For the past week, social media has been buzzing with a 90-second video of Jeff Bliss, a Texas high school sophomore, giving his World History teacher a piece of his mind about the endless packets and worksheets, and what he feels is lacking from his teacher. Not surprisingly, the video has sparked a fresh round of teacher-bashing.
For my part, I feel lucky that I have the freedom to be a lot like the kind of teacher that Jeff Bliss is calling for. Continue reading
00When children play “school,” usually one child is the “teacher” and the others are the “students.” The “lesson” in these games is almost always based on low-level recall of facts or mastery of a one-step skill or process. The idea is pervasive in our culture. Many adults conjure up the same images in their minds when they think of schools. This probably has a lot to do with why so many of the career-changers of the 1990s and early 2000s were so unsuccessful in the classroom. It probably also has a lot to do with why many educational policies are doing such a spectacular job of failing to bring about the promised improvements. Continue reading
00Back in 1993, the National Council of Math Teachers (NCTM) published standards that changed the way math was taught in schools. The “reform math” movement, as it has come to be called, called for more problem-solving and understanding of why mathematical operations work the way they do, and less “drill and kill” practicing of low-level skills.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
00Most people have a mental image of what happens when a teacher is absent and a substitute teacher needs to cover the class. The typical mental image includes the substitute trying desperately to implement the teacher’s simple, iron-clad lesson plan over the protests of the students, who are trying desperately to avoid having to do any work. This, however, is not one of those situations.
+20When I give tests/exams to my physics students, the tests are usually comprised of problems that range from straightforward to a little challenging to very challenging. I let them use their notes, textbooks, old homework assignments, and anything else on paper (except for questions and answers that are specific to the test). If they get stuck, I help them get unstuck during the test. It does lead to a high percentage of high grades, but the trade-off is that students make a lot of mental connections during the test, which means the test itself is contributing to their learning, as long as they actually do the work themselves.
00On Saturday morning I found myself in a classroom at a local charter school (grades 5-8), and the motivational sign on the classroom wall contained the following quote:
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.
—first published by Dan Montano in 1985 in The Economist
+10I thought the people who read my blog might enjoy the message I sent to my students over Christmas Vacation.
+30I’m the son of a piano teacher who made it her life’s work to build children’s self-image and give them the tools to have wonderful lives, using piano as the medium. Much of what makes me a popular (and effective) teacher came from my mom. Not surprisingly, I’m a strong supporter of the music program at my school. I sometimes bring my 5-string hybrid violin/viola to school and play with the kids at string ensemble rehearsals. On Thursday evening, I attended their winter concert, some of which they repeated in an assembly during school Friday morning.
+10Lockdown drills are the modern-day equivalent of the air raid drills I got to practice when I was in elementary school. Both gave parents the peace of mind that comes from knowing that even when the unthinkable happens, our school has a plan. Granted, the likelihood of the plan being useful is relatively small, but we have a plan and we practice it regularly.
+20I’m finally getting around to grading the 5-second timer labs my students did earlier this quarter. One of my students’ timers was a ceramic bowl with an amount of men’s cologne that burned for 5 seconds.
Unbeknownst to me until I read his lab report, he gives the following list of data as he was researching the experiment:
Anyone who thinks research & development is not interesting should talk to this student.
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