Teaching, learning, and life

Buying All That Stuff

2011-08-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, for my next rant I am going to continue my issues about shopping. As mentioned, I am not a shopper and that statement applies now more than ever. I guess this is typical as a person gets older but shopping for me is really becoming a chore. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that at least 98% of what there is to buy at any given time is unwanted, unnecessary, and hideously ugly.
At the top of my list is clothing. What are store owners, buyers, and designers thinking? Most clothing that is for sale is either colorless, shapeless, and looks like it has been worn since the 1930’s or the retro look that comes from the late 1960’s. What is the deal with so much in white, black, gray, or brown? Or the alternative, purple, orange, and lime green in a nauseating paisley print? (Hey designers! Big hint: the 60’s look was bad the first time around; the repeat is worse.) Then there is the rather interesting idea that the more holes a pair of jeans have, the more they cost. Also, the thinner and cheaper the fabric on a shirt, the more it costs. Now I know there are people who are buying this stuff because I see them wearing it. It makes me wonder if they own a mirror. I am convinced that clothing designers are deliberately putting the worst clothes out there they can come up with just to get a big laugh when they earn a million dollars from it.
Next is furniture. The same principles apply to furniture as to clothing. You have your choice of either a huge lump of oatmeal sitting in your living room or something that makes the dog hurl every morning he wakes up. There is very little in between. And all for a price that makes me hurl. I read in the newspaper a few years ago that R.C. Willey is the biggest financial institution in the state of Utah. Really? I can’t imagine that is true today. Are people really buying that stuff? My neighbor has a living room set that she says is 23 years old. She wants a new one, but she can’t stand the junk that is out there to buy. My sister has a couch that is about 21 years old with holes in it that she covers with a blanket. She has the money to buy new furniture but she says the worn out stuff is still better than what she sees in the stores. From what I have seen, I agree.
Then there is the imported home décor stores. Cheap prices and very cheap goods. I have a certain relative who gets off on this stuff and what I want to know is why most of what she brings home looks like funeral urns. They are supposed to be vases, decorative containers, or decanters, but I just know they are really used for ashes. It makes me wonder who is in them. But I went to the store where she buys all these – containers – and they all look like urns. It was one of the more bizarre experiences I have had: walking down rows and rows of urns. Plastic, ceramic, glass, and, the best one, one that looks like a mirror mosaic. And this stuff is selling. Ask any newlywed couple what they got for wedding gifts: cheap home décor. And again I ask, what are people thinking?
I suppose that manufacturers must sell what is new and in order to come up with something “new” they resort to the butt-ugly and the bizarre. And yes, I know that people buying is what fuels the economy. But really it is just stuff. Previous to the economic melt-down of 2009, we all bought stuff; not because we needed it or even that we truly wanted it. We bought because we could. And now our houses are full of stuff – over-full. We have basements and garages full of just stuff we don’t need or even want. We keep it because we paid money for it.
As for myself, I’ve stopped buying. I no longer buy things just to have something new, or just because I can. I buy only what is needed. Now I just have to figure out how to get rid of all the stuff in my basement.

Shopping for stuff

2011-07-31T21:27:00.000-07:00

A Trip to the Mall

2011-07-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

Can I describe my recent trip to the mall? Now understand I am an unusual female in that I am not much of a shopper. I look at shopping as a chore; something I have to do, not want to do. I want to get in, get it done and get out with a minimum of hassle, fuss, or boredom. Yes, boredom. I find most shopping boring. There are very few stores or items in a store that I get excited about. About once every decade or so, I find a store that peaks my interest. The rest are boring.
So my daughter and I walk into Southtowne Mall last week because I have to get something for my sister’s birthday. I haven’t been in a mall for at least five months. We start walking down the concourse trying to get past the kiosks that run down the middle. As we approach the first one, I warily eye the good looking young man wondering what it is going to take to get past him. I have no idea what they are selling and I don’t care.
“Would you like to try some…” (whatever it was), he asks.
“No thank you, I’m not interested,” I firmly answer.
“Could I ask you a question?” he says as he starts to walk toward me.
Keep walking, I tell myself, or you are dead. “No, I am busy.”
He comes nearer, too near. I fix my most evil eye on him, which causes him to realize that if he doesn’t leave me alone, I am going to resort to violence. So he backs off. I then turn my head forward only to nearly slam into the next kiosk salesperson.
“Would you like to try some…?” a young girl asks.
“No thank you, I’m not interested,” I firmly answer.
“Could I ask you a question?” she says as she starts to walk toward me.
“No, you cannot.” Keep walking, just keep walking.
Repeat, ad nauseam.
I soon learn not to look at them and if they say something, pretend to be deaf. I find myself walking faster and faster to get away from them. I see the store I want to get to and it becomes a goal to get there without undue violence. I finally get to the store and feel like collapsing as though I just finished a marathon.
When it came time to leave the store, I found myself peeking out around clothes racks, charting my escape route. I made several feints to get the ambushing kiosk clerks to just think I was going to leave the protection of the store, only to melt back into the clearance section. Ha ha, fooled you! I actually thought about using the back shipping door.
You know, I can’t imagine why that mall was mostly empty of customers. What on earth are mall managers thinking? Is it their intent to anger what few customers they get? Why not move to tripping, tackling, and obstacle courses? Just employ a few gang members and let them do the selling. Anybody else feel this way?

The Price of a Dog

2010-11-02T18:54:00.000-07:00

I have this dog. Her name is Maddie and she is a weimapeak. A weimapeak is the deliberate cross of a weimariner and a Chesapeake Bay retriever. I know this strikes horror in the hearts of the purists who think dog breeds should be only what the AKC says they are, but this dog is amazing. Weimariners are highly intelligent, skittish, and nervous. Chessies are intelligent, stubborn, and willful. This dog is the best of two worlds. She is intelligent enough that I’m glad she doesn’t have an opposable thumb or the ability to talk – she might surpass me! She learns faster than any living thing I’ve been around. She actually does try to talk, but it sounds like the monster in Young Frankenstein. She has a lot of energy – she is only 16 months old – and wants to work and play. Her loyalty to our family is unsurpassed. She is sensitive to our moods, our commands, just about everything. She is a beautiful dog and looks like a reddish brown weimariner . She is tall, sleek, and has golden eyes.

Being a responsible dog owner, I recently took her to be spayed. There isn’t another weimapeak in this state that she is not related to and I am told that because of the hybrid, the puppies of two weimapeaks are inconsistent. Besides, a dog in heat is not a whole lot of fun. So we got some good recommendations and took her to the vet to be spayed. We almost lost her. We picked her up and she was bleeding from the mouth and nose by the time we got home. After 90 minutes of this we took her back in to the vet. She was in pain and miserable. The vet quickly started injecting her with pain killers, steroids, antibiotics, and a sedative. I could not keep the tears from my eyes watching her trembling with pain, her head and tail down and flat. The vet said she had a reaction to the anesthesia and upchucked so badly that it tore her esophagus. I was not impressed when the vet mentioned that she thought Maddie was a chocolate lab. A vet should easily be able to tell the difference. We stayed up with her all night.

The next day, she slowly came around. I noticed the incision had been stitched, despite the fact that I had asked for it to be surgically stapled; staples hold better and she is an active dog. She continued to improve but three days later, there was blood on the floor; her incision had broken open. It was 11:00 P.M. so we took her to the 24-hour emergency vet hospital. I have never seen a dog so scared. She couldn’t have anesthesia again so four of us held her down while the vet stapled her up. Now she is on stronger antibiotics and has a huge “lampshade” collar. I also have put her on an anti-anxiety medication until this ordeal is over.

Is she worth it? Yes, a thousand times, yes. She is bouncing back well although I may not have any paint left on my walls by the time we get done with the lampshade collar. Spaying and neutering are no-brainers, but be sure to get a vet who can do the job right. Breed does matter when it comes to health care. I believe the vet did think she was a lab, which is a sturdier dog, needing more anesthesia than Maddie. Maddie got an overdose of anesthesia. She still coughs, but is back to her old antics of teasing my cats, begging for treats, and trying to talk. She is tired of the lampshade, but still looks at us with complete trust in those golden eyes.

What's a voter to do?

2010-10-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else feel like American politics are a mess? When I think about who I want to vote for, I find myself searching for the lesser of two evils. Or sometimes for the most ineffective politician in order to minimize the damage.

Take the Utah race for govenor, for instance. The incumbent, Gary Herbert, is an alright guy - I've even met him and talked with him. But he is mired in a scandal where he was given $82,000 dollars for his election campaign by the same construction company who then got a $1.7 billion dollar reconstruction contract for I-15 in Utah county. Then - get this - the folks who came in second in the bid process for that same job got $13 million - for coming in second??? Gee, I'd like to make a living coming in second for that kind of scratch. Sounds like hush money to me.

The pathetic thing is that it took a reporter in a news conference to tell him about the $13 million - or so he claims. So he can take his choice of either being corrupt if he did know or an idiot for not knowing. Not to mention the fact that another reporter brought the original issue of the $1.7 billion contract to light in the first place.

The Democratic challenger is Pete Corroon. Once again, an alright guy who has done well as county mayor. But how does one vote for a Democrat this year? With Obama set to win the all-time race for squandering political capital, no one wants to vote for a Democrat - not even the Democrats!

Then there is the Senate race. We have a choice of Mike Lee, an idealogue that makes a John Bircher look like a liberal, or no-show Sam Granato who paid his filing fee then disappeared from public view. The thing that I find hilarious is that when a survey was taken between these two and Bob Bennett running as an independent, Lee and Bennett are about even. I think that Utah Republicans threw the baby out with the bath water when they refused to give Bennett the nomination.

I saw a political sign hanging on a fence today that really shows how some people try to take advantage of the public's political ignorance. It is black with white lettering that says "Matheson = Pelosi." Seriously folks? Don't be taken in by this. Look at Matheson's voting record. He votes with the Republicans more than he votes with the Democrats - he is called a Blue Dog Democrat. To those who are responsible for this sign, you know this is true. Yet, in a shameless attempt to turn American government into a game show, you exploit and lie for your own advantage. Outside of her own district, Pelosi may be the most hated woman in America, and for good reason.

Politicians really don't see their actions from the point of view of the voters. Elections are a game to them. They want to win to further their own power base; not to serve, not to uphold this country, not to see that the Constitution is followed.

So what's a voter to do? Become informed. Now when I say informed, I am NOT saying to listen to what any politician says. Are you kidding? Listening to a politician is like reading the National Enquirer - vaguely entertaining but far from the truth. Being informed is taking a hard look at what they have DONE in the past - not what they have said. Look at what they have actually voted for and against. Look at their experience. What have they supported in the past by action, not by what they flap their mouths over. If Americans would have done this two years ago, we wouldn't be in this mess now.

Done with grad school

2010-09-30T20:38:00.000-07:00

At last, I've finished grad school! I have the M.Ed. after much toil and effort and MONEY. From here on out, I would like to turn the topic of this blog away from educational theories and towards anything that happens to spill out of my brain.

But I will be writing frequently about my students. I won't be giving too many details or names in order to protect their identities - but my students are a big part of my life. I come to care for them deeply.

I also will be making plenty of social commentary, trashing on politicians (I dislike politicians in general and that is quite a statement coming from a U.S. History teacher), and a dozen other topics. Enjoy!

Overview - Extra credit

2009-12-02T08:34:00.000-08:00

I have learned a lot in this class this semester. I've learned new ways of thinking about what I've been doing for years - teaching teenagers. Some of what I've learned has been new, some has been extensions of what I already knew, some has been a verification of what I've been doing for years by instinct. I've been grateful to learn that some of what I've done in the classroom is validated by those who are at the top of the field of education. I've also been grateful to be able to add extensions and finesse to some things I've been doing half-way. And it has been so good for me to get an in-your-face idea that never occurred me before.

So what is learning? The behaviorist in me says it is all about changing behavior; measurable, easy to see behavior. Skinner doesn't want to deal with what goes on in the mind itself - I'm not sure I want to deal with what goes on in the teenage mind either. But is this a cop-out? Maybe. I've got a kid right now for whom I am writing letters of recommendation to colleges. I taught him as a sophomore and as a junior. He is one of those students I've gotten to know well. To look at what is easily observable about him would lead one to think there is not much going on between the ears. Yet he is utterly amazing. He is the most intuitive learner I've ever known. He just absorbs information and it becomes part of him. He never forgets it either. He is quiet, shy, a little nervous, likes the skinny pants that only reach the top of his legs, big T-shirts, and long hair. And I've watched him focus laser-like attention on certain things for long periods of time resulting in innovative, creative, superior conclusions and solutions.

He has no idea how his own mind works and I doubt any one theory can fully explain it. I don't think any one theory is the ultimate and final theory for learning and education. Because of the uniqueness of every human mind, the complexity of the mind, no one theory can explain it all. I don't think the theorists are pretending their theory is ultimate answer to all education. But each theory adds one more layer towards true understanding and that is where their actual value lays.

This points out how important it is that teachers use a variety of teaching methods, incorporating many different theories. The use of all these theories we have studied for different parts of a teacher's curriculum is vital if we are going to reach every student. And perhaps we won't ever reach every student who walks in our door. But we have to try. Knowing that we will fail with some students doesn't excuse anything. We have to try. And be grateful that every student will have many teachers in their life. We teachers are just as human as our students and we carry with us all our issues, weaknesses, biases, foibles, and errors. Hopefully we know enough about ourselves to address these weakness.

In the end, I come back to the advice Mr. Jessop told me as a student teacher: we teachers do not just teach the students what we know; we teach them who we are. That is unavoidable. If we love our work, love our subject, love being with those kids with the blank stares, long hair, skinny pants that don't fit, and over-sized T-shirts, those kids are the first to know it. And even if they can't or don't learn a thing about history or biology or whatever in our class, they will know that a teacher thought they were worth caring about. It's an overwhelming idea.

Social Constructivism

2009-11-24T09:09:00.000-08:00

Isn't it amazing that in so many of our readings, the authors give voice to what common sense, teaching experience, instinct, and basic knowlege of the educational process has already told us? While I read, I keep thinking, "Well, of course." But the authors, and often Brian in his podcasts, put into concrete words and bring into focus nebulous ideas that have been floating around in my head for years. I know what I teach, but now I know WHY I teach it the way I do. Some of the ideas in this week's readings sort of lend authority to what we all do by experience and instinct. Scaffolding can be as simple as asking a harder follow-up question leading the student from what he or she knows to what he/she doesn't know, but can know with a little bit of direction.

The idea of Zone of Proximal Development is the idea of starting where they are at and going from there. That is not an easy thing to do especially on the high school level where the students are scattered from pre-operational to formal operations, but is never-the-less extremely important. How can a student start far beyond their own level? In high school, the only result a teacher gets from that is students melting onto their desks followed by deep breathing, drool on desks, and snoring.

Of course, I can't let a blog go by without complaining about the biggest obstacle I have to being a better teacher: class size. How do we cover classes of 40 to 45 students per class? How do we get a Zone of Proximal Development for all our students without spending hours upon hours just getting that one thing? How do we tailor our lessons to what our students need when it is a challenge just to get all their names memorized? It drives me crazy. I don't see an answer to this anywhere from anyone. I hate the fact that I have to aim my lessons toward what I hope is the mid-range of all my students, guessing and hoping that a majority will gain something from what I am teaching. It doesn't help that our administration is telling us that we will have 50 students a class next year. I'm going to have to hang them from the lights just to fit them in the room.

Bruner

2009-11-18T08:17:00.000-08:00

I have to write my experience with this reading. I had to go to a "training session" for a large upcoming community event that involves a silent auction that raises a great deal of money. I am one of the people who helps with this auction by being an auctioneer of sorts. I've done this now for about 7 years and I know the procedures very well. But I still am required to go to this training. So I took my Bruner readings to the training session in an attempt to use valuable time productively. I settled into a large room with many others, all adults, and began reading as the trainer went through a Power Point and taught the procedures for this auction. I mostly tuned out the trainer and focused on my readings, but would occasionally look up just for some basic awareness.

The training was not going well. People were deeply confused. Now the trainer apparently was not a trained teacher (at least I hope not!). I began to contrast what the trainer was doing and what Bruner had written and could not help but notice that the trainer was violating every principle Bruner promoted. There was no attempt to predispose the audience to learn, no structure that I could find, the sequencing was disastrous with the trainer going back and forth, and the only intrinsic reward was the hope of avoiding looking like a fool. There was no enactive or iconic representations, even in the Power Point, only symbolic. The training should have lasted about 20 minutes but went on for about 75 minutes, because of no economy whatsoever.

I don't mean to pick on this trainer, but the contrast was remarkable. Now Bruner himself says that we really can't learn something well by showing what it is not. But I could not help but notice that good teaching is a rare thing outside of school. I also have no doubt I will be doing a great deal of on-the-spot training during this auction.

Another point I want to bring up out of the Bruner readings is the idea of vertical teaming in relation to the sequencing of our curriculum, the stages of enaction, iconic, and symbolic, and the interface of Piaget's stages of development. Vertical teaming is the idea that every high school department meets with the corresponding department of every middle school and elementary school that feeds into that high school. Imagine what could be the result if this could happen on a regular basis with every teacher understanding Bruner's and Piaget's ideas. One of the things high school teachers deal with is that we can't always teach on a high school level because the kids aren't always thinking on the high school level. Could vertical teaming change this? I don't know but I would like to try it.

Another point I really liked in Bruner is the idea that, "giving the material to them [students] in terms they understand... turns out to involve knowing the mathematics oneself, and the better one knows it, the better it can be taught." Amen and Amen. And this applies to every subject. No one can teach what they do not know and know very well. And, I would add, knowing how to teach what they know. Knowledge of subject is essential; knowledge of how to teach that subject is just as essential.

Situated Cognition

2009-11-10T10:15:00.000-08:00

Learning is doing and doing is learning. I have always questioned the idea that we take kids during their highest energy levels and stick them in desks for eight hours a day and then expect them to sit still and listen. Sounds like a recipe for failure doesn't it? But I have never found an alternative for where I have ever taught that works. Between overloaded, huge classes, poor funding, and the lack of support, nothing of this type is actually working. I do not doubt the theory because I have seen it work for me and many others, e.g.-student teaching.

We have had community based internships, school-to-work coordinators, and many apprenticeship-like programs for years in the schools. Very, very few students ever participate. I am sure there are many reasons why, but the answer I get most often is that the students have no idea what area they would do an internship in. Despite continual career classes and emphasis, (most of which is a waste of time when done previous to high school) most kids graduate with little or no idea of what they are going to be "when they grow up." Think of this: how many times did you change your major when you were in college? Some of the ones that do have some idea, pick fields they are unsuited for. I have a 12th grade student aide right now who says she is going to be an opthalmologist. She has a terrible time with math, biology, and chemistry. She is actually behind her peers in terms of the level of classes she is taking in each of those subjects. Her grades are very mediocre. No one wants to discourage her so no one says a word about it.

As a teacher I am constantly struggling with how I bring history to life. No teacher wants a time travel machine more than I do. We do a lot of historical research. I hope that is hands on and I try to spend enough time with each individual student to know what will actually matter to them. For example, I had a student who was Latino and very much into her culture. For a research paper I suggested doing a paper on the 212th Coastal Artillery in World War II. This regiment came from New Mexico and was predominantly Hispanic. They were sent to the Philippine Island where they were surrendered and they became prisoners of war with a terrible loss of life. But I fear that is more following her interests rather than actual situated learning.

I have no doubt that situated cognition is vitally important to learning. I hope to learn more as I read other people's lesson plans and gain some ideas.

Teaching and storytelling

2009-11-03T20:35:00.000-08:00

At last!! I've found a respected educational researcher who verifies what I've thought and done for years. Roger Schank is so controversial yet I find myself in agreement with him much of the time. Now remember, I am a history and English teacher. I've taught several other subjects - math, health, P.E., and a host of others, but principally, history and English.

I am a storyteller. I say that to my students at the start of every year. The literature aspect of English is a no-brainer in terms of storytelling. But think about the word history - HIS - STORY. Now excusing the gender bias, history is the story of mankind meeting human needs and wants. I tell my students that history is not dates or even names or places. History is stories that happen to be true (hopefully). The dates, names and places come automatically if the story is interesting enough. Making it interesting enough is my job. I can't show history as it happens like a chemistry lab; I can't take these kids to the places history happened. There are simulations, most of which are a waste of time. All I can do is tell the story in the right way, using technology such as films, websites, and the Internet to help.

Every great teacher uses stories. Aesop, Confucius, Buddha, Christ, Plato, as well as some of the readings we have been doing such as Piaget. In fact, without the stories, Piaget would be very difficult to understand. (And after reading this week's readings I now understand Brian when he says that for Piaget, things get lost in translation. A master's in French - my hat's off to you.)Everyone loves a good story and storytelling has been the means of education since humans learned language.

This brings me, at last, to the second key to teaching that my mentor, Willard Jessop, taught me. (I told the first key in my first blog entry.) He was one of the greatest teachers this state has ever seen. He told me, "Lorna, to be a good teacher, you have to be at least half an actor. Every time you stand up to teach, it somewhat of a performance. And it has to be a good performance. Your students have to come to believe you and trust you." I believe this is true and I've worked for years to become a good classroom actor. When I tell a story, I am dramatic, I use strong words, I express emotion. If I am talking about someone in history who did something stupid, I express dismay, disappointment, and anger. On the other I hand, I cheer the successes and achievements.

Don't think I am like this by nature; I'm not, but I have remembered Mr. Jessop and worked to be that actor. I have often wondered what my own kids would think of me if they saw me teach because I am a different person in the classroom. But I have no trouble holding my students' attention. My biggest problem is keeping up the energy to do this.

Learning and motivation

2009-10-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

This week's reading is the best we have done. I think these readings strike at the heart of one of the worst problems in education: why won't a student ask for help? And why is it that the students who need help the most are the least likely to ask for it? Every experienced teacher knows this is true, and most have guessed the reason why. This research confirms what most teachers instinctively feel. We feel this way because we, ourselves, have been there. How often for this very class do we e-mail Brian and Jordan privately for fear that we will appear stupid to the rest of the class? I do and I will admit that I do. And some of my questions are, indeed, idiotic. (Brian and Jordan could confirm this but they are too polite to do so:>)

But here is where we differ from our students: we have graduated from college at least once and have been admitted to grad school so we know we have at least some level of intellectual ability. Imagine being a young student who comes to your class with perhaps some bad grades and bad experiences from prior years in school, something that, I would guess, few, if any of us, have gone through. They have no confidence in their ability to learn anything well. And we wonder why they won't ask questions? Perhaps the student is an English language learner or has been in a resource class or they've been told they are not too bright. Naturally, they fear appearing stupid to not only the class, but to the teacher as well.

I had a big football player in my class a couple of years ago who rarely came to class. But every time he came he would tell me that he was going start coming every day - and never did. He failed one term and was on his way to failing another when I cornered him and told him how badly we needed him on the team. And if he failed, he wouldn't be on the team. Our conversation went as follows: (abbreviated)
Me: Where are you during class? Where do you go?
T: Home.
Me: What do you do there?
T: Sleep
Me: Why? Do you need that much sleep? Are you not getting sleep at night?
T: I get a lot of sleep at night. I guess I'm just lazy.
Me: No you aren't. Lazy has got nothing to do with it. Look at how you workout with the team. Look at how you have shaped your own body into prime condition. You aren't lazy. You've worked your head off.

He stared at me with his mouth open, shocked I would notice.
Me: Your problem is that you've had bad experiences in the past with school. You're afraid you're going to fail so you don't try. If you don't try, then it's not really a failure, is it? You never ask for help, you never do the assignments, and some of the time you don't even bother to show up. Why? Because if you avoid trying, then you don't have to take the fall for failing.
T: How do you know all this? (said in a hushed tone like I had uncovered the greatest secret in the world.)
Me: Do you have any idea how many students I've taught?

He followed me down the hall, all the way into the cafeteria asking me how I knew this and staring at me like I was from Mars. I got very lucky with this one. He did a total turnaround and got B's the rest of the year. He didn't dare miss class again.

The one and only reason this worked is that I knew this kid, I knew what was important to him, and I showed that I cared about him as an individual. But while I was caring for this one kid, five, maybe ten others slipped away from me because I can't get to that level with some 230 students. I try to create a positive, supportive environment for these kids as a group. But that isn't enough for some students. They need the personal touch to turn from performance and social goals to mastery goals.

What else can a teacher do? First, be competent in what they teach; they should know a lot about their subject, breadth and depth. That way they become examples of competence. Second, teachers should continually connect the learning to current every day life so students know why they need to know this or that. Point out the pitfalls of not knowing. I like to put "Hollyweird" celebrities up as cases of not knowing. How tough is it to pick on Brittney Spears or the like? Third, teachers can carefully point out every student's ability in some area if they can get to know their students.

If teachers feel like they have to be nearly everything to every student - well, welcome to teaching.

Human development and learning

2009-10-13T18:27:00.000-07:00

I had a friend years ago who used to tell me, "No matter where you go, there you are." At the time I thought this was the dumbest statement I'd ever heard. He would say that and I would think, "Duh." Now I realize that I wasn't understanding what he was trying to say.

Many of us want to put the stages of human development into nice, neat age ranges and never think about those that may not fit into those ranges. We don't want to think that a high school student may be in the concrete stage or even in a pre-operational stage. The opposite is also true: we don't want to think that one of our students could be seven years old and fully in the formal operations with full abstract thought processes.

Yet for learning to happen, the student must be initially addressed in the stage where they are at; the idea that no matter where you go, there you are. As was mentioned in the reading, we don't teach calculus to pre-operational students because they don't have the capacity to understand.

Teachers should begin in the stage where the students are at; then they have the responsibility to help them move to the next stage of thinking. The difficulty comes in knowing the students well enough to do this. I know that I am frustrated with the inability to get to know my students until well into the year because of the numbers I have in my classroom. With 40 plus students per class, I am lucky to get all their names down by the end of 1st term.

Technology can help. The Jordan School District recently went to the Skyward system. We have the ability to look at the student's test scores on our own computer. Now I realize this isn't going to tell me what operational stage my student is in, but if I see consistent low test scores, I can watch for specific problems with that student. I need to assume that many of my students are in the concrete operations stage and help them to move to the formal operations stage.

I agree with Brian that something is lost in translation with the theories of Piaget. I truly understand his theories only when I read the examples he gives. Then I see the accuracy and the genius of his human development ideas.

Schema learning theory

2009-09-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, if I understand this correctly, this week's reading is all about making new knowledge connect with prior knowledge and memory. I think that every student realizes that attaching new learning to prior leaning makes everything easier. One of the great rewards of being a teacher is when we see "the light come on" in our student's faces. Often, that light comes on when the student makes the connection and integrates new information with old. "Oh, I get it," is what comes out of their mouths.

But I also think schema theory also goes further and deals with the framework people build in their minds to access, retrieve, and add to what they know. Indeed, knowledge should never be just a "basket of facts", as Anderson puts it, but an interconnected web where facts are all connected. I am convinced that the m0re connections that are there, the better access, the better retrieval happens. I will even go so far as to say that the better the connections, the more intelligent the person appears.

I also like Andersons ideas in strong schema theory and weak schema theory. I can't help but wonder if a strong schema theory that Anderson says is based on "principles extracted from experience" leads to black and white thinking with no allowances for all the shades of gray. He seems to prefer the weak schema (and so do I) that allows us to "...accomodate ...arbitrary realities..." that characterize real life. His examples of what utensil to use for what kind of food are almost humorous and point out that sometimes we have to adjust to the circumstance.

After reading Anderson, I am determined to do a better job of connecting new knowledge to prior learning and teaching my students not only what I want them to learn, but HOW to learn it and retain it better by making connections. Teaching students how to learn is another one of the great keys to unlock these kids' brains.

Week 5 Meaningful learning

2009-09-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

When I reeled off 24 pages of print for the Novak reading alone, I was discouraged. I thought I would never truly comprehend that much academic writing and I wasn't sure I wanted to. I was wrong. It is really quite fascinating. I'm not claiming bragging rights for understanding every single word, but by and large, it validates what years of teaching experience and being a parent has taught me. It's very nice to see these ideas in print, written by someone with greater education than myself.

To answer the question, "What is learning?" I would paraphrase that to "What is meaningful learning?" There is no question that for learning to be meaningful, it has to be connected to prior learning. I have often told my students that education is like a big staircase: it builds on itself. I specifically use this idea when I am teaching English and I have to teach grammar. Even though it is high school grammar, I start with nouns, as though the student has never been taught any grammar at all. Of course I am painfully aware that grammar is not the most interesting subject in the world. So I try to take it one step at a time and build on prior learning. (It helps to have a set of worksheets written by one of the most talented and intelligent teachers I have ever known.)

The idea of concept maps is vital to meaningful learning. They create a framework to hang knowledge on, and organize it in a coherent manner. I'm going to get a little personal here to illustrate what I mean. I have a son who is not a typical learner. He is enormously intelligent. All the tests and teachers use the words like gifted, talented, advanced, etc. But he didn't come with the ability to organize his abilities or any kind of a framework. One teacher called his brain "random and abstract", and "low-achieving gifted". (How's that for an oxymoron?) Now this is a kid who by the 6th grade, took over teaching the math curriculum for the rest of his class.

I had to work intensively with him, first to understand how he thought, then to create a framework, a concept map, so that he could access his native intelligence. He would be presented with a problem or focus question. Then he would come up with the answer, but I had no idea how he got that answer, and usually, neither did he. Sometimes he couldn't replicate it. So we would draw out a concept map, charting the path from question to answer, tying the new knowledge to prior learning. Really, he always came up with the answer by extending and extrapolating his prior knowledge, but sometimes the jump from old to new was so big, neither he nor I could quite figure it out until we did a concept map. Just so you know, he is now 22, studying to become a CPA, and doing very well. But once in a while, I still will have to remind him to organize his thinking. He has had to learn about how he learns (and doesn't learn) which is a form of metacognition.

What this, and Novak, taught me is that people can be very intelligent, but if they can't organize the intelligence (concept mapping), make connections to prior learning (subsumption), classify the learning into groups (superordinate learning), and compare and contrast what is the same and what is different (integrative reconciliation), they can't access what they do know and meaningful learning becomes difficult. I tell my students that even the human brain needs a search engine.

I also like Novak's ideas about the student choosing to learn. His statement "...only the learner can choose to learn meaningfully ..." (p. 557) is so true. Every teacher in the world is nodding a big "YES" to that statement. As the saying goes, you can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

However, the teacher can sweeten the water and make it more attractive for the "horse" to drink. How can learning best be effectuated by the teacher? To a degree, make the learning more attractive. Connect it to every day living. Explain why they need this knowledge. Make it relevant. I know this isn't always easy, but in my fields, history and English, I usually can do this.

For those who struggle, help them with their cognitive skills. Do the concept maps with the students, either individually or as a class. Make it an assignment with the map drawn out, but filled in by the students. It is definitely easier said than done, especially with time limitations and our 40+ kids a class, but worth it. If we can give our students the keys to their own brains, we make their lives infinitely better.

Positive Behavior Support and FBA -Week 3

2009-09-08T22:05:00.000-07:00

I like the title: Positive Behavior Support. I like the idea of teachers supporting positive behavior. I have often told new teachers that if they don't have a certain level of student behavior in the classroom, they don't have anything. In Utah, with our 40+ students per class, it only takes a couple of misbehaved students to turn the class into chaos. Then learning is destroyed, everyone leaves frustrated, and the teacher hates teaching. I'm not saying that the class should be perectly silent all the time; that's not conducive to teaching either. But the teacher needs to be the one in control of the class.

Learning is not only learning the content as listed in our lesson plan; learning is also about learning the behaviors that will allow optimal content learning. Every successful student has to learn social behavior such as learning to get along with people, taking turns, and basic kindness. Socialization is one of the primary tasks of the school. Students also must learn good classroom behavior such as not interrupting, respect for the teacher, and doing one's own work.

All of this seems like no-brainer observations, but I am amazed at how many high school students either don't know these basic ideas or refuse to learn them. I typically spend much of the first three weeks of school just training the students in basic classroom behavior. The ironic thing is that most teachers do the same.

This is where teachers need to use PBS and FBA. For chronically misbehaved students, the collaboration level of the FBA may be the only thing that will work. There is no question that poor behavior in students is more common and more severe than in the past. I do not teach Special Education of any type, but every year I have several students who are ADHD, bi-polar, or chronically depressed, and sometimes all three. If we as teachers hope to deal with these issues, a plan must be in place. The plan must include the observations of every teacher, the administrator, the counselor, and perhaps a special education teacher. Triggering antecedents must be indentified, and a plan of acceptable and alternative behavior adopted, and implemented.

In my experience, once the student realizes that all of his or her teachers are working together as a team, the student comes to realize that his or her poor behavior is simply unacceptable and will not be tolerated. However, the risk for high school students is the possibility of the student dropping out, hence, the need for, literally, positive behavior support. Behavioral correction should be done positively and firmly with the idea that at some point, the student will chose the rewards of acting approriately over the punishments of misbehaving.

Behaviorism in learning and teaching

2009-09-01T20:49:00.000-07:00

I am a product of the theories of B.F. Skinner. I graduated in psychology in 1981 and was thoroughly drilled in Behaviorism. I remember the "rat lab" where we were given a white lab rat and had to teach them to swing on a trapeze, spin in circles, and push a lever to get some food. I liked my rat until it bit me.

I liked Behaviorism and still do. It makes sense to me. I like the idea of observable, measurable results that anyone can see. I can easily see the effects of rewards and punishments on any organism. After studying Freud, Jung, and existentialism, Skinner was like a breath of fresh air. I am so versed in Behaviorism that any time I puzzle over anyone's behavior, I automatically look for the rewards and/or punishments of that behavior. I see Behaviorism in myself as well.

Do I use behaviorism in the classroom? Absolutely. One of the ways I use operant conditioning is my behavior at the end of administering a test. After the test is finished and then randomly distributed for correction, the test is then return to the owner. Then I ask the owners to pass the test up along each column of desks. As I pick up each column, I look at the scores in front of the class. I tell the students, "I get to look. I'm the teacher."

Each student who earns an A grade on the test is publicly praised immediately. Those scoring 100% are particularly praised. I don't say anything to those who don't do as well. Occasionaly, if an entire column does poorly, I will say, "Well, keep studying." The students will laugh. Following the variable ratio schedule of reinforcement, I do not do this every time, but randomly.
I am amazed at how important that praise becomes to those students. Frequently, if I don't do the praising, students will say something to me like, "Hey, did you look at my score?" They want that public praise, specifically from me, the authority figure in the classroom.

Now all that being said, I do not believe in Behaviorism to the extent B.F. Skinner did. He claims in the video there is no such thing as free will. I can't go that far. Skinner was deeply criticized for his theories that can appear to turn humans into unthinking animals. Humans are far more complex than pidgeons, dogs,or rats. While we do respond to rewards and punishments, there is so much more to being human. Skinner never could explain profound acts of altruism, courage, and sacrifice. In other words, he never could explain the best and the highest that is in us. Of course, neither could Freud or Jung.

Welcome to my blog

2009-08-27T22:18:00.001-07:00

Welcome! This is something new. I've never blogged before. I've never even looked on a blog before. I've never been that interested in anybody's blog before. Pathetic, I know.

I'm a high school teacher. Sometimes I feel like it is a genetic disorder. If you look at my extended family, meaning aunts, uncles and 1st cousins, 14 of us are teachers. Fourteen. I call it chalk in the bloodstream, even though we don't use chalk anymore. And no matter how the district or the state treats us, we can't seem to get the chalk out.

So what is learning? That's like asking what is life. But I don't think my professor is looking for that as an answer. Learning, in the end, means altering behavior. Really, we cannot know if a person is learning something unless the behavioral component kicks in at some point in time. We can't see a student absorb new information unless he or she acts upon it. Sometimes, that behavior will not happen in the classroom. It may not happen for many years. But we hope that sometime, what we taught our students will show in their behavior.

How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher? There are a lot of answers to this question. There are endless theories and, of course, the educational fad of the year that gets rolled out in the opening faculty meeting. (Can you tell I've been teaching a very long time?) There are many things that help a teacher to teach effectively. Technology is incredibly helpful to a teacher. I have been using a particular type of technology called Video On Demand. It helps with my history classes. Instructional Architect is very good and I use it.

But the most important way learning can be effectuated by a teacher is his or her example. I had a great mentor teacher back when I was student-teaching. His name was Mr. Jessop and he taught at Skyview High School. He was a true master teacher. He told me two things I've never forgotten. First: "You don't just teach your students what you want them to know; you teach them who you are." I've never seen anything in all my years of teaching to contradict this, and it is one of the scariest things in education. I have to be who I want the students to be. If I want them to be curious, smart, prepared for the world, good citizens, able to handle all the ups and downs of life, I have to be all those things. Frightening, isn't it? And therein is the true responsibility of the teacher.

Can technology help with this ridiculous task? I believe it can. Our minds work faster than any other part of our bodies. Technology helps to bridge the gap between minds and bodies. For example, if I want to show my students a particular clip of a film from World War II, I don’t have to chase down the video or DVD. I have the technology in my classroom by using Video on Demand. The act of using technology in the classroom promotes technology use in the students, not to mention the content of the film itself. This applies to Smart Boards, IM, computer projection of all kinds, and a host of other things I am not even aware of.

We used to call this modeling the behavior. I believe it makes a difference. I’ll save the second thing Mr. Jessop told me for another blog if it fits in.