July 2, 2009 at 2:34 pm (Creativity, education)
Tags: unschooling, Sudbury Valley school, Carlo Ricci, Radio Free School, chaos and order
Yesterday morning, I found a new blog; it has consumed most of my free time since then.
http://radiofreeschool.blogspot.com/
I found them through The Unschooling Channel on Youtube, where Carlo Ricci has listed one of their videos as a favourite.
In my search for understanding, in deciding how I want to teach, both unschooling and Sudbury Valley are standing out as wonderful things. Chaos is certainly showing signs of coming to order.
July 2, 2009 at 2:23 pm (education)
Tags: Eureka!, Louis Benezet, Sudbury Valley school, teaching math
Better than Christmas, man. All the pieces are starting to fit together in my little brain.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/14389275/And-Rithmetic-by-Daniel-Greenberg
http://radiofreeschool.blogspot.com/2009/03/over-70-years-ago-in-manchester-new.html
June 28, 2009 at 5:22 pm (Creativity, Writing, education)
Tags: critical thinking, Facebook quizzes, J.D. Salinger is pretty cool, whole language
I love Facebook, because it gives me yet another means of communicating with family and friends while using the printed word. I don’t think I can honestly call myself a Luddite anymore.
I frequently get sucked into taking some of the quizzes, not because I am in desperate need of their wisdom and fortune-telling, but because… uh, I can’t think of any good reason; guess I do need their wisdom and fortune-telling. But I could have told you my third Chakra was the strongest, and that I was “zeer Dutch”. I probably couldn’t have said I was most like J.D. Salinger in the “Which Crazy Writer Are You” quiz, but I’m rather pleased to be so. (My youngest sister got Stephen King; she is not pleased.)
Some of the quizzes are just a bit too much for my taste; not just the subject matter, but also the questions. How in the world could my taste in soft drinks relate to which Twilight vampire I most resemble? This brings me back to my latest thoughts on Critical Thinking; bear with me…
In Grade 10, all the students in Ontario have to take a literacy test, which tests their Critical Thinking rather heavily. However, Critical Thinking is not overtly taught at any point in the previous 9 years (although, there are teachers who work it into their curriculum, so there are some students who have at least a working knowledge of Critical Thinking, if not a fair ability). Therefore, Grade 8 should include a mandatory Critical Thinking class, which centres around such things as Facebook quizzes. Understanding the age requirement for Facebook to be 13 years, and understanding said age requirement to be stoutly ignored by more than half of the class, a Grade 8 teacher would be teaching a) Critical Thinking, b) whole language and c) writing skills. I can only think of one of my students – Walaikum – who wouldn’t be amused by such an activity, and he really, really doesn’t need anymore help in Critical Thinking.
Facebook quizzes are a much more useful writing exercise for the average high-school student than, say, a 10-page essay on Hamlet’s godforsaken state of sanity. I say, all English teachers should put me out of business by using Facebook rather than Shakespeare. Barring that, I’ll entertain all my summer students.
June 25, 2009 at 3:00 pm (education)
Tags: critical thinking, Clifford Stoll, grade 12s in Snuglis, Jonathan Kozol, Ian Wright, daydreaming
The problem with exam season is that I stop learning. I spend a whole month (twice a year, because we’re semestered) going over everything my students have learned, holding their hands, and resisting the urge to put all my Grade 12s into Snuglis. When I get home from work, I have to do much the same with my two children, which is even more frustrating because I know there are other options for their education but this is what they’ve chosen so I have to keep my mouth shut.
I’m not all that good at keeping my mouth shut.
Now, I get to learn again. It’s taking me a while to get back into my brain (as opposed to the brains of my students and their twisted teachers). I took some books out of the library – one is Jonathan Kozol’s Letters to a Young Teacher (I haven’t started it yet), and the other is Ian Wright’s Is That Right; Critical Thinking and the Social World of the Young Learner. Wright’s book is a little simplistic for my current state of mind, but would be very good for those just beginning the exploration of critical thinking.
Critical thinking is, like Attachment Parenting, something I’ve been doing without having a name for it. In school, I was constantly accused of daydreaming – with good cause. However, some of those daydreams were done with a pleasant, dreamy expression on my face (those were actual daydreams, so you can yell at me if you see me looking at all happy), and others were done with the deeply furrowed brow of concentration. The furrowed brow came when I was connecting the previous year’s history class with the current year’s religion class, and with the previous day’s music class. When one eyebrow went up, I was starting to make connections. When both eyebrows went up, it was a facial Eureka! When they both went down again, it was because my eureka had alerted an otherwise distracted teacher, and I was in trouble for daydreaming again….
This morning I watched Clifford Stoll’s TEDtalk; critical thinking at its best. I think I learn very well from people like Mr. Stoll.
June 25, 2009 at 12:45 am (education)
Tags: gimme books damn it, Linear A, literate restaurant franchises
I have some new students. They’re a couple; they’d both be in their late 30’s or early 40’s. They’re originally from Pakistan, but have been in Canada for about 8 years. They’re business people, and are trying to purchase a restaurant franchise. In order to purchase said franchise, they need to take an English test. What’s that, you say? You mean, they have to learn enough English to arrange for a bank loan? No, I meant what I said: they have to take an English test.
The irony is that both these people are considered fluent in English (perhaps a little too fluent, she thought, recalling the 10-minute-long anti-banker/anti-real-estate-developer tirade the man delivered last night); both have fairly subtle accents, reasonable use of English things like verb tenses and prepositions, and a good vocabulary. But they need to answer 50 multiple-choice questions in 20 minutes. From what I can see, the questions have absolutely nothing to do with owning or running a restaurant franchise. Who needs to know about semi-colons to own a restaurant franchise?
What really got me was this: they were explaining their education and work history, and the man made a comment about having made it to a position where he didn’t have to read or write. In Pakistan, his education and upbringing had earned him a job where his employees did all the reading and writing; all he had to do was sign his name. In the evenings, he might read the newspaper for pleasure, but that was the only quantity of reading he did.
Freaky.
I was a little floored, not so much by the fact that he didn’t read or write as by the fact that he viewed it as an achievement. I managed to keep my mouth shut – literally and figuratively – but the bus ride home from work was spent mulling it all over. There were some other passengers who seemed to shy away from my frown….
Cultures which have strong oral traditions are great; they’re great because eventually I will find someone who will write down the stories and things, and then I have the pleasure of reading them. Strong oral traditions make for really good stories. However, I don’t think I’d survive very long in a society where reading and writing were a) not something one did for most of one’s day, and b) where there was pride in not reading and writing. I could be the world’s best fire-side storyteller, and I’d be miserable. I could be the wisest person on top of the tallest mountain, but I would be the most suicidal person on top of that mountain if I didn’t have a book to read, or pen and paper to write with.
To the story tellers of North America’s First Nations: my hat’s off to you.
To the wise spiritual leaders of Eastern traditions: my deepest, most sincere respect.
To all those who lived before Linear A: my sympathies (how did you survive?)
June 23, 2009 at 6:37 pm (education)
Tags: Streetcar Named Desire, teaching the teacher, The Educated Imagination, Northrop Frye
A student of mine wrote the following paragraph. I think it’s brilliant.
The play, A Streetcar Named Desire, focuses on how does the main character, Blanche, changes from wealthy lady to a crazy woman. I do not have any comment on this play because I have not had any such experiences before that I can relate to this play. I also believe such thing will also not happen to me in the future. Therefore, this play does not have an impact on my social and moral development.
The setting of this play is in the 40s; at that time, alcoholism, immorality and weak characters can be seen everywhere because of the backlash after WWII. The characters Stanley, Blanch and Stella are the perfect examples of these. But in my life, I have not encountered anyone who has such character traits. I am living in a situation which is completely the opposite of this play, and I don’t understand anything they are experiencing. The people around me are not part of Tennessee Williams’ world.
Frye says “education is something that affects the whole person.” This particular play does not affect me because the events that happen in the play are not truly universal events, and the play is also not about searching for any identity I can understand. The play does not provide enough of a basis for me to imagine, that is why it does not give me any education or knowledge.
I’ll have the teacher’s head on a platter if this essay gets dismissed. There is no purpose to teaching if we do not learn from what our students teach us.
June 1, 2009 at 5:05 pm (education)
Tags: 2xcreative, connections, David Berger, Eco-leadership, Kyle Cassidy, my grandfathers' bones were fine, Where I Write, zero owns the world
When I took David Berger’s Eco-Leadership workshop, we were instructed to look for the connections in all things.
I’ve been looking.
I’ve found a lot of connections.
The Earth, of course, is the (organic) base of all things. From there, we connect everything to humans. Humans must communicate. Communication involves all things: written languages, oral languages, sign language, body language, 5 senses, a 6th sense, pheromones, and all sorts of other things we don’t even know about.
I deal with written and oral English, but I can’t discount any other languages, nor the other means of communication. English, in particular, is made up of so many bits and pieces, and is spoken in such obscure corners of the world, that I am surprised we can deem it all the same language. Finding the all connections in English would take more than a lifetime; I believe people have tried….
When I teach English, I prefer to do it in a useable context. History cannot be separated from language, nor can Science, nor Phys. Ed., not Math (shudder). I take it upon myself to teach my students how to translate the exasperation they feel towards writing into writing itself. I like to show them words like “furrowed brow” and “emanating repugnance”.
The process of making connections is not one which is really being taught in the schools at the moment. The focus seems to be on absorbing information. Information is, naturally, essential to making connections, but I want my students to be able to make connections which go beyond the perimeter of the textbook. I want them to be able to connect their grandfather’s weak bones to the diet of a European during WWII. I want them to be able to connect evil and goodness. I want them to be able to connect the existence of modern society to the invention of the zero.
Kyle Cassidy is, I think, the god of connections. Not just for his 2xcreative project (brilliant, isn’t it?), but for his word/images connections; his live journal is one of my favourite things to read. His Where I Write project connects images to atmosphere to creativity to words to people…
I’ve pretty much decided how I want to teach. (Now, if I could just find someone who would pay me loads of money to do it.) I’ve pretty much decided the sorts of things I want to write. (Ditto.) So many more connections to make.
June 1, 2009 at 4:41 pm (Writing)
Tags: i.m., is my family wierd?, my son is a Pan-Galactic Gargle-Blaster, telephones suck, write me a letter, written voice
Over the weekend, my son had a friend over. They were playing around on one computer while I was working on the other. My son’s friend sent me an i.m., pretending to be my son. Immediately, I sent a message back suggesting that this was not my son, because it didn’t sound like him. The friend wanted to know how I could tell the difference, if I couldn’t hear voice. My son and I got into a long discussion, on i.m., noting the differences in our three “voices”. Eventually, friend got back on and sent us this message:
wtf this is im not a literary essay
Apparently, he’d never debated in print. He chastised us for using capitals, punctuation, and proper spelling.
I’ve been bawled out for my perpetual use of the written word before. Someone I worked with suggested that important discussions, and discussions which require the input of several people, should not occur over e-mail. These discussions, he claimed, should only happen in person. “Why?” I asked. He couldn’t tell me, it was just the way things should be. I was well-behaved, and didn’t ask why we had to do it his way instead of mine.
In my world, just about everything is done by e-mail. Growing up, I used to fight with my mother by taping notes to the newel post. My oldest and dearest friends will resort to (get this) writing a letter by hand when feeling sad, nostalgic, or even ecstatic. A story, a poem, a song; these are the noblest gifts to give and receive.
I despise telephones. I like face-to-face conversations, as long as they don’t involve excessive thinking, emotion, decision-making, etc; I think slowly, and need the processing time print allows. I love seeing friends and family, but prize a letter more.
When i.m.ing, I don’t mind if people use short forms, or forswear capitals. But the choice of words is still vital, if the recipient is to understand precisely what the writer is discussing. When my children i.m. me with, “i’m hungry”, I don’t tend to react; a message saying, “i’m ravenous, and thinking of gnawing on the cat” will likely get me into the kitchen (if only because I’m very fond of the cat).
Voices. The written voice is so… wickedly cool. “hi shelia its peter” is something my son’s quiet, polite, reserved friend would say. “i’m god, worship me” is something my Pan-Galactic Gargle-blaster son would say. My son would also spell my name correctly….
Print leaves a permanent record. Where would history be without written records and accounts? How can the human brain understand progression and change without reviewing written accounts?
I will maintain this position until the day I die: the printed word is of great importance. It doesn’t matter if the printed word is on papyrus, a bathroom wall, the same writing paper it’s been on for 20 years, i.m., or the palm of a sweaty hand; the written word is the best word.
May 25, 2009 at 3:18 pm (education)
Tags: teaching disabilities, The Onion, unnerving accuracy
A friend posted this on her Facebook page, so I have to steal it. I find The Onion to be unnervingly accurate in their sarcasm.
May 21, 2009 at 3:36 pm (education)
Tags: Grace Llewellyn, Grade 12 English, Guerrilla Learning, Math for dummies, teaching English
Why? What on earth would be the reason? Reason? Does reason come into this at all?
In Ontario, English is the only subject which is mandatory through all 4 years of high school. Everyone has to take it, regardless of their area of interest or study. This is not English as in how-to-communicate-effectively; this is literary analysis of novels.
I’m an English major, and the only time I have used my abilities to analyse literature outside of school is to teach others to analyse literature for school. It’s really not, I assure you, a life skill.
My Grade 12s are always kinda shaky this time of year. Universities have given early acceptance, but Grade 12 English marks have to be maintained at a minimum of 75%, or the acceptance is withdrawn. This applies to Business majors, Maths majors, Computer Science majors; everyone.
This is ridiculous. Ludicrous.
Endymion has been a little morose for the past couple of weeks. He’s heading for Ryerson, but has been cursed with a terrible English teacher for the second year in a row. She assigned an essay on Hamlet two weeks ago, but checked everyone’s thesis yesterday, and decided no one had it right (I’ve been working on the essay with Endymion, and his thesis was a Level 3). He now has 36 hours to re-write the entire essay. Endymion has a cognitive processing delay; for him to write a short paragraph in 36 hours is pretty good work.
One of my other Grade 12s was actually in tears last night. She’s going into the Business programme at Waterloo, but only has a 76%, and is concerned she has no leeway. She is now writing a comparison essay on 1984 and Brave New World. She doesn’t have time to do the extra research and essay readings the teacher suggested. She only got out of the ESL programme a year ago, and has done both her Grade 11 and her Grade 12 English classes this year. This girl does all the finances for the small grocery store chain her family owns. She will not need to analyse literature ever again, but her whole future depends on being able to analyse it now. The next novel her class is working on is Frankenstein, ’cause 200-year-old horror stories are apparently important to one’s education. This student, by the way, has had a 98% average in all her math, business, and computer courses; she is not ignorant, nor uneducated.
In Guerrilla Learning, Grace Llewellyn lists the 5 keys to learning as: opportunity, timing, interest, freedom and support. Just about every educator, even these stupid high-school English teachers, would agree with her. Yet, the only key used here is opportunity; this is the opportunity to make them learn it, or they can’t get on with their lives.
I don’t get what my students see in math… or business… or computers… or biology. Each time they ask me to correct essays from these classes, I reiterate the caveat: I can only correct grammar and spelling. They’re okay with this (they find it kind of funny). It’s strange, though, that money and computers are what drive our society – they may even drive the whole world – yet I don’t have to know anything about them. Other students like me, we’re free of math in Grade 11, and never have to take a business or computer class.
I think English should be mandatory for all years of high school, but there should be different classes. Analysis for those who are going to waste their life in the world of English (*snicker*), business writing for those who are going into Business, and Grammar for those so inclined. There should also be a general I-hate-all-things-English class, where students can work on the things they need to work on most, depending on their particular weaknesses and interests. If, by age 17, a person has not been convinced leisure reading is a good thing, they will not learn anything by being forced to read novels. If their idea of leisure reading is a biology text, then the English class should be centred around biology texts… or computer programming manuals… or (*shudder*) financial statements. There are some very twisted people in this world, but their literary preferences should be accommodated, too.
P.S. Math should be mandatory for all 4 years, too, but should also have special classes. For instance, if someone had taught me to fill out tax forms properly, or figure out a 15% tip, well….
