Power and Blogs

Sorry my blog is so late.  We were learning about power in Physics on Friday by calculating our own personal horsepower.  I don't know why but I was talked in to running the stairs too with the kids and I have no idea what I did to my back.  It was kind of a funny day because on Tuesday in class we were talking about democracy and letting the kids have some say in what they do.  I decided to not let the kids decide if they wanted to do it.  Right away when I told them what we were doing they started complaining and saying, "Miss I can't run.  Miss I don't want to.  Miss do we have to?" I told them everyone had to do it and to just go up the stairs as quickly as they could so they could calculate their horsepower.  By the end of the class my biggest complainers were asking to re do their run because they could do better.  I do try to give them some options as to what we do when possible but sometimes I think kids need to be pushed a little into doing something that's outside of their comfort zone.  I think 9 times out of 10 they discover it was more fun or they liked it more than they thought they would.

I looked for teacher/education blogs online and found this blog that I thought was really good at http://teachforus.org/.  I liked this blog because these are teachers not specifically talking about their teaching philosophies but just telling it how it is.  These teachers share the events that happen in their class and the things their students do.  I thought this specific post was kind of charming. http://mirrorsintowindows.teachforus.org/2012/01/29/whack-a-mole/

Education this week

I still stand behind education being a set of survival skills and all that good stuff.  The readings last week made me think about the timelessness of philosophies.  When I first started reading Dewey's pedagogic creed I thought this stuff is really great but it's not very realistic in the current education system.  But after contemplating the philosophy and discussing it with some of my colleagues I decided that even though it's not realistic doesn't mean it's not do-able at all.  I think the most important aspect of Dewey's Pedagogy is the fact that students learn better when they are interested in the subject.  I think in general people remember things better when they are interested.  What I have trouble consolidating is the idea that students will develop an interest eventually.  I’m not sure if a student or a person in general can develop and maintain an interest in something for an extended period of time.  I think even if the student isn’t totally interested in math or biology they can become interested for certain sections or parts but I don’t know how to keep them interested the entire time.  I think sometimes the kids get really interested in the overall concepts or ideas of things, like gene therapy or gene replicating, but not super interested in the details of what proteins are doing what and when.

I thought the Kohn article presented some interesting ideas.  We talked a little bit in class about grading and why or if grades are important.  I’ve thought about that a lot and I think grades function to test the water.  I think of grades as a form of constructive criticism.  I don’t think you should just put a C on someone’s paper.  I think if you put a grade on the paper you should also put comments or questions that would guide the individual to think about why the answer wasn’t completely right.  I think grades represent a cumulative score of evaluations.  I don’t mean evaluations as in tests.  I think every time you look at something made or written by someone else you evaluate it.  Without evaluation people or ideas would never change.  I don’t think people need grades but they need to be evaluated and grades are the most efficient way of giving an overall evaluation to 30 or 40 people regularly. 

The other idea that really struck me was not grading on effort.  I didn’t know if it meant don’t give points for trying or participation.  I started to use participation as part of my students’ grades last six week and I think grades have gone up.  Participation is based on cooperating and trying to be engaged in the class.  Meaning if I’m lecturing or someone in class is talking people are listening and using time in class to work on their assignments and asking for help.  Since they want the points they actually look at their assignments and try to do them.  Even the kids that began pretending to look at their stuff began turning work in because when they looked they realized they could do it.  I think if there is no external motivation to look and intrinsic motivation is lacking (as it is in many 16 year olds) they wouldn’t look.

What is Education?

On Tuesday night I said education was a set of survival skills.  I truly believe that educating someone is teaching them skills that will better their life.  I'm currently teaching physics at a high school. We're currently working on Newton's Laws of Motion. It's been challenging to say the least since I majored in biology.  For a long time the kids kept complaining, "Miss, why do we have to learn this?  I'm never gonna use physics."  I kept trying to give them examples of where physics is applicable: driving, moving objects, throwing things, sports, etc.  Some of them kind of bought into the idea but not many.  Since I gave my answer in class on Tuesday I started thinking about what I was doing.  Am I teaching these kids survival skills?  Are they ever really gonna realize that physics is all around them?  Then yesterday in sixth period one of my students kept thrusting his pen downward.  I walked up to him and said, "what are you doing?"  He looked at me and said, "Miss.... Inertia.  I'm trying to get the ink in my pen down towards the tip."  At that moment I realized I was teaching them skills they could use.