take advice and don't take a setback personal. Confidence comes from conquering "fear of change."  Here are some more things to keep in mind.  We must convince ourselves to change from:

Being Closed    to  Being Open

Denying Feelings to Expressing Feelings

Being Defensive to Accepting Feedback

Convention  to Experimentation

Being Suspicious to Trusting others

Being Guarded to Being Spontaneous

Avoiding Conflict to Facing Conflict

Being Rigid to Being Flexible/ Sincere/ self-aware. 

Change is permeating every aspect of our society.  So what kind of challenges are we facing? What kinds of students are we teaching? Ladies and gentlemen, they are not the same today as when we grew up.  We have entered the "Knowledge Age."  

1. Every two -- three years our knowledge base doubles!

2. High-Schoolers have been exposed to more information than their grandparents have been in a lifetime!

3. More change is expected in the next 3 decades than in the last 3 centuries!

So what do our students need to be able to do?  Preparing them for a changing world requires that they are adaptable and able to handle information in an effective manner. 

They need to be able to speak well, write well, analyze. With information they should be able to validate, synthesize, gain leverage, communicate, and collaborate. Having our students familiarize themselves with technology to do these things will be important.